“Machine guns smashed windows” at the Russian White House: 30 years ago, tanks fired at the parliament in Moscow

STORY - This landmark episode in Russian history put an end to the “constitutional crisis” of 1993, when Boris Yeltsin dissolved the parliament opposed to his “shock therapy”. Witnesses of this “small civil war” spoke to Le Figaro.

While Russia avoided what could have been a civil war, the violent clashes on October 3 and 04, 1993, marked a dividing line. In particular, they led to a 'top-down' system of government, without a system of checks and balances, which later allowed Vladimir Putin to establish tight control of the Federation and become the longest-serving leader in the Kremlin since Joseph Stalin. The crushing of the parliamentary rebellion against then-president…