He must go to the Kremlin to take formal possession of the nuclear suitcase from Mikhail Gorbachev as soon as the Soviet president resigns. But he can’t leave the White House just yet. Already he is facing the first crisis of the new era. After saying good-bye to the CNN crew, Yeltsin finds a grim-faced delegation from the Moscow soviet waiting in his fifth-floor office. Their leader is the city’s fifty-five-year-old deputy mayor, Yury Luzhkov, a thickset, bullet-headed man wearing a short black coat with fur collar.Luzhkov has come to ask Yeltsin to dissuade the city’s democratic mayor, Gavriil Popov, from resigning. Popov is a former ally of the Russian president. The tousle-haired mayor of Greek origin was a familiar figure at pro-Yeltsin rallies before the coup, and he helped defend the White House in August. Afterwards he hoped to be given a role in Yeltsin’s government—he wanted the foreign ministry—but was passed over. He has joined Gorbachev’s consultative council instead, and he and Yeltsin are barely on speaking terms.Popov is also at war with the Moscow soviet, which is stacked with reactionaries and is blocking his emergency plans for managing the economic transition.
What do You think about Moscow, December 25th, 1991?
