Crima is originally from Guinea-Bissau, like thousands of other Africans he went to Russia to attend university, in Crima's case at the school in Volgograd. He married an Armenian woman, settled down in a small village outside of the city and started his own business selling watermelons at the local market.
The BBC caught up with Crima last week to talk with him about his campaign. His first challenge was to just convince people that his candidacy was for real and not a publicity stunt. But he insists he is in the race to win, running on a platform of improving government services in the rural villages outside Volgograd - some of which lack drivable roads or reliable water supplies. And he said that people are warming to his campaign.
Still, some people around Volgograd joke that the 'Russian Obama's' campaign slogan should be “no he can't.” And a few days before talking with Crima, the BBC ran this story: “Africans 'under seige' in Moscow” about how common racially-motivated attacks against blacks have become in Moscow. According to the report, 60% of those Africans living in Russia's capital who participated in the survey reported that they had been physically assaulted. A rise in nationalism has fed suspicion of foreigners and the fact that since people of African descent make up less than 1% of the population, they are a very visible minority group are two of the main factors behind the rise in attacks.
A casual attitude toward racism doesn't help. Even Joachim Crima plays into racial attitudes with his own campaign slogan: he pledges to “work like a negro for Russia” (in other words very hard) if elected. But Crima is also optimistic that racial attitudes will improve in Russia, and that one day a black man (or woman) will be elected to office, even if it's not him. Then maybe as a final concession towards existing racial attitudes, the BBC reports that on the campaign trail, Crima is shadowed everywhere by a very large bodyguard.
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