Khasbulatov, Ruslan Imranovich

(1942– )

   Politician. As an ethnic Chechen, Ruslan Khasbulatov suffered deportation to Kazakhstan as a toddler. After secondary school, he moved to the capital where he studied at Moscow State University. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the mid-1960s, and developed a reputation as a scholar of foreign capitalism. He partnered with Boris Yeltsin during the early 1990s and was elected to the Congress of People’s Deputies in 1990. However, the two politicians fell out during and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. As chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, Khasbulatov was arguably the most important opposition figure in the constitutional crisis of 1993. After the violent assault on the White House, Khasbulatov was arrested, though the newly elected State Duma pardoned him later that year. Though he has spoken of returning to politics, since 1993, Khasbulatov has generally maintained a low profile as an economics professor at the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics in Moscow.