As political strategist Gleb Pavlovsky told a Perm website, once Basargin has established himself, he will head the region, whether Perm wills it or not.

He was born on 31 July 1930 in Moscow, the son of a clock maker.

Navalny also publicized Facebook and VKontakte social groups in support of traveling to Astrakhan to aid Oleg Shein.

The Coalition is using social networks to organize a protest march on May Day as part of a campaign to make sure elections do take place.

Roughly 900 miles to the south, in Astrakhan, the supporters of mayoral candidate Oleg Shein encountered roughly the same electoral fraud that so overwhelmed Roman Shar.

And if Oleg Shein dies from his hunger strike (which he had to undertake in part because of criminal actions), her prison term will be even longer.

For example, the state has granted a 4.2 billion loan to the aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska (who held first place on the Forbes list before the crisis) to pay off Western creditors.