Russian PM Congratulates Lebed on Poll Victory

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko on Tuesday became the first top Russian official to congratulate controversial politician Alexander Lebed on winning the governorship of Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region. "I hope your business qualities will find a worthy use in this high official position," Kiriyenko said in a telegram sent to Lebed, a reserve general distrusted by Russia's political elite for his presidential ambitions and strong popular appeal. Unofficial results from Sunday's poll gave the tough-talking Lebed 57.3 percent of votes cast, well ahead of Kremlin-backed incumbent Valery Zubov's 38.2 percent. Final official results are due on Thursday. Political analysts say the vast, mineral-rich Krasnoyarsk region could become Lebed's springboard to the Kremlin in the next presidential election in 2000. But in recent days Lebed, 48, has said he will not seek the presidency until he has brought prosperity to the region - a task likely to take a long time in view of its heavy reliance on the largely outdated, Soviet-era military-industrial complex. He has also said he wants to win greater autonomy from distant Moscow for his region, which boasts chemical plants and nickel and aluminium reserves. Lebed played a key role in ending wars in former Soviet Moldova in 1992 and in Russia's rebel region of Chechnya in 1996 but both the Kremlin and the Communist opposition have questioned his ability to tackle Krasnoyarsk's economic woes. President Boris Yeltsin's press secretary, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said on Monday the Kremlin leader would also congratulate Lebed on his election victory, which he described as a "protest vote" by disillusioned voters. Yastrzhembsky said Yeltsin had no immediate plans to meet the new governor, who came third in the first round of 1996 presidential polls, joined Yeltsin's camp in the runoff vote and was sacked from the Kremlin team four months later. Lebed says Russian politics is plagued with corruption but he has so far refused to outline his plans for Krasnoyarsk, saying only that he will be guided by law, not by autocratic whim. Under local regulations he must be officially inaugurated in the week beginning on June 4. Lebed said on Monday he would invite Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov, with whom he negotiated a peace deal for the separatist region, to attend his inauguration. Interfax quoted Maskhadov, who seeks full Chechen independence from Moscow, as saying he was considering whether to attend.