Over a hundred candidates already registered to run for Kyiv mayor on May 25.

A shrug, an awkward smile and raised eyebrows.

(Same reaction to the news of ex-speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn's appointment as the rector of Shevchenko State University.)

If I'm in Kyiv for the election, I'll vote for Klichko - unless he does something terribly stupid in the next month and a half.

But there's also Yulia's Turchynov, and sexy Mykola Katerynchuk, and ex-mayor Omelchenko, who's now part of NUNS. It all reminds me of the Russian opposition back in 2003, when they still sort of mattered: how stubborn they were in opposing each other.

(I'd love to see a full list of candidates, but I can't find the site of the city election commission - if anyone has the link, please let me know.)

***


Vitaly Klichko: "Kyiv needs a strong mayor."

As I was walking down Voznesensky Uzviz today and past this huge Klichko ad, I heard a middle-aged, bureaucratically-looking man in front of me say this to his two companions:

Klichko... He was born brainless, and then they beat the rest out of him along the way.

An hour or so later, I was near Maidan and saw a Turchynov ad for the first time:


Oleksandr Turchynov: "Kyiv needs a clever mayor."