kasyanov openly stated that if he were to become president he would set price for oil to $15 a barrel for US customers. no wonder the west is all upset he cannot be on a ballot! is it too much to ask that west at least respect the fact that people running for presidency in russia do not plot of how to destroy that country? kasyanov absolutely should be on a ballot as a candidate for the presidency but it shouldnt be in russia but in US instead because he obviously wants to represent american interests around the world, not russia's.

Svetlana, New York, NY, USA

To take part in the race he has to collect 2 million signitures. Not the Kremlin, the Central election commetee has find out that 13% of signitures are a fake, that is above the 5% norm. In addition if one takes the fakes from the count Kasianov has less that 2 million signitures. After that the check was stopped. Of course you can say "Kremlin has made a pressure on the commetee". But I don't buy that it is so easy, because e.g. as in any other country all parties has observers there and so on.

However in this case there is a better prove:
You can find anywhere including Western Media that Kasianov has popularity rating below 1%.
poulation of RF is 140 million - about 100 million voters. 2 million signitures make a rating of 2%.
Collecting signitures is a difficult procedure demending a group of supportes in many regions of RF (one has to collect a certain amount in at least half of the regions). He has no serious party behind.
So, yes, I am sure that there are a lot of fakes!

Dmitry, Juelich, Germany