CNN - Yeltsin's biggest threat: Voter apathy

Yeltsin's biggest threat: Voter apathy

June 21, 1996
Web posted at: 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT)

MOSCOW (CNN) -- When organizers of a "Choose or Lose" rally for Russian President Boris Yeltsin gathered Friday in Moscow, nobody showed up besides a few stray Muscovites who happened by.

The sluggish rally was perhaps an indication of Moscow's exhaustion after a jam-packed week of politics. Yeltsin cleaned house this week, aiming to win new voters to his side for the July 3 runoff election between him and Communist candidate Gennady Zyuganov.

"Boris Yeltsin decided, enough is enough. We're going to have a new kind of government, a new Boris Yeltsin in the Kremlin. This is a clean start for the next round," said analyst Michael McFaul of the Carnegie Moscow Center.

His new start is so clean as to be almost antiseptic. He ousted several influential members of his inner circle, including Alexander Korzhakov, one of his oldest friends. Korzhakov was head of Yeltsin's palace security.

Among other hard-line insiders also thrown out: Mikhail Barsukov, chief of the Federal Security Service; Oleg Soskovets, a first deputy prime minister; and Defense Minister Pavel Grachev.

They were relieved of duty for scheming, supposedly, to make reformers close to Yeltsin like Anatoly Chubais look bad. In the past, that sort of thing got them promoted.

Earlier in the week, Yeltsin lured former Gen. Alexander Lebed to become his chief of security. Lebed has had a busy week himself. He oversaw the purging of the hard-liners, just days after finishing third place in the first round of Russia's elections.

Nuances of the past few days' events will likely be analyzed for years. For the next month, however, the main question is how Yeltsin's inner sanctum overhaul will affect his re-election chances.

Analysts agree that the change won't hurt him, and could help a lot, by luring reform-minded voters his way. "Most people had written off Boris Yeltsin as a politician," McFaul said. "He proved, in this fiasco, that he still thinks about reform, he still thinks about the democratic process, and I think it's going to be the boost that lets him win the second round."

He'll only win, analysts say, if enough voters turn out on election day, part two. At least 60 percent of voters must come out for the runoff for Yeltsin to win, since Communist Party supporters are considered more steady, reliable voters. The race may be Yeltsin's to lose, but given the size of Friday's rally in Moscow, he still could.

Correspondent Bill Delaney contributed to this report.

Related stories:

Pivotal Elections - Russia
Yeltsin fires key security officials - June 20, 1996
Yeltsin bolsters runoff bid, names ex-rival security chief - June 18, 1996

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