I always thought General Lebed would make a first class boss for Russia, or a dreadful one. He comes through with some first class quotes. He is very much on the right lines. He did his jumps too unlike the draft dodging war criminals of Her Majesty's Government
From http://web.media.mit.edu/~constans/lebed/al-quotes.html
Quotes
Lebed has always had a knack for a good turn of phrase. This document lists some of his best. Special thanks to Russia Today for some of the quotes below.
"Other candidates won't have the slightest chance."
- - - On his competition in his run for governor of Krasnoyarsk."The dog barks but the caravan passes."
- - - On the vocal wrath of the Duma upon his return from NATO."I am the kind of cat who likes to prowl on my own."
- - - Zavtra Interview, September 3, 1996"I think that I won the game, although I was playing black, but I presented it as a draw."
- - - This said after presenting his first draft on a peace proposal to Chernomyrdin. What is unclear is who was playing white; the Chechens or Chernomyrdin himself."First we act, then we explain."
- - - I'm not sure when this was uttered, but I found it on Dmitri Gusev's fine little biography."Western Europe is gradually uniting, but each [of the former Soviet Union republics] sits behind its own fence sucking on its own stale bread."
- - - October, 1995, from an interview with U.S. News and World Report."If you don't tell the truth you can end up with a pile of bodies in a sea of blood."
- - - From an earlier interview with U.S. News and World Report, printed in the same article as the above."Most Russians don't care whether they are ruled by fascists or communists or even Martians as long as they can buy six kinds of sausage in the store and lots of cheap vodka."
- - - Financial Times, September 6,1994."Clever people learn from others' mistakes. Fools learn from their own."
- - - Interfax, December 28, 1994."Lions led by donkeys can't win against donkeys led by lions."
- - - Interview by Wierd Duk and Aleksandr Zhilin, Elsevier (Amsterdam), March 10-11, 1995"I spit on popularity ratings. I live and serve as I see fit."
- - - Argumenty i fakty, April 1995"People aren't given teeth just to chew with. They need to be shown from time to time. Strength makes the world go around."
- - - Argumenty i fakty, April 1995"I'm a fatalist. I believe a person born to be hanged will never drown."
- - - Argumenty i fakty, April 1995"I never consider 'ifs' and 'ands.' If grandma had a beard, she'd be grandpa."
- - - Argtimenty i fakty, April 1995"A cat driven into a corner becomes a tiger."
- - - Sobesednik, April 1995"There are no impossible tasks, no hopeless situations."
- - - Sobesednik, April 1995"Think before you speak, and don't say everything you think."
- - - Sobesednik, April 1995"Russia is like a dinosaur. A lot of time is needed for change to reach the tail from the head."
- - - Trud, July 26, 1995"Every country's population is divided as follows: Five percent are the smartest and best, and five percent are the most unrepentant scoundrels. Between them is a swamp of 90 percent who go where they're told."
- - - Suomen Kuvalehti, September 8, 1995"Those who profit are the ones at the top. They keep the doughnut for themselves and give the hole to the people."
- - - Election speech by Lebed, Mayak Radio Network, Moscow, May 14,1996"I am not without sins. There cannot be an airborne assault general who has no sins."
- - - "Vesti" newscast, Russian Television Network, Moscow, June 18, 1996"God created people big and small. Colonel Colt invented his revolver to even things out."
- - - Mayak Radio Network, Moscow, June 24,1996"I don't get my experience in life from books. One often has to learn the hard way."
- - - Der Spiegel, June 24, 1996, p. 131"One finds free cheese only in a mousetrap."
- - - Los Angeles Times, June 18, 1996"He who shoots first laughs last."
- - - New York Times, January 17, 1996"Yes, I have many enemies. Many enemies adorn a man."
- - - Die Woche, December 1, 1995"Let there be no mistake. German and American industrial interests in Russia will suffer directly as a result of (NATO) enlargement plans."
- - - To Britain's Daily Telegraph, in September 1996. Lebed's office later denied the comments had been made.NATO acts like "a big drunken hooligan in a kindergarten who says he will hit anyone he likes."
- - - October 1995.If NATO begins expanding through Eastern Europe, "World War Three will start. Civilized and uncivilized states will be destroyed, everybody and everything."
- - - April 1995."Russia does not have a historical tradition of military coups. Thank God we are not Argentina."
- - - September 1996.On Chechnya's capital, Grozny: "Here we have a Russian city, bombed to bits by Russian planes paid for by Russian taxpayers who are now going to have to pay a second time to rebuild it."
- - - October 1995.On Chechnya: "Unprepared, untrained boys have been thrown to face bullets. It is a criminal power that sends hundreds of its citizens to certain death... The president of Russia should tender his resignation."
- - - February 1995."What kind of an election is it, if there is no fraud?"
- - - June 1996, as a presidential candidate before the June election."If you need to change the constitution, you should change the constitution."
- - - June 1996, on forming a coalition government to rule Russia."If you bang your fist down once on the desk...the question is closed."
- - - July 1994."I'm not one to praise Pinochet... but he saved the state from total collapse... The loudmouths were forced, and forced in a brutal manner, to shut their mouths."
- - - July 1994."All these Mormons are mold and filth which have come to destroy the state. The state should outlaw them."
- - - June 1996, commenting on evangelical Mormons in Russia."I am against anyone teaching us how to live here. I would like to see the Americans' reaction if Russian Orthodox Old Believers landed in Alabama and started teaching them how to live and what to believe."
- - - June 1996."[Western] cultural expansion is one of the central issues of Russia's national security."
- - - June 1996.President Boris Yeltsin: "A minus."
- - - July 1994.Ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky: "The Lord God's monkey."
- - - October 1995.Former Defense Minister Pavel Grachev: "I don't like prostitutes, whether they are wearing a skirt or trousers."
- - - October 1995."I was a born winner. Sooner or later, victory will be mine."
- - - June 1996."They [westerners] support Yeltsin who helped start the war in Moldova. I stopped it. He started the war in Chechnya. I stopped it. Who is the greater democrat then, he or I? Is democracy war or peace? I think it is the latter."
- - - Spring 1997