If Boris Yeltsin's reign continues after the June 3 presidential runoff, his successor will be General Alexander Lebed, a man fond of praising General Pinochet for turning around the Chilean economy "while killing fewer than 3,000 people." In his political baptism this past year, Lebed looked less like a general of methodical military prowess, a la Colin Powell, and more like a volatile loose canon, a la Ollie North. PNS analyst Andrew Meier has written on the former Soviet Union since 1992 for the New York Times Magazine, the New Republic and other publications. He is currently writing on Russia's "Near Abroad" on a fellowship from the Alicia Patterson Foundation.

MOSCOW -- When Boris Yeltsin handed retired Lt. General Alexander Lebed the coveted post of head of the all-powerful Security Council last week, few in the West recognized this renowned Russian general with the machine gun monotone. But as the two men stood together in the Kremlin looking remarkably like father and son, everyone knew that the ailing Lear at last had found his anointed heir.

Lebed's personal biography is, of course, well known. A general by the age of 38, he ascended rapidly in a distinguished military career, from paratrooper to commanding a division in Afghanistan. One key turning point in his resume came during the failed coup of 1991, when Lebed disobeyed orders and came to Yeltsin's defense inside the White House. Sent to quell the fighting between ethnic Russians and Moldovans in newly independent Moldova, Lebed succeeded -- not through mediation but by backing up the hapless Russian separatists with overwhelming force. Nonetheless, grateful locals took to calling him Emperor and before long Muscovites began to detect with yearning his instinct to opt for force even outside the chain of command.

What's far less clear about the general are his political beliefs. Kremlinologists are undoubtedly poring over his recent memoirs, entitled "I Feel Sorry for the Motherland". But beyond fond memories of bootcamp and kicking butt in Moldova, the book offers few clues. For pages on end he discusses his two greatest loves -- his fellow paratroopers and boxing.

Lebed is a virgin politician who, like Yeltsin, relishes running against the grain. He sees Moscow's spreading sleaze in strictly Manichaean terms -- good guys versus bad guys. The campaign which won him his surprising third place in the presidential elections was based solely on his reputation as an incorruptible man of resolute action who backs up his threats and fulfills his promises. Although his name means "swan," his praise of Augusto Pinochet for turning around the Chilean economy "while killing fewer than 3,000 people," and his savage scorn for apparatchiki, democrats, bankers and politicians has made him enemies . "It's a point of particular pride," he once said, "for a man to have many enemies."

During his political baptism in the Russian press Lebed looked less like a general of methodical military prowess -- a la Colin Powell -- and more like a volatile loose canon -- a la Ollie North. Shielded from Kremlin criticism by his popularity in the armed forces, he routinely uttered statements that displeased the powerful. He not only declared the Yeltsin government a "minus" for the nation but derided the Russian separatists he helped in Moldova as "corrupt fools who'd sell their souls for a dollar."

Lebed has been strongly against the war in Chechnya, although earlier this year he told a reporter he'd gladly restore order if he were given a division of soldiers "made up of the sons and grandsons of the Duma deputies and Cabinet ministers." He also opposes NATO expansion in Eastern Europe. On Russia's widely discussed potential for civil war, he once snorted that if the Reds and Whites started fighting with each other he'd fight for the Greens. And then he'd "beat the Reds until they're White and the Whites until they're Red."

On economics Lebed admits his lack of knowledge. "I freely admit I'm no economist," he blurted out in a recent interview. "My job is to restore order and instill conditions under which a normal market economy can operate. " Noted Russian watcher Michael McFaul of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says "the best one can say is that he seems pro-reform."

Yeltsin right now is looking to Lebed as his protector and alter-candidate to guarantee victory at the runoff on June 3. But in the long run, what Russians want to know is whether Lebed is up to the real job -- cleaning up Russia's streets, banks, businesses, airwaves and armed forces. One thing seems certain: If he gets to turn the Kremlin into his backyard barracks, the fat cats sitting pretty on Yeltsin's bandwagon and around Moscow's boardrooms had best get in fighting shape fast. As the general told a Russian military correspondent last year, "The history of all countries and peoples shows that policy is good only when it has the necessary corresponding force to carry it out."