Bill Clinton is off the hook, but now it's Boris Yeltsin's turn to twist in the wind. A special panel returned guilty verdicts on five separate charges against the beleaguered Russian president Friday and will submit them to the State Duma later next week. The Communist-led panel, convened last summer to investigate the charges, found Yeltsin guilty of instigating the collapse of the Soviet Union, ruining the Red Army, using force against hard-line lawmakers, leading Russia to war in Chechnya, and -- most remarkable of all, considering the source -- committing genocide against the Russian people. The latter charge, especially, stirred an angry backlash against the Communists who, under Josef Stalin, were responsible for the deaths of millions of Russians during the 1930s and '40s. As in the United States, it takes a two-thirds majority vote of legislators to force Yeltsin from office. The possibility of an actual conviction is considered remote.
Impeachment II
Bill Clinton is off the hook, but now it's Boris Yeltsin's turn to twist in the wind. A special panel returned guilty verdicts on five separate charges against the beleaguered Russian president Friday and will submit them to the State Duma later next week. The Communist-led panel, convened last summer to investigate the charges, found Yeltsin guilty of instigating the collapse of the Soviet Union, ruining the Red Army, using force against hard-line lawmakers, leading Russia to war in Chechnya, and -- most remarkable of all, considering the source -- committing genocide against the Russian people. The latter charge, especially, stirred an angry backlash against the Communists who, under Josef Stalin, were responsible for the deaths of millions of Russians during the 1930s and '40s. As in the United States, it takes a two-thirds majority vote of legislators to force Yeltsin from office. The possibility of an actual conviction is considered remote.
