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Yevgeny Nazdratenko, Primorye’s ex-governor and predecessor of Sergei Darkin, paid a visit to the regional administration on Thursday, raising rumors and speculation that he may return to Primorye. The visit, however, was made out of more personal reasons.

Nazdratenko, in his first visit to the region in five years, came to Primorye to visit his native town of Dalnegorsk and attend his mother-in-law’s birthday.

At the regional administration, Nazdratenko spoke to Sergei Darkin at an informal meeting, the two sharing tea together and then sharing compliments in the presence of reporters, trying to destroy the long-time impression that they are fierce opponents.

Darkin presented the ex-governor with a photo album named ‘From Samarga to Tumangan’.

Nazdratenko, who after his dismissal from the governorship in 2001 moved to Moscow and became head of Russia’s Fishing Committee, now works in the Presidential administration.

According to the former governor, he does not intend to return to Primorye from Moscow. “I have work there, I have my life there, this is absolutely normal,” Nazdratenko said. He also denied all rumors concerning his becoming the aide to Oleg Safonov, the newly appointed Presidential envoy to the Russian Far East.

While Primorye’s former and current governors share tea ceremonies, Vladivostok’s former and current mayors face judicial problems.

Vladivostok’s Frunzensky Court ruled to seize the property of Vladivostok’s ex-mayor Yuri Kopylov, who was sentenced in May to a suspended four-year imprisonment with two years parole for an abuse of power resulting in a $786,000 debt to a Japanese company, a statement from the regional Prosecutor’s Office reported.According to the ruling, Kopylov’s property – a garage, a 1,500 square meter land plot in the suburbs of Vladivostok, six cars and a motor boats – will be used as compensation for the sum paid to the Shiroyama company from the city budget.

In the meantime, former Vladivostok Mayor Vladimir Nikolayev, who was arrested in early March on charges of abuse of his position, has been kept in custody. On 18 October, Vladivostok’s Leninsky court ruled to prolong Nikolayev’s stay in custody until early December on the grounds that he “may flee the investigation.”