DATE=8/21/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA POL (L-O)
NUMBER=2-252987
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: In Russia, Pro-Kremlin political forces have 
given up attempts to form an alliance to challenge
a powerful opposition bloc led by two of the country's 
most popular politicians. V-O-A's Peter Heinlein in 
Moscow reports the opposition bloc is fast gaining 
strength as the Kremlin struggles to find a strategy 
for upcoming elections. 

TEXT: It was a bad day for President Boris Yeltsin's 
political strategists. Sergei Stepashin, whom Mr. 
Yeltsin fired as prime minister earlier this month, 
flatly rejected an overture from two other former 
premiers to create a pro-Kremlin alliance for 
December's parliamentary elections.

Insiders say the other two, Viktor Chernomyrdin and 
Sergei Kiriyenko, had offered Mr. Stepashin the 
leadership of the alliance in a frantic attempt to 
build a challenge to the opposition alliance led by 
another former prime minister, Yevgeny Primakov, along 
with Moscow's powerful Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.

In rejecting the offer, Mr. Stepashin said "It is 
impossible to unite people who do not fit together." 
He complained that his would-be partners were paying 
too much attention to what places they would get on 
candidate lists, and not enough to the goals they were 
trying to achieve.

The absence of Mr. Stepashin leaves pro-Kremlin forces 
in disarray. No other potential leader has anywhere 
near his standing in the polls. 

President Yeltsin this month anointed his latest prime 
minister, Vladimir Putin, as his chosen successor. But 
Mr. Putin lacks charisma and is a political unknown.

By contrast, the opposition coalition appears set to 
mount a strong bid to capture a majority of seats in 
the lower house of parliament. That would set the 
stage for one of the two leaders to make a run for the 
presidency next year.

At a convention of his Fatherland movement Saturday, 
Mayor Luzhkov aimed a volley of attacks directly at 
President Yeltsin. In a preview of the harsh campaign 
rhetoric to come, Mr. Luzhkov said the Yeltsin team 
had been turned into a regime which people cannot 
understand and which threatens the country."

He told a gathering of hundreds of supporters "Russia 
is being robbed in a way unprecedented in its cynicism 
and permissiveness." He also accused the Kremlin of 
spending millions of dollars on what he called "an 
aggressive information war" against the Fatherland 
movement.

Mayor Luzhkov and his alliance partner, Mr. Primakov, 
are currently rated Russia's two most popular 
prospective presidential contenders, with Mr. Primakov 
far ahead. 

The mayor has been quoted as saying that, if the anti-
Kremlin coalition does well in the parliamentary 
elections, he would be willing to step aside and 
support the older and more experienced Mr. Primakov, 
who at the age of 69 is one year older than President 
Yeltsin. (SIGNED)

NEB/PFH/DW/JO



21-Aug-1999 12:43 PM EDT (21-Aug-1999 1643 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.