WHEN Russian President Vladimir Putin steps down next week after eight years in power, he will leave behind him a strong Russia, self-confident at home and assertive abroad. But the flavor of the Soviet past can be felt distinctly in the legacy that Putin, a steely-eyed former KGB spy, will hand over to his protege Dmitry Medvedev, who will be sworn in as the new president on May 7. Russia was in turmoil when Putin became president upon the surprise resignation of Boris Yeltsin on Dec. 31, 1999. Its economy was spluttering and national cohesion was threatened by independent-minded regional leaders, a separatist rebellion in Chechnya and a wave of violent attacks across the country. Eight years on, Russia is a very different country and voters give Putin much of the credit - he bows out with an unprecedented popularity rating of about 70 percent. He will stay on as a powerful prime minister. “We have restored the territorial integrity and unity of our nation, we have recreated the state,” says the man who, early in his first term, restored the stirring tune of the old Soviet national anthem. “We have restored the fundamental basis of the Russian economy and are turning into an economic leader.” Chechnya has been largely pacified and key rebel leaders have been killed, although a small-scale insurgency is still causing instability in the regions around it. The one-trillion-dollar economy, helped by high energy prices and liberal market reforms launched in the first years of Putin's rule, is booming with hefty 7 percent annual growth. Big Russian firms are elbowing their way into Western markets - steelmaker Severstal has taken stakes in US steel producers, while oil firm LUKOIL has a network of 2,000 filling stations in the United States and plans to acquire refineries there. “We feel more confident now,” Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has said. “The government no longer needs to plug holes and can focus on long-term goals,” he said. “I read newspapers again because I find things to be proud of there,” said Oleg Georgiyevich, a pensioner who came to watch tanks and missile launchers rolling through Moscow as they rehearsed for a May 9 parade - a revival of a Soviet-era tradition. But a vocal minority of Russians, along with Western governments and rights groups, see worrying signs. “Putin's main achievement is a spectacular return to the Soviet epoch,” author and opposition activist Zakhar Prilepin said in the Internet publication Izbrannoye (www.izbrannoye.ru). Putin's rule has seen a rolling back of political freedoms introduced under Yeltsin. Hitherto elected regional governors are now effectively appointed by the Kremlin. Parliament, once the scene of political battles, has become under Putin a docile chamber that rubber-stamps the Kremlin's decisions. Opposition parties complain they have been sidelined by a Kremlin campaign of harassment and elections rigged to favor Putin's United Russia party. The Kremlin says the opposition has lost ground because it is out of touch with what voters want. Russia's main television stations and biggest newspapers are either controlled by the state or Kremlin-friendly businessmen, and have become deferential in their reporting. At the grass roots, the pervasive influence of Putin's tightening control is felt too. “I had to get a United Russia membership card,” said a 50-year-old businessman from the provincial city of Yaroslavl. “It is now an entry ticket to official contacts and protects you from problems, exactly like the Communist Party card worked in the Soviet Union.” Putin argues that the Kremlin needed to wield stronger political powers to ensure economic growth and avert the disintegration of the country. He also defends another element of his legacy: Increasing government involvement in the economy. Some international companies have been forced to give up their stakes in lucrative energy projects and state corporations are mushrooming. Many investors were alarmed at the way the Russian state dismantled the Yukos oil company, arrested its top executives and sold off its best assets to the state-owned Rosneft in auctions which lacked transparency. Business leaders - careful since the Yukos case to stay away from politics - are now warning that too much state intervention could harm the economy. “There should be clarity about the role of the state and private business in the economy,” the influential head of the Union of Industrialists and Enterpreneurs, Alexander Shokhin, told Medvedev at a meeting last month. - Reuters __
