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Vladimir Putin, taking the helm of a weak, unwieldy Russia as its second democratically elected president, admitted to voters Monday that he has no swift solutions to the poverty and corruption that bedevil his nation. Putin ordered the government to pay off wage debts to state workers, and said a first order of business after his convincing victory in Sunday’s election would be selecting a prime minister. Putin has promised to protect democratic freedoms, but has yet to indicate how he would carry the sprawling nation into the post-Boris Yeltsin era. Putin, 47, was named acting president when Yeltsin resigned Dec. 31. He will be inaugurated in early May and then appoint a prime minister.
