Russian President Boris Yeltsin has come out of the closet. He does drink - but he says he never gets drunk.
Yeltsin, in an interview with Germany's ARD television network aired Friday, talked about personal traits rarely discussed in public, including his alleged penchant for alcohol."I never drink so much that I get drunk," Yeltsin said.
His greatest personal shortcoming, Yeltsin said, is that he cannot accept being contradicted. "I am often intolerant."
Among his role models, Yelstin named the late human rights activist Andrei Sakharov - "a man of integrity" - and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - "the charming iron lady with an iron will."
Yelstin, viewed as Moscow's best hope for democracy, also named Russian czar Peter the Great, who opened Russia to the West but personally cut off the heads of his opponents.
Yeltsin had no good words for his Kremlin predecessor, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. "I have no respect for Gorbachev, neither as a person nor as a politician," he said.
Turning to the recent crisis in Moscow, Yeltsin said he had carefully prepared for the power struggle with hard-line lawmakers that ended in the bloody storming of the parliament building.
Yeltsin said he had waited until the time was right to dissolve the parliament dominated by hard-line leftovers from the Communist Soviet era.
"I wrote the decree dissolving the parliament with my own hand," Yeltsin told ARD. "No one knew about it. I then put it in my safe and waited until the time was ripe."
The old parliament had blocked Yeltsin's reforms and eroded his power. To break an 18-month stalemate, Yeltsin ordered parliament disbanded Sept. 21 and called for elections.
Hard-line lawmakers refused to disband and their supporters staged street riots. Government troops and tanks crushed the hard-liners in bitter fighting Oct. 4.
He said the hard-liners had wanted to kill him and his family.
Yeltsin also indicated he had not been sure of the military's support until the attack. He said there was a time of uncertainty in the Kremlin when loyal troops failed to show up on time.
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(Additional information)
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