At the beginning of February, St. Petersburg set its gubernatorial elections for 14 May, with a run-off (if required) on 28 May. The recent death and burial of former Mayor Anatolii  Sobchak marked the informal beginning of the campaign. Practically all of the Moscow-based Petersburgers arrived in the city on the Neva on 24 February for the ceremony and the most influential of them spoke out before the funeral and at the burial in the cemetery. Governor Vladimir Yakovlev did not attend the ceremony after Sobchak's widow Lyudmila Narusova denounced him. Yakovlev, a former Sobchak deputy, had defeated him in the bitter 1996 campaign in which Sobchak sought a second term.

Former Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin made the most widely noted speech when he said, "Sobchak formed the best team in Russia and almost all the members are now in Moscow. The time has come for us Leningraders, Petersburgers to return to our city. I am ready for this." Both Yabloko and Soyuz pravykh sil announced their support for Stepashin even though local leaders of the parties had already committed themselves to supporting State Duma Deputy Grigorii Tomchin. It is not clear if Yurii Boldyrev will join this coalition since his own chances of winning the race are small. Stepashin claims that he has the support of Acting President Vladimir Putin (Kommersant 29 February) and saidthat he will announce his intentions on 2 March. Most likely, however, the Kremlin has not yet decided whom it will support, which would explain why the press is filled with contradictory information.

Among the other Moscow-based Petersburgers, the potential candidates include Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matvienko, Railroads Minister Nikolai Aksenenko, the former head of the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast Federal Security Service (FSB) Viktor Cherkesov, and State Duma member Valerii Malyshev (Vsya Rossiya faction).

On the evening of 29 February Matvienko said in an interview with Russian Television that she "did not exclude the possibility" of running for governor. The broadcaster said that she could make a final decision by the end of the week after meeting with Putin.

Aksenenko's ambitions were widely discussed after his former deputy, Oleg Shigaev, who recently took over the Baltic Bank (which is owned by the railroad), accused the Yakovlev administration of not meeting its financial obligations. He said that for three weeks, the bank could not recover a $5.5 million credit it had made for the construction of St. Petersburg's new hockey stadium (Kommersant, 11 February). The city administration considered this move the first blow by the railroads ministry against Yakovlev's most ambitious project, the construction of the hockey stadium, where the world championships will take place on the eve of the first round of the elections (29 April - 14 May). The city had to cover the debt, giving more ammunition to its enemies in Yabloko, who have charged that local taxpayers will take revenge for Yakovlev's economic mistakes.

Rumors that Putin preferred Cherkesov, who is now the FSB's first deputy chairman, have circulated all month. However, as the case of Boris Gromov's election in Moscow Oblast shows, Putin's backing is not enough to elect a governor. The Petersburg Yedinstvo is currently too weak to carry his candidacy. Moreover, in St. Petersburg it is impossible for a man who is thought to have persecuted dissidents to be elected governor (http://www.apn.ru/lenta/2000/02/24/20000224185413.htm).

Yakovlev has also tried to ride on Putin's coattails. In January the acting president publicly supported Yakovlev, and on 24 February reaffirmed his support in a personal meeting with the governor, according to Yakovlev. The incumbent governor has actively shown his support for all of Putin's initiatives. At the 27 February congress of Putin's Yedinstvo party in Moscow, Yakovlev offered the resources of his Vsya Rossiya organization and supported the proposal of Governors Mikhail Prusak, Yevgenii Savchenko, and Oleg Bogomolov about lengthening the presidential term to seven years (Nezavisimaya gazeta, 25 February).

A Gallup St. Petersburg poll conducted before Sobchak's death (11-15 February), shows that Yakovlev has a strong lead. With an expected turnout of 60 percent, 54 percent would vote for Yakovlev and 14 percent for Stepashin. All other candidates won less than five percent (http://www.gallup.spb.ru/rus/guber3.htm).

(Даниил Цыганков)