ELECTION RESULTS AS AT 4 P.M. MARCH 27, 2000
Tribuna, March 28, 2000, p. 1
Vladimir Putin – 52.64 percent
Gennadi Zyuganov – 29.34 percent
Grigori Yavlinsky – 5.84 percent
Aman Tuleev – 3.02 per cent
Vladimir Zhirinovsky – 2.72 percent
Konstantin Titov – 1.5 percent
Ella Pamfilova – 1.02 percent
Stanislav Govorukhin – 0.45 percent
Yuri Skuratov – 0.43 percent
Aleksei Podberezkin – 0.14 percent
Umar Dzhabrailov – 0.08 percent
Against everybody – 1.9 percent.
SHAIMIYEV WELCOMES ELECTION RESULTS
Izvestia, March 28, 2000, p. 2
Tatar President Mintimer Shaimiyev has been quoted as saying on Monday March 27 that he welcomes the outcome of the presidential election. In Tatarstan, more than 80 percent of voters turned up at their respective polling stations and 69 percent of them cast their votes for Vladimir Putin. Shaimiyev himself ascribes this support to Putin’s recent visit to Tatarstan and his appraisal of the positive role of the treaty between Kazan and the federal center.
Shaimiyev hopes that all contradiction between the Russian and Tatar constitutions will be eliminated after thorough consultations.
Shaimiyev: I had a talk with Putin. He asked me to tell the voters that he appreciated their support.
UKRAINE REQUESTS RESTRUCTURING
Izvestia, March 28, 2000, p. 5
The Ukrainian Finance Ministry intends to approach the Parisian Club with the proposal to restructure the payment of a debt of almost $500 million it is due to make in 2000 and 2001, says the Ukrainian News Agency, citing Vitaly Lisovenko, Director of the State Debt Department.
Lisovenko said that the Foreign Ministry has already worked out all the details of the proposal but refuses to elaborate.
DUMA DEPUTIES ELECTED IN THE REGIONS WHERE THE ELECTION ON DECEMBER 19 WAS INVALIDATED
Komsomolskaya Pravda, March 28, 2000, p. 3
Parliamentary election took place in eight regions of the country (where the election of December 19 was not regarded because most people voted against all candidates).
The list of the elected includes ex-mayor of Vladivostok Viktor Cherepkov, Kamchatka businessman Valery Dorogin, TV journalist Alexander Nevzorov (Leningrad region), commander of the Moscow Internal District Arkady Baskayev and Deputy Chairman of the Russian People’s Union Viktor Alksnis (both in the Moscow region), former Duma deputy Yevgeny Zyablitsev and head of the Yekaterinburg Internal Affairs Directorate Nikolai Ovchinnikov (both in the Sverdlovsk region), and Konstantin Sevenard in St. Petersburg.
Sergei Baburin, former deputy chairman of the State Duma, failed to get reelected and lost to Baskayev. The notorious Albert Makashov lost to Ovchinnikov in Yekaterinburg (the former polled only 5 percent).
Only one vacancy is left in the Duma: a deputy from Chechnya. The date of the election there has not yet been fixed.
THE LIST OF CANDIDATES FOR PREMIER
Moskovsky Komsomolets, March 28, 2000, p. 2
The main question of who will be in the new Cabinet remains unanswered. After a meeting with security ministers yesterday, Vladimir Putin instructed his subordinates to “start thinking” about candidates. No names were given.
It is clear that the main intrigue will involve the post of premier. There are at least four candidates for it: Senior Deputy Premier Mikhail Kasianov, Deputy Premier Ilya Klebanov, German Gref (an economist from St. Petersburg), and Aleksei Kudrin of the Finance Ministry.
To tell the truth, the list is somewhat longer than that. On the night following the election Sergei Kirienko of the Union of Right Forces was quoted as saying that the candidacy of more candidates were discussed. They included that of eminent economists Alexander Zhukov and Mikhail Zadornov, and Andrei Illarionov, Director of the Institute of Economic Analysis and former advisor to Viktor Chernomyrdin.
DEPUTY GOVERNOR OF KAMCHATKA ASSASSINATED
Trud, March 28, 2000, p. 1
Aleksei Kotlyar, Deputy Governor of Kamchatka, was assassinated on Monday morning.
Sources in the Far East Regional Directorate for Combating Organized Crime say that some unidentified criminals threw some acid in Kotlyar’s face and hit him several times on the head with a hard object. Kotlyar was rushed to the hospital where he died without regaining consciousness.
This crime incident indicates that some personal motives might have been at play here. Detectives are also investigating Kotlyar’s operations in his former capacity as chairman of the district committee for management of state property and his last post of deputy governor (he was directly involved in the work of the regional committee for management of state property).
Investigation is underway.
CHECHNYA PLEADS FOR PRESIDENTIAL RULE
Rossiiskaya Gazeta, March 28, 2000, p. 1
Yesterday, heads of administrations of the liberated districts of Chechnya appealed to Vladimir Putin and asked for a direct presidential rule in Chechnya. The appeal was adopted at a conference attended by heads of administrations and military commandants. The conference was chaired by Nikolai Koshman, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Russian Government in Chechnya.
VLADIMIR PUTIN WINS THE ELECTION
ORT (Russian Public Television), News program, March 27, 2000, 12:00
Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission Alexander Veshnyakov has released the preliminary results of the presidential election. The figures indicate Vladimir Putin’s victory in the first round.
The following are the results in descending order as at 10:00 A.M.(in percent):
Vladimir Putin – 52.52;
Gennadi Zyuganov – 29.44;
Grigori Yavlinsky – 5.85; and
Aman Tuleev – 3.04.
“Against everybody” – 1.9 per cent.
Over 94 percent of ballots have been processed. This means that no serious changes are expected in the overall picture.
In Chechnya, almost 65 percent of registered voters turned up at their polling stations, but only about 1 percent of the ballot papers have been processed there.
Almost 307,000 Russians abroad participated in the election. Preliminary reports indicate that almost 58 percent of them voted for Putin.
Veshnyakov says that the overall protocols from the federation subjects are supposed to be received by the Central Electoral Commission by April 4. If the timetable is met, official results of the election will be published on April 5, and inauguration of the new president may take place thirty days later.
PUTIN CHAIRS A REGULAR MONDAY SESSION WITH DEPUTY PREMIERS AND SECURITY MINISTERS
ORT (Russian Public Television), News program, March 27, 2000, 12:00
At 10:00 a.m. acting president Vladimir Putin attended the traditional Monday conference with deputy premiers and security ministers where he was updated on the outcome of the election in the country and the latest events in Chechnya.
Putin emphasized that officials who drew up the economic program of the new Cabinet should present all their ideas in the form of documents. The government and the presidential administration will soon have to prepare the president’s address to the Federal Assembly.
NO IMMEDIATE PERSONNEL RESHUFFLE IN THE GOVERNMENT ARE PLANNED
ORT (Russian Public Television), News program, March 27, 2000, 12:00
Senior Deputy Premier Mikhail Kasianov says that the makeup of the Russian Cabinet will remain as it is pending the publication of the final results of the election and inauguration of the new president.
