Russia's Next President Calls for Crackdown on Official Corruption

Russia's future president, Dmitry Medvedev, yesterday began his election campaign by acknowledging that Russia was in the grip of rampant corruption and what he termed "legal nihilism".

In his first address since being registered as a candidate for Russia's March presidential election, Medvedev said official corruption had now reached a "huge scale". He was also critical of widespread disregard for the law.

Medvedev's unusual comments came as Russia's election commission moved to disqualify the only democratic challenger in the March 2 poll - the opposition candidate Mikhail Kasyanov.

The commission said it was launching an investigation into signatures collected by Kasyanov's supporters, claiming that many of them had been forged. Under Kremlin rules candidates not represented in Russia's Duma need to collect 2m signatures. Yesterday Kasyanov - who served as Russia's prime minister before falling out with Vladimir Putin in 2004 - described the investigation as political. He said government agencies had harassed his supporters, forcing them to denounce themselves.

Last month Putin anointed Medvedev, Russia's first deputy prime minister, as his presidential successor. Medvedev's victory in the March election is a foregone conclusion.

Medvedev also suggested that the west had misunderstood Russia. "Russia in the future will continue developing as a nation open for dialog with the international community," he said. Most analysts, however, believe that he is unlikely to change Putin's hawkish foreign policy, not least because Medvedev has asked Putin to carry on in government. Both men will then run the country, with Putin the senior partner, observers believe.