| ELISTA, Kalmykia -- The erratically functioning
street lamps in this
wind-swept provincial capital make it an unusually dark place
after sunset.
But this week, a handful of windows have been shining brightly
throughout the night. Inside the lit rooms, bleary-eyed press
secretaries,
campaign staffers in rumpled suits and PR gurus imported from
Moscow are
helping candidates in this sleepy Buddhist republic fight a battle
for the
presidency.
The likely winner in the election Sunday is Kalmykia's young,
flamboyant president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a shrewd perestroika-era
businessman who has held the southern republic in his firm grip
since 1993.
But, although the Kremlin has not overtly tapped anyone to replace
Ilyumzhinov, it seems clear that Moscow aims to clip his wings
a bit -- for
starters, by taking greater control over local law enforcement.
In Elista, Ilyumzhinov is everywhere. At the local airport,
his
smiling face greets arriving passengers from fliers picturing
him, in white
robe and turban, atop a regal-looking camel. In the city's main
square, in
front of the presidential administration, Ilyumzhinov's aura wafts
over the
shiny black statue of Lenin, which he ordered to be turned around
to face
the building instead of standing, disrespectfully, with its back
to it.
Perhaps more important, the Kalmyk president, whose critics
disparage
as a despotic and repressive "khan," holds great sway
over life in the
republic. He has full control of the region's murky tax haven,
which is
currently under the scrutiny of federal authorities.
Until the middle of last month, Ilyumzhinov, 40, had been the
only
registered candidate, sailing confidently toward a third term
as president.
Now he faces 10 challengers -- with the two top contenders claiming
to have
weighty support from the Kremlin.
Moreover, in the past two weeks, federal officials and state-run
media
have fired a barrage of criticism at Ilyumzhinov's allies and,
implicitly,
at the president himself. The attack has gone as far as a high-profile
investigation into alleged criminal activity by Kalmykia's police
chief.
"All of it was somewhat unexpected for us," Ilyumzhinov's
spokesman,
Buyancha Galzanov said with reserve Wednesday.
The atmosphere at presidential campaign headquarters was so
tense by
the end of the week that Ilyumzhinov canceled all interviews with
the press
until after Sunday's vote. The decision, Galzanov said, was meant
to
safeguard the president against accusations that he is abusing
his office to
secure extra publicity and thereby violating campaign regulations.
"They are nervous," said one of Ilyumzhinov's two
top rivals, Baatr
Shondzhiyev, a banker and a leader of the Kalmyk community in
Moscow. "Care
must be taken to avoid any technicalities that could get one struck
from the
ballot. ... Ilyumzhinov is used to being in total control, and
now that his
power is challenged he's at a loss."
Tensions notwithstanding, few here doubt that Ilyumzhinov will
win. On
Thursday evening, Shondzhiyev was summoned to appear in court
the following
day to face accusations of bribing voters with vodka, a charge
he and his
staffers denied. Also, Friday, the same court is to hear a complaint
filed
by five opposition candidates against Ilyumzhinov.
If it is true that there is no smoke without fire, it would
seem
Ilyumzhinov has reason for worry. Last week, Alexander Veshnyakov,
the head
of the Central Elections Commission, announced that he would be
keeping an
especially close eye on Kalmykia. Veshnyakov complained of campaign
violations favoring Ilyumzhinov, including slanted publicity "clearly
extolling the current president and defaming the other candidates."
Veshnyakov, widely considered a Kremlin loyalist, "very
strongly
recommended" that Ilyumzhinov go on vacation for the remainder
of the
campaign. Speaking with uncharacteristic harshness, Veshnyakov
said this
would make it harder to take advantage of the incumbent's privileged
position -- both for Ilyumzhinov himself and for the "bootlickers
who
provide him with these services."
Moscow's political elite has been sending mixed signals about
its
position on Kalmykia.
Veshnyakov, who was expected to arrive in Elista late Thursday,
softened his stance this week, saying he had been accusing not
Ilyumzhinov
but his entourage of wrongdoing. He also slammed the local election
commission -- widely believed to be under Ilyumzhinov's control
-- for
incompetence.
A number of federal officials, including the presidential envoy
to the
Southern Federal District, Viktor Kazantsev, have been supportive
of
Ilyumzhinov throughout the campaign.
Both of Ilyumzhinov's main rivals and a number of major Moscow
newspapers have described these mixed signals as a sign of a battle
between
old and new Kremlin clans: the so-called Family of insiders left
over from
President Boris Yeltsin's days and the so-called St. Petersburg
team brought
in by President Vladimir Putin.
By midweek, claims and counterclaims of Kremlin support swelled
to a
fever pitch. Shondzhiyev, the Moscow banker, said he had the backing
of the
new Putin team and Ilyumzhinov's support base lay with the Family.
The other
top challenger, Nikolai Ochirov -- whose popularity hinges on
a strong
socialist platform -- claimed that he was the man Putin's people
backed and
that Shondzhiyev and Ilyumzhinov were both proxies of the old
Yeltsin clan.
Having Moscow's blessing is of immense importance for the public
image
of regional politicians, whose constituencies understand that
little can be
accomplished without support from the federal authorities.
Ilyumzhinov himself has hyped his ties with the Kremlin. A recent
wreath-laying ceremony in the center of Elista was conspicuously
interrupted
so that Ilyumzhinov could answer an urgent phone call from Putin
to update
the Russian president on what was happening in the republic. The
following
day, a blurb about the phone call appeared on the front page of
the official
Izvestia Kalmykii newspaper.
Nikolai Petrov, an expert on regional politics with the Moscow
Carnegie Center, said he was not surprised by the ambiguity of
Moscow's
response to the Kalmykia race.
"Describing the current situation as a battle between the
Family and
the Petersburgers would be primitive," Petrov said.
While there are certainly interest groups in the capital that
would
like to see Ilyumzhinov stay in power and others who would rather
see him
go, Moscow's goal in dealing with such influential regional leaders
is
broader, Petrov said. By putting pressure on the incumbent, the
Kremlin can
take advantage of his vulnerability at election time -- when he
is "like a
crab changing his shell" -- and try to tighten its hold on
the republic.
"By creating additional problems for Ilyumzhinov, the [federal]
center
is strengthening its position for political haggling and, regardless
of the
fact that Ilyumzhinov will most likely be re-elected, the center
will get
something for itself," Petrov said.
One of the prizes at stake, he said, was greater control over
Kalmykia's security and law enforcement agencies, beginning with
the
regional Interior Ministry.
Last week's suspension of Kalmyk Interior Minister Timofei Sasykov
got
aggressive, sensationalist coverage on state-run Rossia and Channel
One
television.
The suspension came after an investigation by the Interior Ministry's
internal affairs department, or GUSB, which found that Kalmyk
police had
covered up and personally benefited from caviar and sturgeon poaching
and
illegal oil production. Investigators also accused the local police
of
intimidating Ilyumzhinov's opponents in the election campaign
and illegally
registering migrants from Chechnya, some of whom could have been
cooperating
with Chechen rebels.
"The local police force has totally submitted itself to
Ilyumzhinov,"
a GUSB official said. "The ministry has been pulled into
a political
battle."
Sasykov has been suspended pending a full investigation, but
a
decision to fire him can only come from Putin. The Gazeta newspaper
on
Wednesday cited highly placed sources in the federal Interior
Ministry as
saying that Sasykov would be sacked as soon as Ilyumzhinov was
re-elected.
The scandal has hit a sore spot with local voters, who say they
are
tired of corruption and nepotism in Ilyumzhinov's government and
lament
their low standard of living.
"Ilyumzhinov likes chic and luster, he likes to create
that aura. But
the republic is in ruins. Nothing works," said Lyudmila Idzhiyeva,
a
43-year-old vendor selling umbrellas at Elista's drab central
market.
Many residents of this impoverished republic of 317,000 -- which
has
zero foreign investment -- have been upset by Ilyumzhinov's exorbitant
spending. While Kalmykia's budget for 2001 was 2 billion rubles
($67
million), the president boasted of spending $22 million on his
premier
league soccer team, Uralan. Several years ago, tens of millions
of dollars
went into building Chess City, a hotel and conference complex.
(Ilyumzhinov
has headed the International Chess Federation, FIDE, since 1995
and is the
sole candidate for the organization's presidency this year.)
"He is not embarrassed to flaunt his wealth in front of
a dirt-poor
republic," Union of Right Forces leader Boris Nemtsov, who
came to support
his party's candidate Natalia Manzhikova, told reporters Thursday.
Ilyumzhinov's opponents and critics have long accused him of
suppressing dissent, for example by insuring that the relatives
of those who
cross his path lose their jobs.
In one of the grisliest scandals tied to Ilyumzhinov's name,
a former
presidential aide was convicted for the brutal murder of opposition
journalist Larisa Yudina in June 1998. Many prominent human rights
activists, including Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky, believe
the killing
was carried out on orders from the highest echelons of Kalmykia's
leadership.
Some observers believe the Kremlin had earlier wanted to replace
Ilyumzhinov, considering him a liability, but didn't hustle in
time to
install its own man. However, Carnegie's Petrov was skeptical.
"Such situations can rarely be described as 'all or nothing,'
where a
bad Ilyumzhinov is replaced with a good Mr. X," Petrov said.
If powerful groups in Moscow have differing visions of who should
be
in charge, he said, they reach a compromise that balances their
interests.
"Under that balance, Ilyumzhinov will likely lose a little
as a
regional leader, while the center will gain some additional leverage
and
additional control over the [official] bodies and situation in
the
republic," he said.
See also:
Regional Elections
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