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Faced with resistance from the krai prosecutor and defiance from the mayor, the Primorye Duma canceled a September decree stripping Mayor Victor Cherepkov of his powers and appointing a deputy to act in his place.

In a unanimous vote Oct. 22, the Duma instead asked the federal Supreme Court to compel local courts to make a prompt decision in the Duma’s stalled lawsuit against Cherepkov. But despite the reversal, deputies declared victory in their ongoing battle with the mayor, saying they had forced him to schedule long-delayed elections for the City Duma.

“We did this in part because our aims were met,” said Krai Duma Chairman Nikolai Litvinov. “I mean, we restored the constitutional right of citizens to elect and be elected.”

Cherepkov is hospitalized for a hernia operation and couldn’t be reached. But Deputy Mayor Nikolai Markovtsev, a Cherepkov ally, said the Duma didn’t go far enough in its decision.

“We’re not satisfied, because the Duma only declared its decision non-valid from the 22nd of October, whereas they should have declared it legally void from the first passing of the decree,” Markovtsev said in a phone interview.

The reversal was the latest twist in a struggle that is half constitutional battle and half political food fight. Since March 13 the Duma – which is allied with Cherepkov’s arch-enemy, Gov. Yevgeny Nazdratenko – has tried to confront the mayor in court, charging he violated the law through shifty budgeting and by delaying elections for the city’s legislative body.

But Cherepkov avoided the lawsuit with a strategy that caused Duma members jaw-grinding frustration: He simply didn’t show up. Under federal law, if a defendant has a reasonable excuse for his absence, a legal action cannot proceed. Most recently, the mayor has been hospitalized. A doctor confirmed in a press conference that the mayor was ill, but after a summer of rancor, Litvinov is convinced Cherepkov is faking it.

Unable to face him in court, the Duma voted Sept. 26 to replace Cherepkov with then-Deputy Mayor Yury Kopylov. But Cherepkov, who was in North Korea at the time, said he had previously appointed a more loyal assistant, Markovtsev, as his second-in-command in a preemptive move. This meant, he said, that Kopylov couldn’t legally replace him.

Opposition to the Duma’s decree came almost immediately.

Primorye Presidential Representative and FSB chief Victor Kondratov called the duma’s decree illegal, and the krai’s own prosecutor asked the duma to reconsider its action – a formal first step before launching an investigation. The city prosecutor leaped immediately into its own investigation of both the decree and Kopylov personally. The Duma beat a hasty retreat.

Krai deputies’ charges that Cherepkov should have called City Duma elections earlier drew accusations of hypocrisy from both the mayor and the media at large. The Krai Duma’s term ended in January, yet it extended its term for nearly a year, delaying elections until Dec. 7. Many papers, including Cherepkov’s publication, scoffed that the Krai Duma’s actions as illegal.

Both Litvinov and Duma Deputy Chairman Nikolai Kretsu called the criticism unfounded. The Krai Duma has the authority to set its own election date, they said. Some 30 regional parliaments around the nation, including Moscow’s, have delayed elections, Litvinov said. “The Krai Duma itself decides when to hold elections,” Kretsu said. “That’s the law.”

Litvinov had no doubt the action was legal. “The attack on the Duma is a dirty attack that has no basis in reality,” he said.

Cherepkov: A history of ups and downs

• June 12, 1993: Victor Cherepkov unexpectedly makes it into runoff out of 19 mayoral candidates, with 11.6 percent of vote.
  
• June 26, 1993: Elected with about 20 percent of the vote.
  
• March 16, 1994: Ousted by President Yeltsin on allegations of bribery, which later prove unfounded.
  
• Aug. 14, 1996: Reinstated as mayor by a Moscow court.
  
• Mar. 13, 1997: The Krai Duma files a suit against Cherepkov in the Krai Supreme Court, alleging violations of law.
  
• Sept. 26, 1997: The Duma suspends Cherepkov from his duties and appoints his deputy to carry out his work.
  
• Oct. 22, 1997: Under pressure from prosecutors and others, the Duma reverses its decision.