27 February 2004 15:12
Russian electioncast: Kharitonov, Khakamada
The Russian presidential election debate broadcast by Radio Russia at 0830 gmt on 27 February featured independent
candidate Irina Khakamada and Nikolay Kharitonov, candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The
presenter suggested that the topic of the 25-minute-long programme would be economic and social issues.
In an opening statement Kharitonov accused incumbent President Putin of breaching his own pledge to improve the
demographic situation in Russia, which he made in his first address to the Federal Assembly (parliament) four years ago.
In particular he mentioned Russia's Far East where the demographic situation was deteriorating and, on the other
hand, tens of thousands of Chinese nationals were migrating into the region. He said that "I do not want to
frighten our electorate but if measures are not taken now, we are going to have huge problems in a 10-15 years'
time, because China will be laying claims to our territory".
In her turn, Khakamada said the "main mistake" of all Russia's democratic governments and presidents
was that they regarded the social sphere as "something vestigial". She went on to say that people were not
earning enough because of the corrupt authorities. "Firstly, we must find out who takes away money from our
pockets. This is the corrupt authorities. The whole budget is being seized as bribes," she said, adding that
rooting out those bribes would help create additional funds to increase the salaries and benefits of ordinary
citizens.
Asked what she thought about US President George Bush, Khakamada replied that "you know it's America and
America is a strange country. On the one hand, it looks very comical because obviously President Bush is not a very
clever person." Kharitonov butts in, sarcastically saying: "A cowboy." Khakamada agreed with that and
said that "prior to this, sometime ago there was [President Ronald] Reagan - an actor, and now we have [Arnold]
Schwarzenegger who became a governor". She concluded her statement by saying that it did not really matter how
clever the president was, what really was important was how the structure of state and government was organized and how
efficiently it was performing its duties.
[Radio Russia] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
