By Vitaly PORTNYKOV, The Day
Popular Russian film director and actor Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov, an
Oscar winner and favorite of ladies over thirty, has given way at last.
He told British journalists that if the Russian people called upon him
he would run for President.
Mr. Mikhalkov has been suspected of presidential ambitions for a long
time. Handsome and hedonistic, he was clearly dissatisfied with his cinematic
mission. Mr. Mikhalkov saw somewhere in the distance the outlines of a
mighty great Russia - a certain territory of love awaiting a Messiah of
its own. Why not him? When being elected chairman of the Russian Film-Makers'
League, he brilliantly demonstrated his political mettle as a public speaker,
strategist, leader and, above all, master!
Has the crisis in Russian cinema been overcome? Don't ask. The main
thing is that we have a Little Father.
Mikhalkov's statement is more than mere words. President Yeltsin's family
and closest entourage must make a choice as to the successor of the ailing
head of state. They are unlikely to accept the bankrupt Chernomyrdin, the
maverick Luzhkov, the unpredictable Lebed, or the caretaker Primakov. Then
why not Mr. Mikhalkov? The more so that Boris Berezovsky, that mirror of
Russian opportunism, has promised to help the film director if he makes
up his mind.
The film director seems to have made up his mind. It may not be exactly
his role, but he is sure to play it brilliantly. For he is an unmatched
actor, at least as good as a certain Reagan you might recall.
And what about us? What we have to do is to rejoice that this will be
a different Nikita Sergeyevich from one Khrushchev of yore.






