No. 009 Primorye Election Update: April 27, 2001 And the Winners Are...

 

 

 

                                                                                                                 No. 009

                                                    

                                           U.S. Consulate General, Vladivostok

                                                             April 27,  2001

 

 

                 Primorye Election Update: April 27, 2001

 

 

And the Winners Are...

With the expiration of the April 26 deadline, the Primorye Election Commission has announced that 14 of 34 candidates have qualified to be included on the May 27 ballot.  The lucky "winners" are listed below in the order in which they qualified, with the favorites highlighted in bold:

 

1)     Vladimir Grishukov (1956), State Duma deputy, leader of Primorye communists

2)     Viktor Cherepkov (1942), well-known State Duma Deputy representing Primorye, ex-mayor of Vladivostok who was deposed by Nazdratenko and his allies

3)     Vladimir Omsharuk (1950), retired colonel

4)     Aleksandr Kirilichev (1950), Primorye Shipping Company General Director, Primorye Duma deputy

5)     Gennadiy Apanasenko (1950), First Deputy of Polpred Pulikovskiy (rumored to be THE ONE who is supported by the federal government)

6)     Sergey Popov (1958), General Director of a regional metal processing center

7)     Vladimir Gilgenberg (1955), Primorye Duma Deputy, General Director of LLC “Korporatsiya Dalyokaya Okraina”  

8)     Igor Kasatonov (1939), a well-known admiral in Primorye

9)     Tatyana Loktionova (1951), ex-chairman of the Primorye Court of Arbitration

10)   Sergey Dar’kin (1963), General Manager of the JSC “Roliz” (he sells lots of SUVs, among other things).

11)   Igor’ Cherevkov (1966), Chief Editor of the “Dalnevostochnaya Respublika” (Far Eastern Republic) newspaper

12)   Sergey Zhekov (1957), Chairman of the Primorye Duma, member of the Federation Council

13)   Valentin Dubinin (1946), Acting Governor of Primorye -- the favorite

14)   Yuriy Rybalkin (1948), Primorye Duma Deputy

 

Much to the relief of the real Gennadiy Apanasenko, none of the fake Apanasenkos from St. Petersburg made it onto the ballot. Political observers here predict that no one will win the election outright in the first round. To do this a candidate would need to get more than 35% of the votes (with a minimum of 25% of the electorate participating).  In the unlikely event that more than one person tops the 35% barrier, the one with the most votes will win outright.  If no one gets more than 35%, the top two candidates will have two weeks to prepare for a runoff election. The candidate with the most votes in the runoff will then take the gubernatorial prize. Those handicapping the race at present predict the following finish: 1. Dubinin 2. Cherepkov  3. Apanasenko  4. Kirilichev  5. Dar'kin.  However, polls in Primorye are extremely unscientific, and most observers would not care to put their money where their mouth is. One of our better-informed contacts believes that Apanasenko may not even make the top five. If he doesn't, this could spell political trouble for Pulikovskiy, who has already backed losing candidates in three other RFE elections.

 

Nazdratenko Returns Incognito?  Well, Maybe Not

According to a number of news reports, last week former Governor Yevgeniy Nazdratenko returned to Primorye "incognito" to engage in a campaign designed to derail the upcoming elections and reinstate himself in power.  "Izvestiya" passed on a Yabloko party theory that Nazdratenko would encourage a majority of the Election Commission -- many of whom are his cronies -- to resign.  This would stop the election process and create enough chaos in Primorye to enable almost anything to happen.  Since the appearance of these stories, however, the more prosaic truth has unfortunately been discovered. It turns out that Nazdratenko did visit the Russian Far East -- but not Primorye.  He went instead to Sakhalin.  From there, he traveled with his two sons to Korea and returned to Moscow.  Too bad -- it was a good story.

 

            Tolstoshein (right)  with his pal, Volodya Zhirinovskiy

 

Tolstoshein Writing His Memoirs

Meanwhile, as he awaits a court decision on his lawsuit to get his old job back, former First Deputy Governor Tolstoshein is writing his memoirs.  The book will be entitled "A Kray of Emergencies" (Kray Chrezvychaynykh Situatsiy).  Tolstoshein claims that he is writing the book himself, which has led local wags to profess excitement at the prospect of learning whether Tolstoshein is actually literate -- or not.  Tolstoshein promises that his memoirs will come out before the election, and will cause some people to "faint dead away." In view of the tales that Tolstoshein could tell, if he actually intends to write a book then he would probably be wise to invest heavily in armored cars and bulletproof vests.