Ex-Russia politician Khasbulatov, key figure in 1993 crisis, dead at 80 -agencies

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Former Russian parliamentary Chairman Ruslan Khasbulatov, a key figure in a 1993 power struggle that ended when tanks shelled the legislature, has died at the age of 80, Russian news agencies said on Tuesday.

Khasbulatov, an academic from the southern republic of Chechnya, was elected chairman of the parliament in October 1991 and kept the job after the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of the year.

He was initially an ally of then-President Boris Yeltsin but the two men fell out as far-reaching government economic reforms caused living standards to plummet.

In late September 1993, Yeltsin declared the dissolution of the parliament, which responded by announcing the measure was null and void and appointing its own acting president.

On Oct. 4 – after bloody clashes between Yeltsin supporters and opponents in Moscow – Russian forces shelled the White House parliament building, setting the upper floors on fire, and then occupied it.

Yeltsin moved quickly to consolidate his power with a series of decrees. Although Khasbulatov and his close associates were arrested and charged with organising a mass riot, the new parliament granted them amnesty in February 1994.

Khasbulatov returned to academia and lectured in economics in Moscow.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Jonathan Oatis)