Top 11 Quotes & Sayings by Aleksandr Lebed

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Russian politician Aleksandr Lebed.

Last updated on December 19, 2024.

Lieutenant General Alexander Ivanovich Lebed was a Soviet and Russian military officer and politician who held senior positions in the Airborne Troops before running for president in the 1996 Russian presidential election. He did not win, but placed third behind incumbent Boris Yeltsin and the Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, with roughly 14% of the vote nation-wide. Lebed later served as the Secretary of the Security Council in the Yeltsin administration, and eventually became the governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai, the second largest Russian region. He served four years in the latter position, until his death following a Mi-8 helicopter crash.

Russian - Politician | April 20, 1950 - April 28, 2002

Source: Wikipedia

For 73 years a totalitarian regime ruled the country. Totalitarian regime.

Aleksandr Lebed

And this system sorted out the Chechen war in just 20 days. This way, I used the President's power, he didn't use me. It wasn't hard for me to leave - it isn't my scene. I have nothing to do there.

Aleksandr Lebed

I have equal contempt for both left and right radicals.

Aleksandr Lebed

You must go deeper into Russia - 150 kilometres from Moscow or more, and look there. The kids are fed with cattle feed - people don't get paid for half a year.

Aleksandr Lebed

I am a Soviet man, and Yeltsin is a Soviet man - maybe our grandchildren will be different.

Aleksandr Lebed

I counted on sixty days only, but I held out for 133. I didn't go into power, but to get power I borrowed some power from the President and made him sign a number of decrees and give me enough power to create a system capable of handling crisis situations.

Aleksandr Lebed

I mean that at least 80% of the Russian people feel destitute. It's the people who had their past and future taken from them - they don't get paid - many of them face a wall. They have nowhere to go.

Aleksandr Lebed

First of all I would make about 80% of the people law-abiding citizens again. The policy which is carried out now makes every entrepreneur and businessman a thief against his own will.

Aleksandr Lebed

As I understand I took most so-called democratic states about 200 years on average to build their democracies. That is why, when we go to sleep under totalitarian rule and wake up in a democracy, it makes me laugh.

Aleksandr Lebed

In order to build basic democracy here we'll need lives of two generations - at least forty years.

Aleksandr Lebed

There is no reason why I should call myself a democrat.

Aleksandr Lebed