There is one place in Russia where democracy is alive and well, and that place is Sochi, the Black Sea resort-town of yore that will host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

At this writing, there are 19 people running to become the city’s mayor. Tomorrow, Lena Berkova, who calls herself “Russia’s only porn star,” will enter the race as the 20th candidate.

When RUSSIA! spoke to Berkova last year, she was in the process of setting up a political party called the Party of Love. Now, eight months pregnant and a few days shy of her 24th birthday, she is surrounded by a cadre of political advisors and leading the Party into electoral battle. “I will be a mother soon,” she says, “and so I want to make things better for the mothers of Sochi.” (The birth of her child, incidentally, will be broadcast, via streaming video on her website, as was her wedding night with Husband #4, a fan who assiduously stalked her for four years until she agreed, mid-pregnancy, to marry him.)

She decided to run, she explains, mostly out of spite. “We had a conflict with Boris Nemtsov,” she explains, referring to the Kremlin critic also running for mayor of Sochi. “We sent Sessi, one of the veejay correspondents for OERTV” – Berkova’s TV channel – “to interview Nemtsov about his new book, ‘Politics Without Whoring,’ and his secretary, an older lady, cursed her up and down, called everyone prostitutes and kicked Sessi out. It was not age appropriate language.”

Berkova sued, lost, and decided to get stick it Nemtsov in Sochi. (It is doubtful, however, that she was behind Monday’s bizarre ammonia-in-the-face attack on Nemtsov.) Nemtsov, though an old hand in politics, doesn’t stand a chance when it comes to exposure: Berkova has already filmed a campaign spot (NSFW). To the sounds of harpsichords and synthesizers, she sashays topless down Sochi’s beaches at dusk, occasionally massaging her breasts or striking a mayoral pose (flat on back, legs hoisted high) as the words “Freedom. Loyalty. Care,” flash across the screen. “Support our candidate,” the ad says, as Berkova pumps her ever-so-slightly pregnant and very naked torso. “Together we will build the Olympics. Together we will make our city cleaner. Together we will make everyone richer.”

The other candidates, however, see something sinister at play and are convinced the Kremlin is intent on turning the election into a farce. With the entrance of Berkova and the ammonia-in-the-face ambush, that may not be so wide of the mark. Says Nemtsov, “after the entrance of Berkova the porn star, nothing surprises me.”

Berkova for Mayor of Sochi [Gazeta.ru (in Russian)]