Russia: Candidates Drop Out of Opposition Elections

On October 16 two high profile candidates in the opposition's Coordinating Council elections announced they are withdrawing from the campaign. Economist Irina Yasina and writer Liudmila Ulitskaya published a statement ^[1] [ru] on Yasina's blog, explaining that there are other “younger” and more “active” “young people” involved in the process, and that they are satisfied with having attracted public attention to the election process. Both were members of Ksenia Sobchak's electoral “block.”
A week prior, on October 8, another candidate renounced ^[2] [ru] his candidacy. Mikhail Deliagin, a well known economist and blogger, declared that his move was in protest of the way the organizers constantly change election rules. He especially criticized having to write an essay and to participate in the debates.