VZCZCXRO8591
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDBU RUEHFK RUEHHM RUEHKSO RUEHLN RUEHNAG RUEHPB RUEHPOD
RUEHYG
DE RUEHVK #0077/01 1970420
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 160420Z JUL 09
FM AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1171
INFO RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHZU/ASIAN PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION COLLECTIVE
RUEHVK/AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK 1275

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 VLADIVOSTOK 000077 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON PGOV RS
SUBJECT: ANTI-CORRUPTION CRUSADER DETAINED IN VLADIVOSTOK 
 
REF: VLADIVOSTOK 073 
 
VLADIVOSTO 00000077  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  Authorities have arrested long-time consulate contact 
Colonel Aleksandr Astafyev, the Director of Witness Protection 
Center and deputy head of the Primorye UVD.  He was arrested in 
his office on June 16 on fraud charges, and is currently in 
pre-trial detention.  Astafyev is a close POL/ECON contact and 
participated in a State Department sponsored International 
Visitors Program devoted to fighting corruption.  He is a well 
known speaker at seminars organized by the Far Eastern National 
University's Organized Crime Study Center (OCSC) and had 
received a grant from the OCSC to write about violent corporate 
takeovers in Primorye. 
 
Detained on Fraud Charges 
------------------------- 
 
¶2.  Poloff and FSN discussed the case with OCSC Director Vitaliy 
Nomokonov, who is sure the criminal case against Astafyev is a 
result of his research pointing to high-level officials, 
specifically regarding the hostile takeover of Vladivostok's 
OGAT Transport Company and the murder of its director.  He 
explained that the spurious fraud charges are based on the 
purchase by a sponsor of a sofa, an air conditioner and a 
computer for use in his office.  Though all these items were 
registered officially in the UVD inventory list, authorities 
assert that they were unauthorized. 
 
Fearing For His Life in Detention 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  In pre-trial detention for a month, Astafyev told Nomokonov 
that he fears for his life.  Astafyev's lawyer Yaroslav Redin 
filed an appeal with the Kray court to release him from 
detention on the grounds that the non-violent charges do not 
require immediate incarceration, which a judge denied. 
Nomokonov is hoping that increased public attention to the case 
will help keep Astafyev from being killed while in detention and 
is pushing local journalists to publish information about 
Astafyev.  One local newspaper ran two long articles about the 
arrest.  He expressed hopes that U.S. journalists will also be 
interested in this human rights case. 
 
¶4.  On July 15 Astafyev passed a note to the U.S. Consulate 
through his ex-wife, again expressing concern for his life.  In 
the note he wrote that investigators searched his apartment, 
confiscated all photos from his two trips to the U.S., and 
impounded the personal computer containing the report which 
listed facts and names of high-level officials involved in 
hostile takeovers in the Russian Far East.  The note ended with 
the words "Please, help me!!! I need assistance.  I wanted to 
help Russia fight corruption. I was so naive to write about it 
in my grant paper and that's why I have such troubles. SOS! Save 
me, help, please." 
 
Long a Target of Corrupt Officials 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  Astafyev's position against corruption made him a target for 
officials threatened by his work and he has been under official 
investigation several times, though no charges were ever brought 
until now.  In the mid-1990s his research led to the arrest of 
future Vladivostok mayor Vladimir Nikolayev, who was then head 
of the "Winnie Pooh" organized crime group in Vladivostok.  Last 
year he coordinated a fraud and misappropriation investigation 
against Primorye Governor Sergey Darkin and had an order to 
arrest the governor, though Darkin managed to have the 
investigation derailed after a visit to Moscow. 
 
Murder Warnings Ignored by UVD 
------------------------------ 
 
¶6.  After the dissolution of the Anti-Organized Crime Department 
in 2008, Astafyev was appointed head of the Primorye Kray UVD's 
Witnesses Protection Center.  In late 2008 Astafyev warned 
Primorye UVD Head Andrey Nikolayev that the business conflict 
involving the OGAT Transport Company would lead to murder. 
According to Astafyev, Nikolayev put his report in a safe and 
refused to investigate.  Shortly thereafter the company's 
director was murdered in an apparent contract killing.   Among 
the names he reported as being involved in the matter were 
Aleksandr Sarkisov and Andrey Vasilchenko, who work with the 
Russian Far East branch of the Ministry of Interior, and 
Anatoliy Tyazhlov, who was the former head of the Khabarovsk 
FSB, a former advisor to Primorye Governor Sergey Darkin, and 
founder of an Anti-corruption NGO. 
 
Several Anti-Corruption Crusaders Beaten 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  During the months before his arrest, Astafyev began to 
expect violence against him and always entered his apartment 
building with his side gun in hand.  There have been several 
 
VLADIVOSTO 00000077  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
beating attacks against law enforcement officers investigating 
hostile takeovers in the past several months, two of which 
resulted in death while two other victims needed intensive care. 
 The official cause of death for one of the officers was 
"accidental fall", though the blow that killed him was located 
on the top of his skull. According to Nomokonov, Astafyev left 
home earlier than usual one day and saw a man with truncheon in 
his hand waiting for someone. 
 
¶8.  Nomokonov described his colleague as a man with a sincere 
desire to fight corruption and respect for the rule of law, 
mentioning that Astafyev once refused to shoot Chechen prisoners 
of war when ordered to.  Olga Pak, a former journalist for 
Zolotoy Rog, has known Astafyev for seven years and stated that 
Astafyev is naive in his sincere fight against corruption and 
has many enemies in the UVD.   Another contact mentioned that 
Astafyev wrote his legal dissertation himself instead of 
purchasing one which is common practice. 
 
¶9.  COMMENT.  Astafyev is the second anti-corruption figure to 
make the news this month, following the five-year prison term 
handed to former Far Eastern Customs Directorate Chief General 
Ernest Bakhshetsyan (reftel).  Both cases should be included in 
the annual Human Rights Report and are indicative of the fact 
that investigating corruption is acceptable to authorities as 
long as it doesn't point too high up the power hierarchy. 
Mention of this case in dealing with Russian officials on 
corruption would be appreciated and we hope that Astafyev finds 
allies in the Western and Russian press. 
ARMBRUSTER