Ousted general set to win remarkable election contest

FORMER KGB General Alexander Korzhakov is favourite to win the most extraordinary by election in Russian history. If he is successful, he will acquire the parliamentary immunity from prosecution which could allow him to reveal some of the darkest secrets of the Yeltsin regime.

Gen Korzhakov was one of the shadiest figures in Mr Yeltsin's entourage until ditched after the first round of the presidential elections last June to make sure of a Yeltsin victory.

He lost his job as head of the presidential bodyguard, a force tens of thousands strong, shortly before Gen Alexander Lebed joined the Yeltsin camp as national security adviser. Having helped Mr Yeltsin to electoral victory and ended the war in Chechnya, Gen Lebed was sacked for "bad teamwork".

Now Gen Korzhakov is fighting for the Duma seat which Gen Lebed once held in the industrial city of Tula south of Moscow and he is running with Gen Lebed's endorsement.

If any city has been hit by Russia's economic collapse it is Tula, a town known for its craftsmanship in Tsarist times and later one of the most important cities of the military industrial complex. Most of the population is dependent on factories which supply Rosvooruzheniye, the big state arms producer from which Gen Korzhakov is understood to have drawn his immense wealth.

Opposing the man once described as "Yeltsin's Rasputin" were political hopefuls, ranging from pro communist world chess champion Anatoly Karpov and pro Yeltsin candidate Eduard Pashchenko to Yelena Mavrodi, wife of Russia's best known conman, and local "biznesmen" Nikolai Novikov, who ran his campaign from prison where he is remanded on extortion charges.

Ms Mavrodi was disqualified on the eve of voting on Saturday night, when the local electoral commission decided her campaign breached the law on a number of counts. Firstly, the pyramid scheme through which she had promised her voters 5 million roubles (£555) each in the event of victory wads in breach of eledoral ethics. More importantly, it was discovered that she may have been using the election as a money laundering stunt.

Some voters reported they had been paid R20,000 (£2) to lend their names as depositors.

Her disqualification meant that electoral officials had to stay up all night crossing her name off the ballot papers by hand because there was no time to reprint.

Moscow's state controlled television stations have been portraying Gen Korzhakov as handing out free vodka to potential supporters, but the general said this was partook a Kremlin plot to his credit him.

His campaign has, however, been a bizarre one. His posters have been disastrous.

On the other hand, he brought some of Russia's best known rock stars and stand up comics to perform at free concerts - but having drawn the crowds he did not turn up himself.

Gen Korzhakov's main supporter, Gen Lebed, has not canvassed on his behalf and most of the potential voters I spoke to failed to make the Lebed Korzhakov link.

Along Red Army Prospekt several banners proclaimed: "Karpov: Hope of Tula and Pride of Russia" as part of the campaign of Mr Karpov, who represents the "Red Brown Menace" as the communist nationalist alliance is known.

But Mr Karpov's attacks on the wealth of his opponents and the money they have spent on the campaign betray a sense of defeat, even in a town which owed its previous prosperity to the Red Army and its current poverty to the overthrow of the system.

Opinion polls show Mr Karpov in third place behind Gen Korzhakov and Mr Pashchenko, many of whose posters were obliterated by those from Ms Mavrodi which promised "Peace, wealth and family happiness". They did not say to which family the peace, wealth and happiness would go but most voters had guessed that it was the Mavrodis.

First results are expected later today.