Putin critic takes on Kremlin rival in Moscow polls

Agence France-Presse

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The candidacy of anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny has made the race the first genuinely competitive Russian election since the heady early post-Soviet years

FOR MOSCOW MAYOR. Moscow mayoral candidate Alexei Navalny delivers a speech during his last election campaign event in Moscow, Russia, 06 September 2013. EPA/Sergei Ilnitsky

MOSCOW, Russia – A top critic of President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, Sept 8, faced a Kremlin-backed incumbent in a hotly contested Moscow mayoral poll, the first time an opposition leader has been allowed to stand in a high-profile election.

In the Russian capital’s first mayoral election in a decade, Muscovites had to choose from six candidates including current pro-Kremlin mayor Sergei Sobyanin and main opposition candidate Alexei Navalny.

The candidacy of anti-corruption blogger Navalny has made the race the first genuinely competitive Russian election since the heady early post-Soviet years.

The vote will be seen as a crucial test of the protest mood in a city which was shaken by huge demonstrations against Putin’s decade-long rule in the winter of 2011-2012.

Moscow gave Putin a relatively low 46.95% of the vote in the 2012 presidential election, well below the nationwide average.

Opinion polls indicate Kremlin-backed Sobyanin, 55, will win a majority in Sunday’s poll, while Navalny is set to come second with around 20 percent.

The 37-year-old Navalny, who shot to prominence during the anti-Putin rallies, has earned comparisons to a young Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first post-Soviet president, for his exuberant energy, good looks and promise of change.

The four other candidates in the poll are: a representative of a Kremlin-friendly party, a Communist, an ultra-nationalist lawmaker and a liberal opposition figure.

Many ordinary Muscovites said they would vote for Navalny, who channels public anger against the Kremlin, even if some harbor reservations about his tough anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“He embodies the fight against corruption, honesty, protest against the regime,” said Ivan Volkov, 28, after casting his ballot.

“I am not sure he will win but any vote in his favor will hasten the arrival of political change.”

‘Choose a mayor they want’

The opposition leader expressed hope that the election would be free of violations as he appeared at a polling station with his elegant wife and two children.

“I would like very much to see people finally express their will and chose a mayor they want,” said Navalny, who has threatened protests if officials rig the vote.

Many on Sunday said they voted for Sobyanin because he had done a lot for Moscow since his appointment to the post in 2010.

“With his arrival Moscow has become better,” said Yevgenia Zatsepina, 78. “He is someone who keeps his promises. He’s business-like and kind.”

But the main intrigue in the poll is not how many vote for the pro-Kremlin incumbent but what happens to Navalny, who has been campaigning under the burden of a five-year prison sentence on what he says are trumped-up charges.

The blogger, who first made a name for himself exposing corruption among the elites, has vowed to jail Putin and his allies if he is one day elected president.

At the start of the campaign, Navalny was sentenced to five years in a penal colony on fraud charges and arrested in court.

A day later he was suddenly released pending appeal of his term, in an unprecedented move observers say showed the Kremlin did not know how to handle him.

Despite Navalny becoming an increasingly visible presence in Russia’s politics, Putin still refuses to mention him by name and refers to him as “this gentleman.”

The Russian president has made no secret of his support for his former chief of staff Sobyanin, however, praising him profusely ahead of the poll.

Throughout the campaign the buttoned-up Kremlin functionary avoided overt political rhetoric and shunned television debates, instead focusing on sprucing up the city of 12 million.

By contrast, Navalny made headlines with a Western-style political campaign mobilizing the support of thousands of volunteers and securing more than 100 million rubles ($3 million) in donations.

Analysts say Navalny’s five-year term may be commuted to a suspended sentence if he performs well in the election.

Polls will close at 1600 GMT, with the first results expected to become available soon after.

Independent observers said they had not so far registered any major vote irregularities.

On Sunday, Russians were also electing local lawmakers and mayors in a number of cities including the Urals city of Yekaterinburg where an opposition activist is expected to run against a Kremlin-backed rival.

In some villages in the far east of the country, where record floods have paralyzed normal life, small ballot boxes were delivered to people’s houses by boat. – Rappler.com

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