Blase New Rich Plan To Sit Out Elections

Don't expect a line of limousines at the polls Sunday. Many of the people flourishing in the "new'' Russia probably won't bother to vote.


Predictions that anti-reform parties -- like the Communists -- who court the angry, the elderly and the impoverished will do well in the parliamentary elections don't seem to faze the new rich.


If Rome is about to burn, these people are reaching for their fiddles.


Maxim's, the posh French restaurant, is already half-booked for a $450-a-plate New Year's Eve feast of oysters, caviar and duck.


"People are calling every day,'' said headwaiter Andrei Ozol, who recommends a nice bottle of 1971 Chateau Petrus Pomerol for just $4,500 to go with it.


Business is also brisk at the Maserati dealership, where salesman Vadim Zityatdinov reports that a client recently paid cash -- more than $200,000 -- for one of the sleek Italian sports cars.


And at a chic shopping arcade, elegance, not elections was on the mind of 24-year-old Lena Rigini as she whiled away the afternoon in her thick, pale fur coat.


"I'm not voting,'' she said firmly. "If I were Yeltsin, I'd cancel all elections and kick out parliament. There's no need for it. I mean, there's a queen in England and she decides everything. Right?''


Millions of poor Russians are struggling to live as the country goes through the wrenching shift from communism to a free-market economy. Bewildered by sweeping changes and endemic corruption, these Russians blame reform for their suffering.


Polls say that many voters regard Sunday as a chance to express their anger at how things are going.


Russia's new rich may be many things, but they're not angry.


"Even the presidential election won't be too important to them,'' said political analyst Sergei Markov of the more important election set for next June. "They don't think things will change that dramatically. They think reform is irreversible.''


While this assessment may be debatable, the impact of wealthy voters isn't.


Money talks, of course, in Russian politics. It pays bribes, buys influence, funds campaigns.


But monied voters are another story. There really aren't enough of them to matter very much.


By most estimates, only a million or so of Russia's 150 million people are relatively affluent. And only a tiny fraction of those are really, really rich.


In contrast, Russia has more than 30 million pensioners, many of them Communist supporters who will flock to the polls.


If voter turnout is in the 50 million to 55 million range, as some analysts predict, the poor and angry could account for as many as half the ballots that are cast Sunday.


This class of voters resents the ostentation of the new rich, and the corrupting influence of wealth on Russian politics.


Their nostalgia has glossed over the corruption of the Communist system, the long lines for basic staples such as sausage and sugar, and the luxurious privileges enjoyed in Soviet times by the party's top ranks.


But 31-year-old Yelena Demidkina, another elegant, fur-clad shopper, hasn't forgotten. She's wealthy now -- but not too rich to vote Sunday. "I won't vote for the Communists. That's absolutely for sure,'' she said, debating her choices.


"When the Communists were in power, THEY were the ones with all the money, all the gold, all the dollars in Swiss banks. If they return to power, they'll be the only ones again.''


Demidkina's comments buzzed with irony in light of a recent survey revealing the makeup of Russia's nouveau riche.


According to the survey of Russia's top 100 businesspeople compiled by Moscow's Applied Politics Institute, members of the ex-nomenklatura account for fully 61 percent of the country's new rich.