Embattled Tycoon to Invest $800M in Sochi

Telman Ismailov the tycoon who fell from favor after building a $1.5 billion hotel in Turkey, will invest $800 million into two Sochi hotels,Olimstro said Thursday.

The price tag is double what Ismailov had been expected to invest in the construction of hotels in the host city of the 2014 Winter Games, and analysts called the deal loss-making.

But what Ismailov might lose on the properties, he apparently hopes to make up with the Russian authorities, who closed his Cherkizovsky Market in Moscow last June after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin complained of smuggling.

Observers have linked the crackdown on Cherkizovsky, Europe's biggest market, to government anger that Ismailov had built the luxury hotel in Turkey instead of investing the money at home.

Olimpstroi, the state corporation overseeing construction for the Sochi games, said Thursday that Ismailov's AST Group had signed an agreement to develop 4,000 rooms and that the two sides were negotiating the hotels' design and concept.

AST will construct a 150-room, five-star hotel on the Black Sea shore in a new project that will be added to the Olympic program, Olimpstroi said.

The remaining 3,850 will be of three- and four-star quality and be part of the 5,500-room Sodruzhestvo hotel complex, which is currently listed in the official program without an investor, Olimpstroi said.

Sodruzhestvo, which will cover 24.9 hectares, will be the closest hotel to the main Olympic venues and will be located about 700 meters from the beach, according to Olimpstroi's map.

The sum of $800 million is a standard price for developing 4,000 four-star rooms, but the investment is dubious, analysts said.

"Even with beach access, such a hotel would take 10 years to break even," said Konstantin Romanov, a partner with Knight Frank.

Building a similar hotel in Turkey would make more sense because labor would be cheaper and the tourist season lasts 4 1/2 months, six weeks longer than in Sochi, he said.

The proposed site for the hotel in the Imeretinskaya lowland area could add to construction costs because of its difficult geology, but a large project like Sodruzhestvo has some room for cost-cutting, said Olga Shirokova, director of the consulting department at Blackwood.

“The Olympics are not enough to make this project profitable," she said, adding that it might make sense to build it in such a way to convert it to housing.

Four thousand hotel rooms can be converted into about 1,000 apartments, she said. Demand for such housing will depend on the cost, but "converting four-star hotel rooms into affordable housing is not optimal," she said.
Apartments in the Sochi area can fetch up to 80,000 rubles ($2,600) per square meter, but there is little demand, Romanov said.
"Local demand is practically zero, and demand for vacation homes among residents of other regions is very low," he said.

A secretary in Ismailov's office said nobody was available to comment Thursday.

But Ismailov might have more on his mind than the economics of the Sochi hotels. The businessman drew gasps and frowns last May when he opened Mardan Palace, a five-star wonder on the Antalian coast that is the most expensive hotel in Europe. The 560-room hotel is named after Ismailov's father and filled with extravagancies like gondola rides in a pool full of sparkling water.

Ismailov's fall from grace was swift after he gave such a blatant display of wealth during the economic crisis. Putin complained in early June that the seizure of $2 billion in contraband goods sold at Cherkizovsky Market had not resulted in convictions and, taking the hint, the authorities closed the market at the end of the month.

After Ismailov made Turkey his temporary home, Putin said in December that investors like Ismailov should focus on Russia, "for example in building hotels in Sochi."

Now, barely six month later, Ismailov's fortunes appear to be improving again. RBC Daily reported last week that Ismailov had purchased 36 hectares southwest of Moscow, not far from the Mega-Tyoply Stan shopping center, and was likely to recreate Cherkizovsky Market there.

The International Olympic Committee needs 24,400 hotel rooms ranging from three to five stars for tourists, officials, journalists, athletes and other Olympic guests. In addition, 38,000 rooms are needed for tourists, Olimpstroi said.

Binding investment agreements have been signed for three hotels in Imeretinskaya, including Sodruzhestvo, according to a program that Olimpstroi provided to The Moscow Times. Investors also have been found to build eight hotels with a total of 5,400 rooms in the area, although no deals have been signed yet. No investors have been found for two four-star hotels with 1,120 rooms.

Russia's Sochi Winter Olympics construction criticised

Russian authorities have failed to take into account the environmental impact of building work ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics, the UN has said.

The UN report comes after leading environmental organisations in Russia withdrew their co-operation, saying their concerns were being ignored.

Authorities say the Games will be green and have accused environmentalists of trying to derail the event.

The Games will be held in Sochi, a southern Russian Black Sea resort.

It is a sensitive region - home to a national park and a huge nature reserve designated as a world heritage site.

Relations between environmental organisations and the authorities responsible for the massive Olympics building programme have deteriorated sharply in recent months.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) recently withdrew all co-operation.

It is warning that irreversible damage has already been done to the environment, including the pollution of important rivers and the felling of rare species of trees.

Now the United Nations Environment Programme has added its voice.

It says the authorities need to carry out a full assessment of the overall impact the Olympics building work is having on the ecosystem.

It also calls for a strong monitoring programme and has offered to help mediate between the environmentalists and the authorities.

Much is at stake. This is the first time Russia is hosting the Winter Olympics and it is a pet project of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Putin Orders Olympics Financing Overhaul

The state corporation model has made it difficult to oversee expenses for Olympics preparations, government sources say, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has proposed returning to the previous financing model — a federal targeted program. The Regional Development Ministry is changing the way it finances construction work for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, sources in the Regional Development, Finance and Economic Development ministries said. The construction program is spelled out in a government order from Dec. 29, 2007, which lists 235 sites and events that are part of the preparations. According to the Regional Development Ministry, the program's overall cost is 1.3 trillion rubles ($41.5 billion). The effort is being overseen by Olimpstroi, a state corporation created Oct. 10, 2007, whose supervisory board is led by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak. It was transferred state assets worth 72 billion rubles in 2008. The ministry sources said Putin issued an order that would reform the program for the work in Sochi. "The order goes like this: 'Prepare a proposal on reforming the construction program for the Olympics sites and the development of Sochi as a mountain resort into a federal targeted program,'" one of the officials said. "We'll prepare such an order and get it approved with the relevant ministries and agencies," a senior regions ministry official said. Spokespeople for the Regional Development Ministry declined to comment. "Life and the crisis forced us to change legal directions," the regions ministry source said. "When we won the rights to hold the Olympics, the federal targeted program was hastily turned into a government program, and the money just kept flowing out. With the targeted program, that would have been impossible because everything was clearly spelled out with an explanation of the project's costs." When told of the proposal, Olimpstroi president Taimuraz Bolloyev said that "any experiments conducted on the Olympics project will only lead to negative consequences." Another Olimpstroi official said the building needed to start later this year or early next year. "If it doesn't happen, we won't finish," he said. "We're just the administrators," not the ones ordering all of the work, he added. After weeks of discussion, it was decided not to create a completely new targeted program, a senior Finance Ministry source said. "It would be really strange, since we already had a big targeted program to develop Sochi as a resort, and in 2007 it was wrapped up, with most of its money going to Olimpstroi." Creating a new targeted program would mean a return to the past and the closure of Olimpstroi, he said. "Olimpstroi has become something of a black box: They approve the list of sites but with no numbers." Eventually, a compromise was reached, he said. "The construction cost of each Olympic site will be determined, but the money will be deposited as equity capital, not through a federal targeted program." The arrangement is somewhat strange, the Finance Ministry official conceded. The planning element will be borrowed from the federal targeted program model, while the expenditures will continue to be made through the framework of the state corporation. "The aims justify the means. We need to strengthen oversight of the state corporation, as well as speed up, and most important, coordinate the Olympics building work." "Putting prices on the sites needs be done to make the construction more transparent," Kozak told Vedomosti. A source in the Economic Development Ministry said Kozak made the decision. Now, money will be added to Olimpstroi's equity capital gradually, as work on each project progresses, a regions ministry source said. "As before, we'll need to oversee the money," the source said. An Audit Chamber official said the changes would also strengthen oversight of other state bodies involved, including the Transportation Ministry, the Federal Road Agency and the Office for Presidential Affairs. The ensuing disagreements within the government over construction dates could put some of the projects at risk, however, a source in the Cabinet warned. "We're glad that the government has paid attention to the president's comments on the need to rethink the organizational and legal basis of the state corporations," a Kremlin official said. He said the Kremlin had not yet seen the order. "Even the partial reformation of any state corporation is a step forward and the start of the transformation of these legal entities, which people are still questioning." Another source in the Kremlin said President Dmitry Medvedev had not given orders about any specific state corporation. "The change in financing Olimpstroi is an internal matter for the White House and isn't at all connected with questions about the state corporations."

Golden games -Sochi

Russian state airline Aeroflot has signed a $100 million sponsorship deal with the organisers of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Bloomberg reports. The package includes a number of extra flights to the Black Sea resort, including new routes, in support of the Games.

Anger at Sochi poll

The circus has left town, the tamed lions have slunk away with their tails between their legs and the world carried on with United Russia's man safely back in office. After all the fanfares, Sochi's mayoral election was something of a damp squib.
With Anatoly Pakhomov bagging 77 per cent of the vote, and opposition candidate Boris Nemtsov languishing on barely 13 per cent, his mandate looks comparatively secure, irrespective of any questions about the poll's legitimacy.
But political analyst Nikolai Petrov, an expert in regional elections at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, does not expect the newly-elected mayor to wield much influence for long.
"The Sochi mayoral position is a very hot seat," he said. "There is a big conflict between the federal, regional and municipal authorities. Pakhomov is the fourth mayor in the last year, and I'll be surprised if he survives until the Olympics."
The theory is simply that the Kremlin regards Sochi, host of the 2014 Winter Olympics and centre of a colossal redevelopment programme ahead of that event, as far too important to be left under the influence of a local politician who has any kind of profile.
That also explains why the campaign attracted more attention around the world than it did in Sochi itself, where campaigning was mostly limited to state-run TV criticism of Pakhomov's opponents. Nemtsov of Solidarity and Yury Dzagania of the Communist Party complained that they were denied the opportunity to speak in public and had their campaign posters torn down.
Meanwhile Pakhomov himself kept a low profile, though still had a chance to embarrass himself when his worthy but dull speech to the local Armenian community was spectacularly upstaged by Nemtsov supporter Garry Kasparov. The former chess champion, an ethnic Armenian, took the stage to decry Moscow's machinations, leaving Pakhomov stranded on the platform as the crowd roared for more.
According to Petrov, the low-key campaign was also part of the authorities' plan to control the polls.
"The strategy was not to give it a lot of publicity in the town, not to attract attention and to make the campaign invisible," he said. "That was for understandable reasons. The party of power, and the Communists, are both interested in low turn-outs. It makes the results look better for them."
Petrov characterised the elections as "more or less free, but not fair", acknowledging that early polling had cast a doubt over the validity of the result. Exit polls by opposition candidates on Sunday's official polling day suggested a tight contest with Pakhomov unable to secure the 50 per cent he needed to win without a run-off, but those figures do not include returns from the 30,000 or so ballots cast early.
However, he was less interested in a further claim made by opposition candidates, that allowing Abkhaz citizens with Russian passports to vote had affected the outcome. "It seems pretty strange to let them vote, but the reported number of voters was rather small," Petrov said.
Nemtsov and Dzagania are both expected to launch a legal challenge. Dzagania, who polled 6.5 per cent, protested that he was unable to campaign properly, while Nemtsov claimed the early polls tilted the vote in favour of Pakhomov.
"We know that many of those who cast ballots in early voting did it under duress, pressure and threats," said Nemtsov.
"They were threatened that they could be sacked or would not be paid their salaries."

FSB Busts Sochi Spy Ring

SOCHI, Krasnodar Region — A businessman running an Internet cafe in Sochi has been exposed as the leader of a Georgian spy ring, the Federal Security Service said Tuesday. The suspect, identified as Ukrainian citizen Mamuka Maisuradze, has admitted to collecting information about the political situation in the region, including preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the FSB said in a statement carried by Interfax. An FSB spokesman confirmed the statement but said he could not comment further because the information had not been spread by his agency's press office. He refused to elaborate. The Georgian government denied the accusation. Eka Tkeshelashvili, head of the country's Security Council, said the man had never served in Georgian intelligence. “I assume this is just a tit-for-tat arrest” after Georgia arrested four Russians in 2006 over spying allegations, she said, Bloomberg reported. The allegations come at the height of an unusually heated campaign for Sochi's mayoral election next Sunday. It was unclear whether the purported spy was in custody or whether any charges had been brought against him. Nor was it clear when Maisuradze was detected. The FSB statement said he had been declared persona non grata because his activities posed a real threat to Russia's defense capacities and security. "His testimony confirms that Georgia attempted to set up a regional intelligence network," an unidentified FSB official told Interfax. The statement said Maisuradze had provided the FSB with the names of Russian citizens who maintained contacts with Georgian intelligence. It also said Georgia's foreign intelligence service had helped Maisuradze obtain Ukrainian citizenship and set up private businesses in Sochi, including an Internet cafe, through which he communicated with his superiors. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry had no comment on the claim, a spokeswoman said by telephone from Kiev. The FSB began watching the suspect in 2000 because of his alleged connections to leaders of separatist groups in Chechnya and other republics in the North Caucasus, Interfax reported. The FSB said that before arriving in Sochi in 2007, Maisuradze held executive posts in Georgian government agencies where he maintained contacts with Chechen separatists, including former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, who was killed in a car bombing in Qatar in 2004. Qatar convicted two Russian intelligence officers in the slaying. Meanwhile, Sochi's police chief warned that one of the six candidates running for mayor was planning to spread public unrest in the city. "Plans for a series of provocations are being worked out in one of the candidates' campaign headquarters," police chief Alexander Birillo said, RIA-Novosti reported. "People from other regions who have taken part in Dissenters' Marches and in the Orange Revolution are coming" to Sochi, he said. Birillo did not identify the candidate, but the race now amounts to a showdown between United Russia's candidate, acting Sochi Mayor Anatoly Pakhmonov, and outspoken Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov. Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution swept President Viktor Yushchenko to power. Nemtsov was a vocal Russian supporter of the upheaval, and he served as an adviser to Yuschenko after he took office in early 2005. Russian-Ukrainian relations have been deeply troubled ever since, as have relations with Georgia, which fought a brief war with Russia over its separatist province of South Ossetia last summer. Earlier this month, the Georgian government paraded an activist of the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi in Tbilisi, claiming that he had admitted to planning a provocation along the demarcation line with South Ossetia.

Sochi election a litmus test

With one candidate facing an ammonia attack, Russia's most famous murder suspect flitting in and out of the race and the country's leading freemason joining a cast-list of 23 hopefuls at the latest count, it's no surprise that the Sochi mayoral election is seen by some as a farce.
But beneath the froth generated by this chorus line of cabaret candidates, political commentators say the race is fast becoming a litmus test of government policy in the face of the economic meltdown - and the authorities' willingness to allow a greater measure of plurality into the political system.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, visiting the city for a meeting on the Sochi Olympics with President Dmitry Medvedev, top officials and businessmen on Monday, was moved to urge voters not to get drawn into the political circus which has engulfed the Black Sea resort as voters prepare to select a mayor on April 26, and warned that "politicians should not use the Olympics to further their own goals."
United Russia has chosen acting mayor Anatoly Pakhomov as its candidate, and his most serious opposition is set to come from charismatic opposition spokesman Boris Nemtsov and Alexander Lebedev, the cosmopolitan media tycoon who has previously represented both United Russia and Just Russia. The Communists have put forward Yury Dzagania, while the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party replaced murder suspect Andrei Lugovoi - wanted in Britain in connection with the 2006 death of Alexander Litvinenko - with local politician Alexei Kolesnikov.
Medvedev has recently said he welcomes criticism of the government's anti-crisis measures, and has hinted in recent months that he is more open to pluralism than Putin was as president.
Vladimir Pribylovsky, an analyst with the Panorama think tank, said Lebedev could possibly mount a successful challenge if there was a level playing field in the election.
"Elections of city mayors are almost the only real polls left," Pribylovsky said. "If this were a fair election, there is a chance that Lebe­dev might win in the second round. Lebedev, Pakhomov and Nemtsov would likely be left in the second round, and if Lebedev were to join forces with Nemtsov, he could win. However, the government will make sure that such a thing does not happen."
Sergey Markov, a senior United Russia State Duma deputy and an adviser to the government, agreed that mayoral elections were now more competitive than Duma races.
"The chances for practical competition in other elections have shrunk," he said by telephone. "People like Nemtsov find it difficult to compete for parliament because they have no time to get a good party list, so mayoral elections appear to be the most competitive, interesting and intense."
Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister under Boris Yeltsin and an outspoken critic of Sochi's Olympic commitments, has vowed to continue campaigning despite being attacked by an ammonia-spraying assailant on his way to a press conference on Monday. In an interview with Ekho Moskvy radio he accused pro-government youth group 'Nashi' of the assault, prompting a law suit demanding a million roubles in compensation.
"It's good publicity for Nemtsov," said Markov. "He will want to come back into mainstream politics, so Sochi is all about publicity for him. He has a theoretical possibility of winning, but the people of Sochi know they are faced with real problems which can't be solved in opposition to the federal and regional authorities, but only through co-operation with them."
Nikolai Petrov, a regional political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, said that he didn't believe Nemtsov would be allowed to stand. "Nemtsov was born in Sochi, he's pretty popular - especially when there are lots of conflicts and problems," said Petrov. "If he's competing with a dull official like Pakhomov he can win. But Russia's electoral legislation is so complicated it's possible to push anybody out at any time over various technicalities."
Petrov added that inflating the list of candidates before the final registrations were confirmed helped the Kremlin to neutralise the opposition without looking heavy-handed. "To exclude such candidates [as Nemtsov] without looking like the bad guys, they need to attract other names," he added. "If only five of 15 people drop out it would look pretty normal."
He was dubious about Lebedev's prospects, saying that the businessman was not a serious candidate.
"We just don't know if he's trying to use politics to solve his problems or vice versa," said Petrov. "He can't be a truly independent candidate because he does business in Russia and so is dependent on the Kremlin. He could try to sell his participation - or non-participation - for business benefits."
Nominations for the poll closed on Thursday - with 23 hopefuls including arm-wrestling champion Stanislav Koretsky and ballerina Anastasia Volochkova planning to put themselves forward. The local authorities will spend the next week checking the applications and officially registering candidates ahead of an April 2 deadline.
Given their recent electoral shock in Murmansk, it might seem surprising that United Russia - a party unfamiliar with losing elections - has kept faith with a relatively low-profile, local candidate.
Markov insisted, however, that it was essential to have a local as mayor as the city prepares for a place in the international limelight in 2014.
"Sochi is attractive to the whole country, because of the Olympics and because everyone likes to have a couple of weeks' holiday there," Markov said. "But local people understand that their problems are not the problems of a big ... city, but problems of a medium-sized local city." He explained that in the past rival agendas had left the city and the regional authority in a political stalemate.
"There was a political battle and the regional governor won it," said Markov. "He based his power and popularity on the poorer people, which was very different from the style of rich new Russian investors who totally ignore human interests. There's no reason for the federal people to change this situation."
The election was triggered by the resignation of Mayor Vladimir Afanasyenkov on October 30 on health grounds.

Ballerina Leaps Into Sochi Race

Ballerina Anastasia Volochkova announced Thursday that she will stand for mayor of the Black Sea resort of Sochi, bringing the number of candidates in the colorful election to 23. Volochkova, who made headlines in 2003 after she was fired from the Bolshoi Theater, reportedly because she weighed too much, submitted her documents and deposit to Sochi's elections commission on Thursday, she said in a statement. "I am going to stand to protect people," Volochkova said. "I am not the Kremlin's candidate. I am the candidate of the owners of small hotels and street cafes." Thursday was the last day for prospective candidates to register in the April 26 election, which will see several prominent political figures battling local and novelty candidates. Sochi is slated to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, a project for which the federal government has earmarked billions of dollars to almost entirely remake the underdeveloped resort. The race includes opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, businessman Alexander Lebedev and former presidential candidate Andrei Bogdanov, a Kremlin-friendly liberal and one of the country's leading Freemasons. Volochkova told reporters Thursday that as mayor she would focus on issues such as transportation, electricity and sewage dumping into the Black Sea. "I'm sure that with a professional team, we will make a good job of it," she said, Interfax reported. Volochkova, who has no political campaign experience but is a member of ruling party United Russia, first said publicly last week that she might run for the post. She told Gazeta.ru on Thursday that "continuing insistent demands from Sochi residents" for her to run prompted her to enter the race. Volochkova has never been particularly vocal about her politics, though in 2005 she signed an open letter calling for an end to criticism of the country's legal system over the conviction of former Yukos chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky. She is currently the prima ballerina at a musical theater in the city of Krasnodar, which is close to Sochi. Porn star and former reality show contestant Yelena Berkova submitted her documents and deposit Wednesday to enter the election, the producer of her television channel told The Moscow Times on Thursday. The producer, Alexander Valov, added that he did not know if her application would be accepted, since "she is a girl with a mixed reputation." A spokesman for the Sochi elections commission said Thursday, however, that Berkova's application had not been received. The April 26 election will be the country's last mayoral race in which candidates can submit a deposit to get on the ballot. Future elections will require candidates to submit signatures from supporters, a requirement that opposition candidates say allows for manipulation by election officials to prevent them from running for office. Candidates in the Sochi race had the option of submitting a deposit of 282,000 rubles ($8,400).

Murky U.S. Money Could Boot Nemtsov From Sochi Race

A mysterious campaign contribution from a New York man could scuttle opposition politician Boris Nemtsov's bid in the increasingly bizarre mayoral race in the Black Sea resort Sochi, which is to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. Nemtsov received a $5,000 wire transfer on his bank account from a business registered near the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. His campaign called the bank transfer a "Kremlin provocation" to keep him off the Sochi ballot under an election rule forbidding candidates from accepting campaign contributions from abroad. Nemtsov sent the money back to the United States on Friday afternoon, his press secretary told RIA Novosti. A scanned copy of the invoice obtained by The Moscow Times showed that the money was credited to Nemtsov's account with Sberbank on Wednesday from a Brooklyn-registered company called GBR Business Consulting. According to New York State public records, the company is registered to an apartment in near Brighton Beach, home to a large Russian-speaking community. The Internet telephone directory White Pages lists the apartment under the name Boris Glickstein, the same name given as a contact for a nearby Brighton Beach car dealership, Kings Jaguar. Reached by telephone Friday at Kings Jaguar, Glickstein confirmed to The Moscow Times that he had wired money to Nemtsov's bank account after he was "asked to make a contribution" by Nemtsov's campaign. "Yes, I transferred the money," Glickstein, speaking Russian, told The Moscow Times. "Don't discuss it with me, discuss it with them." Asked what he meant by "them," Glickstein said he meant Nemtsov's campaign team. "I was asked to make a contribution," he said, adding that he did not remember when or by whom. When told that candidates are not allowed to use campaign contributions from abroad, Glickstein said: "Well, let them return it then." "I do not have time to talk," Glickstein said tersely before hanging up. Opposition politicians have repeatedly accused election officials of manipulating election registration documents to keep them from running in elections. A common tactic, Kremlin critics say, is to rule invalid signatures from supporters that prospective candidates are often required to submit to get on the ballots. Mayoral candidates in the April 26 Sochi election, however, had the option of submitting a deposit of 282,000 rubles ($8,400) to join the race, which Nemtsov said he did in order to avoid being kept out of the election on technicalities. Nemtsov, a Sochi native, told The Moscow Times in a telephone interview Friday that he had never heard of Boris Glickstein. "I don't know this person. It is a provocation," Nemtsov said. The wire transfer came from an account with the bank JPMorgan Chase, according to the scanned copy of the invoice. Nemtsov said his campaign would ask JPMorgan Chase to investigate the origins of the money. Similar complaints will be sent to banks from which other such murky money transfers are made to his bank account, Nemtsov said. Nemtsov's spokeswoman, Olga Shorina, said the mysterious money was "absolutely a Kremlin provocation." A woman who answered the telephone at the Kremlin press service Friday said she would not comment. Shorina said Nemtsov's campaign first learned of the wire transfer from a report on the web site Yuga.ru, and that the money would be returned. The head of the Sochi elections commission, Yury Rykov, showed the copy of the invoice to a news conference Friday, Yuga.ru editor Anton Smertin told The Moscow Times in a telephone interview from Krasnodar. A spokeswoman for Sochi elections commission told The Moscow Times that election officials were aware of the wire transfer but that it would only be an election violation if Nemtsov used the money. The Sochi mayoral election has become one of the year's most intriguing political events, with several high-profile candidates joining the race. The field includes businessman Alexander Lebedev and former Bolshoi Theater ballerina Anastasia Volochkova. The next Sochi mayor will have a strong say over how the government will spend billions of dollars to build infrastructure for the Olympics. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, who oversees the preparations for the event, said recently that the Olympics budget amounts to more than 200 billion rubles ($5.7 billion). The Sochi vote could be a test for Solidarity, a loose umbrella opposition group formed in December and led by Nemtsov. After popular elections for governors were cancelled in 2004, mayoral elections allow the opposition perhaps its only chance to participate in big politics. Unidentified assailants ambushed Nemtsov on Monday, pouring ammonia over him as he made his way to a news conference in Sochi, the candidate and his supporters said. Nemtsov blamed the attack on the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi, which is notorious for similar guerilla political stunts. Nashi said in a statement this week that it intended to sue Nemtsov for libel and is seeking 1 million rubles ($30,000) in damages. Four candidates were kicked out of the race on the grounds that they did not submit all of the necessary registration documents, the Sochi elections commission said Friday.