DATE=12/21/1999 TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP TITLE=RUSSIAN ELECTION NUMBER=6-11604 BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE DATELINE=WASHINGTON EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS TELEPHONE=619-3335 CONTENT= INTRO: American daily papers are filled with comment about Russia's parliamentary elections (12/19), but are divided over what the results mean. We get a sampling of these divergent views now from _________ in today's U-S Opinion Roundup. TEXT: Summarizing U-S press reaction to the parliamentary voting in Sunday's Russian election, you might refer to that old adage about the glass being half full or half empty. The returns showed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's newly created Unity Party scoring a strong showing against the Communists, who got the most seats, but fewer than in prior elections. The papers, and an array of guest columnists, are interpreting those facts quite differently. We begin with the opinion of New York Times correspondent Michael Gordon, trying to make sense out of it all from his post in Moscow. In a front-page analysis, he ties support for the war in Chechnya to the results: VOICE: ... millions went to the polls and demonstrated their support for the war ... despite its apparent brutality, by voting for candidates backed by Vladimir Putin, the hawkish prime minister closely associated with the war. Western governments, especially the United States have run into many difficulties in trying to deal with the new Russia: corrupt tycoons, die-hard Communists and an enfeebled president. But now they have found themselves squarely at odds with the Russian public. The widespread backing for the war ... not only reduces the already minuscule chance for a political accommodation in Chechnya. It also suggests a broad shift in Russian public sentiment toward a more nationalist, if pro-capitalist, stance. TEXT: On the Pacific coast, The Oregonian in Portland sees the results somewhat more optimistically, judging a political shift away from the extremes of the Communist left and the Nationalist right, toward the center. But the paper also holds out a caution. VOICE: /// OPT /// That he [President Boris Yeltsin] and his inner circle did not [try to cancel the election] ... and opted instead to back a coalition of centrist parties - - should be reassuring to Russian democrats and their supporters abroad. [Mr.] Yeltsin's administration may have a cooperative legislature for the first time since the demise of the Soviet Union, which is good news for economic reforms. /// END OPT /// From the standpoint of the United States, though, all of this will be a mixed blessing. If the new Duma is more committed to the economic principles embraced by the United States, it is likely to be far more critical of almost every other aspect of American foreign and security policy. TEXT: The Wall Street Journal in New York City also sees progress in the very fact that the vote took place at all, and on schedule, and had a good turnout despite bitter cold. The Journal adds: VOICE: More than sixty percent of the Russian electorate came out in frigid weather to cast a ballot, and the election appears to have been relatively clean. Preliminary results, moreover, show 54 percent of this vote going to centrist or economically liberal parties. In striking contrast, the ultra-nationalist party of Vladimir Zhirinovsky saw its share of the vote fall by nearly half. Indeed, reform-minded parties such as Grigori Yavlinsky's Yabloko Party and Anatoly Chubais's Union of Right Forces (S-P-S) scored some surprising gains. Though obscured by the financial shenanigans of Russia's politicians and the prominence of its oligarchs ... an emerging Russian middle class does exist, and its interests lie in honest government, low taxes and transparent regulatory policies. Sunday's vote was a clear indication of the growing influence of this new generation. TEXT: However the Journal goes on to worry that the increasingly hawkish Mr. Putin, may "pursue further military adventures instead of tackling the much- needed economic reforms." The business daily concludes that it is possible the future shape of Russia could well be molded on the battlefields of little Chechnya. Taking a more positive view is the Chicago Tribune, which calls Sunday's Duma election a "milestone" in Russia's transformation toward a democracy. VOICE: What is emerging from this election of 450 members to Russia's Lower House of parliament is encouraging indeed. Half of Russian voters rejected extremes - - the communists on the left and the nationalists on the right - - in favor of moderate, pro-democratic parties and candidates who favor continuing market reforms. This central core wants a government that isn't paralyzed by turmoil and conflict. TEXT: USA Today, the national daily published in a Washington, D-C suburb, agrees with the Chicago Tribune that the Russian vote as a victory for Boris Yeltsin's heir apparent, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. But USA Today feels Americans may not be comforted by the results. VOICE: Clearly, the election outcome cuts two ways: There are signs of reform, but, more ominously, there are strong portents that Russia's leaders may retreat even further into anti-democratic methods and hostile nationalism. ... Until elections become expressions of voters' free, unmanipulated choices, hopes for bringing Russia firmly into the capitalist, democratic club will remain as tenuous and uncertain as the results of Sunday's election. /// OPT /// VOICE: The San Francisco Chronicle sees the vote more positive than negative, suggesting: VOICE: The results ... showed that Russian voters were determined to move forward on reform despite the long stretch of tough years that can fan the passions of extremists on the right and left. The previous two elections were dominated by Communists and right-wing nationalists. This time a majority of voters supported centrist parties for [the] Duma for the first time since the Soviet collapse. ... The positive aspect of the results is that it could produce pragmatism and progress on economic matters. The unsettling side of the elections is that the strong showing for Unity, the main centrist party, could be interpreted as support for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his management of the war in Chechnya. ..... /// END OPT /// TEXT: The Washington Post quotes two political scientists as suggesting one of the most remarkable features of the vote is that relatively free elections are now commonplace in what was until very recently a totally totalitarian state. The New York Times sees "several distinct messages" in the voting, "some more encouraging than others," with the most heartening: VOICE: ... a clear preference for centrists, [with voters] selecting what may turn out to be the first reform-minded Duma majority since the Soviet collapse. TEXT: The Times however, frets about the ability of the reformist parties to form a parliamentary alliance, a less than clean campaign, and the lack of objective media coverage, which it wants to see improved for the Presidential election in six months. TEXT: On that note, we conclude this sampling of comment on Russia's parliamentary election. NEB/ANG/gm 21-Dec-1999 14:49 PM EDT (21-Dec-1999 1949 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .