Case Against Yaroslavl Mayor Looks Legitimate, Rights Activists Say

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – July 5, 2013) Investigators officially charged Yaroslavl Mayor Yevgeny Urlashov and a group of his subordinates with attempted bribery Thursday as members of the Kremlin human rights council met to discuss the case, which Urlashov’s supporters say they suspect has been fabricated by his political enemies.

But members of the council, generally considered an independent body composed of respected activists, said they did not detect evidence of a political motive in the case materials.

Urlashov became a nationally known figure after winning the Yaroslavl mayoral race last year, defeating a member of United Russia, the party he quit in 2011 in a high-profile move.

He is now a member of Civil Platform, the fledgling party founded by billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who offered Urlashov support Thursday, saying he would pay his bail. Prokhorov did not say how much he would pay, apparently expecting investigators to name a sum, although authorities had not commented on Prokhorov’s offer as of late Thursday.

Urlashov says he believes the charges are part of an attempt to ruin his party’s chances in regional legislative elections set for Sept. 8, when he was slated to head the Civil Platform electoral list.

Two members of the Kremlin human rights council who examined some of the case materials and met with investigators said Thursday that they saw no political motives or falsifications in the case.

“Absolutely all political forces will play upon this situation, but we, after studying some documents, are not ready to declare that the case was ordered,” council member Kirill Kabanov told a news conference in Yaroslavl, Interfax reported.

Kabanov said he saw no signs of falsifications in the case because the mayor’s office, in a conversation with him, did not deny that a voice in an allegedly incriminating audio recording published by police was Urlashov’s.

Authorities seem to have a strong chance of attaining a conviction on the charge of extorting 14 million rubles ($480,000) from a unidentified private firm. In addition to material evidence, Urlashov’s four alleged accomplices have confessed to colluding with the Yaroslavl mayor to commit the crime and have implicated him as the organizer, Kommersant reported Thursday, citing sources close to the investigation.

Investigators have also confiscated a total of 35 million rubles ($1.1 million) in searches conducted as part of the inquiry. All the money allegedly belongs to Urlashov, investigators said.

New episodes may be added to the criminal case since citizens have started to report other incidents of bribery by Urlashov after investigators called on them to do so, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said in a statement.

Senior United Russia lawmaker Sergei Neverov said Thursday that the grounds for Urlashov’s detention published by investigators were “rather convincing,” Interfax reported.

Analysts and Urlashov’s supporters have said they suspect the case was ordered by regional political rivals, but the investigation is quickly becoming national. Urlashov’s lawyer Mikhail Pisarets told Interfax on Thursday that his client would likely be transported to a detention center in the capital, and on Wednesday regional investigators transferred the criminal case to the Investigative Committee’s Moscow office.