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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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1993-04-08
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1KB
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36 lines
THE WEEK, Page 19WORLDAttempted Murder?
The lawyer who is prosecuting the Communist Party is nearly
killed
Spectacular accidents are so common along Moscow's broad
avenues, where drivers weave through multiple lanes at high
speed, that they rarely merit public attention. But when a
private car forced a speeding government Volga sedan into
oncoming traffic last week, causing the Volga to sideswipe
another car, somersault across four lanes and knock down a tree,
some Russian officials called the crash an assassination
attempt. Why? The Volga carried Sergei Shakhrai, former Russian
Deputy Prime Minister and President Boris Yeltsin's top lawyer
in a court case that will decide the fate of the Communist
Party.
Shakhrai, who is trying to prove that the party, which
Yeltsin banned last year, was an illegal institution even under
Soviet law, emerged from the smashed car with only a bruised
shoulder. His bodyguard, who was thrown through the windshield,
broke both legs, and his chauffeur suffered an injured spine.
The mystery driver sped away, leading some of Shakhrai's
colleagues to suspect foul play. "We don't know yet whether it
was just an ordinary traffic accident," a spokesman said. As the
investigation began, Shakhrai, who dismissed the assassination
theory, returned to work.