15 March 2004 01:55
Rural dwellers boost communist candidate
Sergei Bakunin, a pensioner and a farmer in the village of Chernyakino, some
70 miles north of Moscow, would have preferred to cast his vote in
yesterday's presidential ballot for George W. Bush.
Instead he had to settle for Nikolai Kharitonov, a communist candidate who
yesterday won an unexpectedly high 14.7 per cent vote.
Toothless, wearing felt boots and unsteady on his feet, Mr Bakunin has little
faith in any of his country's politicians.
Living on the edges of a presidential country compound and sustained by a
small vegetable patch behind his house, Mr Bakunin reckons he is well placed
to judge recent Russian rulers.
"Yeltsin flew to his country residence by helicopter over my land,
scaring off all my chickens so they would not lay eggs. Putin does not fly,
but when he comes here, they put guards everywhere who don't let you
move around," he said.
"We had a funeral recently and the guards would not let us into a
cemetery because it is close to the presidential land. We had to pay Rbs100
(Dollars 3.50, Euros 2.90, Pounds 1.90) to get through. At least under Stalin
we did not have to pay to go to the cemetery," says Mr Bakunin.
Younger urban men and women voted for Mr Putin, praising him for his strong
hand and higher salaries. But the older rural population has seen few of the
benefits of Russia's economic growth. "We have nowhere to feed a
cow and no money to fix our teeth," says Sergei Esipov, a local
boilerman who also voted for Mr Kharitonov.
Chernyakino has all the features of a contemporary Russian village: heavy
drinking, an ageing population, crumbling collective farms, youth fleeing to
cities and rich Muscovites buying land for recreation.
The red-brick "castles" built by the new rich look particularly
ostentatious next to the wooden log-houses.
"Look at this place," Mr Bakunin says, trying to get off the wooden
steps of his house. "They have destroyed our farmland. The people is
dying like a mammoth. And where do these people get the money?"
Mr Putin has pledged to fight poverty and corruption in his second term. But
the old folk in Chernyakino, which is flanked by hunting grounds and
presidential land, have little hope.
A namesake of a famous 19th century Russian anarchist, Mr Bakunin wants order
and justice. But he doubts Mr Putin can deliver it. "They say Russia has
money now - why don't they just buy us (President George W.) Bush?"
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