Democracy, the Kremlin Way

Today's Balloting For Mayor of Sochi A Test of Openness

MOSCOW -- Television viewers in the Black Sea resort of Sochi were treated to a 20-minute documentary this month ripping apart Boris Nemtsov, the former deputy prime minister running for mayor there as the candidate of the pro-democracy movement Solidarity.

Broadcast on all four local channels, it blames him for wrecking the economy of a region where he served as governor in the 1990s and portrays him as the puppet of an exiled billionaire who has been vilified by the Kremlin.

"Midas turned everything he touched into gold," one commentator says in the film, then uses an expletive to describe what happened to things Nemtsov touched.

Voters in Sochi will cast ballots Sunday in one of the highest-profile local elections to be held in Russia in years, a contest that President Dmitry Medvedev recently described as "good for democracy" but that critics have condemned as a showcase for the Kremlin's usual dirty tricks.

Six candidates remain in the mayoral race out of the 25 who originally expressed interest. Seven were struck from the ballot because of alleged errors in their registration forms, and others said they were pressured into quitting.

Only one candidate has been able to run a real campaign -- Anatoly Pakhomov, the incumbent and nominee of the ruling United Russia party.

The race has been seen as a test of Medvedev's willingness to allow greater political openness in Russia, and the stakes are high because Sochi is scheduled to host the Winter Olympics in 2014.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has made the city his second home and turned the Games into a personal project, and whoever becomes mayor will help decide how to spend nearly $12.5 billion in government funds.

Analysts said the only significant gesture the Kremlin has made toward allowing real competition in the race was the decision to let Nemtsov, a prominent Putin critic, stay on the ballot.

In an interview, Nemtsov compared the tactics being used against him to those of Hitler's propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels. "Now we have the same here under Putin's Russia," he said.

Nemtsov, a Sochi native, said the authorities have detained his campaign workers, seized his leaflets and prevented him from renting facilities for events. Last month, unidentified assailants threw ammonia in his face outside his campaign headquarters; he says they were activists from the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi.

Local media have refused to accept advertising from any of the opposition candidates or cover their campaign events. In addition to the 20-minute documentary on Nemtsov, though, they have broadcast footage purporting to prove that he took money in exchange for shifting the Olympics to South Korea.