Opportunity for Russia

The election of Vladimir V. Putin as Russia’s next president was no cliffhanger. The only questions were whether the 47-year-old former KGB boss would pull enough votes to avoid a runoff and whether enough voters would turn out Sunday to give the election constitutional validity. The results provide much to worry about, but Putin’s victory also clearly presents an opportunity for Russia to complete the economic transformation that Boris N. Yeltsin, Putin’s erratic predecessor, failed to do and should establish the credibility of democratic political leadership.

More than 69% of eligible voters went to the polls despite what appeared to be a preordained result. At the same time, with only 52% of them voting for Putin, the Russians clearly did not hand the acting president a mandate on the sketchy outline of his policies.

Most Russians missed out on Yeltsin’s reformist economic policies. Much of the country’s natural wealth--oil, gas, mineral resources--ended up in the hands of a few moguls who became very influential in the Kremlin. Massive privatization in the early 1990s helped to stir entrepreneurship, but the fledgling capitalists got little support from the Communist-controlled parliament and an increasingly corrupt government.

A decade later, the economy is still shrinking, and more Russians are being driven into poverty. Yet ordinary Russians apparently have not lost faith either in their young democracy or economic reform. Less than 30% voted for the Communist candidate, Gennady A. Zyuganov, who stands for a return to the central controls of the of the Soviet-era.

Putin’s government experience comes from 17 years of spying for the KGB, and many of his advisors came from the KGB’s ranks as well. The somber new president found electoral campaigning and public debate distasteful. He came from a school where deeds, some brutal, were more important than words. His most credible opponents were destroyed in a no-holds-barred television and newspaper smear campaign.

The new president owes much of his public standing to his bloody but popular campaign against Chechnya, where his determined assaults earned him the image of a leader who can get things done. Tough leaders have been a mark of Soviet and Russian regimes over the past century.

Putin’s views on economic reform are sketchy, but during the election campaign he spoke of a “civilized” market that can bring benefits to the masses, called for tax reform and spoke of the need to integrate Russia into the world economy.

On key issues with the United States and Europe, he has said repeatedly he wants to work with Washington on security, including arms control.

Unlike Yeltsin, Putin appears to be beholden to no special interests. Nor has he been tarnished by corruption scandals that stained the Russian political establishment under Yeltsin.

The new president’s early achievements will be judged by the government he assembles and the quality of his advisors. To his advantage, unlike Yeltsin, Putin will be working with a parliament controlled by center-right candidate members of parliament, not Communists. The Putin era begins with popular support based on a free vote. This is an opportunity the former spymaster must not waste.