Hydrablog

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-russia-election-kasyanov.html
January 27, 2008
Kremlin Foe Barred From Election
By REUTERS
Filed at 10:34 a.m. ET [Russia] [former USSR] [followup] [Russia’s new-found aggressivness] [awash in Petro dollars, Russia on the rise and re-asserting itself and its historic interests] [democratization—we don’t need no stinking democracy] [*****] [use ir text] [use psci 350]
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov was barred on Sunday from running for president in a March election, a move he said was taken to block any real challenge to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin's chosen candidate.
The Election Commission's decision seemed certain to stir fresh criticism by Kremlin opponents that the March 2 vote has been slanted in favor of Dmitry Medvedev, 42, the first deputy prime minister who Putin has backed to be his successor.
Kasyanov, who had little chance of winning the election, said Russia under Putin was now on "the slippery slope towards thievish totalitarianism" and urged a boycott of the vote.
"The authorities were afraid of an open battle," Kasyanov told reporters in southern Moscow.
"I call on citizens not to vote, not to take part in this farce," he said. "The authorities are scared of the people and so they prevented me from running." [*****]
The Commission voted unanimously to refuse to register Kasyanov, 50, because it said hundreds of thousands of the signatures he had to submit in support of his candidacy were either forged, incorrect or spoiled.
Kasyanov denied so many signatures were invalid and said Putin had personally made the decision to bar him from election.
The election will be closely monitored by the United States and the European Union after international observers said last year's parliamentary vote was skewed by interference from the authorities. Kremlin officials say they want a fair vote.
Kasyanov, who served as Putin's first prime minister, said his former boss had created a system that would eventually collapse because it failed to accept any renewal or dissent. [******]
"This system, like the U.S.S.R., does not allow any improvement from within or from without," [****] he said. "Despite its seeming durability it will inevitably collapse under the weight of its own vices and crimes."
KREMLIN ELECTION
Medvedev is expected to win by a landslide after being chosen as successor last month by Putin, [***] who has said he could work as prime minister after he steps down as president.
Putin, 55, is immensely popular after presenting the image of stability and presiding over the longest Russian economic boom since the 1970s.
When asked what he thought of Medvedev, Kasyanov said: "They are both taking the country on a path to destruction so for me they are just the same... He (Medvedev) is just a representative of the regime, these people are not men of principle."
The Election Commission said problems were found with 13.36 percent of the 2 million signatures Kasyanov submitted. Rules allow just 5 percent of signatures to be invalid.
Four candidates will take part in the election: Medvedev, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovksy and Democratic Party leader Andrei Bogdanov. [*******] [Zhirinosvky still around after all these years] [the perot of Russian politics] [**********]
Kasyanov said he could have won up to 25 percent in a free election, a claim dismissed as a wild exaggeration by analyst Nikolai Zlobin of the Washington-based World Security Institute, who said he would have won only 2 percent.
"Kasyanov has been saved a big embarrassment -- he's a fake democrat," Zlobin said. "The reason for his campaign was not to save Russian democracy or to help Russia's future, but the real reason was for himself, for Mr. Kasyanov."
"It's clear to the West that these are not democratic elections. Medvedev will win 60-70 percent," he said.
(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Conor Sweeney, Editing by Michael Winfrey)