The Volgograd Obama

Nickname given to a black mayoral candidate in Russia’s Volgograd region.

A 37-year-old native of Guinea-Bissau is attempting to become the first black man to be elected to public office in Russia, Shaun Walker reported for The Independent:

He’s standing for elected office, he brings a message of change, and he’s black. This has been enough for Joaquim Crima, a watermelon salesman who lives in a small town in southern Russia, to be dubbed the “Volgograd Obama.”

Joaquim Crima, or Vasily Ivanovich as he is also known, is hoping to become mayor of Srednyaya Akhtuba, a district in Russia’s Volgograd province. According to Walker:

[Crima has] played down the tag of “Volgograd Obama,” and said he would not dream of comparing himself to the American President. However, he said that Mr Obama’s election was part of a “global process,” and that, in time, even Russia would be ready for black officials.