vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #147 / Social life / Reading article...

Vladivostok's striking trash collection company went back to work Aug. 5, following a promise from Governor Yevgeny Nazdratenko to pay at least six months of back wages in the next 10 days. The garbage company, SpetsAvtoKhyaistvo, stopped work July 1 after Vladivostok Mayor Victor Cherepkov refused to sign a contract, disputing how much the city should pay for SAK's services.

Health authorities worried about the sanitary condition of the city, saying increasing numbers of flies and rats were causing the spread of dangerous infections like tuberculosis. And the recently resigned head of the city health department, Vladimir Sidinko, said there was a possibility of a cholera outbreak. Nazdratenko said in an Aug. 5 press release that the SAK salary payment is "one time only" and that by law, he had no right to interfere in what is Cherepkov's affair. The krai administration press center said it could not ascertain where the funds came from.

Cherepkov responded angrily to the governor's wage payment announcement, accusing him of conspiring with SAK as part of a large-scale plot to bring down the mayor's popularity rating.

"The best plan to discredit the mayor was with trash... SAK announced a strike. Dear governor, we don't need your help," read an Aug. 5 statement from city hall. "It's not help, but a political gimmick ... to thank SAK for its blackmail of the mayor using taxpayers' money."

While the strike continued, Victor Kondratov, Primorye FSB head and President Yeltsin's representative here, appealed to Vladivostok's armed forces. On July 29, Pacific Fleet commander Mikhail Zakharenko ordered all sailors to "assist municipal authorities" in cleaning up the city's trash. Border guard units also pitched in. At least one man said he saw "men in sailors' uniforms" cleaning up the trash, although a fleet spokesman denied this.

The mission ended two days later because, said border guard spokesman Sergei Kozlov, the city didn't even provide shovels. "We had to go back to guard the border and be ready for combat."

In any case, residents are relieved. "It's great - there will be fewer rats, and it will no longer stink around our homes," said Vladimir Sulimov. "If SAK hadn't been paid, there'd be even more diseases, and that would give doctors more problems."