Russia’s Two Minds About Reform Reflected in Votes

Russian ambivalence about the benefits of democratic reform was clear after votes were counted Monday in two regional elections that saw one Kremlin-backed candidate triumph and the other fall in defeat.

The votes in Nizhny Novgorod and Samara, two Volga River cities considered models of market economic reform, served as an unofficial referendum on Russia’s protracted transformation and spotlighted the doubts harbored by many provincial voters--even in regions of relative prosperity.

Both the Nizhny Novgorod gubernatorial vote and the Samara mayoral race were necessitated by President Boris N. Yeltsin’s promotion of the former regional leaders during a rejuvenation of the federal government in March.

Former Nizhny Gov. Boris Y. Nemtsov was elevated to the post of first deputy prime minister and given broad authority to press on the federal level for the kinds of economic reforms that have set his home region apart from most of Russia’s struggling provinces.

Nemtsov’s preferred candidate, Nizhny Mayor Ivan Sklyarov, defeated a strong Communist rival in Sunday’s runoff, winning 52% of the vote to Gennady Khodyrev’s 42%. The two had finished virtually neck and neck in the first round of balloting two weeks ago.

Sklyarov, 49, was believed to have been helped in the second round by extension of voting hours until 11 p.m., which allowed city dwellers who had gone off to country dachas for the weekend to cast ballots after their return. Communist candidates tend to do well in summer elections because their constituency is among the poor and disgruntled who have fewer options for spending their leisure time.

“Sklyarov’s success indicates the victory of common sense, of constructive and sober-minded forces of society over the political extremists,” Nemtsov declared after his handpicked successor’s victory. He had warned while stumping in Nizhny Novgorod last week that a Communist win could threaten all that had been accomplished and “turn this country into another North Korea.”

In Samara, the candidate backed by the Moscow hierarchy lost his bid to succeed former Mayor Oleg Sysuyev, who was brought to the capital as a deputy prime minister in the same government shake-up that elevated Nemtsov.

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Georgy Limansky, who was backed by former national security chief and Yeltsin rival Alexander I. Lebed, won 54% of the vote, compared with 38% for Deputy Mayor Anatoly Afanasiev.

Limansky has expressed support for market reforms but has called for a slower transition to ease the strain on elderly and rural Russians.