Navalny to Run for Moscow Mayor

Russia’s opposition blogger Alexei Navalny is soon to be formally nominated as candidate for Moscow mayor by the Republican Party of Russia – People's Freedom Party (RPR-PARNAS). “I have asked my colleagues to nominate me. They discussed everything and took the decision. I am thankful to them. This nomination will be soon legally formalized,” Navalny told the Ekho Moskvy radio. The party’s bureau “unanimously” decided to nominate Navalny for Moscow mayor, but the final decision will be taken by the party’s Moscow department, said party co-chairman Vladimir Ryzhkov. Navalny, a vocal Kremlin critic who led some of Moscow's massive 2011-2012 street protests against alleged electoral fraud and the rule of President Vladimir Putin, is on trial on charges of heading a criminal group that investigators say embezzled 16 million rubles’ ($500,000) worth of timber from state-run company Kirovles in central Russia’s Kirov Region in 2009. If convicted, Navalny will be banned from participation in elections.

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130609/181587808/Blogger-Navalny-to-Be-Nominated-as-Moscow-Mayor-Candidate.html