DATE=12/14/1999 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=RUSSIA / ELECTIONS NUMBER=5-44979 BYLINE=EVE CONANT DATELINE=ST. PETERSBURG CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: Russia's parliamentary elections are only days away and campaigning is in its final stage. Candidates are touching on similar themes -- the need for strong leadership, a cooling of relations with the west, and an easing of painful economic reforms. Correspondent Eve Conant visited Russia's second- largest city -- St. Petersburg, where candidates are trying to win votes among a traditionally liberal- minded populace. TEXT: Colorful political advertisements dot the snowy avenues of St. Petersburg. One party promises a professional army -- a popular move as Russians contemplate just how many of their young men might die in Moscow's Chechnya offensive. Anti-western rhetoric also is a popular topic. Campaign literature for the Russian People's Union includes a drawing of a rat in a tuxedo, carting off Russia's natural resources to the west. Another series of drawings shows a smiling NATO soldier as he views a museum of tattered Russian military uniforms. The slogan reads -- With friends like this, Russia will no longer exist. The leading "Fatherland-All Russia" bloc says it might join with the Communists to present a united front against the Kremlin. Both parties say average Russians have been robbed by their leaders, and call for revising privatization deals of the early 1990's. But what seems to be characterizing these elections, more than anything else, is a desire for order after years of economic decline and chaos. A candidate in the liberal "Right Cause" political movement, Ruslan Linkov, says Russian society is at a crossroads as it enters the next millennium. /// LINKOV ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER /// Mr. Linkov says the Russian people seem willing to accept military methods to solve the country's political problems -- democratically electing military officers to power. He says -- Russia is practically ready to accept a military junta. Such rhetoric is due in large part to a series of apartment bombings that Russian officials blamed on Chechen militants and which gave the Kremlin the support it needed to wage war in Chechnya. One party gaining in the polls is the "Unity" party, backed by Vladimir Putin -- Russia's popular Prime Minister and architect of the military campaign in Chechnya. Unity billboards show party leader Sergey Shoigu sporting his trademark red ski jacket that he wears when sifting through the rubble of bombed apartment buildings, or when talking with Chechen refugees. Nineteen-year old Yulia Ostapenko stands outside a busy St. Petersburg metro station passing out leaflets for Unity. /// OSTAPENKO ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER /// She says Unity seems to have more young people than any other party, adding -- in her words -- I do not want old people to rule anymore. But an elderly communist, Valentina Yozhikova, has different concerns. She says Russia needs a national idea, a philosophy to live by. /// YOZHIKOVA ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER /// She says Russians once -- lived for the idea of communism - that was our goal. But now, she says -- all we care about is getting a morsel of food." The region's governor, Vladimir Yakovlev, a senior official in the "Fatherland-All Russia" movement, says he believes what society needs is tough leadership, not ideas. /// YAKOVLEV ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER /// Governor Yakovlev says that in the early 1990's, Russians liked what he calls -- all the outspoken liberals with their fancy talk of politics and their plans for the future. But he adds -- you see the results. Russia is impoverished. Another strong feature of this parliamentary election campaign has been the intense mudslinging. Governor Yakovlev says his party has slipped in recent polls behind the Kremlin's "Unity" party because of Moscow's concerted effort to discredit him and bribe away leading party members. At the same time the liberal "Yabloko" party accuses the governor of unfairly cracking down on the opposition. As accusations fly, however, average Russians say they are sick of watching politicians wage war against each other as ordinary citizens grow poorer each day. /// MAN ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER /// This man, rushing to catch a train, says he will not vote for anyone. Russia will be in ruins -- he says - - no matter who is in power. (SIGNED) NEB/EC/JWH/RAE 14-Dec-1999 09:36 AM EDT (14-Dec-1999 1436 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .