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#10
Moscow Times
December 14, 2001
How to Squander Presidential Prestige
By Yulia Latynina

In Russia, the idle squandering of President Vladimir Putin's prestige is taking on new forms.

The presidential election in Yakutia is the most recent example of this. To put it bluntly, President Mikhail Nikolayev has a lot fewer fans than Pavel Bure. The republic's extra-budgetary funds exceed its impoverished budget by several times, and it's unclear where all the money is going. The rebuilding of Lensk, for example, smells really pretty badly: The cost of building the houses there is comparable to prices for exclusive apartments in the center of Moscow.

Yakutsk resembles a polar Chernobyl: The city is located in a permafrost zone, house facades are all riven with cracks, no repair work is done and streams run along the streets from burst sewage pipes. The pipes in Yakutsk, as in any permafrost zone, are laid above ground, and in the winter months they tower over the streets like fantastic tank traps. In stark contrast, a lavish glass Palace of Childhood has been erected in the center of town at considerable expense.

Let's assume that the Kremlin has decided that the odious Nikolayev is not fit to govern Yakutia. Does the Kremlin really believe that the people of Yakutia, living in cracked houses on stinking streets, are completely oblivious to his odiousness?

What's the point in turning Nikolayev into a martyr by refusing to register him as a candidate for the election and throwing the owners of loyal media outlets behind bars?

No doubt they would counter that Nikolayev is an autocrat, that not even a mouse dares to squeak in the republic without his consent and that if he is allowed to participate he will win the election. However, the authorities already came up against a similar problem during the 1999 parliamentary elections. In no less authoritarian Kalmykia, Yury Luzhkov's wife, who had the backing of the Kalmyk president, ran for a seat against the Kremlin-supported television anchorwoman Alexandra Buratayeva.

On the eve of the elections, students from the Interior Ministry Higher School -- majors and colonels -- headed off to distant Kalmykia at "their own expense." Once there, they explained to district election commission chairmen what would happen if observers noticed the slightest attempts at vote falsification.

So where, you might ask, are the PR people, who so magnificently engineered the victories of Unity and Putin himself? Have they fallen out of favor for being Berezovsky proteges? Or did the money set aside for the PR campaign disappear?

Similar episodes have occurred at least twice before: in Kursk region and in Primorye. In both cases odious governors were effectively turned into martyrs, while those approved by the powers-that-be to take their place lost the elections outright due to the crudity with which they orchestrated their campaigns. I'm referring to federal inspector Viktor Surzhikov in Kursk and the deputy presidential envoy Gennady Apanasenko in Primorye.

So already there have been several clear occasions, where if the authorities had behaved a bit more intelligently they would have contributed to the strengthening of the rule of law and the vertical chain of power; instead they made clear to us in no uncertain terms that the Kremlin isn't interested in the rule of law or in the people, but only in ensuring that that person get the boot and that this one take his place.

It wouldn't so bad if all this was accompanied by economic reforms, but so far the only real achievement in the economy has been diverting bandits' income to the law enforcement agencies. And this means only one thing. When the oil price falls below $15 per barrel, not only will the ruble collapse. Trust in the president will collapse as well, having been steadily whittled away by the Surzhikovs, Apanasenkos and Kolmogorovs of this world.

Yulia Latynina is a journalist with ORT.

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