Russian Parliament Siege 1993

...As seen 20 years ago
Published time: October 03, 2013 16:17
Edited time: October 03, 2013 21:25
http://rt.com/

On October 4, 1993, tanks fired at the White House to end the most severe political crisis in post-Soviet Russia. The two-week standoff between the president and the parliament, which culminated in a three-day armed struggle, saw over 100 people dead.

Police, military and civilians were killed, with none of the politicians involved in the power struggle among the victims.

RT recaps the main characters and events from 20 years ago in an updated timeline format, which gives a moment-by-moment account of one of the worst crises in Russia’s recent history. The reconstruction is based on open sources, with the timings being approximate.

October 4, 1993
01:20 MSK: Ostankino TV center and TASS news agency remain besieged by armed militants. A new attempt by the protesters to gain control of the TV center was repelled by interior troops with deadly force.

01:00 MSK: A night rally of the Pro-Yeltsin Democratic Russia movement gathers around 2,000 participants.

00:20 MSK: About 5,000 supporters of the conservative legislators remain near the parliament building. The Army and police are set not to engage in the crisis.

October 3, 1993
23:30 MSK: As estimated, over 15, 000 people are protesting outside Moscow Soviet of People's Deputies (Mossovet).

23:10 MSK: PM Chernomyrdin orders to take under protection all the important buildings and monuments which reflect Russia’s heritage across the country

23:00 MSK: Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin has addressed the nation, saying that “Moscow is in danger” and thousands of people are now under threat. He confirmed that scores of people have been killed and injured in the streets of the capital. 

22:50 MSK: The first floor of Ostankino TV station is on fire. Move victims have been reported as shooting continues outside the building. 

22:45 MSK: Presidential aide Ivan Andreev says the Ostankino television station has been cleared. Special forces troops are ordered to open fire, if needed. 

22:35 MSK: A convoy of armored vehicles is moving towards the city as troops are being deployed in Moscow.

22:00 MSK: Boris Yeltsin declares state of emergency in Moscow and sacks  Vice president Aleksandr Rutskoi.

21:21 MSK: Rory Peck, a war cameraman for the German ARD Television Company, is reported killed in crossfire while covering the storming of the Ostankino television station.

20:20 MSK: Interior troops force the protesters to retreat. According to preliminary reports, dozens of people have been killed in the standoff. The Ostankino facilities have been damaged, eye-witnesses say.

19:15 MSK: An intense gunfight breaks out between the protesters trying to capture the TV center and the Interior Ministry.

18:30 MSK: The demonstrators, led by Colonel General Albert Makashov and hardline communist politician, Viktor Anpilov, have taken control of the mayor’s office and marched toward Ostankino to demand a live appearance on air.

Supporters of the legislators are stopping buses in the center of the capital and using them to bring more protesters to the Ostankino TV center, which is only protected by regular police patrols.

18:15 MSK: An intense firefight has started as interior troops began advancing towards the Parliament building while police forces disengaged from the streets around it.

18:00 MSK: Yeltsin signs a decree introducing a state of emergency in the Russian capital.

In the afternoon, armed anti-Yeltsin protesters, backed by several internal military units, who had opted to side with the parliament’s defenders, successfully stormed the police cordon around the White House, with two law enforcement officers being killed in the skirmish.

They were greeted by Rutskoy, who spoke from the parliament’s balcony, urging the protesters to seize the Moscow mayor's office and the national television center at Ostankino.

The speaker of the Russian Supreme Council, Ruslan Khasbulatov, called on the demonstrators to storm the Kremlin and put “the criminal and usurper Yeltsin” behind bars.

September 21 – October 2, 1993

On September 21, the Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, issued decree No.1400, which moved to dissolve the country's legislature – the Congress of People's Deputies and its Supreme Council. 

The move was explained by Yeltsin’s conclusion that the current Russian constitution is hampering reforms in the country and development of new legislation in the parliament is too slow and insufficient. 

With the constitution not giving him the power to dissolve parliament, the president used the results of April’s referendum, in which 69 percent of voters backed the early election for People's Deputies of the Russian Federation, to justify his action. 

But parliament refused to obey Yeltsin’s ruling, calling the decree an attempted coup as it violated 12 articles in the Russian constitution. 

The deputies, who barricaded themselves inside the parliamentary headquarters, popularly dubbed as the White House, central Moscow, impeached Yeltsin and proclaimed vice president, Aleksandr Rutskoy, to be the acting Russian president. 

Rutskoy took the presidential oath, saying: "I am taking the authority of president. The anti-constitutional decree of President Yeltsin is annulled." 

On September 24, access to the White House was completely cut off by the police in order to protect Muscovites from “armed militants holed up in the parliament building.”

In the following days, thousands of anti-Yeltsin protesters with red flags flocked to the site, with an ongoing rally forming in front of the White House on the Moskva River embankment. 

On October 2, the demonstrators built barricades and blocked traffic on the Russian capital’s main streets, with the MPs still refusing to reach a compromise with the president.