The Government and the Opposition: Postscript to the Presidential Elections

Boris Yeltsin, who won an impressive victory in the 1996 presidential elections, used "Do not allow the country to return to Communism" as his principal campaign slogan. His supporters concentrated all their propaganda on this theme: we must move forward and continue the reforms, or return to the past. As a result, the extremely difficult problems facing the country today were, so to speak, put on hold. There was no serious discussion of how the reforms should be continued or which direction they should take.