29 February 1996
108 Days to Go for Yeltsin
Tear-off calendar, 1996
On 29 February 1996, Russian president Boris Yeltsin still had 108 days to go until the next presidential elections, according to this calendar. The curse of the Chechnya war clouded his first term of office (since June 1991). Corruption scandals and various faux pas due to alcohol abuse had made Yeltsin a controversial character. His opponents described his economic programme as ‘genocide’. However, in the first round of the June 1996 elections, Yeltsin defeated his communist rival Gennady Zyuganov. Thanks to an alliance with populist Alexander Lebed, Yeltsin was re-elected as president in the second round.