Putin dismays reformers by backing tainted St Petersburg boss

When Vladimir Putin attended the funeral of his mentor, the liberal former St Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, city residents took it as a sign that the man about to inherit the Kremlin would defend them from corruption and guarantee democracy.

Last week the president-elect performed a volte-face which showed he was unwilling or unable to break the stranglehold of Russia's oligarchs. It was the first decision by which the world could judge Russia's new leader, other than the bombing of Chechnya.

After backing federal social affairs minister Valentina Matviyenko, who planned to challenge incumbent governor Vladimir Yakovlev in city elections, Mr Putin switched his support to Mr Yakovlev, under whom St Petersburg has become known as "the crime capital of Russia".

Boris Nemtsov, a reforming ex-deputy premier of Russia, said: "This is a massive defeat for Mr Putin." For all the signs were that Mr Putin, under pressure from the tycoon Boris Berezovsky, had withdrawn support from Ms Matviyenko and her clean-up crusade.

In the 1970s, at the then Leningrad University, Mr Putin studied law under Professor Sobchak. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Sobchak, one of the so-called "romantic reformers" of the early Yeltsin period, became mayor of the city and gave it back its historical name of St Petersburg. On leaving the KGB, Mr Putin went to work for Mayor Sobchak as his deputy.

The idealistic but impractical Mr Sobchak failed to win a second term as mayor when Mr Yakovlev exploited the discontent of the Communists and defeated him in 1996. Mr Putin remained loyal to his old teacher, while advancing his own career by moving to Moscow. Mr Sobchak was accused of corruption - falsely, his supporters say - suffered a heart attack and went into exile in Paris. Under Mr Yakovlev, cultured St Petersburg turned into "Chicago on the Neva". Corruption burgeoned and contract killings ceased to shock. In 1998, Galina Starovoitova, one of Russia's few untainted democrats, was shot dead at her St Petersburg home. Mr Yakovlev failed to attend her funeral. The murder is unsolved.

When Mr Sobchak died in February he was buried next to Starovoitova at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. Thousands attended the funeral, at which Mr Sobchak was hailed as a hero hounded to death.

Reformers vowed to take revenge by uniting around a nationally known candidate strong enough to defeat Mr Yakovlev in the gubernatorial election in May. They chose Ms Matviyenko and thought Mr Putin was behind them.

They were mistaken. "I should withdraw from the election campaign," Ms Matviyenko said last week after Mr Putin told her that, after all, he would prefer it if she stayed on as social affairs minister in the federal cabinet. "I am making this decision with a heavy heart, believe me."

Mr Putin made his U-turn after his Kremlin chief-of-staff Alexander Voloshin, a member of the Yeltsin "family" and an associate of the influential Mr Berezovsky, invited the St Petersburg governor to Moscow for talks.

Mr Berezovsky said he supported Mr Yakovlev's candidacy because "we need to ensure the continuity of power, especially in the regions. Yakovlev has made many mistakes but the alternative candidate was just not strong enough to control the problems plaguing the city".

The daily Sevodnya asked: "If Putin in his home town of St Petersburg can't handle the governor, who he himself labelled a 'Judas', then will he have enough strength to put at least some distance between the oligarchs and the Kremlin?"

The Moscow Times asked: "Why did Putin do this? It could be because he is too weak to stand up to Berezovsky and co. Or it could be because Putin will deal with and defer to anyone who wields power, regardless of what the chattering classes may hope or expect. Either way, the implications for the country are the same."