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