Russia's captive PM turns to the people

By Anatoly Verbin

YAKUTSK, Russia (Reuter): Viktor Chernomyrdin, seeking backing from Russian provinces, has gambled his career on the success of Chechen peace talks and his ability to combine a new political role with his tough duties as prime minister.

Visiting Yakutia, a vast Siberian region 5,000 km and six time zones east of Moscow, Chernomyrdin last week showed himself a market-oriented leader unwilling to make hand-outs to boost his popularity.

"There is no free money and there will be no free money," Chernomyrdin said bluntly. "You have to learn new ways, look for creditors and investors, and sign contracts."

Yakutia has been unable to translate its vast mineral resources -- gold, diamonds, coal, oil and gas -- into economic prosperity for its one million people.

Local officials, remembering help they received from Moscow in Soviet days, seek financial aid to make their region work.

"Viktor Stepanovich, today you are the master of Russia. If you do not help us, who will?," asked a Yakutian official.

Chernomyrdin's tour of the regions takes place five months before parliamentary elections which are expected to be a harsh test of his chances of becoming president in 1996.

As prime minister, he must stick to relatively tight policies aimed at fighting inflation and cutting spending.

But as leader of the new Our Home is Russia political grouping he must win support from the people and -- no less important for his "party of power" -- from regional barons. The easiest way of doing that is to hand out cash.

He has coined the motto: "It is time for work, not for emotions" -- a message which seemed to go down well, both with officials and ordinary people.

The stocky 57-year-old prime minister looks at ease talking to workers and industry officials. "I am trying to understand why it happens," he told workers and officials at the Yakutsk power station, seemingly oblivious of television cameras.

Until recently Chernomyrdin portrayed himself as a technocrat with no political affiliations apart from total loyalty to President Boris Yeltsin. He shunned media attention and kept a hardline official as his spokesman.

But Chernomyrdin, a former Communist Party apparatchik and gas industry manager turned backer of market reforms, shrugged off his gray image in May when he announced the formation of Our Home is Russia political grouping.

He changed his press team and now jokes with the people he meets on his travels. He appears frequently in public and makes a deliberate effort to talk to people.

The center-right Our Home Is Russia was created with Yeltsin's blessing to run in the December 17 election.

Its success would consolidate Chernomyrdin's grip on power and confirm him as Yeltsin's most likely heir if the president decides not to seek a second five-year term.

Its failure would help boost the chances of Yeltsin foes such as ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky or Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov.

In a burst of openness last month, Chernomyrdin allowed television cameras to film his talks with Chechen gunmen holding hundreds of hostages in the southern Russian town of Budennovsk.

Since then he has stuck firmly to the peace drive he initiated in Chechnya, despite opposition from the "party of war" which includes powerful Defense Minister Pavel Grachev.

"We will not give in," Chernomyrdin said last Wednesday, blasting opponents of peace efforts in Chechnya as bloodthirsty.

Poor support in the elections and problems with the Chechen peace talks would damage his image, but Chernomyrdin, who has never said he wants to be president, could face another threat.

Yeltsin, who has dumped many of top allies in the past, has yet to decide whether to run for another term next June. If he does, he might see Chernomyrdin's growing popularity as a potential danger and act against him.