samcster94
Banned
Well, in OTL, Lebed died in a helicopter crash which makes your alt-Lebed extra ironic(I love your picture and how he makes Putin look nice). Absorbing Belarus completely seems like something someone in 90's Russia might have thought of.That is probably how it would play out. Lebed had a chance to really take the reins, but it all went sideways for him.
I think he would have been a nationalist strongman, with scarier short-term implications, but he would have been more straightforward in his tyranny than Putin. Lebed would have made no effort to legitimize himself via any trappings of democracy.
He would have no problem being called a strongman and we would not be seeing the bending of the English language to include such awkward phrases as "Presidential republic" to describe tinpot dictators that do not wish to be called as such. Lebed would have take the title as tinpot dictator without any qualms.
His political schooling would have been Communist based on his rank and experience in the Soviet army, but I doubt he would have taken anything away from it as by that point the commissars are where you sent people who could not get things done on the battlefield but had a connected family member and no one believed in anything. His chief takeaway would have been knee-jerk anti-democratic and pro-law-and-order. He would have used some of the Communist rhetoric against the West and would have zero problems using the word "fascist" to describe any foe of Russia, past, present or future. But in his heart of hearts he would have been a fascist - a nationalist with a questionable world view of ethnicities and nationalities other than Russians, who would have no respect for the rule of law unless he was the one making the rules and decreeing laws.
The difference from Putin would have been all lack of pretense. There would be no cloying attempts at portraying himself in double-speak. If asked if he was a dictator, Lebed probably would have shrugged and said, "eh, you can call me what you want, the people in the street and in their homes know I bring law and order, and that's what matters." And the folks in the countryside would have loved him for it, and the intellectuals in St. Pete and Moscow would have been horrified.
Lukashenko would have been embraced, and Belarus would have been integrated into some kind of alliance even closer than what Russia and Belarus have now. While Ukraine would have been given carrot and stick to get it in line. There would be no hybrid war there, Lebed would have just backed to the hilt his preferred candidate and then if he did not get his way - send in tanks. There would have been no little-green-men or cloak-and-dagger bullshit. There would be Russian soldiers in Russian uniforms marching down Donbass as Lebed would have thundered about liberation at hand.
Oh Lebed was of the old school, he'd probably think using helicopters on dissidents would be a horrendous misuse of fuel. "Boys, boys, that Chilean shit might have worked in them South American countries, but this is here is Birth Mother Russia. Just put up against a wall, will you. All right, what's next on the agenda?"
In this universe, Putin is head of security for a St. Petersburg governor, with dreams one day of hopefully getting that job, or being sent off to be the satrap of Kaliningrad.