Putin rival: I needed to hide
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Rybkin, right, with his campaign manager, at a Moscow airport on Tuesday.
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MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A Russian presidential candidate who disappeared for five days has hinted that he was hiding in Ukraine from shadowy operatives.
In a rambling, radio interview on Wednesday, Ivan Rybkin announced "a week-long time-out" to decide whether he will stand in the March 14 election, which President Vladimir Putin is expected to win easily.
Rybkin, a fierce Kremlin critic who is running as an independent, resurfaced in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, on Tuesday and returned to Moscow amid swirling rumors about why he vanished from his Moscow home on Thursday night.
Initially, he explained his absence as just a rest from campaigning. But after returning to Moscow, he suggested a more sinister motive.
"If I had started to say what I'm saying to you now ... it is possible that we wouldn't be having this conversation," Rybkin told Echo of Moscow radio.
But when asked if he was the victim of violence or some type of assassination attempt, the 57-year-old answered evasively: "I don't want to qualify it," The Associated Press quoted him as saying.
"For the last two years, I've been shadowed," he said, adding later that when he saw reports about his disappearance, he felt "very uncomfortable" and felt the need to hide out.
Moscow police officially closed the missing persons case but said Wednesday they hoped to speak to Rybkin.
His campaign staff refused to comment Wednesday and his wife Albina hung up the telephone when an Associated Press reporter tried to call.
The former speaker of Parliament and national security adviser to former President Boris Yeltsin, hinted Tuesday he might have been held against his will. Both his wife and campaign staff had said they feared for his life, concerned he might have been killed or kidnapped.
The disappearance had caused a political sensation, and the mystery deepened when prosecutors launched a murder probe, and then canceled it. Russia's Federal Security Service also launched an investigation.
Others, however, believe the disappearance might have been a publicity stunt.
Press commentators also said Rybkin's political career was over unless he could show he had been the victim of a "dirty tricks" set-up to discredit him and his financial backer, exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky.
"It's likely this story will mark the end of his participation in the (March 14) elections," the business daily Kommersant wrote. "That is unless Mr. Rybkin can convince his colleagues and voters that he was not acting of his own free will."
Rybkin has poll ratings of barely 1 percent compared to Putin's ratings average of 80 percent and was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying he could withdraw his candidacy for president.
-- CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.
