DATE=11/29/1999 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=RUSSIA / THE PUTIN PHENOMENON NUMBER=5-44866 BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN DATELINE=MOSCOW CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: A just-released public opinion poll in Russia indicates Prime Minister Vladimir Putin - a political unknown four months ago - has become the leading contender in next year's presidential election. V-O-A Correspondent Peter Heinlein examines the Putin phenomenon in this report from Moscow. TEXT: When President Boris Yeltsin plucked Vladimir Putin from obscurity last August, placed him in the prime minister's chair, and anointed him as his chosen successor, many experts called it the ravings of a mad man. The country seemed to be careening from crisis to crisis. Mr. Putin, a steely-eyed former K-G-B spy, was the fourth prime ministerial appointment in 18 months. Many predicted he too would be dumped when the unpredictable Russian leader grew tired of him. But in just a few months, Mr. Putin has shot to the top of the list of presidential contenders. If the latest polls are right, he is the choice of more than 40 percent of potential voters, and unheard of rating in Russia. /// OPT /// And as political analyst Irina Kobrinskaya notes, Mr. Yeltsin's critics have been silenced. /// KOBRINSKAYA ACT /// There is no doubt Yeltsin is a political genius. One hundred percent. He has fantastic political intuition. /// END ACT // END OPT /// Clearly, Mr. Putin's approval rating reflects Russians' overwhelming support for the current military offensive in Chechnya, which he launched within days of taking office. Sixty-five-year-old Galina Ostafyeva expresses the feelings of many ordinary Russians when she says Mr. Putin seems to be restoring the country's battered pride. /// OSTAFYEVA IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER /// She says, "He started this war in Chechnya. Our soldiers are winning. He is doing his best to crush the rebels as soon as possible." But even though the war enjoys solid public support, there is something more driving Mr. Putin's popularity - something that unites Russians of all political persuasions: the rich and the poor, people from the far-flung regions and Moscow's liberal intelligentsia. Irina Kobrinskaya calls it a nostalgic yearning for order and strict leadership, even at the expense of freedom. /// KOBRINSKAYA ACT /// He's very tough. He declares his point is more order in Russian society. More stability. Apart from the nostalgia for times of stability, there is another feeling in Russian society which really needs more order, which really wants to live in a more stable state with more strong state institutions, which means less corruption, more law and order. /// END ACT /// Moreover, most Russians say Mr. Putin's background with the K-G-B, and later as head of the K-G-B's main successor agency, the F-S-B, is an asset in leading the country. Analyst Sergei Markov says the prime minister evokes images of the late Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, another former K-G-B chief who initiated a campaign of authoritarian discipline during his brief term as Communist party chief. /// MARKOV ACT /// In Western public opinion, to be a former K-G-B officer is to be something awful, belonging to some semi-criminal organization, and so on. But for a Russian audience, it's not neutral, but even a good characteristic. Because it means the guy is very informed, very-well trained, ready to fight for the country. So I think to be a former K-G-B officer is not a bad characteristic, but a good characteristic for Russian public opinion. /// END ACT /// Mr. Markov says even if the war in Chechnya eventually goes badly, Prime Minister Putin is likely to remain popular, because he answers Russia's desire for a strong hand. That, he explains, is why even other potential presidential contenders - such as former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov - have lately expressed qualified support for Mr. Putin. (Signed) NEB/PFH/JWH/JP 30-Nov-1999 14:46 PM EDT (30-Nov-1999 1946 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .