Word: figureheaded
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...plotters acted with half the acumen and ruthlessness of the routine Latin general or African strongman seizing power, they might have succeeded. But some appeared to be more terrified than any of their prospective victims. Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov and Vice President Gennadi Yanayev, the ostensible head (really figurehead) of the so-called Emergency Committee, reportedly spent most of the three days of the coup dead drunk. Though Yanayev pulled himself together long enough to hold a press conference the first night of the coup, he and some other members of the committee looked scared out of their wits...
Roosevelt, re-elected to a third term in 1940 after pledging that "your boys are not going to be sent to any foreign wars," knew that Hirohito was just a figurehead ruler over a militarist government dominated by the flinty General Hideki Tojo. Still, Roosevelt staked his hopes for peace on a last- minute message to the Emperor. "Both of us," Roosevelt said, "have a sacred duty to restore traditional amity and prevent further death and destruction in the world...
Aristide reacted by pledging to fortify democratic institutions if he is returned to power. That prospect became more complicated when Joseph Nerette, 67, a Supreme Court judge, was sworn in as provisional President. The figurehead President was hastily appointed by Haitian lawmakers after soldiers stormed the legislature to close off a constitutional loophole that would allow Aristide's return. Other troops took over the Port-au-Prince airport while the head of the Haitian armed forces, Brigadier General Raoul Cedras, and OAS diplomats were meeting there...
...Soviet news agency, reported falsely that Gorbachev was ill and had yielded his powers temporarily to Yanayev. An hour later, TASS announced the formation of the eight-member State Committee for the State of Emergency, ostensibly headed by Yanayev. Actually, this gray and ineffectual apparatchik was only a figurehead; the real power probably was held by Kryuchkov, Pugo and Yazov, plus possibly lesser-known figures. Some of Russian republic president Boris Yeltsin's aides later fingered Baklanov as the chief plotter. The committee announced that it would rule by decree for six months, and began setting up some...
...Alexander)) Bessmertnykh thinks like Shevardnadze, and that he is calling the important shots," says an aide to Secretary of State James Baker. "Their view is that Bessmertnykh has his own line of communication to Baker and that Komplektov's well-known tough views mean that he will be a figurehead ambassador only. The theory is that Bessmertnykh and Gorbachev have cleverly thrown a bone to the conservatives, and that Komplektov can do less damage in Washington than in the Foreign Ministry in Moscow...