DATE=12/23/1999 TYPE=WORLD OPINION ROUNDUP TITLE=RUSSIA'S PARLIAMENTARY ELCTION NUMBER=6-11609 BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE DATELINE=WASHINGTON EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS TELEPHONE=619-3335 CONTENT= INTRO: One of the major political events of the past week was Sunday's Russian election in which the Communist party lost support, especially among its allies. The center parties did better, as voters appeared to reject the extremes of the political spectrum. Reaction continues to flow in from the world's press, and we have a sampling now from _____________ in this week's World Opinion Roundup. INTRO: Braving bitter cold in much of the nation, at least sixty percent of Russian voters turned out for the nation's third open election, which was noted in many U-S papers as an achievement in and of itself. The center party supported by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, architect of the brutal Chechen war, did very well, and together with other allied parties, may hold the balance of power in the Duma, or lower house of parliament. Around the world, there was divided opinion on how to interpret the results. Most papers tended to view the balloting as slightly more favorable than negative. We begin our sampling in Moscow, where Noviye Izvestiya suggests: VOICE: The United States is ready to extend the truce on the Chechnya information front, which was introduced for the period of elections to the Duma. That is the impression the meetings of Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott in Moscow yesterday [12/22] made on their participants. Next year, with both Russia and the United States facing elections, the current complications between them may seem non- existent. TEXT: Across town, Segodnya ran this assessment of how the war affected the vote: VOICE: Moscow, really, has no choice as far as a course of action in Chechnya goes, and no amount of pressure can help it. The outcome of the parliamentary elections is stark testimony to that. The war party came out the big winner, backed by an overwhelming majority of voters. No sanctions or other threats can change that - they will only anger the public. TEXT: A somewhat different view of post-election relations between the United States and Russia is given in Nezavisimaya Gazeta. VOICE: For all their assurances these past two days that they don't intend to slide down into confrontation, Russia and the United States have been doing exactly that. Yesterday [12/22] [Mr. Talbott was quite convincing when he insisted that the U-S leadership did not want to spoil its relations with Moscow, not even over Chechnya. Against that backdrop, the Ex-Im [Export-Import] Bank's decision to suspend loan guarantees for the TNK (petroleum) company does not seem quite logical. TEXT: Turning to Western Europe, and to England, the Times of London also sees the deep connection between the parties that gained and the war in the Caucasus. VOICE: The electoral victory for the pro-Kremlin parties has obviously been by the way . the winners' hands have been steeped in Chechen blood. The Russian people's bloodthirsty relish for the wholesale slaughter of the Chechens has offered another salutary reminder on the brink of the millennium that human nature, at least in some parts of the world, has changed little since the time of Ivan the Terrible. . But despite the Orwellian atmosphere in which this election unfortunately had to be conducted, the outcome has been hailed in the West as another great milestone on Russia's road to truce, democracy, freedom and capitalism. TEXT: Taking a less optimistic view, The Evening Standard commented: VOICE: For all the corruption and moral squalor that beset Russian politics, the election result was probably the best the West could hope for . the most encouraging thing about the Russian elections is that they happened at all. TEXT: Farther east, Die Presse in Vienna, Austria, had this pessimistic view: VOICE: This Duma election has not changed the rotten, corrupt, inefficient Russian leadership structures at all. The rhetoric may change a little - which will be gratefully noted by Western governments and business people. TEXT: In neighboring Italy, Milan's Corriere della Sera stressed: VOICE: Prime Minister Putin has further strengthened his position as a result of the recent elections . He can now calmly devote himself to completing the operation in Chechnya, and later deal with the other Russian problems in view of the presidential elections in June. TEXT: Working our way North, in Paris, France's Le Nouvel Observateur takes the view of its Austrian counterpart. VOICE: The situation in Russia is dramatic . the Kremlin is discredited and everyone admits the country needs another policy, but few expect a change from an election . [Prime Minister] Putin's popularity certainly played a great role, but the fraud was decisive . During this rather nauseating campaign led by the Russian state, all rules .(were) violated. Seldom did we see the state television broadcast so many slanders against men deprived of a right to reply . The hundred thousand Americans living in Moscow cannot ignore the abyss [President] Yeltsin has thrown his country into, and how he manipulates the electoral process . TEXT: In Poland, where suspicion of Russia is a long tradition, Warsaw's Nasz Dziennik suggests: VOICE: What is upsetting are the growing chauvinist trends among the Russians. The outcome of Sunday's elections evidently demonstrated that the imperial spirit is reborn in the Russian community. TEXT: Moving to Asia, we read this in India's Hindustan Times from New Delhi: VOICE: The major gains made by centrist parties in Russia's parliamentary elections . seem to have overshadowed the remarkable fact that the Communists have turned in their best ever showing at the hustings. [EDS: in rural areas] this spells both bad news and good news for President Boris Yeltsin. The bad news, of course, is that many of the 107-million Russians who were eligible to vote did not really seem to mind a Red revival in the country . These elections were undoubtedly influenced by Russia's military campaign in Chechnya and, in a sense, the centrists have ridden to the poll victory astride the war effort. TEXT: In neighboring Pakistan, the Urdu-language Nawa-I-Waqt in Lahore is much more upset at the violence of the Chechen victory, than the election results. VOICE: Addressing a meeting in Lahore, a Chechen representative has rightly complained that the O-I-C [Organization of Islamic Countries] has not played its proper role to protect the Chechens from Russian atrocities. . if the entire Muslim world takes a uniform stance, and seeks help from the United States and Europe, it can prevent Russian aggression. TEXT: To the Middle East now, and this, from one of Israel's largest dailies, Maariv: VOICE: The main beneficiaries from the impressive victory of the centrist parties, in particular the unity Party, in the Russian elections are President Boris Yeltsin and the man believed to be his heir- apparent . Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the real force behind the unity Party. The Chechen war, of which [Prime minister] Putin is the chief engineer, has made the former K-G-B member popular. The Russian public supports the war. Pre-election propaganda that presented the opponents to the war as traitors has proved to be very effective. . The conduct of the war . has become a political asset . TEXT: In this hemisphere, Canada's Toronto Star comments: VOICE: Russia's new parliament will be more pro- government, nationalist and capitalist than the outgoing one. It will also be younger . [The] strengthening of the center at the expense of the ideological left and the extreme right is not a bad result, given the wartime flavor of this campaign. Russia's democracy is maturing nicely. TEXT: And lastly, from Mexico, where Mexico City's Excelsior exclaims: VOICE: Dictators do not live out of peace, but of war . The war against Chechnya has placed [Mr.] Yeltsin's Prime Minister Putin's popularity at the top . Both have won because of their "Czarist" war against Chechnya and the nations of the Caucasus. This was the flag they successfully wrapped themselves with .. TEXT: On that note, we conclude this sampling of comment from around the globe on Russia's parliamentary election. NEB/ANG/JP 23-Dec-1999 18:08 PM EDT (23-Dec-1999 2308 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .