Yeltsin's resignation was planned with one end in mind-Putin's elevation and the continued protection of the outgoing President, his family and their close associates. That tight-knit clique-ironically labeled "the Family" by Russians-had a close call in early 1999, when then Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov unleashed a criminal investigation. It was an alarming portent of things to come and brought home to the Family the need to find a successor who would look after their interests. What intensified their concern was the fact that Primakov, who was fired in May, had rapidly become the front runner for the presidency.

So, deep inside the Kremlin, unknown to Russians, Yeltsin's top strategists began toying with the idea of an early resignation. Gleb Pavlovsky, the political consultant who is one of the Kremlin's main electoral strategists, told Time that he proposed the idea last summer. Two key conditions had to be fulfilled for the gambit to work, Pavlovsky said. The President needed a successor he could trust completely, and all serious contenders for the presidency would have to be weakened beyond the point of presenting any danger. The first condition was fulfilled when Sergei Stepashin, who had followed Primakov into the prime ministership, was fired on Aug. 9 and replaced by Putin. The second came on Dec. 19, when the political bloc the Kremlin feared most, Primakov's Fatherland-All Russia Party, was beaten into a disappointing third place in parliamentary elections. The final decision, however, was probably made last Wednesday eveningŠa fact that suggests there was considerable debate within the Yeltsin camp on the desirability, or perhaps feasibility, of persuading the President to step down.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1952. Little is known about his childhood and family life, though he is married and has two teenage daughters. Putin graduated from Leningrad State University with a law degree in 1975. On graduation he was quickly recruited into the KGB, which he served first in Moscow and then in East Germany. The acting President's spy life remains as much a mystery as the rest of his biography.

Elections at the end of March mean that Putin has hardly enough time to make a serious mistake. A disaster in Chechnya could scar him, but his strategists are calculating that for the time being he has developed a Teflon coating. The biggest threat facing Putin, says Pavlovsky, is dramatically inflated popular expectations.

Last week the Russian-government website posted a long and somewhat turgid statement of Putin's beliefs. "Russia will not soon, if ever, become a second copy of, say, the U.S. or England, where liberal values have deep historical traditions," Putin wrote. Russians, he argued, are comfortable with a strong state, a more collective approach to society rather than Western individualism, and considerable government intervention in the economy.

Questions

1. When and why did Boris Yeltsin resign?
2. In what direction is Vladimir Putin expected to steer Russia?

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