Putin challenger is trailing despite success in reforms
SAMARA, Russia, Spring 2000-- This industrial region on the Volga River has a lot that's hard to find in Russia nowadays: relatively high wages, optimistic foreign investors, prompt payments of pensions and salaries - even regular folks who say they like what they've seen of the free market.
So when the region's governor, Konstantin Titov, decided to run for president, his campaign pitch was simple: Look at Samara. In this lopsided race against Boris Yeltsin's handpicked successor, Acting President Vladimir V. Putin, Titov and the 10 other candidates have never expected victory. Titov's goal was to promote his mix of economic reforms and social welfare as the solution to Russia's ills - and himself as the next leader of Russia's pro-capitalism, pro-civil liberties democrats.
One of Putin's boldest critics, Titov has spoken out against the war in Chechnya and called Putin a threat to democracy, warning in one ad, "These presidential elections could be the last!"
But with just one day to go before the elections, Titov, 55, has been unable to budge his poll rating above 1 percent. His most powerful allies, Moscow politicians and the heads of Samara industries, have endorsed Putin. Samara's elite, eager to stay on Putin's good side, already are searching for a candidate to run against Titov for the governor's post in December.
What began as a bid to build his power base has turned into a race for survival, said Dmitri Bodovsky of the Carnegie Endowment's Moscow Center, a political think tank. Without a strong showing, Titov may be vulnerable to a backlash from Putin, who has promised to strengthen the Kremlin's authority by reducing the governors' power.
A note of desperation crept into the campaign last Sunday in Samara. As retirees filed into a Titov rally, a young campaigner with a yellow "Danger!" sign warned that if they didn't vote for Titov in "huge" numbers, Putin would probably replace him with a "Kremlin marionette" who might not pay pensions on time.
Even the governor's fans may not be much help. Many in Samara agree with Vladimir Molyazin, a truck driver who vowed not to vote for Titov for president: "Never! Let him stay here and be governor!"
Still, Titov refuses to quit. That has irritated supporters of another democrat, Grigory Yavlinsky, who, polls suggest, will capture about 5 percent of the vote.
Titov's campaign has deepened a rift among economic liberals over whether to welcome or fear Putin's law-and-order rhetoric. Titov's allies, the Union of Rightist Forces, endorsed Putin this week in a split vote, though Titov helped them win 22 percent of the Samara vote in December's parliamentary vote, more than twice their 8.7 percent share nationwide.
"They don't want to fight for the victory of ideas," Titov told the crowd. He listened to complaints about corruption, dressed in a pinstriped suit and one of his trademark silvery ties.
Oleg Sysuyev, a former Samara mayor, AlphaBank executive, and possible rival for the governor's seat, said Titov has pushed through his ideas "with the most Soviet methods."
The huge rightist victory in December's parliamentary vote was boosted by pro-Titov media and came at the expense of the anti-Semitic opposition figure Albert Makashov, who was taken off the ballot several days before the vote, Bodovsky said.
Still, Samara is relatively pluralistic. It has regular municipal elections; a television station that supports Samara's mayor, a Titov rival; and 3,000 nongovernmental organizations, compared to 300 in neighboring Tatarstan.
Nestle, Pepsi, and Coca-Cola own factories in Samara, which gives tax breaks to investors. Titov has traveled to Boston, Atlanta, and China to promote Samara, and hired five young English speakers to help investors navigate the region
Of Russia's 89 regions, Samara, with just 3.3 million people, ranks third in direct foreign investment, fourth in contributions to Russia's budget, and fifth in a UN rating of per capita income, life expectancy, and education.
Sysuyev said that's because the area is an industrial and agricultural hub at a crossroads of river and railway. Still, he credits Titov with "understanding economics."
During the August 1998 financial crisis, when neighboring regions such as Ulyanovsk forbade food shipments from their borders, Titov instead urged local producers to jump in and replace unaffordable foreign goods.
Salesman Nikolai Lebedev, 40, said he sees the difference while traveling. "In Ulyanovsk, entrepreneurialism isn't allowed. Here, it's not only allowed, it's encouraged . . .
"Government is best when you don't notice it," he added. "I don't notice Titov. He doesn't bother me."
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