Life Beyond Moscow

In an interview with Russian Life for this issue, Saratov Governor Dmitry Ayatskov said he advocated, “like President Yeltsin, a formula of ‘strong center – strong regions.’” Although this phrase sounds oxymoronic, it is in fact a political Trojan horse that offers insight into what is going on in Russia’s regions.

At press time, Alexander Lebed had just defeated incumbent Valery Zubov in the race for governor of Krasnoyarsk krai (see Note Book, page 4), ending weeks of vituperative vitriol. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said, before the final polling, that the situation in Krasnoyarsk reminded him of Weimar Germany when Hitler rose to power. A Lebed victory, Zyuganov railed, “would mean misfortune beyond your worst dreams.” Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznev, also a communist, compared Lebed to former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Despite these strident words, the Communist Party told its followers to vote against both candidates in the coming election. Zubov, meanwhile, received the support of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov (who, it was said, did not want to see Lebed win, because that would make the latter a more serious contender for the presidency in 2000). Finally, Lebed and others were accused of voter fraud and it is not unlikely that the results of the election will be annulled by the Kremlin.

That is just what happened in Nizhny Novgorod recently. When the election of a governor to succeed the liberal Boris Nemtsov (now deputy prime minister) in this important industrial region led to a surprise victory for Alexei Klimentiev, President Boris Yeltsin annulled the election results. Klimentiev, the president declared, had a criminal record and thus was barred from running in the election. It is interesting that this fact was not raised prior to the election itself.

The background to both these events lies in the fact that a strong governor in Russia can exercise a level of power akin to a feudal baron, intervening in all aspects of a region’s social, political and economic life. Alexander Lebed, who was coopted by Yeltsin to settle the Chechen war and then ousted, has long sought the Russian presidency. He recognizes that, in the regions, a governor can build a formidable power base if he can “get things done.” And there is a much better chance of getting things done (and proving your presidential mettle) far from the strangulating red tape and chinovniks of Moscow.

This reality was recognized some time ago by another ousted federal leader, Alexander Rutskoi. Once Yeltsin’s vice-president, he led the 1993 coup attempt, served time in jail, was released and promptly ran for, and won, the post of governor of Kursk region. Not unlike Saratov Governor Ayatskov, Rutskoi is using a strong hand (and, unlike Ayatskov, a healthy dose of nepotism) to control the region’s politics and economy, with little regard for what the center thinks.

Since the post of governor is so powerful in Russia, and since it is a natural proving ground for presidential candidacy, there is a lot at stake in every regional election. Ambitious politicos are using the regions as stepping stones for national prominence. Meanwhile, the Kremlin sees the “wrong” regional strongman in power as a blow to the center’s power and influence in that region, making it hard to get tax revenues, trucks or grain.

In point of fact, “strong center – strong regions” is a clever political ruse. It masks the intentions of the side employing the slogan, which are to increase its power vis-a-vis the other side. Not unlike the way in which “peaceful coexistence” served as a smokescreen behind which the US and USSR hid decades of interventions in third world wars. There cannot be strong regions and a strong Moscow. One or the other must be stronger.

And the trend is clear: it is for stronger regions and a weaker Moscow, for many more interesting gubernatorial elections in the months ahead, for many more worthy national politicians to rise from the ranks of governorships and mayoralties.

Interestingly, the power of the regions has been gaining outside the political sphere as well. In Russian hockey, the regions are trouncing the once invincible center. Ak-Bars, from Tatarstan, won the national championship and Metallurg, from Magnitogorsk, destroyed Moscow’s Dinamo in the recent national tourney. Russia’s number one tennis player, Yevgeny Kafelnikov hails from Sochi; super gymnast Svetlana Khorkina is from Belgorod; and Russia’s top-honored Olympic champion at Nagano, Larisa Lazutina, hailed from the town of Kondapoga, in the northern region of Karelia.

Of course, the best argument must have exceptions, to prove it is not a tautology. Suffice it to point out that Russia’s top soccer team is Moscow’s Spartak and that a top seed in contention for Russia’s presidential bout in 2000 is Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.

But then there is this news item. In May, some 116 Russian schoolchildren took part in something called the Russian Model Economics and Management Olympics. The participants were divided into groups or “firms,” all beginning on an equal footing, and asked to manage their firm under changing market conditions.  First, second, and third place prizes went respectively to teams from Samara, Perm, and St. Petersburg. A team from Moscow, the center, the frenetically paced vanguard of Russia’s economic revival, did not win.

– Paul E. Richardson