Moscow 1996, Vote or Lose!

Moscow, January 1996. Boris Yeltsin gets ready to run for a second mandate of the presidency of the young Russian Federation. Polls are in the single digits. A painful economic transition, war in Chechnya, and the rise of criminal groups have left the majority of Russians dissatisfied with Yeltsin… and willing to vote for the communist leader Gennady Zyuganov. Yet six months later, Yeltsin won the election with nearly 54% of the vote. How did that happen?

Cast

Boris Yeltsin

Self (archive footage)

Tatyana Yumasheva

Self

Sergei Pugachev

Self

Anatoly Chubais

Self

Gennady Zyuganov

Self (archive footage)

Alexandr Korzhakov

Self

Mikhail Fridman

Self

Helmut Kohl

Self (archive footage)

Michel Camdessus

Self

Mikhail Gorbachev

Self (archive footage)

Vladimir Zhirinovsky

Self (archive footage)

Grigoriy Yavlinskiy

Self (archive footage)