If the coup fits.

• Position: Popularity of Boris Yeltsin in the U.S. - Editorial

The veil is lifted. The U.S. Government does not want democracy in Russia; it wants open markets in Russia. When the former obstruct the latter, it is democracy that must give way.

When Boris Yeltsin dissolved Russia's duly elected parliament in September, the Clinton Administration and its faithful in the media twisted themselves into contortions to deny the obvious: that Yeltsin had acted like any two-bit dictator. Everyone from Clinton on down told us that trampling on democracy was actually a necessary step toward preserving democracy in Russia.

"The United States has to be on the side of reform and democracy in Russia, and President Yeltsin represents that," Clinton said with a straight face the day after Yeltsin staged his coup.

"Russia: A Democrat's Coup," The New York Times unblushingly intoned on its editorial page. "Boris Yeltsin had no constitutional authority to suspend the powers of Russia's parliament yesterday and call early elections," The Times acknowledged. But the coup (which it called "bold") would "help consolidate Russian democracy, economic reforms, and more respectful relations with former Soviet republics." The Times failed to explain how Russian democracy was being consolidated when it was actually being dismantled.

Why does the Yeltsin coup fit Washington so comfortably?

Because Yeltsin is doing the bidding of American businesses that see in Russia vast natural resources to extract and vast markets to exploit. These are the "economic reforms" The Times alluded to.

It is Yeltsin's willingness to open his country's economy to foreign investment and sell off state enterprises to the West that endears him so to the ruling elite in this country. The day after Yeltsin staged his coup, the Administration drummed up support for Yeltsin around the world and urged Congress to hustle $2.5 billion of American aid to Russia. Democrats in Congress dutifully went along with the lie that Yeltsin was advancing democracy. But the truth can be found in the constant linking of...