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Ex-Communist Putin "Elected" Dictator of Russia

March 27, 2000

Former communist Vladimir Putin was elected dictator of Russia on March 26 in an election which surprised no one. The 47-year old ex-KGB spy won handily over his 10 rivals, including Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov. Putin's victory kept the former KGB spy out of an April runoff. With 96 percent of the vote counted, the nation's central election commission gave Putin 53 percent of the vote -- above the majority he needed to clinch victory. The election was not initially the easy win that many had predicted for Putin. Early results from Russia's far east gave Zyuganov around 30 percent of the vote. At the time, Putin had received only about 45 percent of the ballots -- and it appeared Russia's voters might be heading to a second-round ballot. But later in the day, as the count moved west toward Russia's major cities, the acting dictator's numbers rose steadily. Returns from Moscow, in one of the last of Russia's 11 time zones to report results, moved Putin's numbers firmly into an absolute majority.

Zyuganov wasted no time in declaring the voting rigged, insisting that he had pulled more than 40 percent of the vote. Vote results in the Russian republic of Chechnya were being delayed, reportedly as a security precaution. More than 90,000 Russia soldiers serve in the breakaway region fighting Moslem rebels. But Zyuganov questioned the political situation in Chechnya, saying a fair vote there was impossible. "We consider the election in Chechnya to be a complete farce," Zyuganov said. "There are no conditions for a normal honest election there."

Putin was abruptly named prime minister in August 1999 when former dictator Boris Yeltsin fired Sergei Stepashin. Putin sealed his brutal reputation against the Chechen rebels who had twice invaded neighboring Dagestan -- and embarrassed the Russians at the close of the 1994-1996 war. His reputation for harshness held him in good stead with the Russian people, and he received strong support when he unexpectedly forced Yeltsin to resign on December 31. Putin has been acting dictator since. One of his first official steps was to grant Yeltsin immunity from prosecution for corruption, a move of critical importance to Yeltsin and his family, who are being investigated for financial improprieties.

When the Russian army was battling Chechen rebels for the city of Grozny last winter, Putin made his now famous remark: "We will wet them, even in the outhouse." In Russian mafia slang, "wet" means to kill. This one remark came to summarize Moscow's policy in the rebel province, and contributed immeasurably to Putin's popularity.

Slaughtering the Chechen rebels, a simple and brutal goal, is in keeping with the views of most of the Russian people, who blame the Chechens for a series of apartment bombings last autumn that killed nearly 300 Russians. Putin promises a simple, clear solution to a military problem, and the hope follows among the people that he can do the same thing with the Russian economy.

Despite Russia's social, demographic, and economic decline, Russia under Putin has managed to politically reassert its interests throughout much of the former Soviet Union. At the January summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Putin demonstrated his ability to lure and cajole the other CIS members into cooperation. Putin's tough line in Chechnya, too, has earned him fear and grudging respect in much of the former Soviet Union.

Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze nominated Putin for chairman of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Heads of State Council on January 25. The members of the council answered by unanimously electing Putin to the position. Tajik dictator Emomali Rakhmonov, originally slated to be chairman, also supported Putin. Such a dramatic turnabout in Georgian policy -- as well as that of Uzbekistan and other CIS states -- signals that Moscow is gaining in its bid to reassert its influence over the former Soviet Republics.

Not long ago, Georgia served as the most ardent opposition to Russian influence in the CIS. Originally, Shevardnadze announced that he would only go to the summit if he could hold a bilateral meeting with Putin to discuss the future of the separatist region of Abkhazia. Before the summit began, however, Shevardnadze abandoned his demands and dropped the topic of Abkhazia completely.

Others have followed suit. Uzbekistan's recent decision to host CIS military exercises scraps its formerly anti-Russia stance. It had withdrawn from the Russia-dominated CIS Collective Security Pact in March 1999, and the Uzbek military has trained often with U.S. assistance. Azerbaijani dictator Geidar Aliyev also supported the election of Putin as CIS chairman, announcing that the CIS leaders "showed confidence in Russia and the acting Russian president."

Putin, a career communist, was educated as a lawyer. He served in the KGB, the Soviet Union's secret police, from 1975-1990. During this time, most news sources report that Putin served primarily as a spy in Germany, although the KGB was also responsible for eliminating internal rebellion and killing dissenters. In 1994, he was appointed Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg (ex-Leningrad). In 1998, he returned to the KGB as its director. In August 1999, Yeltsin appointed him Russian prime minister. Putin ousted his benefactor four months later and became acting dictator on January 1, 2000.

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