Mystery Swirls Round Missing Russian Politician

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The mystery surrounding missing Russian presidential candidate Ivan Rybkin deepened Monday in a swirl of media speculation about his fate, Kremlin silence and attempts by officials to play down the affair.

The bizarre disappearance of Rybkin, 57, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, on the night of Feb. 5 injected drama into the run-up to a March 14 election that Putin is widely expected to win easily, securing a second term.

Rybkin's wife, Albina, suggested that the ally of exiled entrepreneur and Putin foe Boris Berezovsky had been kidnapped. But even his aides were wary of that conclusion.

"He may have fallen, been robbed and killed, his body hidden. The other possibility is that it was an election trick, but it is not like him. The third option is linked to politics, but as far as I know he did not receive any threats," his election aide Ksenia Ponomaryova told Reuters.

Many Russian Internet media outlets linked Rybkin's disappearance to his political activities, recalling the assassination last April of Rybkin's co-chairman in the Berezovsky-sponsored Liberal party, Sergei Yushenkov. Six people were appearing in court Monday charged with his murder.

Compounding the confusion about Rybkin, Moscow's chief prosecutor opened an inquiry for "premeditated murder," only for the decision to be canceled within the hour.

"We have no reasons to believe Ivan Rybkin was abducted or killed at the moment," Russian news agencies quoted a prosecutor's office official as saying.

Rybkin, like five other contenders whose popularity ratings are numbered in single digits, poses no threat to the re-election of Putin, whose approval rating exceeds 70 percent.

But Putin's domination of the media and the risk of the March election looking like a Soviet-style poll have drawn expressions of concern from the West.

Early Monday, Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed Moscow police source as saying: "He (Rybkin) is alive and that is a fact. We hope to find Rybkin."

Later the agency quoted a Putin ally, senior parliamentarian Gennady Gudkov, as saying Rybkin's disappearance was a trick to boost his popularity. Gudkov said he understood Rybkin had spent the last few days at a smart resort near Moscow -- but the resort in question denied he was there.

State-owned RIA news agency quoted sources in Rybkin's staff as saying they were aware of Rybkin's whereabouts.

But Ponomaryova told Reuters she was not aware of any fresh information about him.

As police hunted for Rybkin, Moscow observed a day of mourning for the victims of last Friday's bombing on the city metro, with a heavy police presence on the streets.

At least 39 people were killed and more than 100 injured in an attack that Putin has blamed on Chechen separatists.

Here is the article from the Washington Times

Russian candidate reported missing

By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Russian presidential candidate Ivan Rybkin has been reported missing less than three weeks after telling The Washington Times he worried about his safety as a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin.

News agencies reported from Moscow that Mr. Rybkin's wife officially reported him missing yesterday and that police had called on FSB state security to help in the search.

Mr. Rybkin, a former speaker of the Russian parliament and top security aide to former President Boris Yeltsin, is among a handful of serious candidates running for president in the March 14 elections, which Mr. Putin is expected to win easily.

The Russian news service Itar-Tass reported yesterday that Moscow police have no evidence that Mr. Rybkin, who has not been seen since Thursday evening, was abducted or harmed. No one has contacted the Rybkin family or demanded ransom, a police office told the news agency.

A pro-Western liberal and ally of exiled Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, Mr. Rybkin urged the United States to drop its support for Mr. Putin during a recent interview with The Times. He was in Washington last month for talks with Bush administration officials, lawmakers and scholars.

Asked whether he feared for his safety in challenging Mr. Putin, Mr. Rybkin said during the Jan. 21 interview that he had made a public pledge in 2002 to run for president if no other leading reformer entered the race.

"I am a Russian and I have to live in my own country," he said. "Yes, people are fearful in the current environment, but I personally made a commitment and I am determined to be consistent."

In that interview, Mr. Rybkin was harshly critical of Mr. Putin, saying the former KGB officer "was on his way to becoming a dictator."

The United States and the West must drop their support for Mr. Putin, he said, or "you will be creating a big headache for everybody — for Russians but also for the international community."

Mr. Rybkin has kept up his attacks since returning to Moscow, purchasing a full-page ad in the Russian business daily Kommersant accusing Mr. Putin and his associates of "state crimes" for cracking down on independent news outlets and critics.

The newspaper is owned by Mr. Berezovsky.

Mr. Rybkin has also been bitingly critical of Mr. Putin's policies in Chechnya, where Mr. Rybkin helped to wind down the first separatist war as head of Mr. Yeltsin's National Security Council.

Mr. Rybkin has also come to the defense of oil billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Putin critic now jailed on fraud charges that many say are politically motivated.

Word of the candidate's disappearance came on the day the Russian Central Election Commission approved Mr. Rybkin's candidacy and those of five other challengers. With Mr. Putin's popularity ratings reaching nearly 80 percent, he is expected to cruise to victory.

But the Bush administration and many European countries have expressed unease with the state of democratic and legal reforms under Mr. Putin.

On Thursday, the last day he was seen by his wife, Mr. Rybkin charged that officials from the state prosecutor's office had searched his campaign offices and confiscated office computers.

Irina Khakamada, another liberal presidential candidate and Putin critic, said Mr. Rybkin's disappearance was not surprising given the current climate in Moscow.

"No private security will help if certain forces and authorities decide to do something," she told Reuters news agency.

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