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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 5, No. 7, 01-01-11Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 5, No. 7, 11 January 2001CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTER REFUTES ARRESTED BUSINESSMAN'S CLAIMSSerzh Sarkisian told Noyan Tapan on 10 January that detained businessman Arkadii Vartanian's allegations that Armenia is prepared to cede its southern district of Meghri as part of a territorial exchange to resolve the Karabakh conflict are "ridiculous." Vartanian had made those allegations in an open letter to President Robert Kocharian which his wife Elena made public earlier this week (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 January 2001). Specifically, Vartanian claimed that a conversation he held with Sarkisian last spring had convinced him that the Armenian leadership is prepared to cede Meghri. Sarkisian admitted that he met with Vartanian last fall at the request of presidential advisor Razmik Davoyan, but denied that Meghri was discussed during that meeting. LF[02] YEREVAN MAYOR RESIGNS ON ARMENIAN PRESIDENT'S ORDERSAlbert Bazeyan submitted his resignation on 10 January following an unscheduled meeting during which President Robert Kocharian criticized his performance during his 18 month tenure as mayor of Yerevan, RFE/RL's bureau in the Armenian capital reported. Kocharian had criticized the municipal authorities last November. Bazeyan was one of the last remaining representatives in the upper echelons of the country's leadership of the once-powerful Yerkrapah group created by deceased Premier Vazgen Sargsian. Observers in Yerevan anticipate that former parliament speaker Khosrov Harutiunian will be named to succeed Bazeyan as mayor. LF[03] RUSSIAN PRESIDENT ENDS VISIT TO AZERBAIJANAddressing the Azerbaijani parliament on 10 January, President Vladimir Putin expressed confidence that the ongoing dialogue between Azerbaijani President Heidar Aliev and his Armenian counterpart will result in a compromise solution to the Karabakh conflict that will be "advantageous to both parties," AP reported. Putin also noted "progress" in bilateral military cooperation, which he predicted will be intensified. But he said that cooperation will not be directed against any third party, according to ANS as cited by Groong. Putin also met on 10 January with Azerbaijan's Islamic leader Sheikh Allakh-shukur Pashazade. And before leaving Baku, Putin presented to President Aliev the latter's certificate of graduation in May 1949 from the Ministry of State Security higher school in Leningrad, ITAR-TASS reported. It is the first time that the date of Aliev's KGB training has been publicized; his official biography makes no mention of his study at that institute, claiming instead that in 1949-1950 he was a student at Baku State University. LF[04] ARMENIAN, GEORGIAN OFFICIALS COMMENT ON PUTIN'S BAKU VISITArmenian Defense Minister Sarkisian told journalists in Yerevan on 10 January that the apparent rapprochement between Russia and Azerbaijan will not negatively impact on Russian-Armenian relations, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. He pointed out that those relations are based on numerous bilateral treaties, and will remain on the "highest possible level." Consequently, he concluded, "there are no grounds for panic and far- reaching conclusions." Sargsian argued the "normalization" of relations between Moscow and Baku will, on the contrary, contribute to a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as "the Azeris could gain a certain confidence in the Russians." In Tbilisi, however, parliament majority faction leader Giorgi Baramidze interpreted Putin's stated intention to expand military cooperation with Azerbaijan as an attempt to undermine Georgian-Azerbaijani relations," Caucasus Press reported on 11 January. LF[05] RUSSIAN OFFICIAL SETS CONDITIONS FOR LIFTING OF VISA REQUIREMENT FOR GEORGIANSRussian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Yakovenko said in an interview published in "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 10 January that Russia is prepared to seek "mutually acceptable" terms for lifting the mutual visa requirement for Russian and Georgian citizens. He said Moscow insists that Georgia consent to "effective cooperation" with Russia to eliminate Chechen "terrorists" on Georgian territory. Yakovenko also criticized what he termed the ineffectiveness of the OSCE observers deployed along the Georgian-Chechen border. He said that ineffectiveness reflects badly on the OSCE's prestige. LF[06] GEORGIAN SECURITY MINISTRY DENIES CHECHEN MILITANTS CONCENTRATED IN PANKISI GORGEThe Georgian National Security Ministry denied on 11 January that a large number of Chechen fighters have recently moved to the Pankisi gorge in north-eastern Georgia and that they pose a threat to Georgia's territorial integrity, Caucasus Press reported. Vakhtang Shamiladze, chairman of the Georgian parliament's sub-committee for relations with peoples of the Caucasus, had made that claim to journalists the previous day. Shamiladze said the Georgian "power ministries" should issue an ultimatum to the Chechens to leave Georgian territory, and expel them by force if they fail to comply. LF[07] LAUNCH OF OIL PIPELINE IN KAZAKHSTAN TO BE DELAYEDA senior official of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium told Interfax and "Izvestiya" this week that the launch of the Tengiz-Novorossiisk export pipeline for Kazakhstan's oil will be delayed from 1 January 2001 to 1 March 2001 to allow for additional testing of the Kazakh sector between Atyrau and Zaburunya and the replacement of faulty valves. In addition, the Kazakh state oil company KazakhOil must instal a meter to calculate the volume of oil that enters Russia from Kazakhstan. Construction of the pipeline, which will have an initial annual throughput capacity of 28.2 million tons, was finished in November 2000. It will take 105 days to fill the pipeline with oil, which means the first crude is likely to reach Novorossiisk in June. LF[08] KUWAIT TO FUND HIGHWAY IN TAJIKISTANTajikistan's Transport Minister Abdujalol Salimov and the deputy director- general of the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, Hesham al-Wekayam, signed an agreement in Dushanbe on 10 January whereby the fund will provide a $16.25 million loan to finance the construction of a 38-kilometer stretch of the Kulyab-Kalaikhumb-Khorog highway that connects Khatlon Oblast with the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast, Interfax and Asia Plus-Blitz reported. President Imomali Rakhmonov met with al-Wekayam the same day to express his thanks. Rakhmonov also solicited Kuwait's support for a donor conference for economic rehabilitation in Tajikistan tentatively scheduled for October 2001. LF[09] TAJIKISTAN, UZBEKISTAN SEARCH FOR UZBEK ISLAMISTSA Tajik government commission that includes former field commander, now Minister of Emergency Situations Mirzo Zieev has been searching the eastern Pamir foothills in Tajikistan for a week in reponse to foreign media reports that militants from the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan including the movement's leader Djuma Namangani are ensconced in the region, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" reported on 10 January. Meanwhile Interior Ministry forces in Uzbekistan's Tashkent Oblast, which borders on Tajikistan, have launched an anti-terror operation aimed at intercepting Islamic militants and drug-smugglers, Interfax reported the same day. LF[10] TURKMENISTAN DOUBLES GAS PRODUCTIONGas production in Turkmenistan last year totalled 47 billion cubic meters, which is over double the 22.8 billion cubic meters produced in 1999, Interfax reported on 10 January citing the turkmenistan.ru website. Gas exports to the CIS in 2000 totalled 30 billion cubic meters, compared with 8.5 billion tons the previous year. Ashgabat hopes to increase output this year to 70 billion tons. LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[11] BOSNIAN SERBS' PLAVSIC PLEADS 'NOT GUILTY' IN THE HAGUEFormer Republika Srpska President Biljana Plavsic told the war crimes tribunal on 11 January that she "pleads 'not guilty' to all counts" in the nine-charge indictment against her, Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline, " 10 January 2001). The indictment notes that Plavsic had "knowledge of such crimes, [but] instead condoned and publicly congratulated the forces that had taken part." The text added that she did nothing to punish war criminals when she was president of the Bosnian Serb entity from 1996 until 1998. The court plans to try her in May together with fellow former Bosnian Serb leader, Momcilo Krajisnik. PM[12] NEW QUARTERS FOR PLAVSIC?After Plavsic entered her plea in The Hague on 11 January, Krstan Simic, who is her lawyer, spoke to court officials about a transfer for her from the tribunal's detention facility, where she is the only woman. Chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said that her office is aware of the problem and is working on a solution, Reuters reported. Del Ponte also told reporters that there was no plea-bargaining between the tribunal and Plavsic, whose surrender was completely voluntary (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 January 2001). The prosecutor stressed that the court does not engage in such deals. PM[13] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA SEEKS BAIL FOR PLAVSICSpeaking in Banja Luka on 10 January, outgoing Prime Minister Milorad Dodik said that the government will soon offer unspecified "guarantees" to the tribunal so that Plavsic can be freed until her trial begins, Reuters reported. Elsewhere, her Serbian People's Alliance (SNS) issued a statement saying that Plavsic will "defend the dignity of the Serbian people" and prove the charges false before the tribunal. SNS deputy leader Branislav Lolic said that Plavsic will argue that there was a "civil war in the Republika Srpska..., [that] there was no Serbian aggression, and that the Serbian people [as a whole] cannot be tried" for war crimes. Banja Luka's "Nezavisne novine" on 11 January quoted Simic as saying that his client maintains a more dignified appearance than the other inmates of the detention center. PM[14] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT OFFERS PROPOSAL TO MONTENEGROOn 10 January in Belgrade, Vojislav Kostunica made public his draft for the redefinition of federal relations between Serbia and Montenegro, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 January 2001). The key difference between his proposal and that of the Montenegrin government is that Kostunica envisions the federation as the primary international legal subject, whereas Podgorica wants Serbia and Montenegro to both obtain international recognition and then renegotiate the terms of their relationship. Kostunica argued that "historical and contemporary reasons" for preserving the federation far outweigh those for breaking it up. The number of federal ministries would be reduced from 14 to five, but they would retain control over several important activities. Those include foreign policy, defense, monetary and economic policy, basic social services, and transportation and communications. PM[15] MONTENEGRIN PARTIES REACT TO BELGRADE'S PROPOSALMiodrag Vukovic, who is a leader of the governing Democratic Party of Socialists, told RFE/RL's South Slavic Service in Podgorica on 10 January that his party will take an official stand on Kostunica's text once the Serbian authorities have formally endorsed it. A spokesman for the Liberal Alliance said that his party is afraid that there will be unspecified "international pressure" on Montenegro to accept Kostunica's proposal. Dragisa Burzan of the Social Democrats dubbed the Belgrade document a "greater Serbian project" and a "maneuver." A spokesman for the People's Party, however, hailed the proposal, saying that it was what his party expected. As of 2400 hours on 10 January, the pro-Belgrade Socialist People's Party had not taken an official stand on the proposal. PM[16] MONTENEGRIN LEADER TO ZAGREBPresident Milo Djukanovic will arrive in Zagreb on 14 January for medical treatment related to his automobile accident last fall, "Novi List" reported on 11 January (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 October 2000). It is not clear whether he will meet with his Croatian counterpart Stipe Mesic during the course of his private visit. PM[17] MONTENEGRIN-ALBANIAN AGREEMENT IMMINENTMontenegrin Trade Minister Ramo Bralic led a delegation to Tirana for a one- day visit, "Vijesti" reported on 11 January. He and his Albanian hosts reviewed several projects planned in conjunction with the EU's Stability Pact. A ministry spokesman said that Podgorica and Tirana are planning to set up joint teams to deal with specific areas of cooperation, such as ecology, tourism, transportation, water, and electricity (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 5 December 2000). The delegations also discussed concluding a free trade agreement in conjunction with the Stability Pact, as well as building a road linking Elbasan and Podgorica. The two governments will soon sign an agreement on local border traffic and bilateral trade. PM[18] SERBIAN RE-VOTE REAFFIRMS DOS LANDSLIDEThe 23 December 2000 Serbian parliamentary elections were repeated in 19 out of 8,000 precincts on 10 January (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 3 January 2001). Preliminary results suggest a result very close to that of the national one in the first round, Beta news agency reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 December 2000). The governing Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) coalition took about 68 percent, with 13 percent going to former President Slobodan Milosevic's Socialists. The Radicals took 7.5 percent, while 6 percent went to the extremist Party of Serbian Unity. Turnout was about 23 percent. PM[19] NEW SERBIAN GOVERNMENT BY END OF MONTH?DOS leader Momcilo Perisic told "Danas" of 11 January that he hopes that a new government can be in place by 31 January (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 January 2001). The former general is tipped to be deputy prime minister with responsibilities for security issues. PM[20] KOUCHNER BIDS KOSOVA FAREWELLBernard Kouchner, who was the first full-time head of the UN's civilian administration in Kosova, bid what AP called an "emotional farewell" to the province in Prishtina on 10 January. He called on all people of Kosova to take responsibility for their future and, first and foremost, to "stop the killings." He stressed that "real peace takes time" and that a "better, more tolerant society" must be built. Kouchner specifically expressed regret that his administration was not able to do more to improve the safety of "Serbs and other minorities." PM[21] BOSNIAN PRIME MINISTER LEAVES FOR POWER JOBEdhem Bicakcic resigned as prime minister of the mainly Muslim and Croatian federation on 10 January, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. The next day, he started his new job at the state-owned power monopoly company, Elektroprivreda BiH. PM[22] ROMANIAN PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE TO DISMISS CIVIL SERVANTSPresidential office spokeswoman Corina Cretu on 10 January said the cabinet has amended by an emergency ordinance the Law on Civil Service and its provisions no longer apply to employees of the presidential office, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Cretu also described as "immoral" the protest by some 40 presidential office staff, who earlier protested at having been made "redundant" and "shifted from office to office, with no assignment" by the new Ion Iliescu administration. Cretu said staff hired by the administration of previous President Emil Constantinescu cannot be expected to work for an administration with "a different ideology." The Law on the Civil Service does not allow the firing of civil servants for political reasons. MS[23] ROMANIAN 'PRODIGAL SON' TO RETURN HOME?Nicolae Popa, deputy chairman of the Alliance for Romania Party (APR), said on 10 January his formation is engaged in negotiations with the ruling Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) on joining the Democratic Social Pole (PDS). The pole was set up ahead of last year's elections and includes the PDSR, the Social Democratic Party, and the Romanian Humanist Party. Popa said the APR wants to join the pole "as an independent formation" and to continue safeguarding its own separate structures, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. He said he has received "positive signals" from the PDSR. The APR, which is headed by Teodor Melescanu, split from the PDSR in June 1997. The party failed to pass the 5 percent electoral hurdle in the 2000 elections. MS[24] ROMANIAN ECONOMY STILL IN CRISIS, BUT IMPROVINGThe annual inflation rate in 2000 has been 40.7 percent, according to data released on 10 January by the National Institute for Statistics and Economics. The industrial growth rate, calculated from January to November, was 2.7 percent. Exports were 23.4 percent up on 1999, but imports also grew by 23.5 percent. Since most of the exports are of low-priced light industry products and most imports of expensive technological wares, the country's negative balance of trade between January and November continued to grow and has now reached a record $1.98 billion, Mediafax reported. MS[25] MOLDOVAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN ROMANIAVisiting Moldovan Foreign Minister Nicolae Cernomaz on 10 January met with President Iliescu, Prime Minister Adrian Nastase and with his Romanian counterpart Mircea Geoana, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. They discussed ways to improve bilateral commercial relations; aid to Moldova and ways to gradually reduce Chisinau's debt to Bucharest; the possibility of Romanian investments in the Moldovan privatization process; securing their common border in line with EU requirements; possible Romanian initiatives to bring about the liberation of Ilie Ilascu from his Tiraspol imprisonment; and the pending ratification of the basic treaty initialed in April 2000 by the two countries' former foreign ministries. On the last issue, Geoana and Cernomaz agreed to have expert teams meet "after the clarification of the political situation in Moldova", where elections are due next month. They said there were no "fundamental" disagreements on the ratification but, as Cernomaz put it "even the Bible can have different interpretations." MS[26] FORMER MOLDOVAN PREMIER TO HEAD DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S ELECTORAL LISTSDemocratic Party leader Dumitru Diacov on 10 January told journalists that his formation will run alone in the February parliamentary elections and that the Democrat's list will be headed by former Prime Minister Ion Sturza, Infotag reported. Diacov said his own name will be "somewhere in the middle" of the list and will be preceded by that of a number of other experts, who, like Sturza, have a solid economic background and have served in his cabinet. Diacov said he believes the party will secure the second- largest representation in the parliament after the communists. The extra- parliamentary National Liberal Party has also announced it will run alone. MS[27] GAGAUZ-YERI THREATENS TO BOYCOTT ELECTIONSThe Popular Assembly of the Gagauz-Yeri autonomous region approved a resolution demanding that the Moldovan authorities amend the electoral law to secure seats in the parliament for representatives of the region, Infotag reported on 10 January. The assembly said that if the amendment is not approved, it "reserves the right to call on the Gagauz population to boycott the election." The Gagauz authorities want 15 seats in the legislature to be guaranteed for their representatives. Diacov said in response that the Gagauz demand is "unacceptable and uncivilized" and that the parliament, of which he is speaker, cannot examine it so soon before the ballot is scheduled to take place, Flux reported. MS[28] BULGARIAN PROSECUTORS PROBE INTO COMMUNIST ANTI-TURKISH PERSECUTIONSRFE/RL journalist Tatiyana Vaksberg on 9 January presented on Bulgarian television documents linking Georgi Atanasov, the last communist premier, to the persecution of ethnic Turks under the Todor Zhivkov regime. Vaksberg, who works for the Sofia bureau, discovered the documents in the Communist Party archives. They show that Atanasov, at that time a secretary of the Central Committee, ordered the assimilation drive against the Turkish minority in northern Bulgaria in 1985. Bulgarian prosecutors said they are now reopening the investigation of that campaign, which they closed in 1999 for lack of clear documentary evidence. Vaksberg also discovered documents linking Zhivkov himself and former Interior Minister Petar Stoyanov to the campaign, but the prosecutors said they will not probe into these cases, since Zhivkov and Stoyanov are both dead (see also "RFE/RL Newsline", 8 January 2001). MS[29] BULGARIA TO CONSOLIDATE ARABLE LANDDeputy Agriculture Minister Georgi Kirilov told journalists on 10 January that his ministry is submitting to the parliament a Land Consolidation Bill aimed at creating incentives to set up larger and more competitive farms, Reuters reported. "By carrying out land restitution in the past few years, we pushed our farming decades back, because plots became rather fragmented, " Kirilov said. Since 1992, Bulgaria has returned to pre-communist owners some 5.7 million hectares of arable land seized during the forced collectivization of the 1950s. Some 35 percent of the restituted land barely yields enough to feed its owners and their livestock, Agriculture Ministry officials cited by Reuters said. Also on 10 January, Agriculture Minister Ventislav Varbanov said reports of an expected wheat shortage are untrue and the country has enough in its stock to meet needs without imports. MS[C] END NOTE[30] THE INCUMBENCY ADVANTAGEBy Julie A. CorwinLast year, almost half of Russia's 89 federation subjects conducted elections for their regional leaders. At first glance, it appears that candidates supported by the Communist party performed best. But a closer review of the results of 2000 gubernatorial elections shows that incumbency bestows the best advantages, while party identification and/or support means little. The results also demonstrate that the Kremlin's ability to influence regional voters' gubernatorial selections is severely limited. Of the 44 regional elections, 29 incumbents were re-elected (see table in "RFE/RL Russian Federation Report," 3 January 2000). And, in two additional regions, Krasnodar Krai and Kaluga Oblast, the "successor" tapped by the governor, who chose not to seek re-election, also won. In almost every case where incumbent governors managed to move up election dates and therefore give their competition less time to prepare, the incumbent won. For example, the elections held on 26 March to coincide with Russian presidential elections resulted in a clean sweep--seven victories for seven incumbents. Both Communist Party leader Gennadii Zyuganov and Unity leader Sergei Shoigu have hailed the results of the 2000 gubernatorial elections as mandates for their parties. At the end of last month, Shoigu was so pleased about the outcome of regional elections that he boasted that Russia has a new "belt" -- a "Unity belt" instead of a red belt, while Zyuganov claimed that the results of elections held on 19 December, in particular, represented a "notable success" for the Communist party. The Communists managed to hold on to many regions. Twelve communist incumbents were re-elected; only three incumbents were defeated, former Novosibirsk Governor Vitalii Mukha, former Voronezh Governor Ivan Shabanov, and former Ulyanovsk Governor Yurii Goryachev. However, in Ulyanovsk, the Communist Party withdrew its support for the incumbent Yurii Goryachev in favor of General Vladimir Shamanov, who won. Communists also won in two additional regions, Ivanovo and Kamchatka Oblasts, unseating incumbents from other parties. But the ties of the winning Communist candidates to their party in many cases are quite loose. Most winning candidates, not just Communist victors, emphasized their allegiance to the practices and person of President Vladimir Putin. In Kamchatka Oblast, for example, Mashkovtsev, a Communist Party obkom secretary, presented himself during his campaign as a comrade- in-arms of President Putin and his presidential envoys, pledging to rid the region of corrupt bureaucrats. At the same time, incumbent Communist governors de-emphasized their party affiliation, stressing instead their support for and from President Putin and the stability that their re- election would ensure. Unity's performance in the 2000 elections demonstrates even more strongly the weakness of Russia's political parties. On the one hand, almost a dozen candidates backed by Unity were elected. On the other hand, three incumbents supported by Unity were unseated, while two more, former Chukotka Governor Aleksandr Nazarov and former Kursk Governor Rutskoi, either withdrew or were withdrawn from the race just before their elections were held. In a number of regions, the local branch of Unity either backed or tried to back a candidate different from that supported by Unity's Moscow-based organization. Also in a number of regions, the local Unity branch backed the same candidate as the Communist party. Of course, from its very beginning Unity's leaders adopted a more pragmatic than ideological posture. More recently, at its second congress last October, Unity declared itself "the party of presidential authority." But for a "presidential" party, Unity appears surprisingly clueless about who the president and/or his administration, favors in a given region. In Udmurtiya, for example, the local Unity branch favored a challenger to the incumbent Nikolai Volkov, while Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov and presidential envoy to the Volga federal district Sergei Kirienko both visited the republic shortly before the elections, boosting Volkov's chances. A local Unity branch also supported former Kursk Governor Rutskoi, despite numerous reports that the presidential administration would favor almost anyone but Rutskoi. Unity members weren't the only election-watchers guessing about the presidential administration's preferences in a variety of regional races. After President Putin openly backed Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matvienko in her failed effort to unseat St. Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev, the Kremlin wisely chose not publicize its preferences henceforth, adopting an official position of neutrality towards all regional elections. Nevertheless, Moscow-based newspapers carried a variety of reports about the Kremlin's plans in specific regions. "Novaya gazeta" even claimed to have a document detailing a number of specific scenarios for several regions. During the 2000 elections, only seven of the candidates that the Kremlin supported were victorious, while 13 other candidates failed. Of the seven victors, two were incumbents in relatively successful regions; three others were challengers in regions with unpopular governors with administrations dogged by charges of corruption, such as Kaliningrad and Voronezh Oblasts and Marii El Republic. And the victor in Marii El, Leonid Markelov, was only supported by the Kremlin in the election's second round. Another candidate, Colonel General Vladimir Ruzlyaev, had the Kremlin's initial backing. Despite reports that the Kremlin was seeking to install former military or intelligence officers as the heads of regions, only four were actually elected. And one of those, Moscow Governor Boris Gromov, was not supported by the presidential administration. The presidential adminstration's apparent inability to decisively influence the outcome of regional elections makes it even easier to understand why President Putin made reform of how the federation is administered one of his first acts after his election. Since the Kremlin is likely to be stuck with whomever voters select as their regional counterparts, the best way to implement their own agenda may be to weaken the governor's office itself. 11-01-01 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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