With the collapse of the USSR, the world opened up for Russia and the numerous small republics and satellite nations that had been assimilated into the Soviet machine. Lots of people expected Western influence to land with a resounding boom, but nobody expected that influence would become so pervasive that cats would run for political office.

Until now.

When Bublik heard about Hank the Cat’s candidacy for a U.S. Senate seat, he decided to launch himself into the Russian political fracas.

Bublik, a 3-month-old Siamese look-alike whose name roughly translates to “bagel” in English, threw his hat in the ring for a seat in the Sverdlovsk Oblast, a region located on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains.

The cat’s press secretary, Ivan Kolotovkin, announced Bublik’s campaign earlier this week on Facebook and on the Russian social networking site Vkontakte.

Kolotovkin says that while Bublik hasn’t fully formulated his platform beyond an antineutering stance and the demand for lower cat food prices, he will continue to study the political environment and get input from his supporters to ensure that his campaign appeals to humans as well as to cats.

Bublik’s campaign slogan is “For a Fun Future!”

The cat plans to start his career with a run for a seat in the March 2013 legislative elections in Yekaterinburg, a city of 1.4 million people that serves as the unofficial capital of the Ural Federal District.

Kolotovkin says Bublik plans to write to Hank to express support and willingness to cooperate. Just goes to show that international diplomacy is important in the feline politisphere, too.

What makes Kolotovkin so sure that Bublik has a good chance for victory?

“[Bublik is] the best because he’s the only politician who gives no promises,” he said.