The U. S. has it's primary and caucus season, Canada has it's leadership conventions. All designed to pick the best candidate to seek the highest office of the land. In Russia too, the fledgling democracy now sends leaders off to debate the issues, in hopes of gaining the support of the people. Well at least that's how it was designed, but things seem to be going off the rails a bit.
Russian police are presently searching for Ivan Rybkin, a candidate in next month's Presidential election. Rybkin has been missing since February 5th, apparently disappearing off the face of the earth. No phone calls to family, no letters or telegrams, no contact in any form.
Rybkin is the former speaker of the lower house and has been a frequent and vocal critic of current President Vladimir Putin. His campaign is backed by exiled Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, who fled Russia for asylum in England when Putin took over. Berezovsky has been steeped in controversy through the last few years, after amassing his fortune in Oil under the Yeltsin regime. He and Putin have been bitter enemies ever since Putin became President.
The Rybkin campaign has been a rather poorly run affair thus far, with his latest poll numbers showing him achieving only 1% in support. Not exactly a great bang for the Berezovsky buck, or ruble if you will. With wild accusations and similar behaviour, he has failed to attract any positive attention from the voting population. In fact, Putin only gets stronger, he's expected to win the election in a landslide with near 80% of the vote. In a desperate bid to increase his numbers, Rybkin published an open letter last week, accusing the President of being a dictator and being in the pocket of big business. An interesting claim considering where his support is coming from.
Rybkin also went on to attack Putin's character, claiming that he runs the country purely on the basis of fear. And with those words ringing in his ears, Rybkin promptly disappeared. It's the latest in a stream of disappointing trends in Russia, as the nation tries to give Democracy a firmer grip on the state.
Judging by the latest developments, at the moment they have more in common with the Sopranos than Socrates.
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