CHERNOMYRDIN’S BLOC STRONGER THAN RYBKIN’S.

Publication: Monitor Volume: 1 Issue: 95

Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin’s electoral bloc, "Russia is Our Home," continues to absorb the upper echelon of Russian bureaucracy into its ranks. So far, the bloc includes 10 federal ministers and the heads or deputy heads of administration of 61 out of the Russian Federation’s 89 constituent regions. More than 30 of Russia’s biggest corporations and enterprises have announced their support for "Russia is Our Home." They include the automotive giants VAZ, GAZ, and KamAZ, as well as energy empire Gazprom, which has promised 5 billion rubles a month to the bloc’s campaign. Chernomyrdin’s bloc also boasts a number of popular cultural figures who are beginning to assume a high public profile on its behalf. (7)

Chernomyrdin’s "center-right" and Duma chairman Ivan Rybkin’s "center-left" blocs form the basis of Yeltsin’s strategy to marginalize communists and ultranationalists in these elections and to forge a stable two-party system afterward. But one of these two pillars, the Rybkin bloc, is wobbling as a result of poor organization and major defections.

Zhirinovsky Abandoned by His Military Adviser.