Against Putin: 7 candidates and a glaring absence
Tokyo, March 12: Japan’s finance minister admitted Monday that his department made 14 changes to documents related to a controversial land sale that has sparked allegations of favouritism against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The complex scandal appears to have dented Abe’s popularity as he attempts to win re- election as head of his ruling party in September. The scandal revolves over the 2016 purchase of a plot of land in Osaka by the right- wing operator of an ultra- conservative kindergarten.
The school, Moritomo Gakuen, reportedly paid just 134 million yen ($ 1.3 million) for the 9,000 square metre ( 97,000 square foot) plot — around one tenth of the price for a comparable spot nearby. The school’s operator, Yasunori Kagoike, claims ties to Abe and his wife Akie and the opposition have alleged that the cutprice deal was sealed due to Kagoike’s high- level connections.
Kagoike claimed he received a one- million- yen donation from Abe via his wife for the school — which the Prime Minister strenuously denies.
Akie was named honorary principal of the school but stepped down when the land scandal swirled. The scandal appeared to have died down and Abe won a fresh term in office last year with a resounding majority despite opposition parties trying to raise the issue during campaigning.
But earlier this month, the Asahi Shimbun reported that documents relating to the land sale had been altered before being presented to lawmakers.
Finance minister Taro Aso was forced to admit that key passages were deleted from the documents eventually presented to parliament, sparking allegations of a cover- up.
Among the names removed were those of Abe, his wife Akie and Aso himself, according to documents published by opposition lawmakers. The scandal has already hurt Abe politically and was largely blamed for his Liberal Democratic Party ( LDP) being humiliated in Tokyo mayoral elections in 2016.
It was also a factor in the resignation of former defence minister Tomomi Inada, who was forced to step down after it emerged she had represented Kagoike in court having previously denied it.
N o b u h i s a Sagawa, the head of the N a t i o n a l T a x A g e n c y, quit last week over the scandal, with s o m e reports suggesting he ordered the d o c u m e n t s altered.
A finance ministry official involved in the scandal was found dead last week in an apparent suicide although it is not clear whether there is a direct link.
Abe has been largely free from the scandals that have afflicted previous Japanese prime ministers but his popularity already seems to have taken a hit.
For the first time since he won re- election in October, his approval rating dipped below 50 percent, according to the most recent poll. Despite an apparent blip over the scandal, Abe enjoys approval ratings that would be the envy of British P r i m e M i n i s t e r T h e r e s a May or US resident D o n a l d Trump. Abe has a t w o - t h i r d s majority in parliament that gives him very powerful
a base.
“If it’s found that the documents were actually rewritten, it would deal a heavy blow to the Abe administration,” said Shinichi Nishikawa, professor of politics at Meiji niversity in Tokyo. “His support rate is likely to fall, but Abe is still likely to survive the scandal by saying ‘ This was done by finance ministry bureaucrats’,” Nishikawa said.
Abe is seeking re- election as head of the LDP in September which would set him on course to become the country’s longest- serving leader.
For the moment, no challenger has put his head above the parapet but the scandal could damage Abe, at a time when the hawkish Prime Minister wants to make controversial changes to the constitution and has to deal with the North Korean crisis.
“Abe’s situation could become more precarious if his approval ratings begin to fall again. In this case, it would create space for a rival to argue that a scandalweary public is ready for change,” said Tobias Harris, vice- president of the Teneo Intelligence think- tank.
Pressure is also mounting on Aso at a time when the world’s third- largest economy is enjoying its longest run of growth since the bubble days of the 1980s. Aso said he had no intention to resign over the scandal. Moscow, March 12: Seven candidates are lined up to run against Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sunday’s election, but his primary political opponent will not be on the ballot.
Facing competitors such as a former reality TV star and a director of a fruit farm, Putin is all but guaranteed to win the vote and extend his Kremlin stint to 2024 with a fourth term in office. Alexei Navalny, a charismatic anti- corruption blogger turned opposition politician who has organised several large anti- Kremlin protests, has been barred from running.
Russia’s electoral commission rejected his candidacy application because of a criminal conviction which Navalny says is politically motivated.
The 41- year- old is widely regarded as Putin’s principal opponent and has a loyal support base. Navalny has called for the vote to be boycotted in protest against his ban.
Nicknamed the “strawberry king”, 57year- old Pavel Grudinin is the Russian Communist Party’s surprise candidate.
Director of a former state fruit farm which he turned into a profitable business, Grudinin is Putin’s most popular competitor. Polls show seven percent of Russians are ready to put him in the Kremlin.
He has been vilified in the pro- Kremlin press for his alleged wealth and foreign bank accounts. He has also denounced “constant pressure” from the authorities.
While openly criticising some of the government’s policies, Grudinin stops short of personally attacking Putin.
Ksenia Sobchak surprised Russians in October by declaring herself a candidate in the vote with the slogans “against them all”, and “none of the above”.
A former reality TV star, Sobchak took part in Russia’s anti- Putin protests in 2011- 2012 before becoming a presenter on the independent TV Dozhd channel.
The 36- year- old has made no secret of her close ties to Putin, who worked with her father Anatoly Sobchak when he was mayor of Saint Petersburg in the 1990s.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky is a Russian presidential election regular. The March vote will be the 71- year- old’s sixth presidential race.
The leader of the u l t r a - c o n s e r vat ive LDPR party is known for his fiery antiAmerican, anti- liberal and anti- communist speeches.
He is considered by many observers to be the Kremlin’s token opponent and is often described as a clown in Russian political circles.
Though marginalised in recent years, Zhirinovsky continues to deliver nationalistic rants in parliament and regularly appears on Russian television talk shows. Around five percent of Russians are forecast to vote for him. Veteran liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky is running for the Russian presidency for the third time. Yavlinsky gained less than 10 percent of the vote in the 1996 and 2000 elections.
He refused to run in the 2004 election, accusing Putin of rigging the vote. He was ejected from the 2012 presidential race at the last minute — a move he said was politically motivated after he came out in support of antiPutin protesters.
The 65- year- old, who founded his Yabloko party in 1993, opposed the annexation of Crimea and has been critical of Moscow’s role in Syria. He remains prominent critic of Putin and Russia’s ruling United Russia party but is tolerated by the Kremlin. Parts of the divided Russian liberal opposition view him with scepticism.
A representative of the Russian business community, Boris Titov announced his candidacy in the election without any illusion about the result. Speaking in Crimea on a campaign trip in February, Titov admitted that “nobody has any doubt who will win the election” and said the main aim of the vote is to “convince the authorities, and Putin, to reform the economy.”
The 57- year- old supports the Kremlin’s foreign policy but has called for normalising relations with the West to stabilise the Russian economy. Titov’s family owns the Russian winery Abrau- Durso, which has existed in the southern Krasnodar region since the 19th century.
The 59- year- old leader of the nationalist People’s Union party, Sergei Baburin, is largely unknown and rarely mentioned in the media. A former vice speaker of parliament’s lower house, the State Duma, Baburin says he has been fighting against the “neoliberalism” of the Russian authorities for more than 20 years. Many Russians have also never heard of Maxim Suraikin.
The 39- year- old is a former member of the Russian Communist party who broke away in 2012 and founded the Communists of Russia party. a