MOSCOW — A year ago, a Russian public thoroughly sick and tired of Boris N. Yeltsin got his opposite as its new leader.
In place of Yeltsin's bearlike physique, palpable humanity, boozy work habits, flashes of vision, embrace of pluralism and rejection of the country's Soviet past, Russians now have as their president Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, the anti-Yeltsin.
Whereas Yeltsin had long been ailing and rarely strayed from his suburban Moscow dacha, Putin is vigorous and gads about the globe. Just 48, slightly built, cool, pragmatic and tactical, he comes across as a disciplinarian with a nostalgic affection for the efforts of Yuri V. Andropov, the ex-KGB chief who tried to bring order to the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
In his first presidential New Year's Eve address, televised just before midnight across Russia, Putin called 2000 a year of "difficult decisions" but suggested that he already has begun restoring Russia's dignity--even if many problems remain.
"What just recently seemed almost impossible is becoming a fact of life," he said. "Elements of stability have appeared in the country, and that is very precious--for politics, the economy and each of us."
Putin is distrusted by some Russians who worry about democracy and human rights. But almost everyone else--that is, about two-thirds of the country's 145 million people--is satisfied with his performance after his first 12 months in office, according to opinion surveys.
Except for his slow response to the sinking of the Kursk submarine in August, analysts give him high marks on image and public relations. Putin receives less enthusiastic but still respectable rankings for his substantive work as president.
Putin's guiding aim has been to build a strong central government. He quickly endorsed a no-holds-barred war against separatists in the republic of Chechnya. Next, he turned on the powerful provincial and regional governors, pushing through a law that made them answerable to Kremlin appointees and forcing them to relinquish their seats in the upper house of parliament.
The oligarchs--business tycoons who made huge fortunes by securing formerly state assets when the Soviet Union collapsed--were warned to keep out of politics and start paying taxes. In general, tax police were given a broad mandate to seek out evaders so that the state will have the revenues it needs.
