Putin critic facing election ban
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Russian officials say there are grounds to bar opposition activist Mikhail Kasyanov from the presidential race.
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The liberal challenger in a closely fought  presidential election in Ukraine threatened on Friday to bring  his supporters onto the streets if the authorities tried to  deny him victory by cheating.
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Liberal former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, a Kremlin foe, should be barred from Russia's presidential election because some of the signatures supporting his candidacy were forged, election officials said on Thursday.
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MOSCOW  - President Vladimir Putin sought to convince the nation Thursday that his electoral reform was not a retreat from democracy but was needed to save Russia from international terrorists and to limit the political influence of business barons. Putin said in a nationwide television interview his plan to end direct elections of regional governors and parliament deputies will help strengthen the government, which he said was being eroded by ethnic divisions and turf battles between local clans.
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MOSCOW - After sharply cutting the number of of Western observers permitted to view polling places and drawing criticism from the United States, the Kremlin warned foreigners yesterday not to interfere in Russia's parliamentary elections.
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Kremlin critic and former Russian PM Mikhail Kasyanov submits a petition supporting his presidential bid.
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Prosecutors announced a forgery investigation Tuesday against the campaign of the only liberal Kremlin critic still in Russia's presidential race, a contest already expected to be won easily by Vladimir Putin's hand-picked candidate to succeed him.
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Russian and Western leaders are sharply at odds over the country's election crisis.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin injected himself directly into the election crisis in this former Soviet republic Thursday, strongly attacking the opposition's central demand for a new presidential runoff and cautioning the West against getting too involved.
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Plan has prompted the first serious opposition to the Putin government.
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The only liberal Kremlin critic in Russia's presidential race stands to be kept off the ballot because tens of thousands of signatures on his nominating petitions were forgeries, election officials said Thursday.
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Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov was barred on Sunday from running for president in a March election, a move he said was taken to block any real challenge to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin's chosen candidate.
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President Vladimir Putin will tighten his control over Russia with his plan to shake up government but risks undermining brittle post-Soviet democracy, analysts and liberals said on Tuesday.
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The head of Russia's biggest opposition party is considering dropping out of the race against Kremlin front-runner Dmitry Medvedev to be the next president, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.
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Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin indirectly criticises President Putin's decision to increase his powers.
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President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday he could not imagine how Iraqi elections scheduled for Jan. 30 could be held under current conditions.
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MOSCOW Boris Yeltsin, Russia&#39;s first post-Soviet leader, issued a veiled warning Thursday that President Vladimir Putin&#39;s decision to seize sweeping new powers after the Beslan hostage crisis could erode democratic freedoms.