First, Nemtsov, 49, was barred by police from attending a public meeting of local businessmen on March 17th, according to the Interfax news agency.   The former Deputy Prime Minister and governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region wasn’t intending to speak, but officers stopped him at the door, insisting that prior registration was required.  Despite vocal protests from a group of participants that prior registration was not necessary, Nemtsov was not allowed in.

Next, a mock debate of four mayoral candidates scheduled to run on March 22nd was pulled from the NTV television station.  Writing in his LiveJournal blog, Nemtsov alleged that the clip was cut on personal order of Vladislav Surkov, a close aide to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.  Instead of the 7 minute segment, which asked candidates to explain their positions and delved into the Sochi election, the channel repeated a program on “young stars of show-business.”

Finally, unknown youngsters splashed the politician with a liquid smelling strongly of ammonia Monday, according to the Ekho Moskvy radio station.  Nemtsov, on his way to a press-conference, was sprayed in the face, and had to postpone his event to wash his eyes clean.  Ilya Yashin, a top figure in Nemtsov’s campaign, was also soaked, and blamed the provocation on the pro-Kremlin Nashi youth movement.  Nemtsov himself commented that authorities were simply scared of his candidacy.

Sochi, scheduled to host the 2014 winter Olympics, saw two mayors resign in 2008.  Residents have complained that Olympic preparations have been handled in a corrupt way, and that locals have been forced out of their homes to make way for construction projects.  Whoever becomes mayor will have to handle a multi-billion dollar budget allocated to create an Olympic village.

For his part, Nemtsov has proposed decentralizing the games, and holding only the opening and closing ceremonies in Sochi.  In an open letter to President Dmitri Medvedev (Rus), who is visiting the region, Nemtsov suggested that the burden of the Games should be spread between roughly a dozen cities.  Sochi does not have the necessary infrastructure to host the games, Nemtsov argues, adding that the budget for the Sochi Olympics is vastly higher than previous Winter Games.  The environmental effects on Sochi may also be devastating, he notes.

Nemtsov, who was born and raised in Sochi, said he decided to run for mayor after a group of residents wrote him an open letter asking that he enter the race.  Aside from Nemtsov, several other colorful figures have stepped forward, including murder suspect and Parliamentarian Andrei Lugovoi, and billionaire Alexander Lebedev.  Other contenders include an airline chief, an arm wrestling champion and a former ballerina, a combination that has sparked considerable country-wide interest in the election.

Anatoly Pakhomov, a member of the United Russia and the city’s acting mayor, is thought to have high chances due to his connections with the majority party.

The weeks leading up to the April 26th elections will undoubtedly see further issues and problems for Boris Nemtsov.  Despite the set-backs, the Kremlin critic has drawn out a plan of localized campaigning and maintains a cheerful disposition.

Litvinenko, a former KGB officer and vocal critic of former Russian President Vladimir Putin, was poisoned with a radioactive substance in London in 2006. One high-ranking official said he had “very strong indications it was a state action.”

British investigators have complained that Russian authorities have not been cooperative. Citing a law barring extradition for its citizens, Russia has refused to hand over Andrei Lugovoi, another former KGB officer suspected by UK authorities of the murder. Lugovoi maintains his innocence.

MI5 officers also said they had averted an assassination attempt against Boris Berezovsky, a wealthy Russian oligarch living in exile in London. Russia has previously tried to extradite Berezovsky, a vocal Putin critic charged with fraud and political corruption.

Relations between the UK and Russia reached post Cold-war lows after the Litvinenko murder, and have remained rocky ever since. The Times newspaper reported on July 4th that British security services see Russia as the third most serious threat facing the country, after Iran and Al-Qaeda.

Other officials told the Telegraph newspaper that that Russia’s spy efforts in the country have taken resources away from fighting terrorism.

“MI5’s resources have been stretched to the limit for the past few years,” one source said. “There have been times when there was nothing left in the locker, when all of our assets were being used on one operation.”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev are currently meeting at talks of the Group of 8 in Japan.

Surprisingly enough, Lugovoi seems not to have questioned why Russians were so eager to get his autograph. Were they showing solidarity with a victim unjustly hounded by the Crown Prosecution Service?

Give me a break! When did Russians ever ask victims for their autographs? I have myself been attracting the interest of the Prosecutor General’s Office for several months now and have yet to encounter a single autograph hunter. In Russia, you get asked for your autograph if you have made it, if you are a proper hero — a hockey player, a cosmonaut or a war hero.

The list of unspeakable crimes allegedly committed in the course of Alexander Litvinenko’s brief life grows longer every day. The animosity toward Litvinenko among self-righteous Russian patriots has reached a very high level; they relish the fact that this traitor received such a severe form of punishment as payback for his sedition. Of course, this should not be interpreted to mean that these patriots agree with the Crown Prosecutor Service’s official accusations of who stands behind the Litvinenko killing.

A new species of “homo putinicus” has been created in large part thanks to the meticulously professional work of the television propaganda machine. Consequently, homo putinicus feels a great sense of pride in Lugovoi’s achievements. . . .

If we compare two potential presidential candidates, Lugovoi in 2007 and Putin in 1999, the number of obvious similarities is astounding: the same modest social background; the same KGB alma mater; a similar style of speaking, which at times includes the use of criminal jargon; the same mentality; and the same hatred toward “enemies of the people.”

In addition, there is another, highly significant shared circumstance: Both of them at the start of their political careers were largely indebted — perhaps even totally indebted — to Boris Berezovsky. Moreover, both Lugovoi and Putin subsequently had serious fallouts with Berezovsky.

Would the sybaritic, globe-trotting Lugovoi really want to take over the reins and put on Monomakh’s Cap? After all, the job of president is very difficult and exhausting. Look at how Putin’s face changed over the course of the last eight years as president. Lugovoi’s face has also changed markedly during the last eight months of news conferences.

Whatever the case may be, Lugovoi and Putin are two living portraits of Dorian Gray — two faces of the new Russia that is “getting off its knees.”

The problem with this kind of criminal case is that dictators are able to exploit it to condemn foreign interference, imagined or otherwise. That’s exactly what happened under the rule of South Korea’s President Park Chung Hee in the summer of 1973, when KCIA agents kidnapped the opposition leader, Kim Dae Jung, from a Tokyo hotel. Park first blamed North Korean agents for the kidnapping, then criticized Japan’s colonial mentality for demanding his repatriation. In the end, that never happened, until Park’s own killing by his top intelligence officer years later. He knew Japanese politicians could be coaxed into signing a wish-washy deal that would allow him to get off the hook.

Park used Japan’s pressure for Kim’s repatriation to close ranks at home, mobilizing the country to greater unity behind his embattled regime. Liberal oppositionists were denounced as foreign agents, just as Russian dissident and chess player Kasparov is today harassed and called an agent of foreign interests. Putin himself is successfully unifying the post-Soviet Russia by showcasing his “strong leadership,” which the Russian populace, long tired of chaos and deprivation from the post-totalitarian interregnum, welcomes. Putin is giving Russians, especially the young, a cause to unite behind the government against foreign interference. Using the foreign bogey to maintain domestic unity is old trick of many dictatorships.

As we are learning, talking about a strong Russia is very different from creating a strong Russia. Our idea of a strong nation is one that has strong democratic and legal institutions, a broad-based economy, and the respect — not fear — of other nations. That some foreign nations share this idea for Russia is not interference. If they wish to stand up for their core beliefs they can do no other.

We see that at last someone is reacting to Putin’s disregard for the rule of law. This disregard is symbolic of a regime that has done nothing but work against the interests of law and human rights both domestically and internationally. The world’s first proven case of nuclear terrorism is being blocked by the Kremlin, just as it has delayed or blocked the investigations into domestic terror cases and the murders of a dozen journalists.

As tragic and frightening as the Litvinenko case is, it’s only a drop in the bucket. Nobody wants a new Cold War, but ignoring reality and letting the Kremlin get away with murder — literally in this case — will allow things to get worse. Those who worry that strong actions will antagonize Putin and make relations worse, we ask what could be worse? What positives has appeasement achieved? Blair, Chirac, Berlusconi, Schroeder, and Bush watched quietly as Putin crushed civil liberties in Russia and bullied its neighbors. At times they practically applauded. Now this new generation of European leaders needs to decide what they stand for, or if they will stand up at all.

It’s also clear that Britain recognizes what a travesty the justice system is in Russia today. There’s no such thing as a fair trial under the Putin regime, as our leaders and activist can attest. Just last week a prominent Russian defense lawyer, Boris Kuznetsov, fled the country after the state opened an investigation against him. Most of the judiciary is under direct Kremlin control. We of the Other Russia are doing our best to apply domestic pressure in the streets, the only avenue we have thanks to state control of the media. We hope Britain is not going to take the assassination of one of its citizens with resignation. Especially when you consider the method and how it could have led to countless more deaths.