Alleged Crime Boss Can Run for Duma

Reversing a decision by local election officials, the Russian Supreme Court ruled Monday that reputed organized crime boss Sergei Mikhailov can run for parliament in elections scheduled for Dec. 19.

Mikhailov, who spent 26 months in jail in Switzerland awaiting trial on organized crime charges before being acquitted in 1998, had been removed from the ballot on the grounds that he held dual Russian and Greek citizenship.

The high court, however, sided with Mikhailov in concluding that he had renounced his Greek citizenship and should be allowed to run for a seat in the Duma, parliament’s lower house.

Known by the nickname Mikhas, Mikhailov denies any link to organized crime and insists that he is a legitimate businessman. Despite his acquittal last year in Geneva, Russian and Swiss authorities maintain that he is the leader of the notorious Solntsevo group, said to be Russia’s largest mafia organization.

If elected to the Duma, Mikhailov, 41, would be guaranteed immunity from prosecution throughout his four-year term, including for any crimes he is alleged to have committed before entering parliament.

In filing to run in the town of Taganrog in southern Russia, Mikhailov reported his annual income as 1,388.79 rubles--the equivalent of about $52. He listed his occupation as director of a charity fund serving the needs of the socially deprived.

Instead of gathering signatures to secure a place on the ballot, however, he paid a filing fee of 83,490 rubles--the equivalent of his reported annual income for 60 years.

Mikhailov’s only conviction came in Soviet times, when he was a 26-year-old waiter and falsely reported his motorcycle stolen to collect the insurance. He served six months in prison.

Authorities say that after his release, he began organizing the Solntsevo gang, named after a Moscow suburb. He was arrested in 1989 on extortion charges but released when the main witness refused to testify. In 1993, he was detained in the slaying of a casino operator, but the case fell apart for lack of evidence.

In Switzerland, where he had taken up residence before his arrest, Mikhailov was charged with being a member of a criminal organization, money laundering, falsifying evidence and buying real estate illegally.