He became the initiator of criminal cases against the governor of the Tver region and the mayor of Tver Alexander Anikin

Yesterday, the Legislative Assembly (LA) of the Primorsky Territory approved the candidacy of Alexander Anikin, proposed by Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov for the post of prosecutor of the region. All deputies who took part in the voting spoke in support of Mr. Anikin, who previously headed the prosecutor’s office of the Tver region. The new regional prosecutor has so far refrained from declaring war on local corruption, promising to first understand the specifics of Primorye.

Alexander Anikin took the chair of the prosecutor of the Primorsky Territory
PHOTO BY YURY MALTSEV

As Kommersant already reported, in early May, Vladimir Ustinov accepted the resignation of Primorye Prosecutor Valery Vasilenko, who had held this post since November 1991. According to the official version, Mr. Vasilenko retired due to length of service, but most likely the resignation of the prosecutor was due to the tragic incident in the prosecutor's office of the Leninsky district of Vladivostok in February 2005: then a former employee of the prosecutor's office shot four of his colleagues, three of whom died. Soon after his resignation, Mr. Vasilenko was appointed vice-governor, supervisor of law enforcement agencies of the Primorsky Territory. A.i.o. Deputy Prosecutor of Primorye Sergei Luchaninov was appointed prosecutor. Immediately after the personnel changes in the region, they started talking about the fact that the new prosecutor of the region would be an outsider. These expectations were justified: at the end of August, Mr. Ustinov submitted to the Primorye parliament for approval the candidacy of Alexander Anikin, who had headed the prosecutor’s office of the Tver region for the last five years.
According to Article 129, paragraph 3 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the federal law “On the Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation,” as well as in accordance with the regional law “On the procedure for approving a candidacy for the position of prosecutor of the Primorsky Territory,” Alexander Anikin had to go through a chain of approvals. This did not cause him any difficulties. At the beginning of September, Mr. Anikin’s candidacy was officially supported by the Governor of Primorye, Sergei Darkin, and on September 13, the Committee on Regional Policy and Legality of the Legislative Assembly recommended that the regional parliament approve the candidate for the post of regional prosecutor. “I see no reason why the deputies would not support Anikin’s candidacy,” Speaker Sergei Sopchuk said yesterday before the opening of the session of the regional parliament. And during the discussion of Mr. Anikin’s candidacy, all the deputies spoke about the agreement as a decided matter. Deputy Vladimir Suprunov even called on the not yet appointed prosecutor to attend all meetings of the regional parliament in order to “raise the authority of the legislative assembly.” And his colleague Leonid Beltyukov said, addressing the candidate, that “legends about your work flew ahead of you: he opened a criminal case against the governor, against the mayor” (during the time when Alexander Anikin headed the prosecutor’s office of the Tver region, a number of criminal cases were opened in regarding Governor Vladimir Platov, his deputies and the mayor of Tver Oleg Lebedev - Kommersant).
Apparently, the deputies expected that in Primorye, Mr. Anikin would immediately declare war on local corrupt officials, but he replied that the fight against corruption is only one of the components of the work of the prosecutor’s office. However, the candidate added that the criminal case against the former governor of the Tver region is in court and “the state prosecutor has demanded seven years in prison for him.”
During an open vote, all 29 deputies who took part in the session spoke in favor of approving Alexander Anikin for the post of prosecutor of Primorye.
“It’s good that Anikin is a person from another region. I hope that he will be able to maintain independence from local political and economic groups,” deputy Alexander Mamoshin told Kommersant. “Apparently, the prosecutor is a man of principle. But we’ll see where this integrity will be directed,” said his colleague Alexander Perednya.
Alexander Anikin himself immediately after his appointment told Kommersant that his priority in his work is “control over the preparation of housing and communal services for the heating season, so that residents of Primorye have light, heat and water in winter, work to eliminate wage arrears, as well as the fight with general and economic crime, including corruption-related crimes.” “I would still refrain from saying anything about the specifics of work in Primorye, so as not to seem like an amateur. This is only my second day in Vladivostok,” concluded the Primorye prosecutor.
ALEXEY CHERNYSHEV, Vladivostok

Kommersant (Khabarovsk) No. 183 dated 09.29.2005

Primorsky specificity received a new prosecutor