Topic: Media
Quixotic presidential bid by scion of samurai?--The Asahi Shimbun, March 10 (IHT/Asahi: March 11, 2004)
Irina Hakamada, a candidate in next Sunday's Russian presidential election, likes to wear black. She calls herself 'a scion of samurai,'' and the media has labeled her the 'Samurai Lady.''....
.... Hakamada stands out. She is a vocal critic of the government, charging that Russia has become a society that keeps itself together by falsehood and terror. ... In her campaign speeches, she says, ``Don't keep silent. Let us raise our voices.'' Failing to do so, she warns, could bring a return to the Soviet era.
Her father was Mutsuo Hakamada, a deceased former member of the Japanese Communist Party, who sought asylum in the Soviet Union in the days when being a member of the party was enough to earn the death penalty in Japan. (?!)
(I can't say whether that statement is true about the death penalty for being a Commie, it sounds "off" to me).