DATE=3/20/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / SIBERIA / ELECTION - PART ONE
NUMBER=5-45683
BYLINE=EVE CONANT
DATELINE=KEMEROVO, SIBERIA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
/// ED'S: THE FIRST OF THREE REPORTS FROM SIBERIA
BEFORE RUSSIA'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SUNDAY, MARCH
26TH ///
INTRO: With a popularity rating of nearly 50-percent,
Russia's acting President Vladimir Putin is expected
to win the country presidential election Sunday, March
26th. But as Correspondent Eve Conant reports from
Kemerovo, in southern Siberia, many voters say they
are not impressed by what they see as the Kremlim's
choice for a new leader.
TEXT:
/// OPT // NATURAL STREET SOUNDS - FADE UNDER ///
/// OPT /// At the foot of the gigantic Lenin statue
that dominates the main square of Kemerovo is a large
banner that reads: Russian presidential elections -
vote on March 26th. ///END OPT ///
Kemerevo is in the heart of southern Siberia, and the
heart of Russia's coal industry. Monuments to miners
killed in accidents are scattered throughout the city,
and it is hard to find anyone here who is not in some
way connected to the coalmines.
The weather is warming after a long Siberian winter,
and female road workers use pickaxes to chip away at
the thick ice embedded on the sidewalk.
/// SOUND OF SMASHING SIDEWALK ICE - FADE UNDER ///
Near the main square is the city's university. Its
dean is Yuri Zakharov, but he is rarely seen at
classes these days because his other job -- running
the campaign headquarters for Vladimir Putin -- is
taking over his life.
/// OPT // ZAKHAROV ACT ONE - IN RUSSIAN - FADE
UNDER TRANSLATION ///
In the last elections I voted for the
Communists, not for Yeltsin. But Yeltsin has
apologized for his mistakes, and I think his
guilt has forced him to choose a strong heir to
fix the problems he created.
/// END ACT // END OPT ///
The elderly professor with his thick glasses can most
often be seen riding around town a gray Volga, wearing
his brown rabbit hat and smoking thin white
cigarettes. Each day, he delivers lectures to
students, workers, and as many locals as he can to
drum up even more support for Mr. Putin.
/// SOUND OF CROWDED HALL - FADE UNDER ///
This day he is preaching to workers at the "Xim-Mash"
(HIM-mash) chemical factory.
/// ZAKHAROV ACT TWO - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER
TRANSLATION ///
There have been a lot of reports swirling around
trying to scare people. That Putin is from the
security services, he will be an authoritarian
ruler. There is also the fear that he is an
unknown. He has just come out from nowhere,
being handed power from the hands of Yeltsin or
big business. He is in a cloud of mystery.
/// END ACT ///
The auditorium is crowed with factory workers in dirty
overalls - their blackened hands holding white
pamphlets about Mr. Putin, their work goggles pulled
up on the tops of their heads as they take a work
break to listen to Mr. Zakharov's speech.
/// ZAKHAROV ACT THREE - IN RUSSIAN - FADE
UNDER TRANSLATION ///
Yes, he was an officer of the K-G-B. For nearly
20-years he engaged in espionage. But he was
not involved with the gulags, or with
eavesdropping on Russian citizens. He is from
the elite.
/// END ACT ///
But the crowd is not impressed. At the far end of the
room, a factory worker stands up and asks Mr. Zakharov
to explain a few finer points of concern.
/// OPT // WORKER ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER ///
He asks if Mr. Putin really was the
administration's top choice or was he the last
choice left to the Kremlin? Another worker
rises to his feet and asks angrily why he and
other workers should bother trusting Mr. Putin
or anyone else. /// END OPT ///
/// WORKER ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER
TRANSLATION ///
Putin is travelling all over Russia telling
pensioners and workers he will give them more
money. Where is he getting this money? The
International Monetary Fund has already given up
on us and all the government can take from us
now are the coats off our backs.
/// END ACT ///
The worker, 41-year-old Gennady Sadovsky, wears a ski
cap to keep warm in the cold auditorium, and since
this is the middle of the day, he is covered with
black smudges from the machinery he has been working
on.
As the crowd breaks up, he explains why he was not
impressed. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a
dirty plastic bag. Inside is his pay slip.
/// SOUND PLASTIC BAG AND WORKER TALKING - FADE ///
He says he works eight-hours a day and earns just more
than 40-dollars a month. He says he will vote for
Grigory Yavlinski, a Moscow liberal many expect will
finish third in the race. He says that at least Mr.
Yavlinski, so far, has stuck to his principles, unlike
any of the rest. He says Mr. Putin is controlled by
big business.
In other parts of the Kemerovo region, many agree that
the Kremlin is a far-away place and changes there are
not likely to affect life in Siberia.
/// REST OPT ///
Prokopievsk is one the region's most economically hard
hit towns -- many of the coal mines have shut down,
unemployment is rampant, and the environment is so
polluted the snow sometimes falls from the sky in
gray-colored flakes. Factory worker Yuri Patrai says
he will vote against Putin.
/// PATRAI ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER ///
He asks - Why are they forcing Putin on us? He says
he is capable of forming his own opinion, and that is
the main reason he will not vote for the acting
president. He says he does not like Mr. Putin's
politics. He says - Putin only made it to a colonel's
rank, he is a nothing.
Only one person in, what even locals describe as their
- dismal town, seems happy. Thirty-year-old Andrei
was just released from prison four-days ago and is
enjoying his first taste of freedom.
/// ANDREI ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER ///
He says - for Putin, even though we were in jail, we
were all for him.
Andrei is not paying attention yet to how his hometown
has fallen apart during his six-year sentence or how
he might find work when so many around him are
unemployed. (SIGNED)
NEB/EC/JWH/RAE
20-Mar-2000 08:45 AM EDT (20-Mar-2000 1345 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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