ST. PETERSBURG -- After 20 months in self-imposed exile in Paris, former Mayor Anatoly Sobchak returned home to St. Petersburg on Monday, saying he has nothing to fear from corruption allegations against him.
Sobchak said he plans to launch a political comeback and seek a seat in the State Duma, parliament's lower house.
More than 100 journalists were on hand at Pulkovo Airport to meet Sobchak's arrival. As soon as he cleared customs, Sobchak was literally mobbed by a sea of cameras and microphones.
"You don't need to rush because I have returned forever," Sobchak said, displaying the exuberance and cockiness that are his trademark. "I have arrived in my city and I am happy to be home."
Since 1995, Sobchak, one of Russia's first generation democrats who served as mayor from 1991 until 1996 and was among the principal authors of the Russian Constitution, for four years has been dogged by a corruption probe that he says was launched by his political enemies.
The prosecutor's case alleges that in 1995 Sobchak received bribes from the Renaissance real estate firm, related to the renovation and privatization of an elite apartment building.
Sobchak alleges that it was Vladimir Yakovlev, his public works deputy, who unseated him in the 1996 mayoral election, who prepared the documents for the deal.
Sobchak has said that the criminal case against him was prepared by former Kremlin security chief Alexander Korzhakov, who reportedly helped finance Yakovlev's successful 1996 campaign. Korzhakov denies the allegations.
Sobchak, 61, fell ill during questioning on Oct. 7, 1997, by federal prosecutors, suffering from an apparent heart attack. He was hospitalized in St. Petersburg for three weeks, and then, on Nov. 7, he quietly slipped out and chartered a plane to Paris where he remained until Monday.
Last September, the Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case against Sobchak for bribe-taking and abuse of power, though he has not yet been formally indicted.
"If there are any complaints against me, I am ready to testify openly in court about the whole affair," Sobchak said. "I have nothing to answer for and nothing to fear. I hope that this dark chapter in my life is behind me."
Sobchak denied rumors that powerful friends like Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin or Federal Security Service Director Vladimir Putin, who served as Sobchak's deputy mayor, were now protecting him from prosecution.
Sergei Ivanov, the head of the St. Petersburg anti-organized crime task force, said in remarks quoted by Itar-Tass that he has not received any orders to arrest Sobchak.
Accompanied by his wife, Duma Deputy Lyudmila Narusova, and his daughter Ksenia, Sobchak left the airport and, trailed by reporters, headed for his home on the Moika Embankment. On the way, he stopped near the Hermitage Museum and, as the cameras rolled, splashed water from the Neva River on his face.
In the evening, Sobchak went to the Nikolskoye Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery and placed flowers on the grave of federal lawmaker Galina Starovoitova, who was killed last November.
Speaking softly to Ruslan Linkov, Starovoitova's aide who was injured in the attack, a visibly emotional Sobchak, a friend and political ally of the slain lawmaker, said: "This is still difficult for me to imagine. Only here did I fully understand that she is no longer with us."
Sobchak later visited the grave of Mikhail Manevich, a deputy governor who was killed Aug. 18, 1997.
Sobchak called his 20 months abroad "a very healthy experience," saying he has fully recovered from a heart condition and has written three books; one of these, entitled "From Leningrad to St. Petersburg: A Journey through Time and Space," was released last month.
"I have also had a lot of time to think about the mistakes I have made," said Sobchak. "Unfortunately some of these mistakes are impossible to correct."