vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #148 / Crime watch / Reading article...

A Vladivostok police officer charged with falsifying a bribe to Mayor Victor Cherepkov is accusing the federal government of making scapegoats of him and Gov. Yevgeny Nazdratenko.

Vladimir Dudin and six of his colleagues are on trial on charges of making a false accusation and exceeding their authority in a plot to oust the mayor in 1994.

But he said in a recent press conference, "Primorye policemen are hostages in a political game."

Although none of the 72 volumes of evidence suggests Gov. Yevgeny Nazdratenko's complicity, Dudin said the case was directed against the governor, who is a political opponent of the mayor. "This unprecedented case is [just a way] to fight Gov. Yevgeny Nazdratenko, who doesn't please someone in the Kremlin," Dudin said.

The Primorye, the mayor's newspaper, scoffed at the notion the charges were political, however. In an Aug. 21 article on the trial, the paper suggested this was merely an attempt "to make it not look like criminal activity."

Dudin maintained that the phone tapping, surveillance and use of undercover agents in connection with the operation called "Virus" were legal. The problem is with the legislation itself.

The law protecting this behavior during criminal investigations is older than the recent Criminal Code, he said. Trials only allow the presentation of evidence in accordance with the Criminal Code.

Operation Virus began in 1994, after Dudin received records that he said proved abuses concerning city housing and land. Russia's then general prosecutor, Alexei Ilyushenko, closed the case for lack of physical evidence, but Dudin and his associates insisted that it remain open.

"The facts that are now being made public ... could cause social upheaval in Vladivostok," Dudin said.

President Boris Yeltsin signed an order the same year relieving Cherepkov of his duties.

The mayor did not go quietly, however. Maintaining that he never took a Swiss watch or millions of rubles, as alleged, Cherepkov had to be carried out of City Hall. But he was never tried on the charges.

Cherepkov sued Yeltsin for illegally removing a democratically elected official, and in 1996, the Supreme Court in Moscow agreed and overturned Yeltsin's decision. Cherepkov resumed office in September 1996.

Shortly thereafter, the trial against Dudin and others began, with prosecution providing 72 volumes of what it called evidence of corruption against the accused police officers. The proceedings adjourned in the winter, and reconvened Aug. 6.