UNACCEPTED MAYORS

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The mayors of the city of Pyatigorsk are as unlucky as the inhabitants of the "bad" apartment number 50. Judge for yourself. The first mayor, Yuri Vasilyev, was not accidentally blown up in August 2003, along with his car. They also wanted a second mayor, Vladimir Shestopalov...

The mayors of the city of Pyatigorsk are as unlucky as the inhabitants of the "bad" apartment number 50. Judge for yourself. The first mayor, Yuri Vasilyev, was not accidentally blown up in August 2003, along with his car. The second mayor, Vladimir Shestopalov, was also wanted to be blown up, and then they were put on trial.

On July 31, deputies of the City Duma appointed a third mayor, Igor Tarasov, and then Mr. Tarasov's Land Cruiser ran over five people to death on a federal highway, and the Stavropol prosecutor's office took Tarasov into custody, believing that it was he who was driving.

Such self-denial of the prosecutor's office is simply amazing. Indeed, we have many voters, but he is the only mayor. (To be more precise, in this case there were two mayors: according to Mr. Tarasov, the first on the scene was the mayor of the city of Stavropol, who took him to the hospital. That is, it seems that the mayors were traveling together. And they took only Mayor Tarasov.) So you are also the son of the Minister of Defense, maybe you also want to plant?

The arrest of Mayor Tarasov is not the first amazing story between the prosecutor's office and the city of Pyatigorsk.

Judge for yourself. On the fact of the explosion of Yury Vasiliev's car, the same Stavropol prosecutor's office, exactly four months after the explosion, issued a decision to suspend the investigation "due to the failure to identify the person to be brought in as an accused." Incidentally, the assassination attempt on the mayor is central terror. By the way, this resolution looks like black ingratitude, given the permanent long-term rule of Mr. Vasiliev, his honorary nickname Papa, the glory of Pyatigorsk as the criminal capital of the Caucasian Mineral Waters and the complete understanding between the law enforcement elite of Pyatigorsk and the former mayor, who later took the place of chairman of the State Duma Budget Committee.

With the second mayor, Vladimir Shestopalov, who unexpectedly won the election of Mr. Vasiliev, it was even funnier. Having been elected mayor, he started to arrange with West German investors a model resort on Mount Mashuk. To the misfortune of Mr. Shestopalov, under the previous mayor, these lands were already betrothed. In May 2004, a lover of West German investments found a powerful improvised explosive device in a flower bed at the exit from the yard; the attempt did not work out, but in July the mayor was charged. And as soon as he was removed from his post, 37 hectares of protected land on Mashuk were sold for 347 thousand rubles to a certain Kavminekontsentr.

I admit that Mr. Shestopalov himself was not averse to mastering Mount Mashuk; but in this case I am struck by the coincidence of interests of killers and prosecutors. And I am also very pleased with the abuse committed by the mayor: he allegedly illegally acquired an armored car. (I don’t know what the mayors of cities that are blown up like kittens should ride, but it’s nice that the authorities gave a principled assessment of the mayor’s attempt to make the work of killers more difficult.)

The third mayor, Tarasov, was also unlucky. The Stavropol authorities became interested in him even before he was involved in a fatal accident. On August 21, the court suspended his powers; the government of the region considered that Tarasov was appointed to the post in violation. This was an official accusation, while the unofficial one sounded like this: “Tarasov was Kadyrov's adviser and Abramov's deputy. Tarasov in Pyatigorsk is Kadyrov in Pyatigorsk. Is it worth giving the resort capital of the North Caucasus to the actual owner of Chechnya?

Actually, from the latter one can understand why Mr. Tarasov was taken into custody because of some “insignificant” accident, “only” ending in the death of five people.

Pyatigorsk has been divided for a long time; in the course of the division, it becomes more and more difficult to understand who is the mayor, who is the killer, and who is the prosecutor. Do you think that the Stavropol Prosecutor's Office suspended the case of the assassination of Mayor Vasiliev only due to such a convincing reason as the failure to identify the killer? No matter how, with the same brilliant wording, three months later they closed the case on the attempt on Mayor Shestopalov and five months later they suspended the case on the murder of State Duma deputy Plushenko. Against the backdrop of such law enforcement exploits, even the sale of Mount Mashuk at the price of last year's ice pales.

In the course of this division, after the unexpected victory of Shestopalov, so that surprises would not be repeated, the people were excluded from the mayoral elections, just in case, but the trouble came from an unexpected side: Kadyrov's man crawled upstairs.

I don't know who will eventually get the resort capital of the Caucasus - the Chechens, the Stavropol authorities or the old Pyatigorsk elite. I'm talking about something else. If the prosecutor's office closes the case on the fact of central terror against Mayor Shestopalov and soon imprisons Mayor Tarasov for a fatal accident, do not rush to be glad that the mayor was imprisoned for killing five people.

In the kingdom of distorting mirrors, this is a reason, but not a reason.