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Yeltsin the best option for Russia, U.S.
The eve of tomorrow's presidential election in Russia is a good time to reflect on just how far Russia has come since the fall of communism in the Soviet Union in 1991 and how Boris Yeltsin has played an instrumental role in this process to inspire democracy and market reform m Russia.
Turning around a formerly communist country dependent on Five Year Plans, state-owned industry, guaranteed job security for life and imbedded bureaucratic government officials hasn't been easy.
But despite the problems, the silver lining inside the dark cloud has already emerged. Inflation declined steadily since early 1995 and reached the all-time low of 2.3 percent this past April.
The production decline has bottomed out and gross domestic product is expected to increase slowly, but steadily, over the next five years. The growth of a new Russian middle class with consumer purchasing power is a welcome relief. The privatization of industry and growth of new institutions - including tax, legal. law enforcement stork market and securities - has been unprecedented.
The helmsman behind these hard-won gains is none other than Boris Yeltsin. While the Western media - cynics - and his own internal advisors often portray him as a drunkard on his deathbed and magnify every minor faux paus, Russia's president goes about his daily life with determined effort to transform the country and people he loves so much. His leadership abilities coupled with his magnetic force of personality, have been the key driving force holding together the Russian Federation.
In the present mix of presidential contenders, there is no one who can hold a candle next to him. Many Westerners predict a communist win by Gennady Zyuganov. But he is a hark-back to the failed system of communism. Voters will not ultimately cast their vote with a retrograde, untested commodity who has already demonstrated he is untrustworthy, unreliable and inexperienced in matters of state. Others consider Vladimir Zhirinovsky a credible option. But he represents an extreme nationalism detrimental to Russia and has a weak base of voter support. He is, by the way, presently under investigation for illegal arms trafficking in nuclear material sales and money laundering by the Italian government. Zhirinovsky has also made a laughing stock of himself on numerous occasions including the time he slugged a female Duma member, recorded by television cameras and broadcast internationally.
Gen. Aleksandr Lebed, Grigory Yavlinsky and Svyatoslav Fyodorov are also candidates. All are uniquely talented individuals with slender constituencies of scattered support, but they just don't qualify as presidential material - none possesses the character, tenacity, stamina or broad-vote appeal demanded to fill the presidential post.
Yeltsin will likely carry the 50 percent required vote during the second round (likely to be held July 7 or thereabouts) - the first round June 16 likely won't produce a majority candidate but will yield Yeltsin and Zyuganov as front-runners.
It's undeniable that American relations with Russia under Yeltsin have been stable and steady under the Clinton administration. A series of diplomatic summits has guaranteed regular high-level communications that have encouraged cooperation and averted any major misunderstandings, including over Russian protectionist impulses, such as the recent "chicken war," when American poultry imports were threatened by high tariffs. Russia has integrated consistently into international political and economic institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and Council of Europe, and hopes for admission into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Trade Organization and Paris Club.
It is in our interest to see a continuation of good relations under a second Yeltsin administration. We can witness the flowering of our many efforts over the past five years to help Russia get back up on its feet as a good friend and partner of the U.S.
Deborah Anne Palmieri
The Denver Post, Saturday, June 15, 1996.
Copyright 1999 The Russian-American Chamber of Commerce®
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