'Volgograd Obama' tag for migrant candidate

He's standing for elected office, he brings a message of change, and he's black.

This has been enough for Joaquim Crima, a watermelon salesman who lives in a small town in southern Russia, to be dubbed the "Volgograd Obama".

Crima, a native of Guinea-Bissau, plans to stand for mayor of the district of Srednyaya Akhtuba, part of the Volgograd region. If elected, he would become the first black man to hold public office in Russia.

Even though the elections are not until October, Crima, 37, has started his campaign. He has a Russian passport, has lived in the district for more than a decade and is known locally not as Joaquim but as Vasily Ivanovich.

A series of large billboards has appeared in Srednyaya Akhtuba showing him dressed in a crisp white shirt and tie, with the slogan: "Vasily Crima - the new head of the district".

There are thousands of Africans in Russia, most of whom, like Crima, arrived on scholarships to Russian universities. Many are forced to stay on due to political instability or lack of economic opportunities back home.

Unlike Barack Obama, Crima has decided to play into, rather than attempt to transcend, the racial stereotypes. He has promised that if elected he will "toil like a negro" for the good of the district, which has problems with water and gas supplies, bad roads, and allegedly corrupt officials.

In September, Crima will mark 20 years in Russia and the former Soviet Union. He first arrived in 1989 as a student on a Soviet-era exchange programme, and was sent to university in Moldova, then a Soviet republic. After a year, he was transferred to the Pedagogical University in Volgograd where he specialised in biochemistry.

He decided to stay in Russia after graduating, and met Anait, a Russian woman of Armenian origin, whom he later married. The pair have a 9-year-old son. Despite his education, the would-be mayor makes a living standing by the side of the road between Volgograd and Srednyaya Akhtuba, selling watermelons grown and harvested by his father-in-law.

Because he lives in a town where everybody knows him, Crima doesn't face the day-to-day racism that plagues African immigrants in Moscow and other Russian provincial cities.

He played down the tag of "Volgograd Obama", and said he would not dream of comparing himself to the American President. However, he said that Mr Obama's election was part of a "global process", and that, in time, even Russia would be ready for black officials.

Crima is philosophical about his chances, saying even if he loses, he plans on the small town being home for the rest of his life.

"I've seen some terrible things about Guinea-Bissau on the TV, and I'd like to go back to see what has happened to my country," he says.

"But this is home now. My life is here; my son is here. I'm Russian."

- INDEPENDENT