By Nonna Chernyakova
At City Hall, the headquarters of ousted Mayor Viktor Cherepkov, the front entrance was barricaded Tuesday by furniture and Cossacks, while the back door was guarded by Cherepkov's employees. About 500 loyal employees announced they were staying in the building to prevent its seizure by the new administration.
Across the road Yury Kopylov, the man appointed Monday to take his place until new elections are held, set up shop in a district administration building.
He reached out to his new Vladivostok constituents over the radio Tuesday, promising to clear away snow, provide heat and hot water for the entire city, and find money for chronically underfunded ambulances, hospitals and children's homes.
For the second time in his storied career, Cherepkov was ousted Friday by President Boris Yeltsin. The mayor's term had ended in July, but subsequent elections were declared void when voters rejected all candidates to protest a court's last-minute decision to bar Cherepkov from running. Yeltsin said Friday that Cherepkov's remaining in office was illegal.
Kopylov was appointed acting mayor Monday by Primorye Governor Yevgeny Nazdratenko, Cherepkov's arch foe. Adding to the tension, Kopylov was once Cherepkov's deputy, until Cherepkov fired him last year. Kopylov then joined the Nazdratenko camp.
The latest developments were part of a long history of scandals and squabbling that have left the city's government in shambles. Cherepkov's whereabouts Tuesday were unknown, though he was reported to be staying in a Pacific Fleet hospital.
In remarks on NTV television, apparently filmed inside the barricaded City Hall, Cherepkov said,"It's a madhouse. It used to be circus but now it's a madhouse."
Outside City Hall, Cossacks stood guard at the main entrance and Cherepkov's employees were controlling the back door, only letting in people who were willing to sign a petition in support of Cherepkov.
About 15 people were holding Cherepkov's portrait and posters that read, "Let us choose the mayor ourselves" and "We won't give up Cherepkov."
Tatyana Mikhalyova, 59, a pensioner who came to sign the petition, said that common people were never allowed to make their own decisions. "Now we will have Nazdratenko's mafia dictatorship in Primorye," she said. Sofya Volkova, 75, a war veteran, added, "Cherepkov was honest. It wasn't we who supported Cherepkov, it was Cherepkov who supported us."
Kopylov, meanwhile, made no attempt to get into the mayor's office and settled in the offices of the Frunzensky district administration at 25 Ulitsa Fokina.
Konstantin Tolstoshein, the first deputy governor, said Tuesday that the regional administration would do everything possible to support Kopylov.
Tolstoshein, who had been appointed mayor himself while Cherepkov was out of office in 1994 and 1996, advised Kopylov to open a shelter for homeless people, build skating rinks in the city neighborhoods and improve Vladivostok's looks.
The city of 800,000 has long been suffering from cuts of water, heat and electricity. City services such as public transport, ambulances and garbage removal have at times been put on hold when neither the mayor nor the governor agrees to pay the bills.
"We inherited lots of garbage dumps from Cherepkov, but we'll clean them all," Tolstoshein said at a news conference. He ordered all banks that handled the mayor's accounts to stop accepting Cherepkov's orders and start working with Kopylov.
Both Tolstoshein and Kopylov publicly appealed to Viktor Kondratov, the presidential representative in Primorye who also heads the regional Federal Security Service office, to "clean up" City Hall.
Kondratov said no violent force will be used to move Cherepkov out of
the building. "I have to control implementation of the presidential
decree. I think it has been implemented," Kondratov said Tuesday at a
news conference.
It was the second time Yeltsin has dismissed Cherepkov from office, and the second time Cherepkov has refused to leave City Hall on his own accord.
In March 1994, armed riot police broke down the doors of the building and carried out the mayor, who was found lying on a couch and complaining of heart troubles. Cherepkov had been living in his office for four months as a security precaution, saying Nazdratenko was out to do him in.
A month earlier, police had searched the mayor's office and announced they had found evidence of bribe-taking. A regional prosecutor and a city judge then decided there was enough evidence to press charges and at least temporarily remove the mayor from office.
In December 1994, Yeltsin dismissed Cherepkov by decree "for not fulfilling his duties."
The corruption charges were soon dropped though, and after a long litigation Cherepkov won a court decision against Yeltsin's decree and was reinstated as mayor in August 1996.
Cherepkov's lawyer said Yeltsin's latest decree dismissing the mayor also was illegal and should be overturned. The lawyer, Vladimir Kiriyenko, has filed a complaint to the Supreme Court.
"Neither the president nor the governor has the right to interfere in municipal affairs. And the mayor's term ends when a new mayor is elected," Kiriyenko said.
New elections have been set for Jan. 17. Under Yeltsin's decree, Kopylov is to serve until then. Cherepkov was registered as a candidate last week.
At a rally in his support Sunday in Vladivostok's central square, Cherepkov lashed out at Yeltsin for dismissing him.
"Bandits never give up power. They robbed Russia, they penetrated into all branches of power and reached the presidential level," Cherepkov said.
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