Nemtsov Courts Young Urals Voters.

(From The Moscow Times)

CHELYABINSK, Ural Mountains -- Some 450 students sat in a hall of the Chelyabinsk State Pedagogical University, licking ice cream cones and munching on potato chips as they waited with increasing impatience for Boris Nemtsov to show up and explain why they should vote for his Union of Rights Forces party.

After 40 minutes and several announcements by school officials that Nemtsov was running late, the anger in the air was almost tangible. "What a dog! Are we going to sit and wait for him until midnight?" one student exclaimed.

By all appearances, it was not the best start for one of Nemtsov's final campaign stops in the run-up to next Sunday's State Duma elections. Nemtsov made a quick half-day visit Thursday to this cold industrial city in the southern Urals to drum up support among young voters with a speech and a rock concert.

SPS won a strong 18 percent of the vote in Chelyabinsk in the 1999 Duma elections, and local party officials make no secret that they are counting on young voters this time around.

The waiting students warmed up quickly to the handsome, well-spoken politician when he arrived a few minutes later and offered an apology for his tardiness. "With 10 days left before the vote, my aim is quite obvious -- to convince you to vote for the Union of Rights Forces," Nemtsov told the crowd of mostly young women.

Over the next 1 1/2 hours, he answered questions on topics ranging from Georgia to the size of his personal wealth, which were passed up to him on pieces of paper. He read every one of them out loud and often joked with the senders.