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The black man known as Russian's Obama
By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
Mr Crima has become an overnight media sensation here. On the day I visited him in his home town Srednyaya Akhtuba in southern Russia, two other TV crews were with him. The next day two more were due in town. The country's newspapers have dubbed him Russia's Barack Obama. The implication is that Russians could be ready to elect a black man, even if it is only for a local county council. Mr Crima's optimism and exuberance are infectious. As I followed him around the local market you could see people warming to him. Even the dour country folk found it hard to resist his warm smile and open hand as, in lilting Russian, he joked and bantered with the stall holders.
Joachim Crima (running for office in Russia)
"Good for you," said one tall man leaning against his Lada car "we need new leaders in this place". And he is optimistic that he can win: "There is a chance of winning because I see the way people react to me," he told me. But to do so Mr Crima has a massive mountain to climb. In his election slogan "I will work like a negro for Russia" Mr Crima adopts a word commonly used a racial slur. It is an acknowledgement of what everyone here knows, that racial prejudice in Russia is as common as Ladas are. Some have even joked that his election slogan should be changed to "No we can't". It was all supposed to be very different. The Soviet Union touted itself as a friend of Africa - hundreds of thousands of African students were encouraged to come here to study, and thousands still do every year. But since the collapse of the Soviet Union, attitudes to immigrants have soured, and a vicious neo-Nazi movement has grown among Russia's disillusioned youth. Now Africans living in Russia's big cities, which include refugees fleeing war and economic migrants looking for a better life, live in constant fear of being attacked.
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And he is optimistic that he can win: "There is a chance of winning because I see the way people react to me," he told me. But to do so Mr Crima has a massive mountain to climb. In his election slogan "I will work like a negro for Russia" Mr Crima adopts a word commonly used a racial slur. It is an acknowledgement of what everyone here knows, that racial prejudice in Russia is as common as Ladas are. Some have even joked that his election slogan should be changed to "No we can't". It was all supposed to be very different. The Soviet Union touted itself as a friend of Africa - hundreds of thousands of African students were encouraged to come here to study, and thousands still do every year. But since the collapse of the Soviet Union, attitudes to immigrants have soured, and a vicious neo-Nazi movement has grown among Russia's disillusioned youth. Now Africans living in Russia's big cities, which include refugees fleeing war and economic migrants looking for a better life, live in constant fear of being attacked.
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