ASHDOD, Israel, March 13 (UPI) -- Shortly after 9 p.m. the TV set at the kiosk in Ashdod was relaying a soccer game and three men from the former Soviet republic of Georgia were watching intently, a half full bottle of Vodka left on their table.
The kiosk was one of the few shops still open in the neighborhood of Russian immigrants where Cyrillic signs competed with the Hebrew letters.
The owners of the "Virtual Beauty and Health Parlor" were closing for the night when asked how they would vote in the March 28 Knesset elections.
"I don't know who's running," said Edgar Fragin, 30.
His father, Roman, 58, mentioned some of the names: acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, of Kadima, was one. They remembered former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of the hawkish Likud and Avigdor Liberman who is heading a predominantly Russian party called Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Is Our Home). None mentioned Labor's leader Amir Peretz. Like elsewhere in the Russian community, the Moroccan-born trade unionist is mostly ignored.
Edgar's face lit up when he realized the hefty, solid looking Liberman is from Moldova, just like the Fragin family.
Of course that would influence his vote, Edgar said. "If he is Russian, then he'll help the Russians."
Some 740,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union have a right to vote. They could send 18 to 20 legislators to the 120-member Knesset.
Thirty-two percent of them are still undecided, pollster Eliezer Feldman told United Press International. The figure is high because people whom the Russian voters knew, such as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, are no longer around. The anti-clerical Shinui Party and the Russian immigrants' Israel Baaliya of Natan Sharansky have disappeared.
Six percent of the eligible voters will not participate in the elections because they feel the candidates do not keep their promises.
"All of them are corrupt," said Yigal Manuta, 29, of Ellis Flowers in the predominantly Russian 13th Quarter.
The high number of undecided voters led Kadima to consider them the most important untapped source for more support, Avigdor Yitzchaky, head of Kadima's campaign staff, told UPI.
The Russian voters' record suggests they have no entrenched loyalties, and can be influenced. The majority supported Labor in 1992, the Likud in 1996, Labor again in 1999 and Sharon, who at that time was head of the Likud, in 2001 and 2003.
Many Russian voters followed Sharon from the Likud to Kadima, but Sharon has been unconscious for more than two months and immigrants are realizing that Olmert, the new leader, is different.
Many did not know who Olmert was when he took over from Sharon, noted Feldman.
Olmert's first campaign rally was thus held in Upper Nazareth were Russian immigrants account for half the population. Two retired Red Army lieutenant colonels sat in the front row in their gray uniforms, their chests decorated with World War II medals.
"My name is Ehud Olmert," the acting prime minister introduced himself. About 100 people in the hall wore earphones listening to a simultaneous translation.
Sharon spoke Russian and his record as a tough general endeared him to the audience. Olmert said his father was born in Samara, Russia, and his parents spoke to his grandmother in Russian.
However, his Russian is not good enough and in true Russian tradition he was taught not to do anything he cannot do perfectly, he said. So he stuck to Hebrew.
Olmert spoke slowly, using his hands for emphasis. He described Kadima as a center party, committed to Israel's security, and to fighting Palestinian and Islamic terror.
His party will have about 40 seats in the Knesset and would include more Russian immigrants than any other list, he said.
Outside, Klara Plesser, 55, originally from Uzbekistan, told UPI she had voted Likud in previous elections but this time would vote Kadima.
"I hate Bibi," she said referring to Netanyahu, adding that she cannot stand Peretz' mustache which she thinks looks like Stalin's.
"In Russia there were so many Communists that now we even hate the socialists," she said.
She favored Kadima because she liked Sharon and wants to continue with his policies, she added.
Sunday evening, outside the Lehayim wedding hall in Ashdod, Anat Thikvashvili, 38, said she liked Liberman "because he reminds me of Sharon.
"Hi Liberman wants to redraw Israel's borders, move Arab towns and villages to the Palestinian entity and keep settlements. All citizens -- it means Arabs too -- must swear allegiance to the flag (which includes the Star of David) and to the national anthem (which talks of the Jews return to Israel) and anyone who refuses to do so will lose his right to vote, he advocates.
"Liberman is a strong person, reliable, with principles," said a supporter who agreed to be identified only by his first name, Arkadi.
Vladimir (Zeev) Khanin, who teaches political science at the Bar Ilan University estimated Russian voters supported Labor in 1992 because it addressed their economic difficulties and in 1999 to curb the Jewish orthodox parties' influence.
When security and foreign policy issues were at the top of the agenda they supported the Likud's candidates, Netanyahu and then Sharon, he said.
Some observers suggested Kadima was not attacking Liberman to help him draw votes away from the Likud. After the elections Liberman might join a government Olmert will lead.
The party's website said he would join a Kadima-led coalition if its program "will ensure Israel's security" -- vague enough to open the door to partnership.
Liberman who started in the right wing "is not a right wing and not left wing. He is an opportunist," Khanin said.
According to Feldman, if elections were held now the Russian voters would have given Liberman eight mandates, Kadima five or six, the Likud two to three and Labor one mandate or less. The other parties would have received less than one mandate each.
If they could have had their way, Liberman would have been prime minister, said Feldman.
