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Russia's Putin Links Opponent
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Moscow, Russia—Homophobic propaganda was utilized last week by presidential candidate Vladimir Putin in a crudely managed attempt to smear his opponent.

Although Putin had not been expected to lose his bid for the presidency, pundits guess that he'd hoped, with an anti-gay strategy, to lessen the appeal of Grigory Yavinsky, a liberal candidate, so that a run-off with him would be unnecessary and so that Putin could be assured of having the required 50% of the vote he needed.

Russian Interim President Vladimir Putin

In a broadcast, which appeared to be staged, so-called members of a gay group, Blue Heart, were shown endorsing Yavinsky. "Blue" in Russian is a colloquial term for gay.

On a March 23 television broadcast, the liberal candidate was also said to be receiving financial support from one of the nation's most prominent Jewish businessmen. This entrepreneur holds, at the same time, said the announcer, Israeli citizenship

Pundits reflected that the broadcast-attack, by a station that is 51% owned by the government, hoped to appeal to rampant anti-Semitism still common among many Russians.

Georgi A. Arbatov, a political scholar who specializes in Russia's relationship with the West, said:

"Putin promised no dirty tricks during the presidential campaign, but now they are turning all the propaganda against Yavinsky during these final days of the campaign."

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Arbatov added: "Putin's whole style reminds me of a policeman in the provinces."