Transplanted from Guinea-Bissau twenty years ago, a 37-year-old Afro-Russian watermelon salesman is making waves by running for a local parliamentary seat in Russia’s Volgograd Oblast (formerly Stalingrad).
This news item by Natalia Rozhkova of Russia’s Vremya Novostei newspaper examines his candidacy and chances of winning, and compares how minority candidates in Russia fare compared to their American counterparts.
The article quotes the deputy director of the Center for Political Technologies, Alexei Makarkin:
“As far as presidential elections go, we are still far from electing a Russian Obama.
‘Even in America, it has taken many years to arrive at this point – and even then the deciding role was played by the [financial] crisis, without which the election may have led to another alternative, such as Clinton or McCain,’ Makarkin says. ‘The United States had the experience of electing black senators, house members and governors; there were films that portrayed African-American presidents. They consciously pushed members of minority groups into power. Our society is still accustomed to the fact that our president must be Russian.’
“Makarkin speculates that if one compares Russia and America in their attitudes toward candidates with exotic last names, we are equivalent to the United States in the 1960s or perhaps the 1980s.”
By Natalia Rozhkova
Translated By Yekaterina Blinova
August 18, 2009
Russia – Vremya Novostei – Original Article (Russian)
A local Barack Obama has emerged in the Volgograd Oblast. An Afro-Russian man named Joakim Krema intends to run for a seat in the Sredneahtubinskiy regional Duma. Last Saturday he submitted the needed paperwork to the regional election committee.
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