Saturday's Smena ran two articles on the difficult choice facing Russia's democrats. A piece titled "You wouldn't envy the liberals today" looks at the difficulties of Yegor Gaidar's party Russia's Democratic Choice. Since their defeat in December's State Duma elections, the party has been on the horns of a dilemma: how to support a candidate that fits with their democratic and free market principles and has a chance of winning. The party is basically divided between supporting President Boris Yeltsin and liberal economist Grigory Yavlinsky. A decision will be announced at the party's convention at the end of this month. An accompanying cartoon shows a drowning Mr Gaidar telling Mr Yeltsin and Mr Yavlinsky, "I will give you my hand at the end of April."
PRESIDENT YELTSIN'S PARADOX
Smena ran another piece examining the paradox that the liberals face in the election in a piece titled "In order to win, Yeltsin must lose," that was based on an interview with Ella Pamfilova. The article argues that Yeltsin's best chance for remaining president is not to reach the second round. This is because if Mr Yeltsin should qualify for the second round, there is a good chance that he would lose. On the other hand, should he fail to qualify, the president has such power that Mr Yeltsin could probably get away with cancelling the second round by discrediting the election.
PRESIDENT SOBCHAK!?
Severnaya Stolitsa proposed a solution to the problem that may raise some eyebrows by suggesting that St Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak should run as the unified democrats' presidential candidate. Mr Sobchak, however, is currently occupied with his own campaign for governor (formerly mayor) of St Petersburg. It also appears that he will be running against his own deputy, Vladimir Yakovlev. Smena looked at Mr Yakovlev's chances in a piece titled "In his competition with Sobchak, Yakovlev wants to compete with Luzhkov," in reference to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, with whom Mr Yakovlev is often compared.
STATISTICS GEEK PARADISE
Mr Sobchak probably will not be Russia's next president, but he has a good chance of being re-elected mayor, according to a poll published in Wednesday's Nevskoye Vremya. The poll, conducted by St Petersburg Gallup Market Facts, shows that of the 52% of adult city residents who plan to vote in the gubernatorial election, 30% plan to vote for Mr Sobchak.
His closest competitor is former Federation Council deputy Alexander Belyayev with a whopping 5.6%. Nevskoye Vremya also printed a poll by SNITS that measured the city's voter preferences for the June 16 presidential elections. Mr Yeltsin leads the pack with 24% followed by Mr Yavlinsky with 17%, Svyetaslav Fyodorov with 11% and Mr Zyuganov with 9%. The candidate with the highest negatives in St Petersburg is (surprise) Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Almost 60% of St Petersburg residents would not vote for him under any circumstances.
HEADLINE OF THE WEEK
Severnaya Stolitsa ran a story about human rights activist and State Duma deputy Sergei Kovalyev's reaction to Mr Yeltsin's peace plan for Chechnya titled "Yeltsin is late." According to Mr Kovalyev, the president's peace plan calling for a unilateral ceasefire, troop withdrawal, elections and indirect negotiations with Dzhokar Dudayev came too late. Mr Kovalyev also said that he would support the campaign of Grigory Yavlinsky for president.