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Ex-dissident out of Russia race
22/12/2007 16:59 - (SA)
Moscow - Russia's election authorities
narrowed the field of contenders in the 2008 presidential
election to six on Saturday, rejecting a bid by former Soviet
dissident Vladimir Bukovsky because of his British nationality.
Russia will vote in March to elect a successor to President
Vladimir Putin, who has already anointed close ally Dmitry
Medvedev as his preferred candidate, making Medvedev's election
virtually a foregone conclusion.
The Central Election Commission rejected applications from 7
independent candidates, including Bukovsky, who spent 13 years
in and out of labour camps in the Soviet era, and was exchanged
for Chilean politician Luis Corvalan in 1976.
He has resided in Britain since then.
"In the Commission's opinion ... Bukovsky has a residency
permit in another country. "On top of that, he has not been
living on the territory of Russia during the last 10 years," the
commission's secretary Nikolai Konkin told Reuters. Putin critic
The commission accepted the application of former Prime
Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, one of the most outspoken Putin's
critics.
Kasyanov, liberal Boris Nemtsov, whose party Union of Right
Forces did not win any seats in parliamentary elections this
month, and another independent candidate Andrei Bogdanov will
now have to collect 2 million signatures each nationwide.
Medvedev, communist leader Gennady Zyuganov and nationalist
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who have the backing of their parties, do
not have to collect signatures and are likely to be registered
as candidates next week.
Bukovsky, 65, who sought advice on his legal rights to run
for President, said he would challenge what he described as a
politically-motivated ruling in the courts. 'Everything is political'
"This decision is obviously political. Everything in this
country is political. We will appeal this decision in the
Supreme Court," Bukovsky told Reuters by telephone from Britain.
British-Russian relations have sunk to their lowest level
since the Cold War following the poisoning of Alexander
Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence official and also a
British citizen, in London last year.
Moscow's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the man
Britain suspects killed Litvinenko, led to tit-for-tat
expulsions of diplomats. Lugovoy is now a parliament member from
a nationalist party led by Zhirinovsky.
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