Alexander Rutskoy Alexander Vladimirovich Rutskoy ( ) ( born 16 September 1947 ) is a Russia n politician and a former Soviet military officer . Rutskoy served as the only Vice President of Russia from 10 July 1991 to 4 October 1993 , and as the governor of Kursk Oblast from 1996 to 2000 . In the course of the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993 , he was proclaimed acting president of Russia , in opposition to Boris Yeltsin . Early life and career . Alexander Rutskoy was born in Proskuriv , Ukrainian SSR , USSR ( today Khmelnytskyi , Ukraine ) . Rutskoy graduated from High Air Force School in Barnaul ( 1971 ) and Gagarin Air Force Academy in Moscow ( 1980 ) . He had reached rank of Colonel when he was sent to the Soviet war in Afghanistan . He was in command of an air assault regiment . For his bravery in 1988 he was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union . He was chosen by Boris Yeltsin to be his vice presidential running mate in the 1991 Russian presidential election . Rutskoy was vice president of Russia from 10 July 1991 to 4 October 1993 . As vice president , he openly called for the independence of Transnistria and Crimea from Moldova and Ukraine , respectively and telephoned Georgia ’ s leader Eduard Shevardnadze , threatening to bomb Tbilisi during the war in South Ossetia . Russian constitutional crisis of 1993 . Following the initial period of peaceful collaboration with Yeltsin , from the end of 1992 , Rutskoy began openly declaring his opposition to the President ' s economic and foreign policies and accusing some Russian government officials of corruption . His opposition to Yeltsin became especially clear during the crisis in March , 1993 when the Congress of People ' s Deputies tried , unsuccessfully , to remove Yeltsin from the presidency . In subsequent months , Rutskoy himself was accused of corruption by the officials of Yeltsin ' s government . On 1 September 1993 , President Boris Yeltsin " suspended " Rutskoy ' s execution of his vice - presidential duties , due to alleged corruption charges . The Russian Constitutional Court subsequently declared Yeltsin ' s decree as unconstitutional . On 21 September 1993 , President Boris Yeltsin dissolved the Supreme Soviet of Russia , which was in direct contradiction with the articles of Soviet Constitution of 1978 , e . g . : Article 121 - 6 . " The powers of the President of RSFSR cannot be used to change national and state organization of RSFSR , to dissolve or to interfere with the functioning of any elected organs of state power . In this case , his powers cease immediately . " On the night from 21 September to 22 September 1993 , Rutskoy arrived at the residence of the Russian parliament and , at 00 : 22 , assumed the powers of acting president of Russia , in accordance with the above article . He took the presidential oath , and said : " I am taking the authority of President . The anti - constitutional decree of President Yeltsin is annulled . " Rutskoy ' s interim presidency , although constitutional , was never acknowledged outside Russia . After the two - week standoff , and the violence erupting on the streets of Moscow , on 4 October 1993 , the Parliament building was taken by Yeltsin ' s military forces . Rutskoy and his supporters were arrested and charged with organization of mass disturbances . On the same day , Yeltsin officially dismissed Rutskoy as vice president and fired him from the military forces . Rutskoy was imprisoned in the Moscow Lefortovo prison until 26 February 1994 , when he and other participants of both August 1991 and October 1993 crises , were granted amnesty by the new State Duma . Soon after his release , Rutskoy founded a populist , nationalist party " Derzhava ( Russian : Держава ) " , which , failed in the State Duma election of 1995 , gathering only about 2 . 5 % of the votes , thus not passing the 5 % threshold . He decided not to run for the presidency in the summer of 1996 , but did run for the position of the governor of his native Kursk Oblast in the fall of the same year . Being a joint candidate from the communist and " patriotic forces " , he was initially banned from the election , but allowed to run by the Russian Supreme Court only a few days before the election , which he won in a landslide , with about 76 % of the vote . To this day , he is still active in Russian politics .