Odessa Mayor Eduard Hurvits accused his political opponents on Monday of being responsible for a series of murders and kidnappings during the past several months. A journalist was shot and killed in August, and another journalist was seriously wounded by gunfire last month. The chairman of a city district was kidnapped Friday. 'There is terror in the city, and the aim is to get rid of the mayor,' Hurvits said in a telephone interview. He said the violence was linked with elections later this month for City Council and the national Parliament, and that police would not help because they, too, were interested in wresting power away from him. 'We don't expect help from the police, because they're widely linked with criminal groups,' Hurvits said. Hurvits also accused the Odessa region administration and the regional prosecutor's office of trying to oust him. The conflict between Hurvits and regional administration chairman Ruslan Bodelan has been raging since the regional government tried to bring city revenues into its own coffers three years ago.
Bodelan, who plans to run for mayor, has filed financial mismanagement charges against Hurvits several times and called for his removal.
Last month, a high-level government commission which investigated crime in Odessa recommended firing several top police officers and officials in the prosecutor's office, but the recommendation has yet to be implemented. Hurvits said police have not even tried to search for Ihor Svoboda, the district official kidnapped last week. Police spokesman Heorhy Charsky countered that police had searched for three days, but have not turned up any leads yet. Hurvits said the kidnapping of Svoboda, a personal friend, was the continuation of previous murders, beatings and other moves against officials and independent media in Odessa.
During the past three months, police used various pretexts to block the accounts of several newspapers that had printed stories criticizing regional authorities and police, he said.
