Kremlin critic Kasparov stopped from running for Russian president

Dec 13, 2007, 12:24 GMT

Moscow - Dissident and former chess champion Garry Kasparov has been prevented from standing as a candidate in Russia's presidential vote, his spokeswoman said Thursday.

Kasparov's beleaguered opposition coalition the Other Russia was repeatedly blocked by authorities from finding a venue in which to hold a congress to nominate him, Maria Litvinovich told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

By election law, the coalition's time limit ran out Thursday to register the congress.

Meanwhile, four pro-Kremlin parties will meet on Monday to put forth President Vladimir Putin's chosen successor Dmitry Medvedev for president. Riding on the coat tails of Putin's soaring popularity, Medvedev is virtually guaranteed the office.

All other candidates are seen as non-starters in the March election run.

Kasporov was unable to comment on the situation Thursday as he was in mourning over the death of 22-year-old activist Yury Chernochkin, who was allegedly beaten to death by police during a street protest earlier this month.

Russian OMON riot police on Thursday held up two buses of Other Russia supporters heading out of Moscow for the funeral, Litvinovich said.

Litvinovich said authorities had thrown as many spokes as possible in the coalitions elections efforts, and blamed official pressure for the Other Russia's inability to find a hall where activists could gather to uphold Kasparov's candidacy.

Central Election Commission member Alexei Kisin on Thursday said Kasparov's was 'a very strange announcement.'

'In all of Russia and all of Moscow there are many premises where it is possible to gather for all manner of reasons,' he was quoted as saying by news agency Interfax.

A vocal Kremlin critic, Kasparov has many times accused officials of harassment and been subject to arrest for leading a series of so- called Dissenter's Marches after his opposition coalition was sidelined from participating in electoral politics.

The Other Russia coalition is not a registered party, and Kasparov would need to gather two million signatures of support run as an independent candidate.

It is still possible that Kasparov could stand as candidate for a grouping of other Russian liberal parties, which have hitherto not been able to agree on a unified opposition candidate.

The leader of the liberal Union of Right Forces party, Boris Nemtsov, said his party would be ready to support a unified opposition candidate after the party's defeat in December 2 parliamentary elections.

But such a presidential hopeful does not stand a chance against a Kremlin-supported candidate.

A survey Thursday by state-run All-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VsTIOM) showed Kasparov polling at half a percentage point, while 77 per cent of people said they would vote for the candidate nominated by Putin's party United Russia.