Yeltsin literally had to bomb the congress of Russia and do a coup though. He was NOT popular and had no support from the people, just from the military.
I mean 1996 elections which were theoretically more or less legit formally, but Yeltsin bought so much votes using fraud and US money so he turned his 8% popularity into win.
40BN $ can buy a lot of votes, Yeltsin led Russia into the disaster comparable to WW2 losses and still won after getting much less cash from US.
Yeltsin literally had to bomb the congress of Russia and do a coup though. He was NOT popular and had no support from the people, just from the military.
I mean 1996 elections which were theoretically more or less legit formally, but Yeltsin bought so much votes using fraud and US money so he turned his 8% popularity into win.