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Khodorkovsky By-Election Bid Draws Motley Group of Rivals

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  • Khodorkovsky By-Election Bid Draws Motley Group of Rivals

    MosNews, Russia
    Sept 15 2005

    Khodorkovsky By-Election Bid Draws Motley Group of Rivals


    After Mikhail Khodorkovsky's former cellmate, accused of trying to
    assassinate Russian energy monopoly chief, refused to run against him
    in a by-election to the State Duma, a woman who became famous after
    killing a rapist, has been asked by nationalist politicians to
    compete with the jailed tycoon, local media reported.

    Alexandra Ivannikova, 30, received a two-year suspended sentence
    after killing ethnic Armenian Sergei Bagdasaryan, who she said had
    tried to rape her in his taxi. The case received wide coverage in the
    local press and among the general public, while the victim's
    ethnicity brought nationalist parties to Ivannikova's side.

    Prosecutors later asked for the sentence to be annulled, and she was
    fully acquitted.

    Alexandra received an offer to run for the parliamentary seat from a
    number of movements, including the Russian Public Movement and the
    Movement Against Illegal Immigration. Their initiative was also
    backed by a radical Duma deputy from the LDPR faction Nikolai
    Kurianovich, who said he would like to see a real `Russian woman'
    among the members of his fraction.

    Ivannikova's supporters explain their choice by saying the woman `has
    asserted the honor of Russian women by fighting with a native of the
    Transcaucasus'.

    Ekho Moskvy radio station also reported that four more inmates of the
    Matrosskaya Tishina detention center where the former Yukos tycoon is
    being held - two of them charged with robbery and the others with
    child molesting - are also going to run for the State Duma.

    Earlier this month the Russian nationalist party Motherland asked
    retired Russian commando Vladimir Kvachkov, held on suspicion of
    trying to assassinate the head of Unified Energy Systems of Russia
    Anatoly Chubais, to compete against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, but
    Kvachkov, however, turned the offer down.

    The former Yukos head, sentenced to nine years in prison for fraud
    and tax evasion, officially announced his candidacy in the Moscow
    constituency after the deputy elected from the 201st Universitetsky
    district took up a managerial post at a bank. Khodorkovsky is
    eligible to stand in the election because the appeal of his sentence
    has not yet been heard. The court session started on Sept. 14, but
    was adjourned.

    The elections are scheduled for Dec. 4, 2005.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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