No fair elections in Russia: opposition challenger
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The only outspoken Kremlin critic in Russia's presidential election next month said on Monday the vote could not be fair because the country was run by "thieves".
Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov has said the campaign is skewed in favor of Dmitry Medvedev, who has been overwhelming favorite to win since outgoing President Vladimir Putin endorsed him as his successor.
"Elections in Russia can't be fair," Zyuganov told reporters in Moscow as he unveiled his election program. "Because privatization itself was unfair, because everything has been stolen and because thieves can't call fair elections."
Zyuganov was referring to the 1990s sell-off of state assets to entrepreneurs in preferential deals that critics say amounted to outright theft. Putin has criticized some of the privatizations but left most of them intact.
"There is an iron-clad rule in any country and in any kind of society: A thief should be in jail and not in charge," Zyuganov said.
Opinion polls give First Deputy Prime Minister Medvedev, who is also chairman of state gas monopoly Gazprom, about 70 percent support. Zyuganov is polling around 12 percent.
Putin, constitutionally barred from serving a third consecutive term, has said he will serve as prime minister in a Medvedev government and is widely expected to hold on to much of his power once he leaves office.
Zyuganov said Putin and Medvedev were "completely irresponsible people" and had sat by as Russian industry and social welfare collapsed.
COMPLAINTS LODGED
He said last month he was considering pulling out of the race on the grounds it was unfair. He has lodged complaints with the main television stations because he says they give Medvedev favorable coverage but rarely allow him on air.
On Monday he said he was staying in the race because "I don't want to give the country away to a group of nouveaux riches".
"It's a tragedy for the country when its government is staffed by dilettantes," he said, highlighting Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov as an example of what he called "Putin's incompetent administration".
Serdyukov, a former furniture salesman who is the son-in-law of Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, was appointed defense minister last year. Like many of Putin's political allies, he hails from St Petersburg.
Zyuganov said he was running to remind people that "if dollars from the oil and gas bubble dry up or even shrink a little, then the Russian financial and economic system will collapse somewhat faster than some people can imagine".
The other challengers in the March 2 election are Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a nationalist who avoids direct criticism of the Kremlin, and Andrei Bogdanov, head of the tiny Democratic Party who used to work for a pro-Kremlin party.
Western governments have urged Russia to hold a fair and competitive vote. European observers accused the Kremlin of interfering in a parliamentary vote in December that was won by Putin loyalists.
(Editing by Robert Woodward)
