After becoming president, an intoxicated Boris Yeltsin struck and killed a man in a driving accident, said Alexander Korzhakov, once Yeltsin's closest adviser and a longtime drinking buddy, who said he covered it up.
"Yeltsin never asked about the killed man. Maybe he had no time -- he was dying to become the Guarantor of the Constitution. This was his first victim for the sake of democracy," Korzhakov writes in a new edition of his memoirs, "Boris Yeltsin: From Dawn to Dusk."
As Yeltsin's friend and bodyguard for a decade, Korzhakov, now 54, enjoyed unrivaled access to Yeltsin before, during and after his rise to power. Korzhakov was once seen as one of the most powerful men in the country.
But his closeness -- and loyalty -- to Yeltsin ended in 1996 when at the height of Yeltsin's re-election campaign he was fired amid a fierce power struggle within the Kremlin for control of the president. Since then Korzhakov has had no qualms about dishing the dirt on his former boss.
He insists that he will never again pledge his loyalties to those in power. "I am not loyal to or an enemy of [President Vladimir] Putin. I have a different life now -- I'm no longer Yeltsin's bodyguard but a deputy elected by the people," he said in an interview in his State Duma office.
Korzhakov, a former KGB officer, is the deputy chairman of the Duma's Defense Committee and toes the Kremlin line as a member of United Russia. He was elected as a single-mandate deputy in Tula and has gubernatorial ambitions. His chances of being reelected to his seat in the next elections, in 2007, or becoming governor are in doubt due to Kremlin-sponsored legislation to eliminate single-mandate races and gubernatorial elections.
Even though Putin has sidelined most of those in Yeltsin's inner circle, Korzhakov has managed to hold onto his Duma seat for the time being "because he does not play an important role," said Andrei Ryabov, political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center. "Korzhakov is the past, a piece in a museum exhibition," he said. "Putin's team is not interested in him."
Korzhakov lives in the shadow of his former boss and in the days when his words could move mountains. In his Duma office, he kept bringing the conversation back to Yeltsin.
"My influence on him was very strong because I never flattered him and I always said what I thought," Korzhakov said, pouring himself and a reporter a glass of Moldovan sparkling wine.
"People say that I even decided whom he should hire for government posts. But he was the one who asked me to make selections," he said, in his trademark mumbling speech.
Korzhakov said, for example, that he suggested naming Yury Skuratov as prosecutor general in 1995. "He was the best choice for the job because he was not mired in corruption," Korzhakov said, delighted to reminisce about his former role. Skuratov was fired in 1999 amid allegations that he had accepted the services of prostitutes in exchange for dropping criminal investigations.
Alexei Kazannik, who briefly served as prosecutor general from October 1993 to February 1994, told Moskovsky Komsomolets in 1994 that Korzhakov "decided everything in the Kremlin."
"All those in the president's circle know that in order to push through a dubious decision [or] get an illegal decree signed, you have to go to General Korzhakov," Kazannik was quoted as saying. "I saw ministers, presidential advisers and aides ingratiate themselves to Korzhakov."
The highest post that Korzhakov, a ranking security services general, held in Yeltsin's administration was of chief of the presidential security service.
Korzhakov has been blamed for many of Yeltsin's disastrous decisions, such as helping launch the war against Chechen separatists in 1994, an allegation he denies.
"I was the only one against it," he said, without elaborating.
Korzhakov's influence on Yeltsin grew after a parliament critical of Yeltsin's economic reforms tried to unseat him in 1993, Ryabov said.
Korzhakov convinced Yeltsin in October 1993 to storm the White House, the former parliament building that today houses the Cabinet. Tanks manned by troops loyal to Yeltsin fired on the White House on Oct. 4, 1993, after legislators barricaded themselves inside to oppose Yeltsin's decree disbanding the parliament. The showdown followed a months-long struggle over economic reforms and political power.
"Korzhakov was able to gather forces around Yeltsin to help him get out of the situation. That is why Yeltsin relied on Korzhakov," Ryabov said. "Yeltsin was afraid after the October events. He was afraid of plots, and Korzhakov was a faithful person."
Yeltsin, however, fired Korzhakov and stripped him of his military rank and privileges at the request of his daughter Tatyana Dyachenko and? Kremlin chief of staff Anatoly Chubais during his 1996 re-election campaign.
Korzhakov's security officers had arrested two Yeltsin campaign aides carrying a box with $500,000 in election funds out of the White House. The aides were associates of Chubais. The affair caused a power struggle between Korzhakov and a group led by Chubais to come to a head, and Korzhakov lost.
"I was fired for nothing, just because I caught two cheaters red-handed," Korzhakov said, still clearly upset about the incident.
But it is the old days with Yeltsin and their numerous drinking binges that Korzhakov remembers cheerfully. "He loved to gather groups of 1,000 people, and he would pay attention to every one of them. He could drink. He was a down-to-earth person," he said, recalling when Yeltsin was a member of the Politburo and he was his bodyguard in the 1980s.
Korzhakov was assigned to serve as Yeltsin's bodyguard in 1985 when Yeltsin was appointed first secretary of Moscow city's communist committee. He stuck by Yeltsin when he was exiled from the Politburo in 1987 for frequently challenging its authority.
When Yeltsin was elected a Soviet deputy in 1989, Korzhakov left the KGB to work for him. Yeltsin made him the head of his personal security detail when he was elected Russian president in June 1991.
Yeltsin changed after becoming president, Korzhakov said.
"He became pretentious. He wanted to be admired. He stopped listening to people who were close to him," he said. "Sometimes I had to cover up for him when he got drunk. He would drink all the time -- he would start at 7 in the morning."
Drinking was Yeltsin's weakness, which Korzhakov mentioned several times in his 1997 memoirs and while sipping wine in his Duma office.
"He loved cognac, even if I don't. Sometimes the two of us would drink a bottle of cognac. He loved Armenian cognac, the stuff with three stars from the special reserves. But he didn't mind drinking French cognac as well," he said.
In his book, Korzhakov vividly describes how Yeltsin drank so much that he could not carry out his presidential duties. A new chapter in a revised edition released this summer mentions the drunken-driving accident for the first time.
The accident happened after the men spent an evening drinking at a? banya near a village where Korzhakov had a dacha, according to the account.
"Boris Nikolayevich ... simply wanted to go for a drive, to practice driving a car," Korzhakov writes. "As bad luck would have it, there was a Zhiguli and a motorcycle on the country road about 500 meters from the village in those early morning hours. The driver of the car was talking through an open door with the motorcyclist. Nobody knows how they disturbed the novice driver. He must have mixed up the pedals again."
Yeltsin's car crashed into the Zhiguli, tearing away the door, and swiped the motorcycle off the road.
"The situation was wired -- Russia's hope was drunk and scared behind the wheel and nearby was a damaged car and injured motorcyclist.
"Gorbachev, who at the time was dreaming of finding the smallest cause to remove the separatist Yeltsin from politics, would have rewarded anyone who had told him about the event," Korzhakov writes.
Korzhakov writes that he averted a potential crisis by repairing the Zhiguli. "It was turned into a new car ... [and] the owner did not report the accident to the police."
As for the injured man, "we bought medicines and changed doctors and hospitals. But after six months he died. We buried him as well, since he did not have any close relatives."
Asked when and where the event took place, Korzhakov said cryptically that it had happened in the early 1990s "in a certain small village."
Staff Writer Oksana Yablokova contributed to this report.
"Yeltsin never asked about the killed man. Maybe he had no time -- he was dying to become the Guarantor of the Constitution. This was his first victim for the sake of democracy," Korzhakov writes in a new edition of his memoirs, "Boris Yeltsin: From Dawn to Dusk."
As Yeltsin's friend and bodyguard for a decade, Korzhakov, now 54, enjoyed unrivaled access to Yeltsin before, during and after his rise to power. Korzhakov was once seen as one of the most powerful men in the country.
But his closeness -- and loyalty -- to Yeltsin ended in 1996 when at the height of Yeltsin's re-election campaign he was fired amid a fierce power struggle within the Kremlin for control of the president. Since then Korzhakov has had no qualms about dishing the dirt on his former boss.
He insists that he will never again pledge his loyalties to those in power. "I am not loyal to or an enemy of [President Vladimir] Putin. I have a different life now -- I'm no longer Yeltsin's bodyguard but a deputy elected by the people," he said in an interview in his State Duma office.
Korzhakov, a former KGB officer, is the deputy chairman of the Duma's Defense Committee and toes the Kremlin line as a member of United Russia. He was elected as a single-mandate deputy in Tula and has gubernatorial ambitions. His chances of being reelected to his seat in the next elections, in 2007, or becoming governor are in doubt due to Kremlin-sponsored legislation to eliminate single-mandate races and gubernatorial elections.
Even though Putin has sidelined most of those in Yeltsin's inner circle, Korzhakov has managed to hold onto his Duma seat for the time being "because he does not play an important role," said Andrei Ryabov, political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center. "Korzhakov is the past, a piece in a museum exhibition," he said. "Putin's team is not interested in him."
Korzhakov lives in the shadow of his former boss and in the days when his words could move mountains. In his Duma office, he kept bringing the conversation back to Yeltsin.
"My influence on him was very strong because I never flattered him and I always said what I thought," Korzhakov said, pouring himself and a reporter a glass of Moldovan sparkling wine.
"People say that I even decided whom he should hire for government posts. But he was the one who asked me to make selections," he said, in his trademark mumbling speech.
Korzhakov said, for example, that he suggested naming Yury Skuratov as prosecutor general in 1995. "He was the best choice for the job because he was not mired in corruption," Korzhakov said, delighted to reminisce about his former role. Skuratov was fired in 1999 amid allegations that he had accepted the services of prostitutes in exchange for dropping criminal investigations.
Alexei Kazannik, who briefly served as prosecutor general from October 1993 to February 1994, told Moskovsky Komsomolets in 1994 that Korzhakov "decided everything in the Kremlin."
"All those in the president's circle know that in order to push through a dubious decision [or] get an illegal decree signed, you have to go to General Korzhakov," Kazannik was quoted as saying. "I saw ministers, presidential advisers and aides ingratiate themselves to Korzhakov."
The highest post that Korzhakov, a ranking security services general, held in Yeltsin's administration was of chief of the presidential security service.
Korzhakov has been blamed for many of Yeltsin's disastrous decisions, such as helping launch the war against Chechen separatists in 1994, an allegation he denies.
"I was the only one against it," he said, without elaborating.
Korzhakov's influence on Yeltsin grew after a parliament critical of Yeltsin's economic reforms tried to unseat him in 1993, Ryabov said.
Korzhakov convinced Yeltsin in October 1993 to storm the White House, the former parliament building that today houses the Cabinet. Tanks manned by troops loyal to Yeltsin fired on the White House on Oct. 4, 1993, after legislators barricaded themselves inside to oppose Yeltsin's decree disbanding the parliament. The showdown followed a months-long struggle over economic reforms and political power.
"Korzhakov was able to gather forces around Yeltsin to help him get out of the situation. That is why Yeltsin relied on Korzhakov," Ryabov said. "Yeltsin was afraid after the October events. He was afraid of plots, and Korzhakov was a faithful person."
Yeltsin, however, fired Korzhakov and stripped him of his military rank and privileges at the request of his daughter Tatyana Dyachenko and? Kremlin chief of staff Anatoly Chubais during his 1996 re-election campaign.
Korzhakov's security officers had arrested two Yeltsin campaign aides carrying a box with $500,000 in election funds out of the White House. The aides were associates of Chubais. The affair caused a power struggle between Korzhakov and a group led by Chubais to come to a head, and Korzhakov lost.
"I was fired for nothing, just because I caught two cheaters red-handed," Korzhakov said, still clearly upset about the incident.
But it is the old days with Yeltsin and their numerous drinking binges that Korzhakov remembers cheerfully. "He loved to gather groups of 1,000 people, and he would pay attention to every one of them. He could drink. He was a down-to-earth person," he said, recalling when Yeltsin was a member of the Politburo and he was his bodyguard in the 1980s.
Korzhakov was assigned to serve as Yeltsin's bodyguard in 1985 when Yeltsin was appointed first secretary of Moscow city's communist committee. He stuck by Yeltsin when he was exiled from the Politburo in 1987 for frequently challenging its authority.
When Yeltsin was elected a Soviet deputy in 1989, Korzhakov left the KGB to work for him. Yeltsin made him the head of his personal security detail when he was elected Russian president in June 1991.
Yeltsin changed after becoming president, Korzhakov said.
"He became pretentious. He wanted to be admired. He stopped listening to people who were close to him," he said. "Sometimes I had to cover up for him when he got drunk. He would drink all the time -- he would start at 7 in the morning."
Drinking was Yeltsin's weakness, which Korzhakov mentioned several times in his 1997 memoirs and while sipping wine in his Duma office.
"He loved cognac, even if I don't. Sometimes the two of us would drink a bottle of cognac. He loved Armenian cognac, the stuff with three stars from the special reserves. But he didn't mind drinking French cognac as well," he said.
In his book, Korzhakov vividly describes how Yeltsin drank so much that he could not carry out his presidential duties. A new chapter in a revised edition released this summer mentions the drunken-driving accident for the first time.
The accident happened after the men spent an evening drinking at a? banya near a village where Korzhakov had a dacha, according to the account.
"Boris Nikolayevich ... simply wanted to go for a drive, to practice driving a car," Korzhakov writes. "As bad luck would have it, there was a Zhiguli and a motorcycle on the country road about 500 meters from the village in those early morning hours. The driver of the car was talking through an open door with the motorcyclist. Nobody knows how they disturbed the novice driver. He must have mixed up the pedals again."
Yeltsin's car crashed into the Zhiguli, tearing away the door, and swiped the motorcycle off the road.
"The situation was wired -- Russia's hope was drunk and scared behind the wheel and nearby was a damaged car and injured motorcyclist.
"Gorbachev, who at the time was dreaming of finding the smallest cause to remove the separatist Yeltsin from politics, would have rewarded anyone who had told him about the event," Korzhakov writes.
Korzhakov writes that he averted a potential crisis by repairing the Zhiguli. "It was turned into a new car ... [and] the owner did not report the accident to the police."
As for the injured man, "we bought medicines and changed doctors and hospitals. But after six months he died. We buried him as well, since he did not have any close relatives."
Asked when and where the event took place, Korzhakov said cryptically that it had happened in the early 1990s "in a certain small village."
Staff Writer Oksana Yablokova contributed to this report.