FOREIGN Secretary Malcolm Rifkind hailed the election of Boris Yeltsin as a historic event for democracy in Russia. Your own editorial describes Yeltsin as ``a brave man who deserved to win'' (July 5).
While no-one will be surprised at Rifkind's comments I think we are entitled to expect more from your newspaper. Yeltsin claims to be a democrat but his record is that of a tyrant who has crushed dissent with tanks in the Duma and Chechnya.
He won the election with a media boycott of Communist Gennady Zyuganov and the $5000m bail-out from the West (which your editorial de-scribes sweetly as ``Western goodwill'').
Even the European Institute for the Media admitted that the candidates did not have an equal opportunity to present their cases to the electorate.
Much is being made of Yeltsin's appeal for national reconciliation. Does anyone think for a minute there would be this talk if the Communists did not receive 40% of the vote?
The real thinking of the Kremlin was betrayed by aide Leonid Smirnyagin who, because of the margin of Yeltsin's victory, said: ``We can send the Communists to hell after the election.''
But Yeltsin is aware of the strength of the Communist Party, not only in Parliament but of its organisation on the ground. He knows the Communists are anything but a spent force.
Thomas Morrison,
105 Alderman Road,
Glasgow.
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