General Lebed's actions in Moldova increased his popularity among the Russian public, and Russian nationalists in particular. The event, along with his past service record, ensured that Lebed was the most popular military officer in Russia during that time, and by 1994 he was considered to be a favorite candidate for potentially running against Yeltsin in the 1996 Russian presidential election. Lebed himself described Yeltsin's performance as a "minus." Some analysts both in the West and Russia compared him to Augusto Pinochet and Napoleon Bonaparte.