Sobyanin claims rivals see mayoral polls as bridgehead in trying ‘to storm the Kremlin’

(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 26, 2013) Acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has slammed candidates for mayor of the Russian capital who “say that, generally speaking, Moscow is just a stage for them in trying to seize power in the country, to storm the Kremlin.”

“I don’t think this trick will work. Neither you and I nor the Muscovites would put up with being experimented on and let themselves be drawn into a political crisis,” Sobyanin, who will himself seek another stint in the September 8 mayoral election, said at a meeting on Monday with his campaign representatives.

He accused the majority of those who will rival him in the polls of “absolutely mendacious populist promises, which are, of course, impossible to keep, realistically speaking.”

Such promises “target simpletons, gullible people,” he said. “I’m sure that the Muscovites don’t come within that category.”