Crowded into a back room of the Brighton Beach chapter of the YWHA (Young Women's Hebrew Association), Russian consular officials handed out ballot sheets while snacking on strawberries and listening to Pugacheva sound-alikes on a portable cassette player.
Filing past the main attraction -- a Chanukah party in the YWHA auditorium -- those who left the Soviet Union behind to resettle in this predominantly Russian-speaking community of Brooklyn dusted off their red passports to help shape the future of their former homeland.
Judging from the reaction of many voters, the political spectrum in Brighton Beach seems to hover between Russia's Democratic Choice and Yabloko, with the occasional ballot cast for Our Home Is Russia.
"You won't find any communists here," said Semyon Peskhovich, a native of Moscow who moved to New York last year. "They have already been discredited in our eyes. And Zhirinovsky is even worse."
"You can't give a man like Zhirinovsky power," echoed Leon Shlyakhter, 60. "I came here today so there will be order in my homeland -- so there won't be fascism and communism."
Consular officials anticipated fewer than 100 would cast their vote. Most of those who took part were of the older generation.
"We have a past and a sense of giving something to our country," said Shlyakhter. "But my son didn't come. He doesn't believe in Russia."
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