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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/world/europe/28sochi.html?_r=1&ref=wor...

Russian City Finds Race for Mayor Ever Odder

By ELLEN BARRY

MOSCOW — Now in the running to become mayor of the southern Russian city of Sochi: a former ballerina for the Bolshoi Ballet; a porn star who sometimes goes by the name Velvet Angel; the head of Russia’s largest Masonic lodge; an Anglophile newspaper mogul; a Yeltsin-era reformer who is anathema to the Kremlin; and, among 15 or so other contenders, the president of Russia’s Arm Wrestling Federation.

On Saturday, the tension surrounding this increasingly bizarre slate of candidates should abate somewhat when city officials announce which of them will appear on the ballot on April 26. The central mystery surrounds Boris Y. Nemtsov, a longtime opposition leader who, if he is allowed to run, could undermine support for the government in Sochi, the showcase city that will host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Mr. Nemtsov’s chances looked shakier on Friday, after election officials displayed bank records showing that his campaign fund had received a $5,000 wire transfer from Brooklyn. Russian law prohibits candidates from using foreign campaign donations. Olga Shorina, a spokeswoman for Mr. Nemtsov, said the campaign had already returned the money to the New York bank, and suspected it was a government plot to exclude Mr. Nemtsov from the race.

“We don’t know the company which sent it,” Ms. Shorina said. “We don’t know the man who sent it. We assume it is some kind of provocation.”

Mayoral races are among the few remaining opportunities for independent candidates to run for office in Russia, where the Kremlin appoints regional leaders and the United Russia party dominates parliamentary races. Sochi is a particular plum, offering the winner some access to the Olympic construction budget, which is around $6 billion. The leading candidate is the acting mayor, Anatoly Pakhomov, the United Russia candidate.

That did not stop the ballerina Anastasia Volochkova from declaring her candidacy on Thursday. Ms. Volochkova, a favorite of Russian gossip columnists, was famously dismissed from the Bolshoi over her weight (110 pounds) and then filed a $1 million defamation suit. Though she has not previously been active in politics, she decided to enter the race at the urging of “representatives of the cultural intelligentsia and a group of businessmen,” according to her personal Web site.

“On the list are already 20 candidates, who all resemble each other,” Ms. Volochkova said. “Twenty men, who, more than anything, all need money and power. There are few who worry about people, they are all interested in the Olympic budget.”

For the corps of journalists already enthralled by the race, the week offered high points and low. On Tuesday, the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia announced that it would not put forward a former K.G.B. agent, Andrei K. Lugovoi, who is wanted by British authorities on suspicion of murdering a dissident by poisoning him with a radioactive isotope.

But then came a declaration from Yelena Berkova, a star of pornographic movies and reality television known for her role in “Dom-2, or How to Make Love with Yelena Berkova.” Declaring herself a candidate from “The Party of Love,” Ms. Berkova released a campaign advertisement that showed her walking topless on the beach alongside text reading, “Together we will make the Olympics.”

“I’m confident of my powers,” she told a reporter from Russia Today, an English-language news channel, which said she had missed Thursday’s registration deadline. “Besides, everything about me is already known. I’m open, and there will definitely be no surprises.”