CONSOLIDATION

For the first time in the last few months Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov spoke warmly of Russian Premier Vladimir Putin, and wished the government good luck. The spectators of the Kremlin Cup tennis tournament final had the opportunity to watch the Mayor and Premier’s firm handshake. “If one speaks of Putin’s purposefulness and perseverance, they deserve respect,” Luzhkov now says. “May God help him fulfill his task.”

What has happened? Why did Luzhkov forget his recent innuendoes that Putin is influenced by Boris Berezovsky, defined by Luzhkov as the devil of Russian politics? Or is he really, as Russian journalists believe, afraid that Putin’s popularity is increasing and that of the Fatherland — All Russia bloc’s pensioner-in-chief Yevgeny Primakov, is plummeting?

It seems to me that this is not just about statistics. Luzhkov, like any other representative of the Russian political elite, cannot fail to notice the consolidation of decision makers around the Premier and cannot ignore that bloc of generals and government officials. Is Luzhkov the only one? When the hope of all progressive Western humanity, Anatoly Chubais, speaks of the Russian military’s renewal in the Chechnya actions and labels as traitors all those calling for negotiations — could this not also be a response to this consolidation and the desire to remain in an elite which might have already found its post- Yeltsin leader or maybe has simply united to seek one?

Luzhkov also does not want to become a renegade. When he or Primakov were examining a vigorous alternative to Kremlin sluggishness, they had sufficient reason to hope that the ruling class would pay attention on them. However, the Kremlin managed to turn the tables, and the leaders of what was considered an opposition bloc are now seeking a place in the consolidated ranks. What else can they do? Consolidation is a reliable recipe. Can we attribute the outcome of the Ukrainian presidential elections, the ways and means by which the victory was achieved, to something other than consolidation? Thus, Russian political scientist Andrei Piontkovsky was perhaps right saying that it was not the 1996 Russian scenario that was implemented in Ukraine but the one for 2000.