More on recently re-appointed Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov

Another article that I've translated (partially) off the Novye Izvestiia website:

"Other than prosecuting I don't know how to do anything."
["Кроме как прокурорить я ничего не умею"]
Vladimir Ustinov is going for a second term
By Sergei Tkachuk, Novye Izvestiia, April 13, 2005

[...]On the subject of whether he was prepared to manage the prosecutors for another five years, Mr. Ustinov said the following: "My whole life has gone by in the prosecutor's office. I haven't known any other work life and can't imagine myself doing anything different, although someday I'll have to think about that, too." He even cracked a joke on the topic, "Other than prosecuting I don't know how to do anything, I'm a third-generation prosecutor, and so my answer is unambiguous."

The experts consulted by Novye Izvestiia (NI), however, have strong doubts that Mr. Ustinov is the best choice for the job. For example, Yabloko deputy chairman Sergei Mitrokhin told NI, "There is no doubt that Ustinov's term will be extended, because he is a loyal ally of the Kremlin in all matters. In that sense, they won't be able to find a better replacement." According to Mr. Mitrokhin, "Ustinov shouldn't be in the prosecutor's office." "From the standpoint of efficiency the prosecutor-general's office can't even be awarded a 'C', they haven't solved a single socially significant murder or terrorist act," opined the politician, "instead all of the political orders of the Kremlin have been fulfilled 100%. Just look at the heroic deeds of the prosecutor-general's office in putting kids in jail for five years because they acted like hooligans in a government office [the incident when National Bolshevik Party activists seized the lobby of the Health Ministry building - NI].

"Well-known attorney Boris Kuznetsov, who conducted an investigation of the sinking of the Kursk submarine independent of the prosecutors' investigation, agrees: "A prosecutor-general like this apparently suits the powers-that-be." "If I were a senator, I wouldn't confirm him under any circumstances, because on his watch the level of prosecutor's office employees has declined by an order of magnitude, and instead of enforcing the laws, they use non-judicial means to achieve the decisions which they seek," the attorney told "NI." [...] According to Mr. Kuznetsov... "If in the courts an the Ministry of Internal Affairs at least some minor reforms are being carried out, the prosecutor-general's office is in a state of utter stagnation. The atmosphere there is one of untruth, in which it is very difficult for young prosecutors to work."