The elections are as much a contest between personalities, and the power blocs they control,
as a conventional electoral race between parties. Click the names on the right for an at-a-glance
guide to the key figures and political groupings.
Boris Yeltsin's failing health has forced him to
loosen his hold on the reins of power. Once a
workaholic, he gave up day-to-day running of
the country in October 1998 and now lives at
his country residence, visiting the Kremlin only
for a few hours at a time.
He was first elected Russian president in 1991, and won a
second term in 1996 after suffering a heart attack at the
end of an exhausting campaign. Following a quintuple
heart bypass operation later that year, his behaviour and
public statements became increasingly unpredictable.
Despite the 68-year-old president's impending
retirement, he and his team are nonetheless keen to make sure that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who comes from the Yeltsin family's inner circle, will win the presidency in June 2000 elections. They are delighted with the results of the December parliamentary election, which have guaranteed that loyalists are well represented in the new legislature.