#14
Diamond chief triumphs in scandal-hit Siberia poll
By Tara FitzGerald
MOSCOW, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A diamond magnate and Kremlin favourite swept to victory on Monday in a scandal-stained vote in Russia's Siberian diamond region, consolidating President Vladimir Putin's drive to bring regional fiefdoms into line.
The Central Election Commission said Vyacheslav Shtyrov, head of the diamond monopoly Alrosa, had scooped more than 59 percent of the Yakutia gubernatorial vote on Sunday, while businessman Fedot Tumusov took around 34 percent.
The contest had been dogged by controversy for months linked to court cases against candidates, press smear campaigns and the withdrawal of incumbent Mikhail Nikolayev under Kremlin pressure in favour of Shtyrov.
Nikolayev, who had headed the vast territory since 1991, bowed out of the race in December after Moscow officials and the Central Election Commission chief made it clear they wanted him to drop his bid for a third term.
Nikolayev originally resisted Moscow's pressure, hitting back through the local courts.
But Putin drove the final nail into Nikolayev's coffin when he invited him and Shtyrov to the Kremlin together -- and then gave the diamond tycoon an award for his handling of the billion-dollar industry.
Nikolayev finally withdrew and threw his support behind Shtyrov.
TURNOUT BOOSTED BY FREE HANDOUTS
Turnout in the election was more than 75 percent, well above the 50 percent minimum required, and boosted in part as voters were offered the chance to win a car or a television and buy cheap groceries if they went to the polls.
Interfax news agency quoted Tumusov's campaign headquarters as saying they planned to challenge the election outcome in court. Losing candidates in regional elections regularly take such action, but results are rarely changed.
Yakutia is one of 89 Russian regions and the diamond-rich Siberian territory spans three time zones. Alrosa is the world's second largest diamond producer after South Africa's De Beers.
Provincial leaders amassed huge powers under Putin's predecessor Boris Yeltsin, often having wide control of the mineral wealth buried under vast swathes of the country.
But the new Russian leader has reined them in by taking on powers to sack them, appointing federal envoys to oversee them and kicking them out of the upper house of parliament in Moscow.
Under Putin, the governor of the Pacific coastal Primorye region, once considered among the most powerful of all regional bosses, was forced to step down.
And last year, election officials struck the incumbent governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Rutskoi, from the ballot on the eve of a poll, citing campaign irregularities. Rutskoi called himself a victim of Kremlin meddling.
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