BERNARD SHAW, CNN ANCHOR: Russian soldiers are pressing their attacks against rebels in the breakaway republic of Chechnya. The Russian government said Wednesday that in one village, 14 Chechen fighters were killed and more than 100 captured when they tried to fight their way through a Russian cordon. Meanwhile, as CNN's Steve Harrigan tells us, acting President Putin is reaching out to voters in a different republic ahead of Sunday's election.</s>STEVE HARRIGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's one name on the posters, one face in the windows -- Vladimir Putin. Elections in Tatarstan have always been a one-man show, and many people in central Russia say that's the way it should be. "All the media," he says, "television, newspapers, they are all preparing the people, getting them ready for a new leader." The likely new leader came to town this week to shore up support in one of Russia's Muslim republics at the same time he is directing a war in another. "Two different religions live here in peace," he says. "It should be a model for the rest of Russia." The trip to Tatarstan is more than just a campaign stop for a candidate whose main theme is a strong central government. (on camera): In the center of Russia, Tatarstan has its own flag, its own president, its own trade deals with more than a dozen nations, and most important, it gets to keep half the tax money it raises. (voice-over): All part of a deal Boris Yeltsin made to quiet an independence movement, to prevent another Chechnya. The next Russian president is expected to roll back some of those promises, to rein in Russia's powerful governors. Tatarstan's President Mintimer Shaimiev, who backed Mr. Putin's foes in the parliamentary elections, could be one of the first targets. But until all the votes are counted, it's still all smiles from the acting president. Steve Harrigan, Tatarstan, Russia.
Acting Russian President Vladimir Putin Campaigns in Tatarstan