Monday, Dec 29, 2003
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By Vladimir Radyuhin
The Communist leader, Gennady Zyuganov, who was the main Opposition challenger in Russia's two previous post-Soviet elections for President, pulled out of the contest at a weekend meeting of the Party's Central Committee. Two days earlier the maverick firebrand, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, said he would not run either. The two main liberal parties, Yabloko and the Union of Rightist Forces, also decided to stay out of the poll after failing to agree on a single candidate. Mr. Zyuganov's refusal to run is linked to a setback the Communist Party suffered in the Dec. 7 election for the State Duma, the Lower House of Russian Parliament. The vote was swept by the pro-Kremlin party, United Russia, which will control two-thirds of seats in the 450-member House. Communists won just half of the 117 seats they had in the previous State Duma, while the pro-Western liberal parties were altogether thrown out of Parliament. The former Gvernor of Rostov Region, Nikolai Kondratenko, nominated by Communists to run for president, has no chance to win nearly as much support as Mr. Zyuganov did in 1996 against Mr. Boris Yeltsin (32 per cent) or in 2000 against Mr. Putin (29 per cent). Mr. Zhirinovsky's decision not to run is a big surprise in the unfolding presidential campaign. He has not missed a single election since 1991, and moreover his Liberal Democratic Party has improved its standing in this year's parliamentary poll winning more than 11 per cent of the vote. Mr. Zhirinovsky, who just two weeks ago said he would definitely run, offered a fantastic explanation for quitting the race, saying he did not want "to create a personality cult" in his party he runs as a one-man show. It was apparently under pressure from the Kremlin that Mr. Zhirinovsky backed away as Mr. Putin wanted to avoid the embarrassment of having an ultra-nationalist demagogue show the second best result in the race for Russian presidency. For all his fiery rhetoric, Mr. Zhirinovsky has consistently supported the government in all crucial votes in Parliament. Instead the party leader, the Liberal Democrats nominated his security chief to run for President. Mr. Oleg Malyshkin, a 50-year-old former boxer, is mainly known for his fist fights with political opponents Mr. Zhirinovsky is so fond of provoking. After one particularly ugly brawl during a TV debate, Mr. Zhirinovsky said his bodyguard "has no brains". The only politician who could put up credible challenge to Mr. Putin, is Mr. Sergei Glazyev, leader of the new left-leaning Rodina (Motherland) bloc which captured 9 per cent in the State Duma vote, has refused to run in what could be a behind-the-scenes deal with the Kremlin. Mr. Putin, whose approval ratings top 80 per cent, is expected to easily win a second four-year term in office in the presidential election on March 14.
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