By Charles Digges
Popular St Petersburg politician Yuri Boldyrev has been allowed by the local city court to run for governor.
The court's ruling was the latest piece of legal action in a gubernatorial race that may well be decided in the courtroom rather than on the campaign trail.
Mr Boldyrev was previously excluded from running by a March amendment to the election law requiring candidates to have had a one year St Petersburg residence permit.
Lawyers for Mr Boldyrev successfully argued that the amendment did not specify a candidate's one-year term of residence had to fall the year prior to the election.
Mr Boldyrev lived in St Petersburg for 15 years, interrupted by two terms of service on the Federation Council (Russia's upper house of parliament).
Prior to the passing of the amendment and his seeming exclusion from the race, Mr Boldyrev had been the only figure with a realistic chance of overhauling St Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak in the race for the renamed post of St Petersburg governor.
A poll released last week, conducted by St Petersburg Gallup Market Facts, shows that of the 52% of adult city residents who plan to vote in the gubernatorial election, 30% planned to vote for Mr Sobchak.
His closest competitor was former Federation Council deputy Alexander Belyayev with 5.6%.
The St Petersburg election law amendment is meanwhile under consideration in Russia's Constitutional Court and could ultimately be overturned.
Mr Boldyrev founded the Yabloko party with Grigory Yavlinsky and Vladimir Lukin. He quit the party last September, saying Yabloko had become autocratic and had sacrificed its liberal principles.
In further litigation last week, two lawsuits have been filed against Mr Sobchak by the city block of the Yabloko party.
Yabloko representative Olga Pokrovskaya claimed the decree rescheduling the mayoral elections from June 16 to May 19 was not publicized in time to allow candidates the required 60 days to campaign.
She also alleged that Mr Sobchak and his deputy mayor Vladimir Putin are campaigning for President Boris Yeltsin by participating in the All-Russia Movement for Support of Yeltsin (ODPY).
Article 23 of the Russian federal law on voters' rights states that executive officers of city and federal government are not allowed to publicly support candidates for government office, Ms Pokrovskaya said.
"Our complaint is not so much in the law itself" said Ms Pokrovskaya.
"It is a question of civil rights and the rights of the electorate."
She said the election date change and Yeltsin-Sobchak alliances are "another manipulation of laws" by the mayor.
Mr Sobchak disclaimed abuses of executive power and said his duties as an ODPY member are discrete from his job as mayor.
"The ODPY is a social organization," said a spokesman for the mayor. "It is not restricted from supporting the candidate of its choice, whoever its members may be."
Mr Yeltsin's St Petersburg representative Sergei Tsyplyayev said he agreed.
"Everyone has a right to participate in campaign activities for the candidate of their choice," he said.
Mr Sobchak said he was unconcerned about the lawsuits. "There were lawsuits during the last [mayoral] election," he said.
Mr Sobchak cited a desire to avoid entanglement in the June races as reason for not meeting ex-soviet president and presidential contender Mikhail Gorbachev during his visit to St Petersburg on March 21.
* Commentary.