Rybkin wants to participate in TV debates from London

Presidential nominee Ivan Rybkin (Liberal Russia party), currently in Great Britain, wants to participate in free TV debates via a video conference from London.

"Today we shall ask the Central Election Commission to permit Ivan Rybkin to participate in TV debates via a video conference from London. There are no technical obstacles to this," Ksenia Ponomareva, Ivan Rybkin's campaign manager, told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.

Ivan Rybkin, who was missing for five days, said last week that he was going to conduct his election campaign from London for personal security reasons.

Rybkin failed to hold a video conference from London last week "for technical reasons," Ponomareva said.

The Central Election Commission's response to Rybkin's statement is still unknown.

Formerly, its chairman Alexander Veshnyakov said that Rybkin's plans to conduct the election campaign from abroad are not illegal. However, he gave no other commentaries in order "not to lose temper." In 1991 Ivan Rybkin left the Communist Party. In 1993 he became a State Duma speaker from the Agrarian Party. In 1996 he was appointed Security Council Secretary. Today Rybkin is a supporter of Boris Berezovsky, the Russian "oligarch-in-exile", currently living in London.