Elections

- Krasnoyarsk Territory: “Ours” is not “For Swan”.
- Yakutia: ALROSA, its friends and enemies
- Egor Stroev secured Oryol peace for himself
- Astrakhan region: the son of Governor Guzhvin will respond to Astrakhangazprom.

Mikhail Sokolov:

Radio Liberty speaks. The weekly program "Elections 2001" is on air. Mikhail Sokolov is at the microphone.

The candidates of the President of Udmurtia, Alexander Volkov, won the mayoral elections of Izhevsk and Sarapul.

Alexey Pentegov reports.

Alexey Pentegov:

After the chief federal inspector for Udmurtia, Sergei Chikurov, under duress from his boss Sergei Kiriyenko, withdrew his candidacy from the elections, experts unanimously declared the unconditional victory of the acting head of the city, Viktor Balakin.

In Izhevsk, 30 percent of eligible citizens went to the polls. Victor Balakin, having received 52 percent of the votes from the total number of participants in the electoral process, became the legitimate mayor on Sunday. As experts expected, a significant part of Izhevsk residents from among those who came to the elections, namely 14.5 percent, voted against everyone.

The third position was taken by communist Vyacheslav Anufriev. He received 13.5 percent of the vote. The remaining 9 candidates received from half a percent to two.

Volkov’s man also won in Sarapul. This is the name of the former general director of the Elekont plant, Anatoly Naumov. His result was 75 percent of the vote with a thirty-four percent voter turnout.

Mikhail Sokolov:

The results of the active intervention of Plenipotentiary Representative Sergei Kiriyenko in the course of election campaigns in the Volga region are as follows. In Mari El, a recent Zhirinovite won; in the Nizhny Novgorod province, a communist; in Udmurtia, at first the most conservative people from the local party in power remained at the head of the republic, and now, with the help of the plenipotentiary, they took control of the Izhevsk mayor’s office. This is the right march.

All 26 deputies were elected to the Novgorod Regional Duma last Sunday. Among them are 9 heads of district administrations and 9 heads of large industrial enterprises. Representatives of the Communist Party and the Unity Party appeared in the meeting, whose non-partisan composition Governor Mikhail Prusak was proud of.

Svetlana Gerasimova reports from Novgorod.

Svetlana Gerasimova:

As one of the Novgorod newspapers described the new composition of the Duma, the Duma will be “male, rich and loyal.” But in general, nothing unexpected happened in the elections. The winners could easily be predicted.

In one of the districts of Veliky Novgorod, the head of the Novgorod Coal and Fuel Company, Evgeny Dorofeev, and the leader of the Novgorod communists, Valery Gaidym, competed. The latter won by a small margin, the result of the fact that the veteran electorate, as usual, was more active in the elections. Moreover, the day before, Gennady Zyuganov sincerely addressed them and asked them in a leaflet to support the communist candidate.

But even the personal visit of Boris Nemtsov to the district did not help the members of the Union of Right Forces. The young voter turned out to be indifferent to the party authorities, and none of the three representatives of the Union of Right Forces got into the Duma.

So the Novgorod Duma will not be overloaded with party forces. In addition to the representative of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, it again includes the leader of the Novgorod Unity, former chairman of the regional Duma Anatoly Boytsev.

Of the 26 parliamentary seats, 17 will again be occupied by former deputies. On the one hand, this seems to be a sign of stability and continuity of action. Social activists, on the contrary, are indignant: they say that the old composition does not allow new forces to break through. 9 still made it through, and almost all of them are heads of large enterprises.

Voting in the Novgorod region was even less active than 4 years ago during the elections of the previous Duma. Turnout is now less than 30 percent.

Mikhail Sokolov:

Narrated by Svetlana Gerasimova.

In Yakutia, the deadline for submitting documents for registering candidates for president of the republic has expired. Elections here are scheduled for December 23. So far, four have been registered: the speaker of the upper house of the State Assembly of the republic Vasily Filippov, the Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia Vasily Kolmogorov, the head of the SAPI corporation Fedot Tumusov. Despite the direct prohibition contained in the republican constitution from running for a third term, 10 members of the republican central election commission voted for the registration of the current head of Yakutia, Mikhail Nikolaev, as a presidential candidate, 3 were against, 1 abstained. Within 5 days, the election commission must decide to register 8 more candidates.

The progress of the campaign is analyzed by our correspondent in Yakutia Sergei Suranov.

Sergey Suranov:

The current president of Yakutia, Mikhail Nikolaev, would have won the presidential elections in the republic if the voting had taken place last Sunday. Now Mikhail Nikolaev is the constant leader of all ratings and, nevertheless, instead of Nikolaev, Russian President Vladimir Putin, when leaving Lensk for China, provided one of his planes for a flight to Yakutsk to another participant in the presidential campaign, the country's Deputy Prosecutor General Vasily Kolmogorov.

It must be said that this is not the first time that the federal authorities have pointedly distanced themselves from the head of the republic, devaluing Nikolaev’s high ratings in the eyes of the population.

Mikhail Nikolaev's cooling of relations with Moscow began much earlier than Vladimir Putin's arrival in the Kremlin. Just 5 years ago, the ceremony of Nikolaev’s re-entry to the post of head of the republic was not consecrated by distinguished guests from Moscow. In time, this demarche coincided with the appearance of a publication about the export of rough diamonds abroad by the Yakut president in his usual portfolio. The scandalous articles were followed by the revocation of Mikhail Nikolaev's diplomatic passport.

In Yakutia, the population is traditionally very sensitive to the level of relations with Moscow, and this noticeably demoralizes the head of the region and pushes him to take steps that are unusual for the republic. One of them is an unbridled propaganda campaign. “The Supreme Court loves a trinity” is the headline of an article about how Russia’s highest court has sanctioned Nikolaev’s participation in the presidential election. Meanwhile, the court's decision was exactly the opposite.

The article of the Yakut constitution prohibiting one person from running for more than two terms was recognized as complying with federal legislation. And the false article appeared in the Victoria Press newspaper. This weekly, together with another newspaper, "Youth of Yakutia", is used by Nikolaev's supporters as a weapon of disinformation among the population. Since October 1, both of these newspapers have increased their circulation tenfold and began to be distributed free of charge. Moreover, Victoria Press began to publish a circulation 50 times larger, 210,000 copies - instead of the previous 4,000. Both weeklies are filled with articles interpreting all events without exception in favor of Nikolaev. The aggressiveness of the materials suggests that the President of Yakutia is ready for a protracted legal battle for his registration, and possibly for the struggle for the post of head of the republic in the context of confrontation with Moscow.

At the same time, hints about rapprochement with Moscow are published. A week ago, a message appeared that in the last minutes of Vladimir Putin’s stay in Yakutia, right on the tarmac of the airfield in Mirny, the Russian President blessed Mikhail Nikolaev to be re-elected for a third term. On Saturday, the 20th, material about a five-minute tete-a-tete conversation between Putin and Nikolaev was published in the Moscow newspaper Novye Izvestia. True, the press service of Nikolaev told me that they knew nothing about the fact that such a conversation took place.

So, at best, Mikhail Nikolaev interpreted the general phrases of the Russian president in his favor, as approval.

Novye Izvestia promised a meeting between Putin and Nikolaev in Moscow on October 23, but the rendezvous never took place. Instead of the presidential blessing, Mikhail Nikolaev in Moscow on Tuesday heard again the opinion of the Chairman of the Russian Central Election Commission, Alexander Veshnyakov, that the current legislation does not allow the participation of the President of Yakutia in the elections for the third time.

One of the signs of Mikhail Nikolaev’s nervousness was the appearance in the group of contenders for the post of head of Yakutia of the head of the Diamonds of Russia - Sakha company, Vyacheslav Shtyrov. The importance of the figure of the president of a diamond company is predetermined by its weight in the eyes of the population. After all, ALROSA’s contribution to the budget of Yakutia is up to 70 percent. The company has the best specialists, the most advanced technologies, the best working and rest conditions. Finally, the salary is tens of times higher than the salary of public sector workers.

The statement of the head of ALROSA to the republican election commission about his intention to take part in the elections, however, came as a surprise, and, above all, for the president of the diamond company himself. In a conversation with me, one of Vyacheslav Shtyrov’s close associates said that the letter to the election commission appeared only after Mikhail Nikolaev’s hysterical demand. This very demand was made after the failure of the last attempt by the President of Yakutia to get the republican parliament to legitimize the participation of the current president in the third elections.

Probably, Nikolaev still feels the vulnerability of its positions and is insuring itself in case of refusal of its registration. In this case, Mikhail Nikolaev hopes that Shtyrov will be an influential heir who will not encroach on common interests in business.

Now Vyacheslav Shtyrov ranks second or third in the ratings of presidential candidates, gaining, according to various estimates, from 9 to 20 percent of the votes. In Nikolaev’s absence, Shtyrov’s rating, according to the most optimistic estimates, will increase by 2 percent, and he will then become the leader in public opinion polls.

The second, in the event of Nikolaev’s absence in the elections, will be Ruslan Shipkov, the chief federal inspector for the Magadan and Amur regions and Yakutia, who, it must be said, is sharply gaining points together with his vice-president Artur Alekseev and is coming close to Vyacheslav Shtyrov.

The third position is taken by the president of the financial and industrial corporation "SAPI" Fedot Tumusov.

Mikhail Sokolov:

As Sergei Suranov notes, both Ruslan Shipkov and Fedot Tumusov are long-time opponents of the current president of the Republic of Yakutia.

But the head of the Almazy Yakutia-Sakha company has a weak position in the rural regions of the republic. This can be explained by the fact that Vyacheslav Shtyrov is not a Yakut. And another reason for its low popularity is public statements and promises to optimize, in other words, to reduce budget expenditures on the agricultural sector.

At Nikolaev’s headquarters, Vyacheslav Shtyrov is considered an ally, but another participant in the election campaign, Vasily Kolmogorov, Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia, is an obvious opponent. First of all, because the federal government structures are counting on it. However, Vasily Kolmogorov’s position in the republic is weak. He is little known in Yakutia, his name is still, as a rule, at the bottom of the ratings, and the prospect that he will be able to gain political weight seems unlikely, since the leaders of all significant political and financial-industrial structures of the republic have already announced either support for Mikhail Nikolaev or personal claims to power.

Kolmogorov’s only option for conducting a successful campaign is to gain support in the heads of local executive authorities. But for now this opportunity is not available to Vasily Kolmogorov. The heads of cities and uluses are disoriented by the unusual discord at the top.

For this reason, the chances of resisting the current president Mikhail Nikolaev or his protégé Vyacheslav Shtyrov, the chief federal inspector for Yakutia Ruslan Shipkov, look somewhat more serious. Shipkov was the deputy prime minister of the Yakut government for a long time and oversaw the mining industry. At the same time, he is a man without pronounced political ambitions, and many consider him a completely worthy business leader. A very serious plus of Ruslan Shipkov: although he is Russian, he knows the Yakut language perfectly. This is noted by Sergei Suranov.

The Central Election Commission of Russia may cancel the registration of the candidate for president of Yakutia, the current head of the region, Mikhail Nikolaev, if it receives a complaint. Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Russia Alexander Veshnyakov stated this on Wednesday in an interview with the Interfax agency. A corresponding complaint from Yakut deputies has already been sent to Moscow.

Thus, the picture of the election campaign in Yakutia may change.

In the Krasnoyarsk Territory, elections to the Legislative Assembly will be held on December 23. 45 deputies are elected both from majoritarian constituencies and from electoral associations. So far, 7 regional electoral blocs are vying for 22 party mandates.

Alexander Makarov reports from Krasnoyarsk.

Alexander Makarov:

There is now turmoil in the close-knit ranks of the Communists. The leaders of the regional organization of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation have always been loyal to Alexander Lebed, but on the eve of the elections it became clear that not all communists agree with them.

Firstly, the leaders of radical organizations separated. They created their own electoral association, “Communists for Soviet Russia.” Their symbol was two crossed machine guns and a budenovka. The Governor-General is considered by many radicals to be a traitor. Most often people remember the Khasavyurt Agreement and cooperation with Boris Yeltsin. This is the first thing.

Secondly, Oleg Pashchenko, one of the most popular deputies in the Legislative Assembly of the region, editor of the pro-communist Krasnoyarskaya Gazeta, decided to run for a second term from the Nashi electoral bloc. He accused the leaders of the regional organization of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation of conciliation and unwillingness to fight against the team of Alexander Lebed, which, in his opinion, is taking away the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Now the leadership of the local communist cell has launched a large-scale campaign against Oleg Pashchenko. For them, he is the main enemy. He knows too much and uses it shamelessly. The pages of the Krasnoyarsk Newspaper have already published four materials dedicated to the leader of the regional organization of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Vladislav Yurchik.

Local political scientists believe that the communists will no longer be able to overcome the consequences of the split in their ranks. That is why they are unlikely to be able to get a blocking package of mandates in the legislative assembly, but the communists will receive 5 or 6 seats, which will allow them to maintain their influence in the region.

Another hidden supporter of the governor can be called the voting bloc of the local branch of the Union of Right Forces and the regional organization of the Yabloko party. Its leader was State Duma deputy and one of the co-owners of the Krasnoyarsk Coal Company, Sergei Generalov. He is known for his close relationship with Alexander Lebed, and they currently have several major joint projects underway. The other day, a deputy made an almost sensational statement that he was ready to give up his seat in the Duma and work in the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. This increased the personal rating of Sergei Generalov, however, the prospects for his electoral bloc are still vague.

Apart from the deputies, there is not a single name known in this region on the list of candidates from the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko.

The openly pro-governor electoral association “For Lebed” has the same problems. The first place on the list of candidates is occupied by the chairman of the local cell of the Honor and Motherland movement, Igor Zakharov. The former armored major is confident that they will be able to win at least a third of the seats in the Legislative Assembly. According to him, the failure in the elections to the Krasnoyarsk City Council (at that time “Honor and Motherland” did not receive a single mandate) taught the leaders of this movement a lot.

Now they are focusing on working in remote areas and cities of the region, where the authority of the authorities is traditionally strong. In addition, local “Honor and Motherland” cells have been working there for almost three years. They actively participated in all municipal elections, and in many cities and districts, representatives of the movement were able to become deputies and even heads of local administrations. These truly respected people will run in single-member districts. Obviously, it is they who will make up the “Honor and Motherland” faction in the future Legislative Assembly.

The list of candidates from the “For Swan” electoral bloc, according to experts, will gain at most 10 percent.

Against this background, another pro-governor electoral bloc, “Hope and Support,” looks more significant. His top three included one of the most effective deputy governors, Nadezhda Kolba, and the president of the Union of Commodity Producers of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Valery Sergienko. In addition, the list contains the names of the heads of a number of large and successful enterprises. As the president of Sibmashholding, Yuri Korpachinsky, said: “We are very similar to the Nashi electoral bloc. We are distinguished from them by only one thing - we have no political claims against the governor.”

Local political scientists believe that Nadezhda and Support has very good prospects in these elections.

And now about the opposition.

Of course, the most interesting is the voting bloc of Anatoly Bykov. His supporters have already received permission to collect voter signatures. They need to get autographs from at least 14,000 voters.

The first three of the “For Bykov” bloc were made up of proven cadres of the “aluminum baron”. Number 1 - Marina Dobrovolskaya, journalist of the TVK television company, popular in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. In second place is Georgy Lopatin, chairman of the regional Federation of Disabled People. They already have experience in participating in election campaigns. Both Dobrovolskaya and Lopatin are deputies of the Krasnoyarsk City Council. (A little less than a year ago, Bykov’s electoral bloc won a sensational victory in the city council elections, taking an honorable second place. They received 5 mandates, ahead of even the communists.)

It is curious that Anatoly Bykov is only in fourth place on this list. Why, no one knows. However, Anatoly Bykov will also run in a single-mandate constituency. The first court hearing in the case of Bykov, who is accused of organizing the murder, has already taken place. However, his lawyer Vladimir Sergeev believes that this process will not end until December 23.

Thus, Anatoly Bykov may still have time to become a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, but it is unlikely that he will be able to create his own faction there. To do this, he does not have enough financial or human resources. The maximum that Bykov's bloc, according to experts, can count on is 2 mandates.

The Nashi electoral association has brighter prospects. It included the leaders of almost all right-wing movements and parties opposition to the governor. Their main election slogan: “Let’s protect the region from the invasion of strangers!”

The first number for Nashi is the current chairman of the legislative assembly, Alexander Uss. An interesting detail: at first it was assumed that the Krasnoyarsk speaker, one of the most prominent opposition leaders, would head the list of candidates from the regional organization of the Unity movement, however, the persistent subversive work of the regional administration bore fruit. Our sources claim that the good personal relationship between Alexander Lebed and Sergei Shoigu played an important role in making the final decision.

Another fierce opponent of the governor is the electoral bloc, headed by State Duma deputy Valery Zubov. The former governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory was not included in the list of candidates, however, he is making every effort to promote his people. They are practically unknown to the general public, however, they are popular in their single-member constituencies (this is the main trump card of Zubov’s bloc).

These are the main contenders for seats in the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The remaining voting blocs and associations are unlikely to be able to overcome the five percent barrier.

Mikhail Sokolov:

The pre-election situation in the Krasnoyarsk Territory was analyzed by Alexander Makarov. On October 28, elections to the Legislative Assembly of the Jewish Autonomous Region will be held. Vladimir Ivashchenko reports from Birobidzhan.

Vladimir Ivashchenko:

There are 42 candidates vying for 15 seats in the regional parliament, but this number, as the autonomy’s election commission admits today, is not yet final. The fact is that previously the registration of five candidates for deputies was canceled here. Each of them retains the chance to appeal decisions of district courts and district commissions in the regional court.

The reasons for the forced withdrawal from the elections may seem anecdotal. Andrei Shabanov, for example, paid, in fact, only for drinking tea with voters. The vigilant district commission found that the costs of renting the private house where the tea party took place were not reflected in the election fund, and this was considered a gross violation of local law.

Another candidate, Konstantin Komissovsky, as it turned out, provided incorrect information about his place of residence. He was registered in a house that had long since burned down. The rest were deprived of registration for standard violations during the collection of signatures and, again, illegal registration, but in a dormitory.

It is noteworthy that all five ex-candidates are considered by the local press to be part of a certain “Sverdlovsk group.” The newspaper "Birobidzhan Star" published an article claiming that the Ural socio-political movement "May" was interested in autonomy. The newspaper writes that back in August, representatives of a company called “P-Technology” visited Birobidzhan with the aim of selecting young people for high-paying jobs. Out of 100 applicants, 10 were elected, but instead of the promised business they were offered to become candidates for deputies. The connection with “May” is indicated by the arrival in the region of several movement activists living in the Sverdlovsk region.

Comments in the local press are now expressing concerns that the communists, who have nominated their candidates in 11 constituencies at once, could take advantage of this situation. Sverdlovsk residents (and several of their representatives have retained registration) speak under the same slogans as local rivals of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The votes of democratically minded voters will thus be divided. The communists will vote, as always, unanimously and can win.

By the way, no other party is participating in the elections anymore.

Mikhail Sokolov:

Vladimir Ivashchenko reported from the capital of the Jewish Autonomous Region, Birobidzhan. On October 28, elections for the governor of the Oryol region will be held. The current Chairman of the Federation Council of Russia, Egor Stroev, is running for this post for the third time.

How is the victory of a veteran politician ensured? Radio Liberty special correspondent Vladimir Dolin, who visited Orel, reports.

Vladimir Dolin:

The Union of Right Forces went to the gubernatorial elections in the Oryol region in two columns. The party supported the candidacies of the former head of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Oryol region, Vladimir Kapustyansky, and the head of the regional organization of the Union of Right Forces, Vyacheslav Alekseev.

The leader of the right explains the reasons for his chosen tactics.

Vyacheslav Alekseev:

In order to create a certain margin of safety (after all, it is harder to remove two than one), we, in fact, decided to go together with the expectation that one of us would pass. Because we understood that we would be removed by any means, and now we are convinced that the administration is willing to do anything.

Vladimir Dolin:

Vladimir Kapustyansky and Vyacheslav Alekseev are people known in the Oryol region since August 1991. During the putsch, Kapustyansky, then the head of the Oryol police school, was the first of the police chiefs to bring his cadets to Moscow to defend the White House. Alekseev, in those days in Orel, being an employee of the regional administration, blocked the execution of the orders of the State Emergency Committee. After Yegor Stroev was elected governor in 1993, both Kapustyansky and Alekseev, who was by that time responsible for economic reforms in the region, had to resign from their positions against their will.

The subtle calculations of the right did not come to fruition. The regional election commission refused registration to both rivals of Governor Yegor Stroev. Lawyer Pavel Astafichev, who represents the interests of the election commission in the Oryol Regional Court, where offended candidates filed a complaint against the commission’s decision, justified the commission’s actions in relation to Vladimir Kapustyansky.

Pavel Astafichev:

Firstly, the candidate for the post of governor of the Oryol region, Vladimir Gennadievich Kapustyansky, did not collect the required number of reliable voter signatures in his support.

The second reason on which Vladimir Gennadievich Kapustyansky was denied registration as a candidate for the position of governor: he exceeded the legally established percentage of invalid voter signatures.

The third reason on which, in our opinion, registration was rightfully denied. The candidate has significantly (I would like to emphasize - significantly) violated the procedure for collecting signatures. This is an admitted falsification of voters' information, this is an admitted falsification of the voters' signatures themselves, which is absolutely reliably confirmed by the statements of citizens. That is, the procedure itself was violated.

And the fourth reason is that he violated the procedure for creating an election fund. We are talking only about 10 rubles.

This offense is sufficient, in our opinion, to deny registration to a candidate.

Vladimir Dolin:

The Oryol Regional Election Commission, not caring in the least about violating the secrecy of the will of citizens, conducted a total verification of all collected signatures. It was not possible to find out how many officials participated in the audit, but judging by the scale of the event, more than one hundred.

Representatives of the election commission visited absolutely all voters who signed in support of Vyacheslav Alekseev and Vladimir Kapustyansky. When confronted with officials, many immediately refused to support their candidates. They submitted to the election commission statements written as if they were carbon copies, stating that their signatures were obtained fraudulently.

Sergei Kiryanov collected 400 signatures. All of them were canceled as they were found to be unreliable. Kiryanov is perplexed.

Sergey Kiryanov:

I took signatures from my mother and explained who I was taking the signature for. And then, for some reason, two women went there, checked the authenticity of the signatures, and for some reason she wrote a statement that she would vote for Stroev.

Well, her signature is authentic on the signature sheet. Perhaps she was scared.

Vladimir Dolin:

During audit visits, officials used their behavior to clearly explain to people what they were risking. Citizens decided: the so-called election commission is compiling for the regional authorities a black list of citizens who are not loyal to the regime of Yegor Stroev. And in Orel it is well known that the governor with the very characteristic nicknames “Papa” and “Boa Constrictor” is a vindictive person.

They intimidated not only voters, but also signature collectors. Tatyana Bernadskaya’s daughter helped her fill out the subscription forms.

Tatiana Bernadskaya:

My student daughter also said: “Mom, I’m afraid to go to college,” because there are a lot of threats. They even called. They even called and said, “Keep in mind... You can pay very dearly for this, for collecting signatures.”

Vladimir Dolin:

The signature sheets canceled due to statements from allegedly deceived voters were not enough for Vyacheslav Alekseev and Vladimir Kapustyansky to register as candidates for the gubernatorial post.

In a conversation with me, the chairman of the Oryol Regional Election Commission, Anatoly Trofimov, agreed that it was high time to abandon the collection of signatures in support of candidates. But today the election commission is guided by the current legislation, and, according to Trofimov, refusing to register opposition candidates is quite legitimate.

There is little opposition to the eternal head of the Oryol region. Of the political forces, only the right dared to speak out against Yegor Stroev. The response of the authorities, according to Vyacheslav Alekseev, was a boycott of the regional organization of the Union of Right Forces.

Vyacheslav Alekseev:

In essence, we are working underground. Now, the administration has some contact with all other public organizations (by the way, there is a department for working with public organizations), but not with us.

Vladimir Dolin:

Vyacheslav Alekseev tried to challenge in court the legality of Yegor Stroev’s nomination for a third term.

Vyacheslav Alekseev:

Today's elections are the elections of an emperor for life. That is, we don’t know, in general, we choose for what period of time - whether for one, two, or three, Stroyev will still be paid, God grant him health.

Therefore, given the fact that the federal law on the basic principles of the organization of legislative and executive power still continues to contain the rule of two terms and only changes the procedure for calculating these terms, and our legislation does not provide for restrictions on election, this is what I base it on when I say that our legislation does not correspond to the federal one.

Vladimir Dolin:

But the regional court, understandably, did not agree with the arguments of the leader of the Oryol right. Based on the complaints of Vyacheslav Alekseev and Vladimir Kapustyansky about refusals to register, court decisions will apparently be made on Monday, the day after the elections, in order to mock them.

Retired General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kapustyansky threatens to go all the way to the Supreme Court.

Vladimir Kapustyansky:

We are already preparing a complaint. We analyze, so to speak, a possible argument. And we have serious prospects and reasons for this. Another thing is that the elections will already take place.

Vladimir Dolin:

The ballot papers for voting on October 28 included four names - the current governor Yegor Stroev, the director of the brick factory Stanislav Mats, the head of the regional statistics committee Vasily Molokanov and the teacher of the Oryol Technical University Vladimir Vyatkin.

The troika is not conducting any campaigning. It seems that they were called as candidates only to imitate the alternative nature of the elections. The administration-appointed rivals of the current governor, even all together, are unlikely to prevent Yegor Stroev from repeating the 1997 record of 97 percent of the vote.

Mikhail Sokolov:

This was a report by Radio Liberty special correspondent Vladimir Dolin, who visited the Oryol region. On October 28, elections for the State Duma of the Astrakhan region will take place. Radio Liberty special correspondent Andrei Trukhan visited Astrakhan.

Andrey Trukhan:

The sky over Astrakhan on Sunday, October 7, was colored with extraordinary fireworks. You don’t often see such spectacular fireworks in Moscow. Two historical dates were celebrated - the 443rd anniversary of the city and the 20th anniversary of Astrakhangazprom. This - until recently the main enterprise in terms of contribution to the regional budget - apparently spent money on its departmental fireworks in the Astrakhan sky, wasting a considerable part of the amount of 36 million rubles allocated by the local branch of Gazprom for the celebrations.

The feeling of celebration disappeared the very next morning, when, walking along the streets of Astrakhan, I saw, mainly on the outskirts, dilapidated entrances and roads unsuitable for modern transport.

Candidates for deputies actively played up this striking contrast at meetings with voters, passionately assuring the generally gullible electorate that they would certainly spend City Day brighter and much more modestly, and that Gazprom’s easy money would not be spent on noisy fireworks. The funds would be used for gasification and for organizing normal water supply to areas of the region where there is still no main gas and normal water supply, as well as for the repair of entrances and roads in cities.

Watermelon, caviar-fish, warm region. This image of Astrakhan has been formed in the minds of Russians for a long time. In the last decade, gas and then oil have been added to the traditional wealth of Astrakhan. Both residents and the elite are expecting a golden shower from oil production in the coming years, which somehow will not begin.

Unfortunately, active gas production, exploration and production of oil, which is still not very large, lead to a decrease in fish stocks. People in the region are increasingly talking about an environmental disaster. “In the Astrakhan region, herring, roach, pike perch, bream, catfish, sturgeon, beluga, and stellate sturgeon are caught in abundance,” reports the encyclopedia article. Unfortunately, all this abundance is a thing of the past.

“This year there is not even sprat,” laments independent Astrakhan journalist Alexander Tukaev.

Alexander Tukaev:

We don’t have sprat in Astrakhan this year. Three and a half meters of plankton floated in the Caspian Sea. That is, three and a half meters of sprat. There are no Caspian herring. She's all dead. We have a few out there in the sea... I don't know. That is, in Astrakhan, people always come to the market and buy Caspian herring. It actually tastes better. Fresh and so on. Not now.

Andrey Trukhan:

The previous elections to the district representative assembly took place on October 26, 1997. At that time, 226 candidates competed for 29 seats. There are now 163 candidates vying for the same 29 seats.

Among the candidates is twenty-eight-year-old businessman Pyotr Guzhvin, the son of regional governor Anatoly Guzhvin, who has ruled the territory entrusted to him under Soviet rule for 14 years. The nomination of the governor's scion is causing conflicting reactions.

Independent journalist Alexander Tukaev speaks.

Alexander Tukaev:

I just know him well personally, Petya Guzhvina. This one, I can say, is not a fool. I know that he was involved, very well, by the way, in banking, and was well connected with business. In principle, he is an interesting person, let’s say, not a “major”.

Andrey Trukhan:

There is a very difficult confrontation in the Astrakhan elections. There is a leadership party consisting of several parts. The party in power of Governor Anatoly Guzhvin often competes with the party in power of Astrakhan Mayor Igor Bezrukavnikov, and both of them together compete with the third power force - Astrakhan Gazprom. Gazprom versus Astrakhan, Astrakhan region versus Astrakhangazprom.

The conflict between the regional authorities and oil and gas producers is analyzed by Astrakhan economist Pyotr Kamyshev.

Peter Kamyshev:

Gazprom simply deceived the region a little. They paid the tax and did not inform the regional leadership that the property tax rates had changed. And the lion's share of the property tax (it was greatly increased), and the tax went to the capital. The gap between the amount of tax that we should have had in the city, in the region, and what happened is 360 million rubles.

Andrey Trukhan:

There is also opposition to the ruling class. These are 5-6 “changeable”, as they are called in conversations by townspeople, deputies of the city council or regional representative assembly, who have their own point of view on the problems of the region and the city.

What is the fight for in these seemingly not the most important elections in Astrakhan, and not the most interesting for voters?

Here is the opinion of a former employee of the regional administration who wished to remain anonymous.

Employee:

The elections are taking place against the backdrop of a fight between the region and the city. Everyone understood that we were talking about budget control. Full control.

Andrey Trukhan:

As in almost all regional elections in Russia, the problem of voter turnout is quite acute in Astrakhan. In previous elections it was just over 30 percent. There are fears that turnout this time could be even lower than the required 25 percent, and not in just one, like four years ago, but in more constituencies.

Why are people so reluctant to vote at this particular level? Here is the opinion of Oleg Shein, deputy of the State Duma of Russia from the Astrakhan region.

Oleg Shein:

It all depends on what people’s opinion of the government is. And if people have the opinion that they cannot influence events, they believe that no matter how they vote, no matter what they do, the effect will be zero. This is not democracy. This is the absence, the complete absence of the ability of people to make some kind of informed choice, to take an informed position, because they simply do not have sufficient information for this.

Andrey Trukhan:

A special impression is from the Astrakhan outback, where the peasants (still mostly united in collective farms) are confronted by a rather unkind nature. The villages are poor, the roads are broken. Rural residents, as a rule, are reluctant to attend events called by candidates. Candidates have to catch them, as they say, in fields and farms, in garages and smoking rooms. The meeting begins with irritated remarks like “Why didn’t you come before when there were no elections?”

When they see the microphone of a visiting journalist, they completely fall silent. True, after a normal conversation of about 30-40 minutes, they thaw out and almost forcefully hand over a bucket of carrots or tomatoes to the candidate they like. This year’s vegetable harvest in the Astrakhan region is not bad, but it just lies mostly unharvested. And to my great surprise, the villagers answered rather indifferently that, basically, everything would be lost, because there was no one to clean up, and the chairman of the collective farm was a real beast: he would not give it to the people, but would order it to be plowed into the ground.

The rural voter, having thawed out, willingly turns to the candidates with requests and orders. Voter orders vary, just like the voters themselves. Here is an example of a mandate that I would call “social.” The villager is used to thinking not only about himself, but also about his immediate community. Even very modestly assessing the deputy’s capabilities, he asks him to help the world, the village.

Peasant:

For example, I will choose based on business. What he did. I watch TV, so I will determine. Whoever was the boss of the collective farm lives. I root for everything with my heart.

Andrey Trukhan:

And here is an example of an attempt to solve your individual problems. You listen to someone like this (and he is far from alone), and you just don’t want to live.

Peasant:

I won’t be able to find glass for windows for another year. We are sitting without water. The pipes need to be changed. Your house is collapsing. Eh...

I have a daughter and seven children. The man left her, she had tuberculosis. And I had a fire. A disabled grandmother... I alone can’t do anything.

Andrey Trukhan:

And I was simply shocked by the Nogai grandfather in the village, who believed some tall, long city boss, whose position or name he did not know, and, without waiting for the promised long-awaited decade of Soviet power and ten years of Russian gas, he broke his faithful coal-wood stove, although he knew that one of the candidates, who was exploiting with all his might, thanks to his proximity to Gazprom, the topic of laying gas pipelines to the village for the needs of the population, promised in the near future to bring gas only to the seven outmost residents of the village.

The election campaign on state television took place in Astrakhan in a very unusual way. It turned out that the regional election commission extremely fairly divided all the free time on television channels between all candidates without exception, although in accordance with the law it was obliged to distribute this time only among those candidates who sent an application. It turned out, in the end, one minute and fifty seconds - “per brother.”

When one of the candidates appeared on the screen, many, including me, were simply stunned. It turned out to be the popular singer Valery Leontyev with one of his latest hits. And then came the credits: “This time has been given to the candidate for deputy of the regional representative assembly.” I highly appreciated the resourcefulness of the politician; voters will certainly remember Leontyev’s creativity as a lover.

However, soon my joy for the resourceful Astrakhan resident gave way to bewilderment. Valery Leontyev came out again (though he proposed a different song), and the credits said that time had been given to another candidate, in a different electoral district. When Leontiev came out for the third time to again sing a song for some other candidate, I realized that the matter was dirty here.

The next day, instead of 9 candidates, the incomparable Edita Piekha reigned on the free campaign broadcast, and on the third day, Nikolai Baskov entertained the people with all his might.

As the chairman of the regional election commission, Evgeniy Pokrovsky, later explained to me, it turns out that day after day the candidates did not have time to arrive at the studio of the Astrakhan State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company on time, and they used clips to cover the holes in the air. But musical choice is a purely television matter, Mr. Pokrovsky emphasized in a conversation with me. The regional election commission has nothing to do with it.

Almost without exception, both candidates for deputies and ordinary voters unanimously said that their elections were “very dirty, the dirtiest, no one has such dirty elections.” Governor of the Astrakhan region Anatoly Guzhvin also has his own opinion about the amount of “dirt” in these elections.

Anatoly Guzhvin:

We have evidence of such, not very good techniques, when they deliberately place namesakes where we carry out explanatory work. And people understand that they are acting as puppets, well, if not bribed, otherwise some withdraw their candidacies, realizing that this is not very fair.

As for some other things, they have not yet appeared. I think this: more hype around it. I think that perhaps this is correct, since the various groups that are preparing the elections would like, among other things, to draw attention to their candidates and to the elections in general using this method.

Andrey Trukhan:

In the first days of my stay in Astrakhan, one of the local journalists indignantly told how in a remote area a certain candidate (his last name was confidently mentioned) buys the votes of grandmothers-voters for only three and a half rubles, giving them free 30 metal lids for rolling various kinds of pickles into jars.

It turned out on the spot that the caps were indeed distributed, but on behalf of the Veterans Council on the Day of the Elderly. The information that some young people whispered to their grandmothers the true donor, a candidate for deputy, into the microphone was not confirmed by anyone.

In general, I allow myself to doubt the validity of the proud Astrakhan thesis about the dirtiest elections. They are the same as in any other region of Russia. As another candidate who did not want to “shine” said: “They are already beating, but they are not killing yet.”

Mikhail Sokolov:

This was a report by Radio Liberty special correspondent Andrei Trukhan.

In the Penza region they are preparing ahead of time for the gubernatorial elections scheduled for April 2002. Natalya Ratanina reports.

Natalya Ratanina:

So far four are vying for the governor's post - the current governor of the Penza region Vasily Bochkarev, the head of the city of Penza Alexander Kalashnikov, the chairman of the legislative assembly of the Penza region Yuri Vechkasov and the head of the Penza branch of the Saratov Law Institute Valery Kulikov. But active preparations for the upcoming elections are underway only in the team of the current governor Vasily Bochkarev.

It began on September 8, when the Penza region celebrated the 200th anniversary of the formation of the Penza province. Distinguished guests were invited to this anniversary, including President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Volga Federal District Sergei Kiriyenko, Samara Governor Konstantin Titov and President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.

As if sensing that the anniversary was not real (the 200th anniversary of the Penza province was celebrated back in 1996), none of the listed guests arrived for the holiday, limiting themselves to written congratulations. But this circumstance did not at all bother Governor Bochkarev’s team. Deputy Governor of Penza Vyacheslav Satin, who oversees large and medium-sized businesses in the Penza region, began working closely with Penza businessmen to provide financial support to the current governor Bochkarev in the upcoming elections.

Sergei Filimonov, head of the department for work with territories, should soon, apparently, head a certain analytical center, whose task will be to form a positive image of Bochkarev as a future candidate.

The choice of the Satin-Filimonov tandem was not accidental. It was they who successfully carried out Bochkarev’s last election campaign, as a result of which he became governor of the Penza region. Close advisers of the current Penza governor seriously intend to introduce their reliable people into the ranks of Bochkarev’s future rivals, whose task boils down to one thing: to create a split in the minds and souls of other contenders for a high post.

If Bochkarev does not do this, then the opposition will unite around the mayor of Penza Kalashnikov or around the head of the branch of the law institute, Valery Kulikov. And if Bochkarev does not come to power again, serious trouble awaits him, since during his governorship the Penza region did not achieve any significant results. On the contrary, in terms of production volume of large and medium-sized enterprises per employee in the Volga Federal District, the Penza Region is in twelfth place, in terms of monetary income per capita - in thirteenth. As a result, it is classified as a region with a low level of development.

Mikhail Sokolov:

There was a report from Natalia Ratanina from the Penza region.

In our next program on November 1 - the creation of Putin's party, the United Russia party, the election campaign in Chuvashia, the Komi Republic, and the Primorsky Territory.