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with the West. In so doing, he polarised the political elite. As Yeltsin's team of economic re-
formers began to dismantle the protected and subsidised command economy, the parliament
finally acted in early 1992 to seize power back from the president. A stalemate ensued that
lasted for a year and a half.
The executive-legislative conflict at the national level was played out in Moscow politics
as well. After the Soviet fall, the democratic bloc that had brought Popov to power came
apart. In Moscow a property boom began, as buildings and land with no real owners
changed hands at a dizzying rate with dubious legality. Increasingly, the mayor's office was
at odds with the city council, as well as the new federal government. Popov began feuding
with Yeltsin, just as he had previously with Gorbachev.
In June 1992 the impulsive Popov resigned his office in a huff. Without pausing to ask
him to reconsider, Vice-Mayor Yury Luzhkov readily assumed the mayor's seat. The city
council passed a vote of no confidence in Luzhkov and called for new elections, but the new
mayor opted simply to ignore the resolution.
Throughout 1993, the conflict between President Yeltsin and the Russian parliament in-
tensified. Eight different constitutional drafts were put forward and rejected. In September
1993 parliament convened with plans to remove many of the president's powers. Before it
could act, Yeltsin issued a decree that shut down the parliament and called for new elections.
Events turned violent. Yeltsin sent troops to blockade the White House, ordering the
members to leave it by 4 October. Many did, but on 2 and 3 October, a National Salvation
Front appeared, in an attempt to stir popular insurrection against the president. They clashed
with the troops around the White House and tried to seize Moscow's Ostankino TV Tower.
The army, which until this time had sought to remain neutral, intervened on the presid-
ent's side and blasted the parliament into submission. In all, 145 people were killed and an-
other 700 wounded - the worst such incident of bloodshed in the city since the Bolshevik
takeover in 1917. Yeltsin, in conjunction with the newly subjugated parliament, put together
the 1993 constitution that created a new political system organised around strong central ex-
ecutive power.
Throughout the 1990s Yeltsin suffered increasingly from heart disease. But come 1996,
he was not prepared to step down from his 'throne'. It has been widely reported that in the
time surrounding the 1996 presidential election, Russia's newly rich financiers, who backed
Yeltsin's campaign, were rewarded with policy-making positions in the government and
with state-owned assets in privatisation auctions. In a scene reminiscent of the medieval
boyars, the power grabs of these 'oligarchs' became more brazen during Yeltsin's prolonged
illness.
