In This Corner, an Unlikely Candidate for Mayor of Kiev

The former heavyweight boxing champion climbed nimbly onto the back of a pickup as the crowd roared his name. Vitali Klitschko smiled shyly and took a deep breath. In this fight, Klitschko is the underdog -- a position he’s not used to.

He is running for mayor of Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, in a contest that’s about housing and garbage collection on the outside, but also is highly personal, and closely bound up in the Orange Revolution, Ukraine’s 2004 leap into full democracy.

The mayor whose job he wants is a close friend, and he also is running for parliament in a national election Sunday, the same day as the mayoral vote, heading the candidate list of a new anticorruption, pro-Orange Revolution political bloc.

In a field of 41 candidates, most opinion polls give the lead to the 67-year-old incumbent, Oleksandr Omelchenko, in the post for a decade and seeking a third term.

A 34-year-old millionaire who’s 6 feet 8 and 245 pounds, Klitschko cuts an Arnold Schwarzenegger-like profile on the campaign trail. “I’m not here because I need fame or a job,” he told several hundred Ukrainians on a cold morning.

“I want to clear the road for new ideas,” he said. “I want to work for you.”

Most applauded, but some were just there for the autograph of a national hero.

“I don’t know if I’ll vote for him -- I just wanted him to sign something for my son,” said Oleh Mashmanov.

Klitschko “is one of the next generation of politicians,” analyst Stanislav Belkovsky said at a discussion of those poised to replace the Orange Revolution leaders whose appeal is beginning to weaken in this former Soviet republic of 48 million.

Klitschko retired from boxing in November after hurting his knee. That left his younger brother, Wladimir, a fellow boxer, to carry the sporting mantle of “the Klitschko brothers.”

Vitali and Wladimir, sons of a teacher and an air force officer, rose to fame in part by smashing boxing stereotypes. Both have doctorates in physical education and sport from Kiev University.

At the height of the 2004 Orange Revolution protests, Vitali Klitschko wore an orange sash on his boxing trunks while pummeling British challenger Danny Williams in Las Vegas, then flew home to take the stage alongside President-to-be Viktor Yushchenko. Yushchenko made Klitschko an advisor.

In running for mayor of the city of 4 million, he is taking on his longtime friend and former boxing patron. Omelchenko had been quoted as saying the Klitschko brothers were like sons to him. Klitschko reportedly said that he fought better when Omelchenko was at a match.

That may explain why the race is much more sedate than analysts predicted.

“Klitschko is young and energetic. Ukraine needs people like him,” said supporter Valentyna Rudenko, 60. “And he lived in America. I want to live like you do in America. He understands what that means.”

But that also works against him. At news conferences, he is often asked how he can run a city that he has spent so little time in recently. His preference for speaking Russian rather than Ukrainian also upsets nationalists eager to shake off a long history of Russian domination.

Klitschko says he’s learning, and now starts his speeches in Ukrainian. He also counters that with his international profile and contacts, he can promote Kiev’s image abroad and apply solutions that work in other capitals.