The former mayor of the Russian city of Vladivostok, Viktor Cherepkov, is trying to make a comeback, just weeks after he was sacked.

Local elections in which Mr Cherepkov is a candidate have begun early, although results will not be known until after the formal election date on January the seventeenth.

Mr Cherepkov and his supporters barricaded themselves into his office for more than two weeks in protest at his dismissal by President Yeltsin for alleged corruption.

They say the dismissal was part of a wider power struggle.