As President Boris Yeltsin plans his next move, he would be welladvised to be cautious. He might be pitted against his strongest political rival yet,Evgenii Primakov. No one, in recent history has enjoyed so much support from thepopulation for doing so little. While many among the western analysts are fixating overmassive corruption allegations and predict a dark half-century ahead for Russia, there isan unprecedented calm and a sense of belief among Russians at large.

Amid such widespread thievery, mismanagement, defaults and economicmeltdown, the western mind can not comprehend what makes the Russian society tick.

Primakov is more popular that many imagine him to be. He is seen as abrave patriot who has taken on the "kamikaze" position. His own honesty is notin doubt and neither is his private life. And his ability to march on with his work whiledealing with private tragedies (loss of a young son) make him soulmate of many a Russians.

Primakov is also the symbol of stability that Russians crave andpoliticians like retired General Aleksandr Lebed cash in on. He is the peacemaker(political peace initiative, avoiding an outright war with Chechnya), the fighter againstbandit capitalists (victory against Boris Berezovskii), the statesman representative of agreat power (tough stand on Iraq and Kosovo), the man with a steel grip and a soft heart(general amnesty) and much more.

Politically, Primakov has made few or no mistakes since becoming theprime minister. An unceremonious removal of Primakov citing failure to secure IMF creditsor some other economic failure would be a hugely unpopular decision. The most vocal chargeagainst him (including, we must admit, from us) is that he has done little or nothing onthe economic front. But let us see the situation with a Russian eye.

It is important to note that the predictions of doom when he formed histeam and brought in Soviet-era relics to manage the economy and monetary policy have notmaterialsed, yet. Russia is just as surely on a course of an economic calamity as it wasunder Viktor Chernomyrdin. Western institutions, both public and private, tolerated orparticipated the rampant corruption under Chernomyrdin and helped cause the August 17crisis.

Primakov and his team do not have the same sex appeal as the youngreformersof Chernomyrdin's time. The prime minister's team and their rhetoric donot cut much ice with foreign lenders. But it does with Russian people. And that is whatmatters. The government claims that more has been done on the economic front than thewestern observers can understand. The economy is being brought back in line with a systemwhere the government has the reins rather than a few robber barons. The huge profit makingsectors like alcohol production and sale and oil and gas exports are being brought understricter government control. The suffering private enterprises are being promised taxrelief. The Mafia run banks are being eliminated and a system of large banks with statesupport is being introduced.Pensions and wages are being paid on time and discontent islargely under control. Reliability in Primakovian economics is more important thanefficiency and transparency. Primakov is everything Mikhail Gorbachev dreamed of being.Even Yeltsin has gone on record saying Primakov is the best prime minister he has had. InRussian terms and by Russian standards, that is not an exaggeration. In this society andsystem, institutional corruption is nothing new. The so-called reform gave the privilegeof stealing to only a select few. Primakov understands the friction that disparity hascaused and anger that has generated. is giving millions of state employees and thoseconnected to them, a stake in the system. It is largely ignored that such empowerment is adead-end road and there may not be anything much to steal, but that is (Russian)democracy. Russian people see the point that western economists do not. Primakov is one ofthose Andropov-mold patriots, who want the power of the apparat brought back with itsprivileges, but bribery and money laundering being crimes. The unsolicited advice ofso-called western analysts are as irrelevant to Russian economy as Yeltsin is to Russianpolitics today. Russia has a future and Primakov has seen it and he is building towardsit, brick-by-brick, one at a time.