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By Jim Heintz
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW — Russia has madeits first shipment of nuclear fuelto an Iranian nuclear powerplant at the center of the interna-tional tensions over Tehran’satomic program, the ForeignMinistry said Monday.Iran contends its plant in thesouthern city of Bushehr isstrictly for civilian purposes, butthe project concerns the UnitedStates and others who fearTehran could use it to advanceefforts to build nuclear weapons.Russia is building theBushehr plant — constructionthat has been frequently delayed.Officials said the delays were dueto payment disputes, but manyobservers suggested Russia alsowas unhappy with Iran’s resis-tance to international pressure tomake its nuclear program moreopen and to assure the interna-tional community that it was notdeveloping nuclear arms.Russia announced last weekthat its construction disputeswith Iran had been resolvedand said fuel deliveries wouldbegin about a half year beforeBushehr was expected to gointo service.“All fuel that will be deliv-ered will be under the controland guarantees of the Interna-tional Atomic Energy Agencyfor the whole time it stays onIranian territory,” the ForeignMinistry said in a statement.“Moreover, the Iranian sidegave additional written guaran-tees that the fuel will be usedonly for the Bushehr nuclearpower plant.”Iran confirmed that it had re-ceived the shipment, the officialIranian news agency IRNA re-ported.“The first nuclear fuel ship-ment for the Bushehr atomicpower plant arrived in Iran Mon-day,” IRNA quoted Iranian VicePresident Gholam Reza Aghaz-adeh as saying.Aghazadeh said the Bushehrplant was 95 percent completeand would begin operations“next year.” He indicated the re-actor needed 80 tons of nuclearfuel during the initial phase of operation, but did not providefurther details.The U.S. has been pushingthe U.N. Security Council to passa third round of sanctions againstIran for its refusal to suspenduranium enrichment.
By Galina Stolyarova 
STAFF WRITER 
A scandal is brewing over alleged viola-tions in the draft of a high school stu-dent into the army.The St. Petersburg pressure groupSoldiers’ Mothers is demanding a crim-inal investigation into the circumstancessurrounding the drafting of VladimirTimofeyev, an 11th-grade student atevening school No. 153. Ella Polyakova,the chairwoman of Soldiers’ Mothersclaims the draft was illegal.“It is against the law to draft pupilsattending high schools,” Polyakovasaid. “Besides, the police grabbedTimofeyev and declared him eligiblewithout even consulting his medicalchart.”Colonel Yury Klyonov, aide to thechief military commander of theLeningrad Military District arguedthat Timofeyev was drafted legallyand no violations occurred in the pro-cess.“Before he joined the eveningschool, Timofeyev had attended a rail-way college,” Klyonov said. The officialaccused Timofeyev of playing truantand poor conduct.“While in college, he regularlyskipped classes without a satisfactoryreason and his grades were low,” Kly-onov added. “And when at school healmost made a point of not attendinglessons.”Sergei Strelchenko, head of the St.Petersburg military-medical commis-sion, told reporters on Monday that6,194 local conscripts are officially listedas wanted by the police for dodgingconscription.Fear of hazing and of combat inChechnya are causing so many youngmen to avoid the draft or desert thearmy that police are being pressed intoservice to round up conscripts.Yelena Filonova, a St. Petersburg-based lawyer, who used to work withthe Soldiers’ Mothers organization andrepresented the interests of a number of conscripts in cases of alleged hazing orillegal drafting, said the police often usequestionable tactics.“The police can plant drugs orbullets in young men’s pockets andthen offer them a choice between thearmy and prison. I would suggestsewing up big pockets,” Filonova said.
By Oleg Shchedrov 
REUTERS
MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putinsaid on Monday he would becomeprime minister in a future Russian gov-ernment if his close ally DmitryMedvedev was elected president, givingPutin a new role after he leaves theKremlin.A 42-year-old lawyer with no politi-cal base of his own, Medvedev is virtu-ally certain to win next March’s presi-dential election since most Russians willvote for whoever the highly popularPutin endorses.“If Russian citizens express their con-fidence in Dmitry Medvedev and electhim as the country’s president, I will beready to head the government,” Putintold a congress of his United Russiaparty held near Moscow’s Red Square.“(We) shouldn’t be ashamed orafraid of transferring the key powers of the country, the destiny of Russia to thehands of such a man,” Putin added inhis speech.Medvedev, 42, was later adopted bythe congress as United Russia’s presi-dential candidate. Delegates voted 478-1 in a sober, Soviet-style ceremony heldwithout debate.In his brief acceptance speech,Medvedev listed priorities such asstrengthening Russia’s position in theworld, preserving the Russian nation,looking after the young and the old.“All this is in Vladimir Putin’s strat-egy. I will be guided by this strategy, if I am elected president,” Medvedevsaid.“But carrying out an idea can onlybe successful with the participation of its author. I have no doubt that in thefuture Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin)will use all his resources, all his influ-ence in Russia and abroad for the ben-efit of Russia.”Putin signaled Medvedev, a firstdeputy prime minister and chairman of state gas giant Gazprom, last week ashis preferred successor. The constitu-tion bars Putin from a third term.Analysts said the choice of a loyallongtime colleague signaled Putin’s de-sire to keep a grip on power after leav-ing the Kremlin. The two men haveworked together for 17 years.Putin walked into the congress hallside by side with Medvedev to applausefrom the serried ranks of dark-suiteddelegates. Both men wore dark suitswith white shirts and ties and stood toattention as participants sang the na-tional anthem.In a brief speech, Putin said therewas no intention to change the balanceof power between the president and theprime minister in a future government.Some commentators had speculatedPutin might want to rewrite the consti-tution to beef up the role of the premierbecause most power resides with Rus-sia’s president, who is commander of the armed forces, sets foreign policyand picks the prime minister.
Putin To Be PM in Future Government 
First NukeShipmentMadeTo Iran
Criminal Investigation Sought Over Conscription
See DRAFT,Page 2See IRAN,Page 2See PUTIN,Page 2
ALEXANDER NATRUSKIN/REUTERS
Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov attends a party congress outside Moscow on Saturday. The opposition Communist Party onSaturday backed Zyuganov to run for president next March against Kremlin-backed Dmitry Medvedev. See story, page 2.
In the Ring
The IdealSoviet Man
Russia, Sweden on jointexercises. Photos, page 11Prime Minister Zubkov’selection chances. Page 4
InternationalWargames
Korean carmaker will opena local factory. Page 10
Hyundai PlantComing to City
NO. 99 (1333) WWW.SPTIMESRUSSIA.COMTUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2007
CENTRAL BANK RATE
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“This fuel shipment gives the Iraniansone more reason to suspend their enrich-ment program,” White Housespokesman Gordon Johndroe said. “If they’re getting fuels from the Russiansnow, Iran doesn’t need its own program.”The American effort became moredifficult earlier this month with the re-lease of a new U.S. intelligence reportthat concluded Iran had halted its nu-clear weapons development program in2003 and had not resumed it through atleast the middle of this year.Although Russia has resisted drives toimpose sanctions on Iran, it also repeat-edly has urged Tehran to cooperate withthe Vienna, Austria-based IAEA to re-solve concerns over the nuclear program.Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov un-derlined that position last week after ameeting in Moscow with his Iraniancounterpart Manouchehr Mottaki.Lavrov said resolving the contro-versy is possible “solely on the basis of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty,IAEA rules and principles and, cer-tainly, with Iran proving its right to thepeaceful use of nuclear energy.”Officials at Atomstroyexport, theRussian contractor for Bushehr, raisedthe prospect last week of creating a Rus-sian-Iranian joint venture “to ensure se-curity” at the Bushehr plant, according tothe RIA-Novosti agency. That could indi-cate Russian interest in ensuring that en-riched uranium at the plant is not stolenor diverted. Depleted fuel rods also couldbe reprocessed into plutonium.“When arrested, they are not allowedto call home and their families may notknow for months what happened tothem, and of course they do not have achance to protest.”Sergei Yakushchenko, head of thedraft department of the board of theLeningrad Military District, said the au-tumn draft plan was filled in its entirety,and 85 percent of new conscripts havealready been sent to their military de-tachments.Yakushchenko said no requests foralternative service were filed during theautumn draft.Mothers of draftees often complainthat the officers at military commissionslaugh in their faces when they ask abouttheir sons’ rights. They also say recruitersrefuse to provide a list of illnesses thatqualify one for an exemption and thatmilitary doctors regularly ignore severeillnesses during official examinations.“Some of the mothers who come tous say that they would have been happyto pay a bribe but they do not have thatkind of money,” Polyakova of Soldiers’Mothers said.Even top military officials admit thatthey are filling the armed forces withunfit soldiers. According to IgorPuzanov, chief commander of theLeningrad Military District, only about10 percent of recruits satisfy the stan-dard physical-fitness requirements.Putin praised Medvedev as a manwhose “main principles in life are theinterests of its government and its citi-zens.”He also announced a big pay rise of 14 percent for public sector workers,which will come into effect on February1, just over a month before the election.The military will get 18 percent.In a further sign of Putin’s intentionto keep a grip on power next year, Rus-sian media reported that Putin couldsend the Kremlin chief of staff to runMedvedev’s election campaign.The Vedomosti newspaper saidKremlin chief of staff Sergei Sobyaninand possibly the main Kremlin politicalstrategist, Vladislav Surkov, would headMedvedev’s campaign.“For the first time a presidentialcandidate’s campaign staff will beheaded by the Kremlin chief of staff,”Vedomosti wrote.The Kremlin did not comment on Ve-domosti’s report. In the past, successfulheads of the election campaign have goneon to become chief of the Kremlin staff.A senior United Russia source toldReuters the choice would meanMedvedev had a full set of Kremlin of-ficials beside him as an extra assurancethat he would stick to Putin’s agendaonce elected.“By doing so, Putin will in fact handover to Medvedev his full staff whichwill smoothly carry on with what it isdoing now,” the source said.Opinion polls show more than 50percent of Russians are ready to votefor anyone chosen by Putin. The Krem-lin leader’s support helped United Rus-sia win more than two-thirds of seats inthe lower house of parliament in anelection on December 2.This victory would give Putin a pow-erful political base as prime minister.
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Tuesday, December 18,2007The St.Petersburg Times
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DENIS SINYAKOV/REUTERS
Ksenia Sukhinova, 20, poses afterwinning the Miss Russia beauty contestin Moscow on Friday
We Have a Winner!
By David Nowak 
STAFF WRITER 
MOSCOW — One is talking about achange in leadership. The other is talk-ing about changing its logo.But after a disastrous performancein the State Duma elections and facingmillions of dollars of debt, the liberalparties Yabloko and Union of RightForces have managed to come to anagreement on one thing: Something hasto change.Yabloko announced Friday that itwould not support its veteran leader,Grigory Yavlinsky, to run for presidentin the election in March but would in-stead back Vladimir Bukovsky, a So-viet-era dissident who has been living inLondon for years.In a further sign of a revolt taking shapein the Yabloko ranks,at least one seniormember is calling forYavlinsky to cede orshare power in theparty, which Yavlin-sky has led since heco-founded it in 1995.The Union of Right Forces, or SPS,is to hold a congress Monday at theHotel Izmailovo in eastern Moscow tonominate co-founder Boris Nemtsovas its candidate for the March 2 elec-tion and conduct a postmortem on itsdisappointing performance in theDuma elections. One senior memberhas proposed a rebranding of theparty.Yabloko captured just 1.59 percentof the vote in the recent Duma elec-tions, while SPS garnered just 0.96 per-cent. United Russia, whose ticket wasled by President Vladimir Putin, won64.3 percent of the vote.But even before the Duma elections,figures from the Central ElectionsCommission for the past 14 years makefor disturbing reading for liberal-lean-ing voters. At least 20 percent of theelectorate voted for liberal parties in1993, not including independents, manyof whom also pushed a liberal agenda.Two years later, that figure droppedto around 15 percent, where it hoveredthrough 1999 until 2003, when officialresults showed 10 percent voted for lib-eral parties.It was in the 2003 elections thatYabloko and SPS dropped out of theDuma for good, failing to reach the 5percent threshold, which has since beenbumped up to 7 percent.The two parties failed to garner 3percent between them on Dec. 2.Party officials insist that the last twoDuma elections were riddled with fraudand that their resultswere in fact muchhigher.But sociologistsand political analystssay voters willing tosupport liberal par-ties are increasinglyscarce. A core of 10percent to 12 percentof the electorate is believed to still backliberal values.Nonetheless, Yabloko, SPS, the lib-ertarian Civil Force and the Demo-cratic Party — which promotes joiningthe European Union — altogether gar-nered less than 4 percent of the Dumavote.Around half of the 12 percent of lib-eral voters are “liberal economists,”said Leonty Byzov, head of the analyti-cal section of state polling agency VT-sIOM.“They want free entrepreneurshipand unhindered international invest-ment opportunities,” Byzov said.“They realize that they can get thiswith United Russia without having torisk the political turmoil that an outsideforce coming into power would bring,”he said.
Changes Loom for SPS, Yabloko Political Parties
Analysts say voterswilling to supportliberal parties areincreasingly scarce.
By Dmitry Solovyov 
REUTERS
MOSCOW — The Communist Partyon Saturday nominated leader Gen-nady Zyuganov to run for president inMarch — a vote where he faces adaunting challenge against PresidentVladimir Putin’s preferred successor.Putin has endorsed First DeputyPrime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, butZyuganov said he would have a goodchance if no candidate wins an outrightmajority in the first round.“I believe we have a good chance inthis election, and should this election bemore or less fair, a second round of vot-ing is inevitable,” Zyuganov told re-porters at a party congress.The Communists are the largest op-position party in the newly elected StateDuma, but they received just 12 percentof votes, compared with 64 percent forUnited Russia.Zyuganov took Boris Yeltsin to asecond round in the presidential elec-tion in 1996 but was roundly beaten byPutin four years later. He did not runagainst Putin in 2004.Zyuganov’s first deputy, Ivan Mel-nikov, told the congress: “Now we mustreact more promptly, because theKremlin’s calculations that its candidatewill automatically get the rating of thecurrent president is a theory that hasyet to be proven in practice.”Zyuganov, who has criticized theDuma elections as the dirtiest onrecord, said he reckoned that the Com-munists enjoyed the support of at leastone-third of voters. “This is very seriousand solid support,” he told reporters.Upbeat and bellicose, Zyuganov saidYeltsin and Putin had both shirked in thepast his proposal to hold public debates.“[The authorities] are afraid of anopen political rivalry,” he said. “I offi-cially invite United Russia’s new presi-dential candidate to such a dialogue.”The Communist Party’s central com-mittee approved Zyuganov’s candidacyon Friday, and it was rubber-stamped bycongress on Saturday. In the lobby of thecongress, held in a Soviet-era state farmon the edge of Moscow, posters of Stalinand books about the dictator sold likehot cakes.Zyuganov, in his speech, said: “Weadmit some of the mistakes made in thepast.But at the same time we want to re-mind you that it was in Soviet timeswhen our nation became a real super-power and was the first to go intospace.”Decrying low pensions and wideningsocial inequality, he said: “The Commu-nist Party insists on nationalization of natural resources and strategic sectorsof industry.
Zyuganov Promises to Fight Medvedev in Vote
By Max Delany 
STAFF WRITER 
MOSCOW — It may have outlivedperestroika and survived the Yukosaffair, but now financial problemsseem to have sunk the weekly news-paper Moskovskiye Novosti.Following a management meet-ing, the publication’s parent com-pany, Obyedinyonniye Media, an-nounced Friday that the newspaperwould stop publishing from Jan 1.Obyedinyonniye Media, ownedby Israeli-Russian businessmanArkady Gaidamak, also runs a hostof other media outlets, including theradio station Business FM.The company also printsMoskovskiye Novosti’s sister En-glish-language edition, The MoscowNews, in partnership with RIA-Novosti, the state news agency.It was not immediately clear howFriday’s announcement would affectThe Moscow News.“We do not see any commercialprofit in continuing the developmentof Moskovskiye Novosti in its cur-rent format,” Daniil Kupsin, generaldirector of Obyedinyonniye Media,said in a statement.The newspaper could howeverbe relaunched at some future date ina new format, the statement said.“A decision has been made toredirect efforts into creating and de-veloping successful media projectsthat are more cost-effective andprofitable,” it said.During the 1980s, MoskovskiyeNovosti rose to prominence as aleading champion of Soviet leaderMikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glas-nost and perestroika.Friday’s news also spells the endfor the paper’s current editor, vet-eran newsman Valery Tretyakov.Tretyakov, who founded independentdaily Nezavisimaya Gazeta in 1990,was appointed editor in January 2006.
MN to Stop Publishing on January 1
 
N E W S
Tuesday, December 18, 2007The St. Petersburg Times
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3
Sponsor For Admiralty 
s
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Asponsor, who preferred to remainanonymous, gave 100 million rubles ($4million) for the restoration of the Ad-miralty tower and sculptures, Interfaxreported on Saturday.The sponsorship was offered at theauction of the second Gifts Store for St.Petersburg’s Birthday that was held onFriday. The auction offered 17 St. Pe-tersburg monuments in need of restora-tion. All the sites on offer for renova-tion were bought by large companies orprivate sponsors, who will allocate theirmoney for the restoration works.
 World Ice Show 
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ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Worldice skating stars will perform in aunique show to take place on Moscowand St. Petersburg’s main squares onWednesday.The Two Capitals Ice Show will beheld at the outdoor skating rinks builton Moscow’s Red Square and St. Pe-tersburg’s Palace Square.Moscow’s show will host Olympicchampion ice skater Alexei Yagudin,Irina Slutskaya, Maria Petrova andAlexei Tikhonov, Yekaterina Gordeyevaand many other stars.In St. Petersburg, the show will fea-ture Olympic champion YevgenyPluschenko, Tatyana Navka and RomanKostomarov, Sasha Cohen, Olympic sil-ver medallist Stephan Lambel, Olympicbronze Pillip Kandeloro, and othersskaters.Tickets for the show will cost from1,000 rubles ($41).
Death In Metro
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ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Anunknown man was found dead in a tun-nel of the St. Petersburg metro betweenSadovaya and Dostoyevskaya metrostations on Monday afternoon, Interfaxreported on Monday.An emergency brigade was sent tothe tunnel. The identity of the dead per-son and the reasons for the death arebeing investigated.
Truck Line
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ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — About1,800 trucks were stuck in a queue to en-ter Russia on the border of Latvia andRussia as of Saturday morning, Interfaxreported.The huge lines of trucks began toappear on the border in the middle of August last year, leading to complaintsfrom local residents.
Ryzhkov Won’t Run
s
MOSCOW (SPT) — Outgoing inde-pendent State Duma Deputy VladimirRyzhkov said Friday that he would notrun in next year’s presidential election.“After serious consideration, I havedecided not to participate in the presi-dential election in March,” Ryzhkovsaid in a statement, Gazeta.ru reported.Ryzhkov, a leading liberal politician,said one of the reasons he decided notto run was the fact that the SupremeCourt this year ordered that his Repub-lican Party be disbanded for failing toadhere to a law that requires parties tohave at least 50,000 members and 45 re-gional offices. Without a party to nomi-nate him, Ryzhkov would have to col-lect 2 million signatures to get onto theballot.
Gunbattle Kills 5
s
MOSCOW (Reuters) — FourChechen rebels and a police officerwere killed in a gunbattle in Grozny,Chechen Interior Minister RuslanAlkhanov said Sunday.The group of three men and onewomen resisted arrest during a searchof a residential district in the city onSaturday night, sparking a conflict thatlasted until early Sunday, Alkhanovsaid.
IN BRIEF
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW — A court on Mon-day postponed the retrial of twomen accused in the 2004 murderof the American editor of Forbesmagazine’s Russian edition be-cause one of the men is still miss-ing, a court spokeswoman said.The trial of those suspectedin the killing of Paul Klebnikovhas been in limbo since theSupreme Court overturned theiracquittal by a jury and ordered anew trial.The Moscow City Court was tobegin a closed-door retrial Mon-day, but instead returned the caseto prosecutors while authoritiescontinue searching for KazbekDukuzov, who disappeared earlierthis year, court spokeswomanAnna Usacheva said.Another man, Musa Vakhayev,remains in Moscow, while a thirdman linked to the case, FailSadretdinov, was convicted in Jan-uary on an unrelated crime andsentenced to nine years in prison.
Postponement InKhlebnikov Case
By David Nowak 
STAFF WRITER 
MOSCOW — A British citizen is incustody on suspicion of killing his newwife and her grandmother in theirapartment in the Tver region, investiga-tors said.William Cocks, 52, has admitted tokilling the two and has been chargedwith murder, the Tver branch of the In-vestigative Committee said Friday. If convicted, he faces life in prison.Cocks was found unconscious in theapartment in the town of Udomlya onDec. 3 with a dozen stab wounds to hislower arms, which investigators believewere self-inflicted, said Karina Bege-tova, a spokeswoman for the Investiga-tive Committee.The bodies of his wife, Irina Cocks,a 35-year-old former stripper, and hergrandmother, Vera Romanova, 82,were found in an adjacent room, Bege-tova said.Irina Cocks was found with 44 stabwounds, mainly to her neck, chest andstomach, she said. Romanova had fourstab wounds to the neck.Begetova said a preliminary investi-gation indicated that Cocks killed thetwo women and then attempted suicideby slitting his wrists on Dec. 2.Asked about the case, a British Em-bassy spokesman said only that “an in-dividual” was being afforded “all ap-propriate consulate assistance.”Begetova said investigators had noidea what had prompted the killingsand were “not ruling out a motivelinked to the occult.”Tarot cards were found scattered onthe floor of the room where the wifeand grandmother were found, she said.A stripper’s pole was also found.Cocks was taken to Udomlya’s mainhospital, where he was in stable condi-tion, Begetova said.He and his wife, who shared a lovefor biking, married in November, Bege-tova said. They met in 2004 in Spain,where he was on vacation and she wasworking as a stripper in a club. WilliamCocks moved to Russia in 2006, and inAugust, Irina suggested that they movewith the grandmother into the apart-ment in Udomlya, Begetova said.Cocks’ sister, Susan Irwin, 56, saidhe had a mental breakdown last year,Britain’s Sun reported Saturday.Cocks’ daughter Hannah, 22, toldthe paper: “I had a couple of calls say-ing he was all right. He told me his girl-friend was into witchcraft, she was apsychic.”She added, “My dad is just a normalguy who likes going to the pub with hismates. But he wasn’t well last year. Hekept saying someone was going to killhim. He was getting paranoid so hewent to a mental hospital for 28 days.”Begetova said Cocks would beplaced in a pretrial detention centeronce doctors deemed him healthyenough to be moved.“We need at least two months to es-tablish his mental condition, whichmeans obtaining his medical historyfrom his doctor in Britain,” she said.
Briton Charged With Murder
OKSANA YUSHKO/REUTERS
A fisherman sits on the ice of the Volga River inthe town of Kalyazin, 160 kilometers north of Moscow, on Monday.
Gone Fishin’
By Natalya Krainova 
STAFF WRITER 
MOSCOW — A Swiss citizen whoasked for refugee status in Belarus hasreturned to Switzerland without expla-nation after spending 10 days in thecountry, Belarussian officials said.The Swiss asylum seeker, 32, enteredBelarus on Nov. 28 at a checkpoint onthe Poland-Belarus border, saying hewanted to live and work in Belarus, saidVitaly Aksyonov, head of the citizen-ship and migration department in theBrest region of Belarus.Aksyonov dealt directly with the re-quest of the Swiss man, whom he de-clined to identify at the foreigner’s re-quest.“He filled out an application forrefugee status,” Aksyonov said Fri-day.Since he had no entry visa, applyingfor asylum was the only way the Swissman could be allowed into Belarus,Aksyonov said.The man cited no political motivesfor leaving Switzerland. “Nobody op-pressed him there,” Aksyonov said.The Swiss man arrived at the borderdriving a Lada with a collection of books authored by Bolshevik leaderVladimir Lenin in the trunk, NoviyeIzvestia reported Friday. He claimedthat Belarus, Venezuela and Cuba werethe best countries in the world.While his asylum application wasbeing processed, Belarussian authori-ties checked the foreigner into a hotelin Brest and allowed him to movearound the city of 300,000, which is lo-cated near the Polish border, Aksyonovsaid.The one condition was that he re-turn to the hotel before 11 p.m. forsafety reasons.“Such a decision was made becauseit gets dark early in winter, and the mandoesn’t know the city and could easilyget lost,” Aksyonov said. “We didn’thave the means to provide him with apersonal guide to show him around.”The Belarussian migration servicebegan preparing the Swiss man’s asylumpaperwork, but before it could be com-pleted, the would-be refugee suddenlychanged his mind and left Belarus onDec. 7, Aksyonov said.Belarussian Interior Ministryspokesman Oleg Slepchenko and Be-larussian Border Guard Servicespokesman Yury Kozachenko con-firmed the curious case but would notprovide further details.Komsomolskaya Pravda suggestedon Friday that the asylum applicationmight have been a scheme dreamed upby the Swiss man to get a free 10-dayvacation — a theory Aksyonov dis-missed.“I don’t think so, because he didn’tgo anywhere else [in Belarus] exceptBrest,” Aksyonov said. “He could havebought a [train] ticket for himself andgone anywhere he wanted. He hadmoney with him.”A Swiss Embassy official in Minsksaid by telephone that the embassy wasaware of the case from the media butthat it could not get involved becausethe country in which a refugee asks forasylum has no right to disclose informa-tion about the applicant. “Especially tothe country where he is from,” said theofficial, Dietrich Dreyer.Swiss authorities will not investigatethe case, Dietrich said. “Switzerland is afree country, and any of its citizens cando whatever he wants,” Dietrich said.Belarus has been dubbed in theWest as Europe’s last dictatorship. InApril 2006, Belarussian PresidentAlexander Lukashenko signed a decreesimplifying the procedure for grantingasylum to foreigners.
Swiss Man Asks Minsk for Asylum, Then Leaves
The Swiss manarrived at the borderdriving a Lada, with acollection of books byLenin in the trunk.
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