MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia prosecutors said they were investigating opposition leader Mikhail Kasyanov's bid to run as president, as Kremlin-backed candidate Dmitry Medvedev's campaign gathered pace Tuesday.
A spokeswoman for the chief prosecutor's office, Tatyana Chernyshova, said on national television that irregularities had been found in Kasynov's registration application.
Some analysts said the development could lead to his exclusion from the March 2 presidential election.
Last week Kasyanov delivered box-loads of signatures in support of his registration -- at least two million are required -- to the country's election commission as required by law.
But the prosecutor's spokeswoman said that falsified signatures had been found among batches from two Russian regions.
In western Russia's Mary El province, prosecutors in the local capital had "opened a criminal case", she said.
Election commission official, Nikolai Konkin, said that after checking 400,000 of the signatures, some 62,000, or 15.57 percent, had been judged inadmissible.
Kasyanov, who served under President Vladimir Putin as prime minister until 2004, was required to gather the signatures under Russian law because his People's Democratic Union is not a parliamentary party.
Russia's election system has come under heavy criticism from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the wake of parliamentary elections last month. Even if Kasyanov is registered, analysts see little chance of electoral success against Putin's handpicked candidate.
Putin has groomed Medvedev for the post and critics say that all other candidates have been marginalised by a slavishly loyal media.
On Tuesday Medvedev promised sustained development and stability and to reach out to foreign partners made nervous by Russia's return to strength.
In a speech to civil society representatives, he adopted a notably milder tone than Putin's often aggressive rhetoric.
He said Russia had to work harder to explain its course to foreign partners and insisted that "all of Russia's foreign policy today absolutely fits with a modern understanding of international standards."
Kasyanov has complained that his campaign activists have been hounded by law enforcement agencies in their quest for enough signatures.
He told reporters he refused to consider the possibility that he might be excluded and insisted that all was in Putin's hands.
"It is not the electoral commission but Putin" who decides, he said. "The question today is will the voters have a choice or not."
Political analyst Yevgeny Volk, who heads the Moscow office of the US Heritage Foundation, said it was quite possible the authorities would remove Kasyanov from the contest.
He said the presence on ballot papers of two other prominent politicians who have a record of loyalty to the Kremlin, in addition to Medvedev, could be used by the Kremlin to give the election a legitimate air.
"The Kremlin isn't interested in Kasyanov participating in the elections and creating opposition to Medvedev. The scenario of his removal from the elections is highly plausible," said Volk.
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