Alexander Lebedev: a new challenge to Putin

Alexander Lebedev, the former KGB spy who recently brought the London Evening Standard, has announced his intention to stand for mayor of Sochi, the sleepy Black resort which is to stage the 2014 Winter Olympics. It is a move that is unlikely to please Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who, as a keen skier, has involved himself in the preparations for the event and is keen to install a Kremlin-friendly candidate who will answer directly to him.

Lebedev, 49, is certainly not that person. Along with Mikhail Gorbachev, he has formed a new political party – the Independent Democratic Party of Russia - to contest seats at the 2011 parliamentary elections. He is also the owner of Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s most prominent opposition newspaper.

Many see the oligarch's decision to stand in Sochi as another step towards his larger political ambitions:  he stood against Moscow’s mayor Yuri Luzhkov in 2003 before Putin abolished elections in the capital.

In an interview with the Times, Lebedev said: “I am not given the floor in Moscow so why not use some of my resources and knowledge to challenge in another city where they still have the chance of a fair election? People are not happy with the way they are being treated as far as the Olympics are concerned.”

However, his election will be no shoo-in. He is up against a strong field of candidates, among them Boris Nemtsov, a former Deputy Prime Minister who leads the anti-Kremlin Solidarity movement. And Andrei Lugovoy, the man accused of murdering the dissident spy Alexander Litvinenko, is also expected to be on the ballot, representing the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia.

Putin’s United Russia party has yet to name its candidate for the election, which takes place on April 26, but there is no doubt Putin wants his own man to be mayor. In an interview last month, he said: “We are preparing a major international event and celebration for the whole Russian nation . . . Problems are not permitted”.
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