Acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin will take part in the election for the capital’s mayor, tentatively scheduled for September 8, 2013, as an independent candidate, Interfax reported on Thursday, citing a source close to Sobyanin. http://www.forbes.ru/news/240274-sobyanin-poidet-na-vybory-mera-moskvy-samovydvizhentsem What a wonderful party United Russia is, huh? It’s the ruling party, it has a majority in the State Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament), all the presidents and prime ministers belong to it, and so do actors and singers. And at its congresses, everyone applauds loudly. But when it comes to elections, everyone seems terribly embarrassed by their dear party. So here we have S. S. Sobyanin, a member of the Presidium of United Russia’s Supreme Council, quietly edging away and running as an independent. So that, God forbid, his surname won’t appear next to “UR” (United Russia). All in all, we ran a very good campaign with the slogan “United Russia — the Party of Crooks and Thieves.” And we need to run a new one. To remind every Muscovite: Sobyanin = United Russia.