Election queue

A United Russia candidate was killed in the Primorsky Territory

In the small coastal town of Dalnegorsk, one of the two main candidates for mayor, 31-year-old Dmitry Fotyanov, was shot yesterday afternoon. The assassination attempt happened on the eve of the elections scheduled for October 22. Considering that Dalnegorsk has not been able to acquire a full-fledged mayor for two years now, for various reasons, and Mr. Fotyanov represented the United Russia party, this emergency immediately caused a reaction not only from the regional, but also from the federal authorities. Personally, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov regarded what happened in Dalnegorsk as a “political murder.” However, local intelligence services have not yet rushed to conclusions, noting that other possible versions of the assassination attempt on the mayoral candidate are being worked out, including purely commercial ones and those related to the criminal past of the deceased.

Dmitry Fotyanov was killed around noon right on the porch of his campaign headquarters. According to preliminary data, he was shot at by two unknown assailants from a Japanese-made minibus passing by. In total, as detectives found out, three bursts of machine gun fire were fired. As Mr. Fotyanov’s assistant said, the attack occurred at the moment when the two of them were leaving the reception area after a meeting with voters. The shots were very muffled, as if firecrackers were exploding. Later, an automatic weapon with silencers, from which the candidate was allegedly shot, was found in a blown-up car on the outskirts of the city. The wounded Dmitry Fotyanov was taken to the intensive care unit of the district hospital, but a quarter of an hour later he died without regaining consciousness.

As assistant prosecutor of the Primorsky Territory Irina Nomokonova reported, one of the main versions of the investigation is considered to be political - murder in order to prevent the election of Mr. Fotyanov to the post of head of the Dalnegorsk urban district. The chairman of the Primorsky Territory election commission, Sergei Knyazev, called the murder of Dmitry Fotyanov an unprecedented event. Almost immediately after the news of the tragedy, the city council of deputies gathered for an emergency meeting, at which deputies came up with the initiative to cancel the 2nd round of mayor elections scheduled for Sunday. However, the regional election commission said yesterday: “There are no grounds for canceling the elections, especially since it is not yet known for sure whether this murder is connected with the elections or with professional activities.”

According to local legislation, the place of the murdered Dmitry Fotyanov will be taken by another candidate, who took third place in the first round of voting. By coincidence, it turned out to be another United Russia member, Vladimir Voinov. Moreover, according to local laws, elections will take place even if there is only one candidate on the list: to become mayor, he will need to get 50% of the votes. However, yesterday no one at the Dalnegorsk City Election Commission was confident that the elections would still take place on Sunday.

This small city with a population of 50 thousand has been living in a regime of virtual anarchy for two years. After the murder of the mayoral candidate, local residents yesterday held a spontaneous rally, at which there were calls to introduce direct gubernatorial rule in Dalnegorsk. The electoral confrontation here began at the end of 2004. After the term of office of the former mayor Gennady Lysenko expired, the overwhelming majority of voters voted against all candidates. Another attempt to elect a mayor was made in October 2005. Then seven candidates competed for this post, including the then deputy of the Dalnegorsk Legislative Assembly, Dmitry Fotyanov. He managed to defeat Lysenko. But he did not hold the post of mayor for long. Gennady Lysenko initiated legal proceedings, accusing the young mayor of massive bribery of voters (according to witnesses, Fotyanov paid from 100 to 200 rubles for a vote in his favor). In December 2005, by decision of the district and later regional courts, Dmitry Fotyanov was removed from the post of mayor, and this position was again taken by Gennady Lysenko. But in July of this year, Lysenko, citing health problems, resigned. Acting His first deputy, Alexander Terebilov, was appointed mayor, after which the struggle between the clans unfolded with renewed vigor. The favorites of the election race, Terebilov and Fotyanov, regularly poured streams of compromising evidence on each other. Representatives of the current government literally recently tried to remove Dmitry Fotyanov from the elections, accusing him of bribing voters. In addition, a double candidate, a pensioner from Vladivostok named Fatyanov, was included in the electoral lists. According to experts, this move allowed United Russia to take away several percent of the votes.

At Mr. Fotyanov’s own election headquarters, some linked the assassination attempt to the activities of the “timber mafia.” The deceased began his political career as deputy director of the Dalnegorskles enterprise. A source close to Alexander Terebilov, in turn, drew attention to Fotyanov’s criminal past. In the 90s, he was convicted of extortion, and in his hometown he was known as an active member of a group led by a seaside authority nicknamed Baul.

Ilya SERGEEV, Primorsky Krai