On Tuesday information appeared that satirical writer Victor Shenderovich, probably, would be a united democratic candidate for 201st University district of Moscow at State Duma additional elections. Allegedly other registered candidate in this district, Maria Gaydar, would stand down in favour of Shenderovich. However it turned out that negotiations on this topic would be finished only on Thursday.
The State Duma additional elections will be held on the 4th of December in 199th Preobrazhensky and 201st University district of Moscow. In total, 20 candidates participate in the elections: seven – in the 199th district, 13 – in the 201st one. While the most famous surname in Preobrazhensky district is Vladimir Kvachkov (he is on remand being a suspect of attempting on head of RAO "UES of Russia" Anatoly Chubais), in University district there are several famous persons: satirical writer Victor Shenderovich, producer Stanislav Govorukhin, Maria Gaydar, daughter of Egor Gaydar. Ex-head of "YUKOS" Mikhail Khodorkovsky was not registered because of entry into force of judgment of conviction. Probably, both Shenderovich and Gaydar are perceived as “followers” and “successors” of Khodorkovsky. Victor Shenderovich told “Izvestia” that final decision on his nomination, as a united candidate of opposition in the 201st district had not been made yet. Until this moment he refused to make any comments.
"In fact nothing serious took place, just 24-year old Maria Gaydar, who can hardly be called a politician, with no chances for election, stood down, - Director general of the Center for Current Politics in Russia Konstantin Simonov is sure. – She is famous only because of her surname. Moreover, it is reasonable that the leading idea of Shenderovich’s election campaign will be "I am going to the Duma instead of Khodorkovsky, whom the bloody regime prevented from participation in the elections". And Gaydar planned to conduct agitation in a way like "We, the youth, support Khodorkovsky, whom the bloody regime prevented from participation in the elections". That means that both candidates initially joined the failed âûäâèæåíèþ of the former owner of "YUKOS". Perhaps, now we can wait for a letter from the prison in support of Shenderovich. He has chances, but he is deeply mistaken believing that University district is so democratic that it will elect any right candidate. Being a professor of the Moscow State University, I can say that the university youth is not too much right. Besides, there are a lot of pensioners there, to whom Stanislav Govorukhin is much closer.
Published: newspaper «Izvestia», 2.11.2005
