BOLDYREV REGISTERED AS MAYORAL CANDIDATE FOR ST. PETERSBURG.

Yuri Boldyrev has been officially registered as a candidate in the election for mayor of Russia’s second city, scheduled for May 19. (St. Petersburg TV channel, April 4) Many analysts consider the popular Boldyrev to be the only candidate with a chance of unseating incumbent Mayor Anatoly Sobchak, who has announced his intention of running for reelection. Earlier, Boldyrev was denied registration on the grounds that he has not lived in St. Petersburg since 1992, but a city court recently ruled in his favor. Boldyrev, who originally comes from St. Petersburg, made his name as a leader of the democratic camp when he was elected to the USSR Congress of People’s Deputies in 1989. Universally regarded as an honest man, he was appointed by Yeltsin to head the Control Directorate, a watchdog body in the presidential administration. Once there, Boldyrev proved too honest for his own good. By 1992, he had fallen out of Yeltsin’s favor after he tried investigate corruption in Moscow under Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and in the Western Group of Forces. With Grigory Yavlinsky and Vladimir Lukin, Boldyrev was a founding member of the Yabloko party, which he has since left.

Protest over Chinese Border Demarcation.