Putin Mends Fences

Despite a massive lead in opinion polls, Acting Russian president Vladmir Putin slowed down his fast-paced Thursday to pay a visit to a long-time rival in hopes of winning his support.

With three days left until the presidential election, the meeting with popular Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov appeared to be a last-minute attempt to win the capital city's votes needed to help Putin win a first round victory in Sunday's vote.

"What has been done in Moscow causes respect," Putin told reporters during his tour of Moscow city projects. "I must honestly admit that I feel envy."

Just as friendly relations with Putin are essential for Luzhkov to remain a successful mayor, Putin needs Luzhkov's support: while the acting president has a wide lead in polls, getting an over-50-percent majority of votes in the first round may be difficult in a race with 10 other candidates.

Luzhkov has been locked in a bitter feud with the Kremlin ever since he emerged as a leading contender for the presidency. Luzhkov abandoned his presidential bid after his party was routed in December's parliamentary elections by a Kremlin-backed party.

After Boris Yeltsin resigned the presidency on New Year's Eve, Luzhkov was initially critical of Putin, but he quickly moderated his opposition. He has recently voiced support for the acting president and has accompanied him on several official trips.

Putin responded in kind, praising Luzhkov's leadership on several occasions and finally accepting his invitation Thursday to discuss Moscow's problems and take a tour of the mayor's latest projects.

Luzhkov has enjoyed broad popularity in Moscow for sprucing up the city and improving its road system and other infrastructure. But his wrangling with the Kremlin has threatened to erode his popularity, with the federal government moving to annul some of the privileges the city has enjoyed.

Putin has proven a tireless and effective campaigner, although he claims that he is too busy with official duties to campaign.

His candidacy has hyped the differences between him and his predecessor, Yeltsin, whose later years as president were known most for frequent illnesses, tales of drunkenness and bizarre behavior.

Playing up his relative youth and fitness, the 47-year-old Putin has barnstormed Russia, gone skiing, and taken a car for a spin at an automobile factory.

"The acting president has tried to prove to voters that he's not a successor but an independent politician, not burdened by a poor inheritance," the daily newspaper Segodnya wrote Thursday.

He began his final week of campaigning with a sudden trip to Chechnya in a fighter jet on Monday, then went on a three-day tour along the Volga River, stopping in several cities and targeting separate interest groups at each stop.

The trip included stopovers in the republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, whose streaks of independence have long vexed the Kremlin.

Putin claimed victory, sayng that both republics agreed to voluntarily end their defiance of the federal law and turn over more revenues to the federal coffers.

"The strengthening of the Russian state is an absolute priority," Putin said at a Cabinet session Thursday. "A single legal space is essential to make the country attractive for investors."