Putin and his supporters

Putin won a convincing first-round victory in the election, brought forward to March 2000 after El'tsin's unexpected resignation, and in almost every respect his new administration appeared to have arrested or even reversed Russia's long and apparently inexorable decline. The population continued to fall - an alarming trend to which the new president himself drew repeated attention. But economic growth recovered strongly, and the new administration began to assert Russian national interests more vigorously in its dealings with the international community. Above all, it reasserted the power of the central government within Russia itself. The 'anti-terrorist action' in Chechnya was pressed forward; all the republics and regions were obliged to bring their legislation into line with the federal constitution; and presidential representatives were appointed to head seven new federal districts. Much of this recovery, however, depended on the president himself-his formal powers had become no greater. How secure, entering the later stages of his 4-year term, was Vladimir Putin? What were the bases of his popular support? And had he developed a formula of rule that would be sufficient to sustain the 'consolidation' that he regarded as the main achievement of the first year of his new administration?