Word: zyuganov
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Recent polls have shown Yeltsin pulling even with Zyuganov, or even slightly ahead, with the support of about a quarter of the electorate. If no candidate receives more than half the vote on June 16, a run-off between the two top finishers could be held as early as July 7. It is in the second round that Yeltsin hopes to win, as those scared that their past may become their future swallow their misgivings and vote for him. Yet even that mathematically plausible scenario is considered dicey. Talk of postponing the elections is the rage in Moscow, and serious...
...reach the second round, and to win, Yeltsin must unite the democratic opposition to Zyuganov, or at least dull its threat to his own candidacy. One often hears of an imminent deal in which Yeltsin's leading non-Communist opponents, Grigori Yavlinsky and Alexander Lebed, will drop their campaigns. Last week, though, Yeltsin and Yavlinsky had a public spat as talks about joining forces hit a bump. "He wants too much," said Yeltsin, at first referring to Yavlinsky's demands that he fire much of his Cabinet, but later the President decided he could "accept" many of them...
Yeltsin's aides have floated polls showing him far ahead of those men, but not far enough to forestall the possibility of Zyuganov's winning a majority in the first round. "None of those polls are accurate," concedes a Yeltsin adviser. "We have put them out to influence Yavlinsky and Lebed. They may still decide to continue their own campaigns, but we're confident now that at least they won't combine into a third-force coalition that could knock the President out of the box in the June 16 first round of voting...
...advertising has been soft and squishy. Posters show happy children with Yeltsin, saying, "I love you; I have faith in you." At this point, says the adviser, "Yeltsin needs to be seen as above politics, as the President of all Russians. That's also why he won't debate Zyuganov--that and the fact that he'd be lousy at it. But the campaign won't go meekly all the way to the end. Some hard-hitting negative spots are in the can already, and those kinds of things work everywhere...
Ensconced on the 11th floor of Moscow's President Hotel, where the Yeltsin campaign has its offices, Tatiana is calling some of the key shots and signing off on some very American tactics. "She immediately grasped that sending 'truth squads' to taunt Zyuganov would appeal to Russians," says a Yeltsin adviser, "and she's championed the use of direct mail." The largest to date was a mailing three weeks ago to 3 million women veterans thanking them for their heroism and asking their forgiveness for the current economic hardships. Each was signed by Yeltsin (albeit by autopen) and individually addressed...