vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #147 / Special reports / Reading article...

After Governor Yevgeny Nazdratenko ended the garbage strike by paying some back wages, Mayor Victor Cherepkov issued an angry response. The statement alludes to krai plans to discredit the mayor and bring down his political rating, which the Federal Security Bureau uncovered in a raid on a krai policy office in June.

Documents regarding the necessary measures for discrediting the image of the Vladivostok mayor and of Cherepkov personally, confiscated by the FSB from the krai administration, begin with the following words:

"At the moment, developing conditions in Vladivostok are fraught with at least two trends of a negative character:

1. The declining rating and worsening image of krai authorities, including the governor personally
   
2. The increasing rating and improving image of city authorities, including the mayor personally.

The current situation requires taking urgent and effective measures to correct the image of the krai and city authorities."

And further in the documents, measures to discredit the mayor are listed.

Recently, the mayor's office received the actual results of Cherepkov's popularity rating that had made the krai authorities concerned.

October, 1996: 26 percent

November: 33 percent

December: 36 percent

January, 1997: 42 percent

February: 57 percent

March: 64 percent

Vladivostok people, sick of the constant absence of electricity, hot water and heat in 1994-96, are happy Cherepkov has been restored, because he returned heat, water and power to them. This and other effective measures taken by Cherepkov increased his ratings significantly. So the measures to discredit him were accelerated [by the krai administration]. The most effective ones were artificially created salary delays, even though the situation with salaries in Vladivostok is twice as good as in Primorye [as a whole].

And the most successful thing done so far to discredit the Mayor is the creation of the trash-collecting problem. It was prepared as a large-scale measure, and the SpetsAvtoKhozyaistvo strike was only part of a larger plan.

The mayor came out of that situation a winner. The problem with non-payments was solved by Cherepkov in a clever way, because the real debtor to SAK was not the city administration, but [striking] housing agencies. So now citizens pay directly to SpetsAvtoKhozyaistvo for garbage collection, not to the agencies. This step, taken by the Mayor, stopped the garbage workers' strike in the spring, but another task, discrediting Cherepkov, was left non-implemented.

Later, SpetsAvtoKhozyaistvo, the garbage-collecting monopoly in the city, stopped doing its job again without any reason. But even after that action - well planned by the krai authorities - Cherepkov's rating dropped only to 59 percent in April, 48 percent in May and 32 percent in June.

Garbage has not been collected in Vladivostok for 23 days. But the name of city manager Yury Kopylov, who was responsible for sanitary conditions in the city, has not been mentioned anywhere. All the poisoned arrows were targeted at the displeasing mayor. It is not hard to guess why it was done. Overloaded with work, the mayor, who has to work till 2 a.m. every day without days off, had to remove the functions of the city manager, too. ...

If the old city-cleaning system had been used, [the garbage removal process] would have taken 3,200 garbage trucks [and their crews] and 1,000-plus people every day. Now, with the new system, it will take three more days to make the city clean again. A highly-effective mobile division for collecting trash was created and highly-productive modern machines are expected to arrive in Vladivostok soon.

The political trash action - including provocation, threats, beating those who signed contracts with the mayor's office to clean the city, and trash arson - all failed.

All that time, the krai administration was only watching and encouraging the explosive political situation via the mass media. When the failure of the garbage strike organizers became obvious, the governor gave billions [of rubles] of taxpayers' money to SAK's [director and] garbage blockade organizer, Mr. Mozgovoy, as a way of saving the city from garbage.

What for? As thanks for trashing the city and leading it to a sanitary-epidemiological catastrophe? In order for Mr. Mozgovoy not to take money out of his own pocket and pay salaries to SAK drivers and shareholders who have no idea how much their respected bosses make on the city dump and garbage collection?

The city was almost cleared of trash. Only garbage stuck inside [apartment] refuse chutes is still left. But SAK only collects garbage from trash containers outside apartment buildings, because its machines are equipped to do so. Refuse chutes and garbage piles are the responsibility of housing agency workers who have gone on strike on time.

Now, dear governor, we do not need your help, since it was addressed not to the city but to Mr. Mozgovoy. It is not help but a political gimmick and brilliant way of thanking SAK for its blackmail of the mayor with the taxpayers' money. It would be better to give this money to hospitals. The mayor of Vladivostok can do without the trash monster-monopoly SAK and similar political gimmicks.