Moscow, Kremlin
To the President of the Russian Federation
B.N.Yeltsin

To the Secretary of the Security Council
National Security aide to the president
A.I.Lebed

Mr President!
Mr Secretary of the Security Council!

One day after the official announcement of the results of
the voting, you renewed the bloody Chechen War. Your promise
to end this very war ensured your common victory in the
elections.

Personally I was certain from the very beginning that your
promises were lies. But the country believed you.

You both grossly deceived forty million voters, who cast
their ballots for you. I do not think that this circumstance
worries you.

For a long time you have undermined our fellow citizens'
faith in the effectiveness of democratic procedures. This
thought will hardly disturb your sleep.

But I want to bring to your consciousness the simple
consideration that by depriving the people of faith in
democracy, you are simultaneously depriving all of your
posts and powers of any legitimacy. And if the spectre of
civil war again appears on our horizon, you have nobody to
blame but yourselves.

In the elections Moscow demonstrated its massive support for
your candidature, Mr President. At the same time, with even
more enthusiasm, Muscovites re-elected Yu.M.Luzhkov as their
mayor. Today outrageous, senseless crimes are being
committed in the capital. The explosions reverberate. I
don't know who is behind the cruel and cowardly terrorist
acts of 11 and 12 July. I strongly doubt the version stated
by the mayor that this the work of the Chechen fighters. But
even if this is true, the openly racist demands by Mr
Luzhkov, and by you, Mr President, calls for a "purge" of
the city subvert the stability and security of the country
no less effectively than terrorist bombs.

Your "extraordinary" measures contain the seeds of turmoil
that is ruinous for Russia.

I ask you to think about this, whilst it is not too late!

      Deputy of the State Duma
      Sergei Kovalev