Russia election candidate missing

[Grojlach]

An actual article that doesn't have the word "Iraq" or "mp3" in it... [img]graemlins/someoddthing.gif[/img]


Russia election candidate missing

A candidate for Russia's presidential elections linked to self-exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky has disappeared, according to family and colleagues.
Ivan Rybkin, a senior official under former president Boris Yeltsin, has not been seen since Thursday evening.
Police launched a hunt for Mr Rybkin on Sunday after he was reported missing, but a spokesman said there was no reason to suppose he had been abducted.
Mr Rybkin is a harsh critic of Vladimir Putin who seeks re-election.
The number of candidates challenging Mr Putin has now risen to six after two more were approved by the electoral commission before a Sunday deadline.
Most of Russia's best-known political names bowed out of the presidential race after Mr Putin's United Russia party and its allies swept last December's parliamentary elections.

Faltering campaign

Mr Rybkin is best known as a speaker of the Russian parliament and head of the national security council during the Yeltsin era in the 1990s.
In recent years he has called for talks between the Kremlin and Chechen rebels on ending the fighting in the republic, but Mr Putin is opposed to any negotiation.
He currently leads a faction of the Liberal Russia party, formed by Mr Berezovsky, and is seen as close to the UK-based tycoon.
He ran a full-page open letter in the newspaper Kommersant this week claiming to have information linking President Putin to big business.
But his campaign has failed to take off, and polls show his support running at about 1% of the electorate.
Nationalist Sergey Glazyev, seen as the biggest threat to Mr Putin, is expected to be approved as a candidate on Sunday.

Source: BBC

[ 02-10-2004, 04:50 AM: Message edited by: Grojlach ]

[Yorick]

I read that this morning in the New York times. Really bad news. Not a good sign.

[Donut]

I'm guessing he'll turn up sooner rather than later. Probably somewhere like the Ukraine!

[Timber Loftis]

Abduction, I bet. By someone with HUGE cohones.

[dplax]

It seems he went off to have private life for 2-3 days.

From cnn:


Missing Putin rival found - aide


MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russia presidential candidate Ivan Rybkin has reappeared in Kiev after being reported missing for five days, one of his aides said.

There had been fears expressed by some that the outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin might have been kidnapped or killed, while others were calling his disappearance a publicity stunt.

Kseniya Ponomaryova, Rybkin's campaign manager, said she had "no explanation" why he went to the Ukrainian capital. Rybkin was due to return to Moscow Tuesday evening.

Rybkin, the former speaker of Parliament and strong critic of President Vladimir Putin, told the Interfax News Agency he was staying with friends and was puzzled about all the fuss.

"I didn't disappear anywhere. I bought a newspaper today and was stunned," Ekho Moskvy radio quoted him as saying.

Rybkin, who disappeared last Thursday, told Interfax news agency he was entitled to go on a short break.

"I have the right to two or three days of personal life. I went to Kiev to my friends, walked around, switched off my mobile phones, and didn't watch TV," he was quoted as saying.

"Over the last week I decided to have a rest from the fuss, which has surrounded me. I left my wife, who is now taking care of our grandchildren, fruit and money, but didn't tell her anything. I changed my jacket, got onto the train and left for Kiev."

He said he telephoned after reading newspapers in Kiev.

The mystery surrounding Rybkin's disappearance deepened Monday with the launch -- and then cancellation -- of a murder probe.

Rybkin's family and staff filed a missing persons report Sunday, and the FSB -- Russia's Federal Security Service -- launched an investigation.

On Monday morning, Moscow prosecutors announced a criminal case on charges of pre-meditated murder. But they canceled it almost immediately, saying there was "no basis" for such a case.

A liberal, Rybkin is running as an independent in the March 14 presidential election -- which Putin is expected to win easily.

Last week, in an open letter published in the Russian newspaper Kommersant, Rybkin accused Putin of being "the biggest oligarch in Russia."

"I am convinced Putin has no right to power in Russia ... and we have no right to be silent about it," Rybkin wrote.

He also accused the president of being allied with forces trying to control Russian business. Putin did not answer the charges.

Rybkin is a supporter of negotiations with Chechen separatists, an idea Putin vehemently rejected just last Friday following a subway bombing blamed on Chechen terrorists.

The bombing killed 39 people and injured more than 100 others. (Full story)

Rybkin, 57, was a national security adviser to former President Boris Yeltsin. He is one of six candidates running against Putin.

His poll ratings have hovered around 1 percent, and experts agree he has no chance of winning the race.

He did manage to collect 2 million signatures to put his name on the ballot, although the central election committee said it found numerous falsifications. He was certified as a candidate, however.

Rybkin is co-chairman of the Liberal Russia political party. Two of its parliamentary members have been killed under questionable circumstances.

He is also allied with Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who now lives in London. Some opponents of Berezovsky had raised the possibility that he might be tied somehow to Rybkin's disappearance.

But Berezovsky told a Moscow radio station Sunday that he was "pretty sure" Rybkin was "alive and well," saying Rybkin's wife was told by officials that he was safe.

[Grojlach]

Well, that's a bit anti-climactic... I was already waiting for the numerous conspiracy theories to appear and to spice things up around here; on a non-religion, non-war and non-copyright laws related subject, that is.

[Rokenn]

Originally posted by Grojlach: Well, that's a bit anti-climactic... I was already waiting for the numerous conspiracy theories to appear and to spice things up around here; on a non-religion, non-war and non-copyright laws related subject, that is.

Yeah it's hard to get a good heated debate around here anymore [img]tongue.gif[/img]

How about Mac vs PC? Or would that come under the religion discussion ban? [img]graemlins/laugh2.gif[/img]

[Cloudbringer]

Originally posted by Grojlach: Well, that's a bit anti-climactic... I was already waiting for the numerous conspiracy theories to appear and to spice things up around here; on a non-religion, non-war and non-copyright laws related subject, that is.

Good try, though! [img]smile.gif[/img]

LOL@ Rokenn's post... I dunno, some people do have their preferences down in stone!