A total of 17 candidates have applied in Moscow's northeastern Medvedkovo district to run for the seat vacated by Georgy Boos when he became Kaliningrad governor in September, local election officials said Thursday. The registration deadline is Jan. 25.
Yelena Lukyanova, a Communist Party member and the daughter of former Supreme Soviet chairman Anatoly Lukyanov, has the support of an alliance of Communists and some liberals in her bid.
Lukyanova, a law professor at Moscow State University, said that Garry Kasparov, the chess champion turned liberal politician, had called her and asked whether she would agree to be backed by the liberals. "I said I agreed, but they still have to make the decision," Lukyanova said by telephone.
Kasparov could not be reached for comment.
Boris Nadezhdin, the deputy leader of the liberal Union of Right Forces party, or SPS, said Lukyanova was one of several candidates being considered by a group of parties including SPS.
"But we have yet to make a decision because not everyone agrees in the group we have created to coordinate the by-elections," he said.
He said the group included representatives of the liberal Yabloko party and the nationalist Rodina party, as well as former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and Kasparov.
Yabloko deputy leader Sergei Mitrokhin, however, said his party was supporting prominent human rights activist Andrei Babushkin, running with the Committee for Civil Rights. "We have picked our candidate, and we are unlikely to back Lukyanova," he said.
The Communists will vote to name Lukyanova as their candidate on Tuesday, said party spokeswoman Yekaterina Kibis.
United Russia is backing a bid by Leonid Govorov, the head of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and the nephew of Marshal Leonid Govorov, a party spokeswoman said.
Vladimir Kvachkov, who is in custody on charges of trying to kill Unified Energy Systems chief Chubais, intends to run as an independent, said his lawyer, Alevtin Moshansky.
Kvachkov, a retired special forces colonel, took part in a Duma by-election in Moscow's Preobrazhensky district in December and won about 29 percent of the vote.
"He was not given the possibility to campaign as much as the other candidates. He could not talk to his voters, but nevertheless he was able to get a lot of votes," Moshansky said.
"He thinks he has a good chance of winning," he said.
Chubais was ambushed outside Moscow on March 17 of last year by assailants who detonated a bomb and raked his armored car with automatic weapons fire. He was not hurt.
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