It has some attractive personalities, including Irina Khakamada, a champion of small business, and Sergei Kiriyenko, who survived five months in office last year as Russia's youngest prime minister.

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Two of those contenders, Irina Khakamada and Nikolai Kharitonov, have complained to the Central Election Commission, infuriated that while each candidate is supposed to be equal, one appears more equal than the rest.

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The Union of Rightist Forces have a better-looking line-up of leaders - preppy former prime minister Sergey Kiriyenko, moody Boris Nemtsov and chic Irina Khakamada, but even then Komsomolskaya Pravda is disappointed at their portmanteau poster.

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