vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #155 / Special reports / Reading article...

Vladivostok’s political circus reached farcical proportions recently when arch enemies Victor Cherepkov and Yevgeny Nazdratenko reportedly squabbled during a ceremony at which they were the most important guests.

The scuffle was only the latest act in an ongoing rivalry that has left most residents shaking their heads. Media, too, have been openly mocking Cherepkov since he declared Nov. 17 he was on a hunger strike until corruption is eliminated in the krai prosecutor’s office.

The governor and mayor were both invited to the ceremonial opening of a police barracks on Dneprovskaya Street Nov 23. Apparently angered that Nazdratenko was given more importance in the event, Cherepkov ordered the removal of an extravagant buffet luncheon as he sat in his car. Cherepkov claims that his office gave large sums of money to the barracks, and Nazdratenko was trying to take the credit, local press reported.

When Nazdratenko discovered that the luncheon was being removed, he began demanding that the mayor’s employees return it, press at the event reported. One of Cherepkov’s men who helped remove the buffet claims that Nazdratenko hit him.

The krai press center replied that the accusation is “an outright lie, aimed at political provocation in the hope of destabilizing the situation in Vladivostok.”

Cherepkov declared his hunger strike the previous week, even though he already promised to resign. He accused the krai government and legal system of such extensive corruption that he cannot properly do his job. The mayor said he will not end his strike until the “lawless Primorye prosecutors are dismissed from their posts and punished for their crimes,” but as the strike is in its second week and Cherepkov’s health shows not signs of failing, observers question its authenticity.

The strike comes only days after Cherepkov’s radio announcement that he planned to resign from office. On Nov. 17 the mayor appointed as acting mayor Sergei Markelov, a man who was formerly a “mayor’s helper.” Markelov was then replaced by Nikolai Beletsky, one of Cherepkov’s former deputies. Cherepkov has scheduled the mayoral vote for March 29 – the same day Vladivostok denizens will elect City Duma members. He also signed resignation papers for his deputies and sent his own resignation to the resident last week.

But the mayor’s document lacks one important piece of information: the date he will step down. He said the president himself must decide when he wants Cherepkov out. “My fate is in the hands of the president,” he said. “If the head of our national government considers it necessary to replace the mayor of Vladivostok, he can do it at any moment, and the mayor will not make any supplementary demands.”

Cherepkov has always said that a burgeoning criminal force in the krai affected even the highest levels of government. In a recent press release, he accused the prosecutor’s office of “arbitrary rule” and “working only to please the krai governor.”

Cherepkov’s campaign against state officials may be backfiring, however. City administrators in Nakhodka recently sent a letter to the television program “Mestnoye Vremya” defending the prosecutors, as well as Nazdratenko. They blamed Cherepkov for city problems.

On Nov. 17 the season’s first major snow storm hit, and city plowing services turned out to be woefully unprepared for the event. “Cherepkov has made a city of almost 800,000 people hostage,” First Vice Gov. Konstantin Tolstoshein said. “The head of the Ussurisk administration just lost his father, and yet he takes care of Ussurisk anyway. Their streets are all plowed. This isn’t even a big storm; this is normal winter weather.”