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Yep... not many people have heard of it. I just heard someone mention it on a thread a few weeks ago and read up on it. There are varying accounts of course.

It's the Kiev connection that is so strange...

Ivan Ribkin "disappeared" for 5 days just after turning in enough signatures (2 MILLION SIGS) to be put on Russia's ballot. The day he was "abducted" he had sent a letter to the state media complaining that reports of his signatures being invalid were wrong, saying the signature sheets they were showing to prove it were not his but Putin's (referencing the birthdate at the top of the forms).

Rybkin is the former head of the Duma under Boris Yeltsin. He is the leader of the Liberal party in Russia who has seen 2 of their leaders assasinated over the years.

The state officials refused to act on a missing person's report filed by Ribkin's wife the day after his diappearance.

Journalists quoted those in Putin's campaign as saying that they were confident he would reappear. There was also apparently a suggestive remark that he was at a Sanitarium owned by the President. That was proved untrue. Then there was another report he was at a vacation resort. Also proved untrue...

5 days after his disappearance he resurfaced on his own with a story that he had gone to visit some friends in, of all places, Kiev. (Mind you he didn't bother informing even his wife he was leaving, or anyone on his campaign staff. And there are some statements that he had left personal items behind although they don't say what these items were. (I'm thinking keys, wallet, stuff like that))

After he resurfaced he made vague remarks about being drugged, and possibly deciding to withdraw from the race. Here is what the ChinaDaily quoted his comments being when he resurfaced in Moscow...

Missing Russian Candidate Resurfaces
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-02/11/content_305203.htm

Rybkin, a longshot liberal challenger to President Vladimir Putin, phoned campaign manager Kseniya Ponomaryova on Tuesday to say he was in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. He said he'd gone there to chill out for a few days and would return that night to Moscow's Domodedovo Airport.

Instead, he arrived at Moscow's Sheremetyevo-1 airport and in brief comments to reporters, he said nothing about going to Kiev for a break. Instead, the politician made subdued, vague statements that appeared to indicate his absence was not an action of his own will.

"Such despotism is not like anything I have seen or experienced in 15 years of political life," he said.

Rybkin, who has pushed for the Kremlin to negotiate with Chechen rebels, said he was returning "as if I had been in a difficult round of Chechen negotiations. I'm very satisfied that I returned."

Asked whether "other outcomes" had been possible, he said, "I don't know, there probably were," hinting that he might not have returned. On the prospect of withdrawing from the March 14 presidential race he said, "Yes, I am considering it." He did not say why.
< snip>

Here is a later article after Rybkin started speaking out about what happened to him...

Russian candidate: I was drugged and kidnapped
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-02-14 11:04

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-02/14/content_306087.htm

Russian presidential hopeful Ivan Rybkin caused more confusion Friday by saying he had been drugged and filmed in a "disgusting" video in Ukraine during the five days he went missing without explanation.
< snip >

Here is an article from the St. Petersburg Times:
Rybkin Disappearance Baffling
http://www.sptimesrussia.com/archive/times/942/news/n_11655.htm

There are more, and I don't like quoting a Chinese press source, but they are the most detailed after doing a quick Google for sources.

Interesting, eh???