Two radio stations on Thursday accused the ultranationalist party of Vladimir Zhirinovsky of trying to pay for $23,000 in election campaign advertising with forged bank payment orders.


Officials at Radio One and Radio Mayak, two of Russia's most popular radio stations, said they would sue the Liberal Democratic Party for 39.4 million rubles, owed for over four hours of advertising time in the week preceding the Dec. 12 elections.


Both stations say the party provided fake proofs of payment from banks and never transferred any money.


A spokesman for Zhirinovsky's party, Grigory Serebryanikov, first denied that the payment orders had been falsified, saying that party sponsors had simply not deposited the funds needed for the money transfer.


When asked how the banks could approve a payment order without receiving any funds, Serebryanikov said that the money orders had been falsified "by our enemies."


After a lavish advertising campaign that took up more airtime than any rival party, Zhirinovsky gained 23 percent of the vote, trouncing both reformers and Communists.


Western and Russian media have speculated ever since on who funded his estimated 1 billion ruble (about $600,000) election campaign, naming a German neo-fascist, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Russia's secret services as Zhirinovsky's bankrollers. So far, they have failed to find any hard evidence.


Eduard Kozlov, general director of the Galaktika Radio Co., said his firm aired three hours of election speeches by Zhirinovsky and other Liberal Democrats on Channel One.


Kozlov said in an interview that the Liberal Democrats had provided copies of payment orders, worth 29 million rubles and stamped by two banks, to show they had paid for the ads in advance. In February, Galaktika asked the banks why the money had not been transferred into its account. Progressbank, which Galaktika thought owed the station 26 million rubles, responded that it had never received any such payment order.


Kozlov said that the station had sold airtime to various parties and was paid promptly by all but the Liberal Democrats. Unless the party paid up soon, Galaktika would sue, he said.


Yevgeny Yeliseyenkov, deputy director of the Mayak radio station, said the Liberal Democratic Party had falsified a payment order to Progressbank for nearly 11 million rubles, to obtain 69 minutes of advertising time in early December, just before the elections.


Like Galaktika, Mayak never got paid and was told that the payment order did not exist, Yeliseyenkov said. Mayak also is also preparing to sue the Liberal Democrats, he said.


Natalya Nedorezova, head of the clearing department at Progressbank, confirmed that there had never been any payment order for Radio Galaktika from the Liberal Democratic Party but could not comment on the payment order to Mayak. The party has an account with the bank, she said.


The second bank involved, Menatep, declined to confirm whether it had approved a payment order for 3 million rubles to Galaktika.