ALKSNIS ATTACKS RUTSKOI, LEBED.

Eight leading figures in former vice president Aleksandr Rutskoi’s Derzhava (Great Power) movement and in the electoral bloc around it have accused Rutskoi of turning the movement into a "criminal entity." The group includes Colonel Viktor Alksnis, who told Izvestiya September 3 that Rutskoi has handed over control of Derzhava to doubtful businessmen with criminal records. Alksnis said that he discovered that the party leadership has falsified its nomination list, and promised to appeal the case to the Central Election Commssion. According to Alksnis, one of the businessmen reputed to have links with the criminal world said that he and his comrades had invested enough money in Derzhava to keep the list as it is, and that Alksnis would face "serious consequences" if he sued. Interviewed by RIA-Novosti August 31, Alksnis accused fellow-hardliner Lt.-General Aleksandr Lebed of losing his "officer’s honor" by betraying the two presidents he served, Gorbachev and Yeltsin, and now by "betraying" his comrades.

Skokov, Lebed, Glazyev Head Congress of Russian Communities List.