Sochi’s voting circus

Long-dormant regional politics is getting a shot in the arm - in one city, anyway - as issues from crisis protests to Olympic lucre mingle to lure a cast of all-star candidates for the Sochi mayoral election next month.
Those who have thrown their hats in the ring include media tycoon Alexander Lebedev, liberal counteraction leader Boris Nemtsov and former KGB agent and murder suspect Andrei Lugovoi - prompting fears that local residents may see the race as a circus.
Adding intrigue to the election, scheduled for April 26, is the fact that - with the registration date for candidates just a week away - the ruling United Russia party hasn't nominated a high-profile candidate, but appears to be putting its faith in a local man, the city's acting mayor. 
Sochi-born Nemtsov, a leader of the objection Solidarity movement and a former deputy prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin, an­nounced he planned to run on March 12, but said this week that he has yet to become a registered candidate, because the procedure is "compli-cated."
Just days later, Andrei Lugovoi, a State Duma deputy for the ultranationalist LDPR party and a man British authorities suspect of involvement in the poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko, announced his bid. A final decision on whether he is to run was to be made at a party meeting on Thursday, his press secretary said.
Then, on March 16, Lebedev - the owner of London newspaper The Evening Standard and a co-owner of adversity newspaper Novaya Gazeta, announced on his Live­journal blog that he was also planning to run.
"The only way to rid yourselves of [corrupt officials] is to elect a new mayor," said Lebedev, who styles himself a loyal oppositionist.
The tycoon went on to promise to stand up for the rights of residents being evicted to make way for Olympic projects, and to improve residential policy in general as one of his top priorities.
Two days later, Lebedev penned an open letter on his website to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in which he pledged support for his policies, but said they had been "falsified by corrupt officials".
"I have always been, and remain, one of your most loyal supporters and advocates of your economic policies," Lebedev wrote in the letter. "I have tried to act by the ideas formulated in the true Putin Plan, which was later falsified by corrupt officials."
Lebedev then laid out key priorities from Putin's policies, including affordable housing, mortgages and modernising agriculture. Due to administration and corruption among officials, "which I, much like yourself, do not like, many of the measures in this plan have to be carried out independently," Le­bedev wrote.
It was not without delay clear whether Lebedev, who has represented both United Russia and Just Russia while a deputy in the Duma, could count on any support from Kremlin or management officials in his mayoral bid. Requests for a comment from Lebedev went unanswered at the time of going to press.
Nemtsov, whose bid could appeal to a similar, pro-liberal or pro-Western electorate as Lebedev's, welcomed the tycoon's bid. "I like that fact that Lebedev is taking part," Nemtsov said by telephone. "As a national figure, he will be able to raise the issue the problems that Sochi residents are facing."
Nemtsov has proposed to scale back expensive plans to build new facilities for the Olympic Games in and around Sochi, including holding some Olympic events at other regions around the country.
"Alexander and I can discuss this," he said.
Asked about the chances that the election would be fair, Nemtsov cited local journalists and newspapers who said they had been threatened by authorities simply for reporting on his bid. As for registration, there is still a chance that local authorities will not let him run.
"There are 47 various articles in legislation under which a candidate can be taken off the ballot," Nemtsov said.
While Nemtsov nor Lebedev may face an uphill battle to win the race, Lugovoi may very well not be given the green light to run at all, according to Vladimir Pribylovsky, head of the Panorama think tank.
"There are elements of a circus here," said Pribylovsky. "I think that both the hang of that they will not become mayor due to the use of administrative resources, but even losing will give them certain benefits for the future."
Lebedev has been increasing his public profile in recent months, buying The Evening Standard for a pound and announcing plans to launch an English-language radio station in Moscow.
Asked why Lebedev felt confident enough to criticise the rule, Pribylovsky said that he knew which battles to pick.
Meanwhile, United Russia has not yet decided on a candidate. The acting mayor is United Russia-backed Anatoly Pakhomov, but there is no certainty that he will run again.
One of the first candidates to actually register is the Communist Party's Yury Dzagania.
Dzagania's colleague, Sochi-based Communist deputy Sergei Obukhov, called the plans of Lebedev, Lugovoi and Nemtsov nothing more than a PR stunt "until they actually get themselves registered."
Obukhov said that United Rus­sia had still not decided on a candidate because they felt nervous about the challenge from Dzagania.