The Sochi election authorities earlier confirmed that six candidates had been approved to run for mayor in the host city of the Olympic Games.
Sochi voters will have to choose from acting Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov of the governing United Russia party, former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov of the opposition Solidarity movement, Sochi Communist leader Yury Dzaganiya, regional LDPR head Alexei Kolesnikov, and businessmen Pavel Yemelyanenko and Vladimir Trukhanovsky.
The campaign in Sochi has been in the spotlight as the city prepares to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. The next mayor will likely have a major say in how billions of dollars in government funding for the Games are spent.
A host of high-profile candidates sought to take part, although many have since been ruled out, including former Bolshoi Theater ballerina Anastasia Volochkova and human rights ombudsman Dmitry Berdnikov.
