Documents / Official release
This Clinton Presidential Library folder holds NSC cables from January 1999 to December 2000, filed under the heading "Flying Saucer or UFO". A withdrawal sheet lists eleven cables that were withheld in full or in part under Presidential Records Act and FOIA restrictions. The released cables include an FBIS summary of a Bogota TV newscast, which notes that a UFO photograph printed by El Espectador was a hoax. They also include a US Embassy Beijing report on Quanzhou, Fujian, and a Vladivostok cable on Governor Yevgeniy Nazdratenko.
“Cooper”3 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
## REPORT. 9. IN A WESTERN COUNTRY, SUCH A REPORT WOULD BE POLITICAL DYNAMITE, TO SAY THE VERY LEAST. IN VLADIVOSTOK, IT WAS MERELY CAUSE FOR NAZDRATENKO AND HIS CREW TO START POLITICAL MANEUVERING IN EARNEST. WITH ECONOMIC CRISIS CONSUMING RUSSIA IN 1998, NAZDRATENKO SAW HIS CHANCE AND FORMED AN ALLIANCE WITH THEN-PRIME MINISTER YEVGENIY PRIMAKOV, LOUDLY DEFENDING HIM AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY AND ADOPTING NEARLY ALL OF HIS POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC POSITIONS AS HIS OWN. IN A FEW MONTHS, KONDRATOVQS POWER WAS FIRST CURTAILED IN FEBRUARY 1998, AND THEN KONDRATOV WAS TRANSFERRED BACK TO MOSCOW IN MARCH 1999. THE NEW PRESIDENTIAL REPRESENTATIVE IN PRIMORYE WAS NONE OTHER THAN VICE-GOVERNOR VALENTIN KUZOV, NAZDRATENKOQS PERSONNEL CHIEF AND YES-MAN. YELQTSINQS ATTACK ON NAZDRATENKOQS POWER WAS EFFECTIVELY REBUFFED, AND THUS SECURED, NAZDRATENKO BEGAN TO MOVE AGAINST HIS PRINCIPAL POLITICAL OPPONENTS. ## NAZDRATENKO VERSUS CHEREPKOV 10. NAZDRATENKOQS LONG-RUNNING BATTLE WITH HIS MOST PROMINENT OPPONENT, MAYOR VIKTOR CHEREPKOV, CAME TO A CLIMAX IN DECEMBER 1998, WHEN HE PREVAILED UPON PRESIDENT YELQTSIN TO FIRE CHEREPKOV AND SCHEDULE NEW MAYORAL ELECTIONS FOR EARLY 1999. SINCE SEPTEMBER OF 1998, CHEREPKOV AND HIS SUPPORTERS HAD BARRICADED THEMSELVES INSIDE CITY HALL, AFTER NAZDRATENKO HAD ARRANGED FOR CHEREPKOVQS NAME TO BE STRICKEN FROM THE BALLOT FOR THE FALL MAYORAL ELECTIONS, ALLEGEDLY FOR MISUSING CITY FUNDS FOR HIS OWN POLITICAL CAMPAIGN. THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN HAD BEEN MARKED BY HEATED RHETORIC ON BOTH SIDES, AND MADE THE RECENT UNPLEASANTNESS IN FLORIDA LOOK MILD BY COMPARISON. IN ADDITION TO ALLEGATIONS OF FINANCIAL MALFEASANCE, NAZDRATENKO ACCUSED CHEREPKOV OF BLOCKING 14 ATTEMPTS TO FORM A CITY DUMA, THUS MAKING VLADIVOSTOK THE ONLY MAJOR CITY IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION WITHOUT A LOCAL UNCLAS SECTION 04 OF 07 VLADIVOSTOK 0678 ## UNCLASSIFIED E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV, PREL, RS, BO, UP SUBJECT: TO LIVE AND DIE IN PRIMORYE: THE STRANGE WORLD OF YEVGENIY NAZDRATENKO LEGISLATURE. NAZDRATENKO ALSO BLAMED CHEREPKOV FOR THE FREQUENT OUTAGES OF HEATING AND POWER, CONCLUDING WITH COMMENDABLE UNDERSTATEMENT QWHAT HAS HAPPENED IS GENOCIDE AGAINST THE RESIDENTS OF VLADIVOSTOK.Q NAZDRATENKO ALSO ACCUSED CHEREPKOV, AN ESP ENTHUSIAST, OF BEING A UFO LOONY, NOTING THAT: QI DONQT UNDERSTAND HOW IT IS POSSIBLE TO GOVERN THE CITY FROM UNDER A
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Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 64 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.