Last month, because of Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s illness, Russia found itself facing many controversies. Among these controversies, the most troubling question concerned whether Yeltsin should continue his term as President. Not only does his health affect Russia, but it also affects other countries as well. This question was touched on in November 1996, when the President received heart surgery. Now, when the Kremlin says that Yeltsin caught a cold, the question comes up again. It is a difficult problem to deal with because Russia does not have a candidate willing to run the presidency. I am sorry that Yelsin’s health prevents him from doing things to improve my country, and sorry that there is no one able to take over this position. The Russian people realized during Yeltsin’s re-election in the summer of 1996 that the choice of candidates was difficult. Should people vote for Yeltsin, who started the democratic reforms in 1991, or take a giant step back and vote for Zuganov, who was a leader of the Communist party? The Russian society divided into two opposite sides. The first one included Russians who adhere to the old communistic views and the other sector hoped to see a democratic future for Russia. Sure, there were other candidates who would receive support among Russian people, but the votes were not enough to compete against Yeltsin or Zuganov. Some of the other candidates were Zherenovsky, who represented the Ultra Nationalists; Yavlinsky, the representative of the Jabloko party; and Gorbachov, the former President of the Soviet Union. Yeltsin’s popularty started to fall in 1995 because of his unsuccessful inside politics and poor personal health. “Inside politics” involved the war in Chechnia and the failure of economic reforms. In 1996, analysts believed that Yeltsin would not be re-elected, but to the surprise of many, the primary election showed that Yeltsin and Zuganov got the most votes, and the race was close enough to run the elections a second time. Most of the Russian people couldn’t imagine returning to communism, so Yeltsin was the only alternative. Today the situation is the same — I don’t see a deserving candidate willing to run. The way Russia is governed now does not provide growth and improvement. On the positive side, Russia is working as a democratic country because of Yeltsin. Many politicians and citizens would like to see him resign, while others would like to see him stay in office to provide time to see him resign, while others would like to see him stay in office to provide time for a deserving democratic candidate to become popular. There are many bright young politicians in Russia today, but they are not well known enough to replace Yeltsin. One of them is Viktor Nemtzov, who, as the governor of the Novgorodskie region, stabilized its economy in 1997. Wages and jobs became better and the population was happier than in the other parts of Russia. It’s my hope that a man like Nemtzov will step up after Boris Yeltsin and lead such a great country as Russia out of this crisis and make it prosper. |
