[thodin]

Coup in Russian is "Путч" and we had one in 1991 - coup is when you take power from popular people and give it to unpopular people. In 1993 Eltsin was very popular and parliament was not - this is why Russians voted for new Constitution and communists lost elections.

And who really cared about Clinton? Next year Eltsin started 1st Chechen war without asking anyone's permission. What Russia needed back then was money. And US was giving it to us because they were scared: Russia with nuclear weapons and without money was a really scary monster, ready to sell anything to the highest bidder. From nuclear to biological and chemical weapons.

BTW, one of the scientists who was working with "Novichok" sold it to Chechen gangsters and they actually killed local banker and some other guys around. And he is still not feeling guilty about this story. Russia was ready to sell anything to anyone. That's why Clinton had to support someone and pay. Eltsin was mostly ok, not worse than any other former communist leader.

[medo-bear]

Any seizure of power by an individual or a small number of people that is done in a manner not provided for by the constitution is, by definition, a coup/putsch. The constitutional referrendum happened after the Yeltsin coup, in December. For the said referrendum there is even doubt if it achieved 50%+ turnout, let a lone if it was fair and propper (referendums and elections that are held after an illegal power grab are always just theatre), so you should also check the meaning of the word 'popular'.

> And who really cared about Clinton? Next year Eltsin started 1st Chechen war without asking anyone's permission.

On 11.09.2001 an ex employee of the US government crashed a bunch of planes accross the US without (probably) asking anyone's permission.

> Eltsin was mostly ok, not worse than any other former communist leader.

Im pretty sure it is not controversial to say that most Russians view Yeltsin as a huge failure and a disgrace

[thodin]

Please check our history - we had a referendum before December (in April), when majority voted exactly as Eltsin asked (yes, yes, no, yes - I still remember that song on radio :) And do you think US asked Russians not to come for referendum? And at the same time do you think that US asked Russians to vote for LDPR which was an opposition party? How LDPR's victory could be a theater?

The same people who voted for opposition party also voted for the new Constitution. And that party was not a communist party. Some people say that Zhirinovsky was a FSB's project. In this case your ideas that US had anything to do with 12.1993 elections looks even more weird! Or stupid.

Yeltsin's support was very different in 1991 and in 1999. The problem was that Russia in 90s was still controlled by former communists/komsomol members, who were cynical, corrupt, brutal and terribly educated.

They didn't care about US and always tried to push pro-Russian ideas, check what Eltsin told to Clinton about Ukraine.. US had very limited involvement in internal politics, they just "hoped" that Russian will eventually become a normal country.

But when another stupid former communist Berezovsky decided to put his Puppet Putin into Kremlin - he failed miserably. KSB agent cannot do anything positive - his training is always about ruining and destroying, bringing lies and hate, stealing and bribing.