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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: goldsnow who wrote (14624)	9/23/1999 12:08:00 PM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

An interesting analysis by BusinessWeek (in 1998): businessweek.com Excerpt: ....Lebed and Luzhkov are well situated to tap this vein of discontent. Both are independent of the Yeltsin regime. Each is a muzhik--the type of earthy, can-do man Russians like to see as leaders. And each is at the top of his game. Luzhkov can boast of six years of dramatic economic growth during his time as Moscow mayor. Lebed, after brokering peace in Russia's disastrous war with the breakaway republic of Chechnya, swept into the governorship of one of the country's richest regions in June. With vast metals resources and a population of 3 million, Krasnoyarsk is more than four times the size of France. But Luzhkov and Lebed are men with very different styles and starkly contrasting visions of Russia's future. Neither offers the West the reassuring approach of Yeltsin and his gang of market reformers, who followed a playbook partly written by Western bankers, diplomats, and international financial institutions. Instead, Luzhkov believes in a form of tightly controlled state capitalism in which the government owns stakes in many key companies and industries. That is the economic model he has imposed on Moscow as he has rebuilt the city's roads, renovated its dilapidated buildings and wooed private investors. Businesses run by close friends and associates of Luzhkov have flourished under his administration. Critics call it Moscow-style crony capitalism and warn that Luzhkov could try to extend it across the country. Lebed is chief among those critics. He opposes strong government involvement in the economy and argues that Luzhkov's brand of capitalism breeds crime. According to Lebed's vision of Russia, state power should be used to enforce rules in the market, but the state shouldn't try to micromanage the economy or own too much of it. 'It's the job of the authorities to protect businessmen from criminals and corrupt officials,' he says. Above all, Lebed wants citizens, from street cleaners to government ministers, to obey the law. While some Russians fear he may be too zealous in using the Army, interior ministry troops, and the police to achieve his goals, Lebed insists that he would neither turn back democracy nor rely on repression. 'People have lost faith in the federal government; we want to restore people's faith in the political system,' says Yuri M. Shevtsov, chairman of Lebed's two political organizations, the People's Republican Party and the Honor and Motherland Movement. Right now, the opinion polls favor Luzhkov over Lebed. A recent poll by the All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion found that Luzhkov would defeat Lebed by 37% vs. 29% if elections were held today. [...]