MOSCOW (AP) - Billionaire and Russian government critic Alexander Lebedev has been struck from the mayoral ballot in the Winter Olympic city of Sochi _ prompting renewed questions over the country’s commitment to democracy.
Lebedev dismissed the Sochi Election Commission’s explanation that he had violated rules in registering his candidacy as “nonsense.”
He vowed Saturday to appeal to the Supreme Court to cancel the April 26 vote _ which has become one of Russia’s most intriguing political battles in years and a test of its democratic pledges despite years of increasing Kremlin control over politics.
The election winner is likely to have some say over how billions of dollars will be allocated for Olympic construction in the subtropical resort on the Black Sea. The city will host the winter games in 2014, taking place just a few weeks before the new mayor’s five-year term ends.
“It’s all nonsense,” Lebedev told The Associated Press. “The authorities will do anything they can to falsify the result.”
Lebedev _ a banker, investor and former lawmaker who’s holdings include about one-third of Russian flag-carrier Aeroflot, as well as stakes in newspapers Novaya Gazeta and London’s Evening Standard _ frequently speaks out against government policies, but never criticizes leaders directly.
He is not the only Sochi mayoral candidate complaining about alleged interference in favor of the pro-Kremlin incumbent, Anatoly Pakhomov.
Another anti-government candidate, former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, has posted photographs on his Internet blog that appear to show Kremlin-run youth groups picketing his campaign events.
Both Nemtsov and Lebedev have said authorities illegally seized campaign literature and denied local media access. They also have complained about being blocked from meeting their supporters, and charge that area employers have pressured thousands to vote in early balloting for Pakhomov, even arranging for special buses to take them to voting stations.
The Sochi Elections Commission decided late Friday to strike Lebedev from the ballot, after an appeals court Thursday upheld a ruling that he had misfiled financial statements when registering his candidacy last month.
“We are crossing his name off on all the ballots,” commission spokeswoman Natalya Tkachyova said, adding that any of the 2,000 or so votes cast so far in early balloting would be voided if they were for Lebedev.
The initial complaint against Lebedev’s candidacy was filed by local businessman Vladimir Trukhanovsky _ one of six candidates still on the Sochi mayoral ballots.
Others include a local Communist Party leader and a member of a Kremlin-friendly nationalist party. Andrei Bogdanov, a presidential candidate last year, dropped out of the running last week.
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