Kiev's mayor returns 'from space' after puzzling absence

By Stefan Korshak Feb 13, 2011, 13:08 GMT

Kiev - The man Ukrainians call 'Lennie the Spaceman' has finally returned to Kiev.   

Leonid Chernovetsky - the capital's mayor and Ukraine's most eccentric politician - had been missing for more than two months. He resurfaced on last week.

'Where is Mayor Chernovetsky?' the Segodnya daily recently asked. 'And what about his cat Yasha?!'

   The mayor's answer - that he was in Georgia visiting relatives - has done little to quiet speculation about the reason for his disappearance.

An iconoclast banking oligarch well-known for posing in tight blue swimming trunks, he dropped out of public view in mid-November.

   Residents could only guess as to his whereabouts. They wondered not only about the mayor's fate, but also about his much-maligned tomcat Yasha, a mixed-breed longhair who dines on breaded pork cutlets.

   Some suspected Chernovetsky had fled to avoid a possible corruption probe; others supposed he had been driven from his job because the central government had effectively stripped him of his powers.

   In his absence, videos of the mayor had gone viral on the internet. Some showed him singing (he recently released a CD), others captured his offbeat speaking style.

   A three-minute clip titled 'Kosmos' (rough translation: space cadet) showed the befuddled-looking mayor repeating the word 'um.'

   News reports placed Chernovetsky as far afield as Israel, Switzerland and France. He was thought to be seeking political asylum or vacationing on a beach or at a ski resort.

   Other intelligence suggested he was living it up in the former Soviet republic of Georgia - either in a deluxe suite at the Tbilisi Hyatt for 5,000 dollars a night or in a 30,000-dollar-per-month mansion in the Black Sea port of Batumi.

   Chernovetsky's departure came shortly after prosecutors launched a probe into allegations his subordinates were involved in the corrupt sale of state property. It also coincided with public outrage over city hall's failure to clear snow and pick up garbage.

   On November 16, the central government stripped the office of mayor of much of its authority, transferring powers to a city council packed with members of President Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions, whose base is Ukraine's industrial east.

   So far, Chernovetsky has avoided speaking in detail about his time away from Kiev, though he denies any suggestions he has done anything wrong. He's also said nothing about Yasha.

   The mayor got a lot of negative press in 2010 because of the cat. His remark that he was 'never happier' than when feeding Yasha pork cutlets irritated some lower-income Kiev residents who can't afford such delicacies.

   But Chernovetsky has been more forthcoming in responding to his critics.

   'I don't think that (calling the mayor of Kiev a space cadet) is appropriate at all,' he said angrily in a television interview on Tuesday. 'I just hope that the people who say those sort of things about me, they have one one-thousandth of the success that I've had in life.'

   Who rules Kiev is of more of than local importance. The previous pro-Western government of Viktor Yushchenko came to power six years ago largely thanks to massive street protests in the capital. They successfuly challenged the rigged vote in which Yanukovych initially claimed victory.

   That lesson has not been lost on the Party of Regions, which has struggled to explain rising electric rates and poor municipal services to Kiev's largely anti-Regions residents.

   Though the mayor now has little real authority, Yanukovych and his team have sought to put the blame on Chernovetsky.

They may not have him to kick around when his term ends in May 2012.

   'I'm back on the job, and I'm going to serve out my term,' Chernovetsky said a few days ago. 'But I probably won't run for re-election.'