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A milestone in Russia's racial history

Jean Gregoire Sagbo is the first black person elected to office.

Councilman Jean Gregoire Sagbo chats with a constituent in his district of Novozavidovo, north of Moscow. A native of Benin,he arrived in Moscow to study in 1982. Seven years later, he moved to the town his wife is from to be closer to his in-laws.
Councilman Jean Gregoire Sagbo chats with a constituent in his district of Novozavidovo, north of Moscow. A native of Benin,he arrived in Moscow to study in 1982. Seven years later, he moved to the town his wife is from to be closer to his in-laws.Read moreSERGEY PONOMAREV / Associated Press

NOVOZAVIDOVO, Russia - People in this town used to stare at Jean Gregoire Sagbo because they had never seen a black man. Now they see in him something equally rare - an honest politician.

Sagbo in June became the first black person to be elected to office in Russia.

In a country where racism is entrenched, Sagbo's election as one of Novozavidovo's 10 municipal council members is a milestone. But many in the town of 10,000 view the 48-year-old from the West African country of Benin simply as a fellow Russian who cares about his hometown.

He promises to revive the garbage-strewn town where he has lived for 21 years and raised a family. His plans include reducing drug addiction, cleaning up a polluted lake, and delivering reliable heating to homes.

"Novozavidovo is dying," Sagbo said in the ramshackle municipal building. "This is my home, my town. We can't live like this."

Vyacheslav Arakelov, the administration head, or mayor, said of Sagbo: "His skin is black but he is Russian inside."

Sagbo isn't the first black person to enter Russian politics. Another West African, Joaquin Crima of Guinea-Bissau, ran for head of a southern Russian district a year ago but was handily defeated.

The media had dubbed Crima "Russia's Obama." Now they have shifted the title to Sagbo, to his annoyance.

"My name is not Obama. It's sensationalism," he said.

Inspired by communist ideology, Sagbo came to Soviet Russia in 1982 to study economics in Moscow. There he met his wife, a Novozavidovo native. He moved to the town 65 miles north of Moscow in 1989 to be close to his in-laws.

Today the father of two negotiates real estate sales for a Moscow conglomerate. His council job is unpaid.

Sagbo said neither he nor his wife wanted anything to do with politics, viewing it as a dirty, dangerous business - a former mayor was assassinated - but the town council and residents persuaded him.

They already knew him as a man of strong civic impulse. He had cleaned the entrance to his apartment building, planted flowers, and spent his own money on street improvements. Ten years ago he organized volunteers and started what became an annual day of collecting garbage.

He said he feels no racism. "I am one of them. I am home here," Sagbo said.

He felt that during his first year in town, when his 4-year-old son, Maxim, came home in tears, saying a teenage boy had spat at him. Sagbo ran outside in a rage, demanding that the spitter explain himself. Women nearby also berated the teenager, and the whole street joined in.

Russia's blacks haven't been officially counted, but some studies estimate there are 40,000 "Afro-Russians." Many were drawn to the country by universities that are less expensive to attend than Western universities.

Scores of them suffer racially motivated attacks every year - 49 in Moscow alone in 2009, according to the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy Task Force on Racial Violence and Harassment, an advocacy group.

After the Soviet Union collapsed, Novozavidovo's state-run industries that provided steady employment were rapidly privatized, leading to economic distress.

High unemployment, corruption, alcoholism, and pollution now blight what was an idyllic town, just a short distance from Zavidovo National Park, a retreat for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev.

Denis Voronin, 33, an engineer in Novozavidovo, said Sagbo was the town's first politician to get elected fairly, without resorting to buying votes.

As a councilman, Sagbo has already scored some successes. He mobilized residents to collect money and turn dilapidated lots between buildings into playgrounds with new swings and painted fences.

As he strolled around his neighborhood, people greeted him and he responded in fluent, French-African-accented Russian. Boys waved to Sagbo, who has promised them a soccer field.

Sitting in the newly painted playground with her son, Irina Danilenko said it was the only improvement she had seen in the five years she had lived here.

"We don't care about his race," said Danilenko, 31. "We consider him one of us."