Alexander Lebed Alexander Ivanovich Lebed ( ; April 20 , 1950 , Novocherkassk – April 28 , 2002 , Abakan ) was a Russia n lieutenant - general and politician . He placed third in the 1996 Russian presidential election , with 14 . 5 % of the vote nationwide . He later served as Russia ' s Secretary of the Security Council and as governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai , Russia ' s second largest region . He served four years in the latter position , until his death , following a Mi - 8 helicopter crash . Life and career . Military . Alexander Lebed joined the Soviet Army ' s VDV airborne troops in 1969 . He spent eight years as company leader at the VDV officer school in Ryazan , then served as battalion commander with distinction in the Soviet war in Afghanistan in 1981 - 1982 before becoming a regimental commander . In 1982 - 1985 he studied in Frunze Military Academy , Moscow . Among his duties was being a member of the Funeral Department during the period of many deaths among the Soviet gerontocracy , including three Soviet rulers . At the rank of colonel , Lebed led airborne troops during the Soviet internal crises in Azerbaijan in 1988 and 1990 , and in Georgia in 1989 . The latter included the brutal dispersing of a pro - independence rally at a government building in Tbilisi , leaving twenty people dead . Lebed commanded the 106th Airborne Division from 1990 to 1991 . He received national attention after the Soviet Coup of 1991 , in which a conspiracy of government members opposing the perestroika had sought the overthrow of Mikhail Gorbachev ' s government and the reversal of some of his liberalizing political reforms . At the height of the crisis , the Army had been ordered by the coup participants to surround the White House , the seat of the Russian parliament . General Lebed was given orders to send tanks but never took any action against the parliamentarians and Boris Yeltsin , the president of Russian SFSR . Lebed was promoted to become deputy to the commander of Russian Airborne Troops , general Pavel Grachev . From June 1992 he was commander of the Moldova - based 14th Guards Army , which became known for its major involvement in the Transnistria and Gaugazia conflict . Entry into politics . Describing President Boris Yeltsin ' s performance as a " minus " overall , Lebed gained fame by suggesting that the country could use a military dictator like Augusto Pinochet . On May 30 , 1995 , Lebed resigned his commission to enter the political arena of post - Soviet Russia . In the elections to the State Duma in December 1995 , Lebed headed the list of the moderate - nationalist party Congress of Russian Communities . The party did not manage to pass the 5 % barrier to get seats in the parliament , but Lebed himself was elected in a single constituency . Presidential election and Security Council . Lebed ran as a candidate in the 1996 Russian presidential election and finished third with 14 . 5 % of vote in the first round of voting , behind both incumbent president Boris Yeltsin and Communist Party of the Russian Federation leader Gennady Zyuganov . Two days after the first round , Yeltsin appointed Lebed to the post of the Secretary of Security Council of the Russian Federation and the President ' s National Security Advisor . Lebed in turn endorsed Yeltsin in the runoff election two weeks later and Yeltsin won the runoff . As a military man in the political arena , Lebed argued for " preserving the army is the basis for preserving the government " while describing Pinochet as having managed to revive Chile by " putting the army in first place . " As chairman of the Security Council , Lebed led negotiations with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov and signed agreements in the Dagestan town of Khasavyurt which ended the First Chechen War in August 1996 . He was fired from the Security Council by President Yeltsin in October 1996 , following Lebed ' s major conflict with the influential Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov . On September 7 , 1997 , Lebed alleged during an interview that a hundred of Soviet - made suitcase - sized nuclear weapons designed for sabotage " are not under the control of the armed forces of Russia " . The government of the Russian Federation rejected Lebed ' s claims and stated that such weapons had never been created . However , GRU defector Stanislav Lunev confirmed that such nuclear devices existed and speculated that they possibly have been already deployed . Krasnoyarsk . On May 17 , 1998 , Lebed won the election for the governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai , Russia ' s second largest region . He held this position until his death in a Mil Mi - 8 helicopter crash on April 28 , 2002 , after the helicopter collided with electric lines during foggy weather in the Sayan Mountains . He is survived by his wife Inna , two sons and daughter , and brother Aleksey . Quotes . Lebed did not consider Ukraine and Belarus to be nations separate from Russia , nor did he consider their languages separate from Russian . In 1995 he believed both states would become part of a new state , on a confederate basis with the Russian Federation , at the end of the 20th century .