The first impression was that the republican leaders did not mind Yeltsin’s rapid accession to virtually dictatorial powers in the Union to which they all still belonged. Experienced politicians raised in a tradition of party subordination and Byzantine intrigue, they voiced no disagreement with the now dominant Russian president, who was their traditional ally against the weakening center. They were also unanimous in condemning the coup that many of them had supported only a few days earlier. Nor did they voice any objection to Yeltsin’s assault on the party to which they belonged. That day
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