Putin win is likely without the help of the rich

There is hardly any more room on Vladimir Putin's bandwagon. It has been joined in the past few days by the Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzh kov, and Sergei Kiriyenko's Union of Right Forces, which is oddly described here as "liberal" although it contains some members who have expressed their admiration for Augusto Pinochet.

On the bandwagon, too, is the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who has come in for some criticism at home and abroad for his intervention in the Russian election campaign on Mr Putin's behalf. Not only did he provide very valuable photo calls and muted criticism of the Chechen war, but he is also to send officials to Russia to assist Mr Putin.

One, David Miliband, is a leading spin doctor from Downing Street and the other is a treasury official, Sir Nigel Wicks. The daily newspaper Segodnya, which is liberal in the true sense of the word, made the following comment on Britain's effort to help Mr Putin: "Tony Blair is proceeding from his country's pragmatic interests. Britain is paramount whereas Chechnya, human rights and other humanitarian questions are an afterthought."

At a lower level, there have been some disturbing echoes from the past. Committees of sportsmen, musicians, artists and writers have issued statements in support of Mr Putin's candidacy in just the way they made laudatory announcements for the ears of Comrades Stalin, Brezhnev and Andropov. Andropov, by the way, is the Russian leader Mr Putin most respects.

In August 1991, following the collapse of the coup d'etat against Mikhail Gorbachev, demonstrators removed the giant statue to the founder of the Cheka, Feliks Dzerzhin sky, from the square in front of KGB headquarters. Around the same time, a plaque in honour of Andropov was taken down from the wall of the Lubyanka. Mr Putin has had it replaced.

Many of Mr Putin's attitudes, including calls for discipline and order, echo Andro pov's policies. They also appeal to Russians who want an end to the chaos which permeated society in the course of Mr Yeltsin's disorderly rule. Andropov's placing of order and discipline at the top of his list of priorities, however, didn't give Russians a better life, although it must be said that his extremely short term in power did not help either.

One group of Russians has not, so far, come out with statements ringing with praise for the odds-on favourite in the polls of March 26th. The oligarchs, the extremely wealthy men who ran Russia without being elected, are somewhat wary of the acting president.

In the disorganised privatisation of state industries, many saw their chance and bought important companies at knock-down prices. Their wealth was used to political effect in 1996 when it seemed possible that Boris Yeltsin could lose the presidential election to the Communist candidate Gennady Zyuganov.

The small number of men who control Russia's wealth bankrolled Mr Yeltsin's campaign and got their rewards later by winning even more privatisation auctions.

Anatoly Chubais, Russia's most unpopular politician, conducted the privatisation programme. He has come in for some very harsh words from Mr Putin who is so popular that he doesn't need financial support. Indeed, apart from swanning around his native St Petersburg with Tony Blair in tow, he has barely canvassed at all.

The arch-oligarch and chief political schemer Boris Berezovsky, who led the group which financed the Yeltsin campaign, appears to have been at a loss for words this time round. Rumours abound that Putin will put the oligarchs in their place and, should he do so, he would gain immense popularity with Russians. It is unlikely however that he will go any further than telling them to run their businesses and stop trying to run the country.

While Mr Berezovsky and his side-kick Roman Abramovich are likely to lose favour, there is some indication that one group of oligarchs may replace another. In a recently published book of interviews, In the First Person - Conversations with Vladimir Putin, the prospective president strongly criticises Mr Berezovsky but admits that he regularly meets other oligarchs.

Pyotr Aven of Alfa Bank, former prime minister Vladimir Potanin of the Interros company and Vagit Alekperov of the petroleum giant Lukoil are named.

These men are extremely rich and influential but it is unlikely they will have the hold over Mr Putin that Mr Berezovsky and others had over Mr Yeltsin. Mr Putin will be elected president of Russia in his own right and without the help of the oligarchy.

That became very clear to this correspondent earlier this week in the little oneroom apartment of Yulia Kalinina in the north-western city of Pskov. She had lost her husband of one year, Capt Alexander Kalinin, in Chechnya on February 21st and is still in mourning. Despite her grief, she will vote for Mr Putin.