Spring election fever hits Olympic city as democracy stirs in Russia
Billionaire newspaper owner Alexander Lebedev is among candidates in rare ballot whose outcome is not certain
- Luke Harding in Sochi
- The Guardian, Saturday 4 April 2009
- Article history
The sea is a picture postcard blue. Down on the pebbly beach, tourists stroll along a wide promenade. Not far away middle-aged swimmers plough up and down the azure of an outdoor pool. And in the sunny tropical gardens, a pleasant breeze wafts through the magnolias and palms.
It is here on the Black Sea that the most bizarre election in Russia's recent history is taking place. Sixteen candidates are campaigning to become mayor of Sochi, the city which will play host to the 2014 Winter Olympics.
But this election differs from other polls in Russia in one vital respect: it is not entirely clear who is going to win.
One candidate is Alexander Lebedev, the billionaire and former KGB spy who now owns the Evening Standard newspaper in London. He arrived here yesterday afternoon. His chief opponent is Boris Nemtsov, a Kremlin critic and opposition leader aligned with the democratic movement Solidarity.
The Kremlin's candidate is Anatoly Pakhomov, a former tractor driver. Other would-be mayors include a ballerina, a pensioner, and Russia's chief freemason.
Last month Andrey Lugovoi, the former KGB agent accused of murdering Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London, announced that he too would stand. He later changed his mind.
The race is critical not just because of Sochi's prominence as an Olympic city, but because, for the first time since Vladimir Putin began to emasculate the electoral process, Russia is galvanised by the prospect of Sochi holding a proper election.
Analysts are divided on why the Kremlin has suddenly permitted a small democratic spring when standard procedure would be to banish opposition. Some believe there is a division between Putin and the president, Dmitry Medvedev, on tactics; others say the Kremlin remains confident that, despite the circus of opponents ranged against it, its man will win.
Lebedev for one is confident that the Kremlin will not have its way. "Definitely so," he said yesterday when asked if he could prevail. "Sochi is an independent-minded city, unhappy about quite a few things," he added. Nearby teenagers on roller-blades and mothers with small children sunned themselves in the gardens.
Lebedev also said he was thinking about unleashing a secret weapon in his campaign to be mayor: his new friend Boris Johnson, the mayor of London. "I'm thinking about issuing Boris a private invitation," Lebedev mused. "Do you think he would be interested in having a look at the local Olympic facilities?"
The newspaper proprietor said he intended to emulate some of the technological tactics used by Barack Obama in his successful US presidential campaign. But he conceded that not everybody in Sochi used the internet - a drawback. "I have lots of experience in running campaigns and working with the media," he said.
Lebedev is standing in Sochi because he has had no chance of running Moscow, he admits. He stood for Moscow mayor in 2003 but was steamrollered by the loyalist incumbent Yuri Luzhkov. The two cities have similar problems, Lebedev said yesterday: "Ugly traffic jams, poor infrastructure, and a lack of affordable housing."
Earlier Lebedev's campaign manager, Artyom Artyomov, hinted that the Anglophile tycoon enjoys better-than-perceived relations with the Kremlin. "They are absolutely against Nemtsov. But they don't have anything against Lebedev being mayor," he said. Moreover, Lebedev was so rich he had no need for corruption, Artyomov pointed out. "The Kremlin is unhappy with the regional authorities and the way the Olympics is going. The corruption is disgusting," he said.
Other candidates, however, are scathing about Lebedev's ambitions, and accuse him of dilettantism. "He's a serious guy. But I don't think he's serious about this campaign," Nemtsov, a Sochi local, told the Guardian, as his minibus inched through Sochi's traffic. He joked: "Maybe the Standard can help him. If he prints his British newspaper here, he can get round Kremlin censorship."
According to the Nemtsov camp, opinion polls show Pakhomov in front with 35%, followed by Nemtsov on 20, and the Communists on 4 or 5%. Lebedev has 1%, Nemtsov says. Lebedev dismisses this figure as "unbelievable".
If no candidate gets more than 50% in the 26 April poll, there will be a run-off vote two weeks later. If this happens Sochi residents distressed by local bureaucrats might just elect Nemtsov or Lebedev.
The big question, though, is whether the local administration decides to cheat. Western observers complain repeatedly at the use of administrative resources in elections - a euphemism for bumping up the votes for the official candidate. With nothing less than Russia's first Winter Olympic at stake, it seems unlikely Sochi's regional rulers will leave things to chance.
The signs are so far ominous. TV stations have been instructed not to broadcast Nemtsov, while lavishing attention on the pro-government candidate. The dirty tricks started last month when an activist from the Kremlin youth group Nashi chucked ammonia over Nemtsov at a press conference. The assailant had disguised himself as a girl and, in a bizarre touch, carried a bunch of roses. Last week mysterious donors paid money into both Lebedev and Nemtsov's bank accounts, an infringement that could have seen them kicked off the ballot. In the end, they registered successfully.
Mayoral elections are the last forum in which opposition hopefuls can make a ballot-box impact, after Putin scrapped gubernatorial elections in 2004.
Some optimists believe Lebedev and Nemtsov have been allowed to stand because Putin and Medvedev could not agree what should happen in Sochi. The new mayor will be in power right up until the Olympics. He will have enormous sway over how federal money is used.
Last month Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, was politely dismissive of Lebedev's aspirations. "Some candidates are using the election for PR," he suggested.
Sochi has 400,000 inhabitants. It was a established as a resort in Soviet times and has remained popular. The sanatoria and hotels, their gardens neatly planted with rhododendrons and pines, are still a favourite with holidaymakers who spend their evenings drinking beer and wine in seafront cafes.
In the background are the snow-capped Caucasus mountains and Krasnaya Polyana, the mountain resort and host to skiing events in the 2014 games. Russia's jubilation at winning the Olympics has faded, however. Many of the oligarchs who agreed to upgrade Sochi's crumbling facilities are now broke. They include billionaire Oleg Deripaska, once Russia's richest man, who was supposed to build a new terminal for the airport; no work is going on. Other wealthy backers have also fallen on hard times.
When delegates of the International Olympic Committee came to inspect, local bureaucrats created a "Potemkin" airport terminal opening up the half-finished building and hiring teachers to pretend to be tourists. One tourist even told the delegates that she was en route to Bankgok - unlikely, since there are no flights from Sochi to Thailand. When the IOC departed, maintenance workers switched off the lights. The terminal has been dark ever since.
Understandably, the Olympics is a major issue in this month's election, with many voters now disillusioned by the project's implementation.
And there have been persistent questions over the environmental impact of the games. Last month Russia's ecology minister admitted that some of the building sites "looked ghastly". The local bear population has also suffered.
"At first everybody was glad we had the Olympics. But now most people in Sochi are fed up. Lots of people are being thrown out of their homes to make way for the Olympic village," a taxi driver, Ashot Nubaryan, told the Guardian.
But the name Alexander Lebedev mystified the driver.
"I've heard of Boris Berezovsky. But not Lebedev," he said. "Who is he?"