SELDOM DURING HIS ALMOST FIVE years in power had Boris Yeltsin appeared more in charge. As cameras rolled in a Kremlin conference room, the glowering Russian President pounded the table and delivered a furious dressing down to a row of hangdog officers. "What am I to make of you generals?" he barked. "Are you playing games? What have you been doing instead of erecting barriers, strengthening your forces and stopping the rebels?" The generals--Defense Minister Pavel Grachev; Interior Minister Anatoli Kulikov; Andrei Nikolayev, the commander of the Border Guards; and Security Chief Mikhail Barsukov--sat in chastened silence, heads lowered, avoiding eye...
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