ST. PETERSBURG -- Tombstone-toppling vandals at the Smolensky Cemetery were still at large Tuesday, while police, exasperated by allegations that the vandals were part of a Satan-worshipping cult, refused to discuss proposed sting operations to stop the desecration of graves. "There aren't any Satanists! Don't say that!" shouted one frustrated officer, who refused to give his name and referred queries to his chief, Mikhail Zhedko. Zhedko, in a more diplomatic fashion, suggested drunks or teenage gangs were more likely to be behind the vandalism than Satan worshippers. "But really, is Satan to blame for the lack of order at that cemetery? It's the fault of the cemetery's administration that things are in such disarray there," Zhedko said. More than 400 tombstones were damaged over the weekend, according to cemetery director Dmitry Tolstykh. Because some crosses had been wrenched off tombstones and stuck into the ground upside down, cemetery workers were convinced that gangs living in the woods were Satan worshippers, he said. Tolstykh said Monday that police were taking "preparatory measures" for dealing with the vandals. By Tuesday, no arrests had been made and no further vandalism noted at the cemetery. Tolstykh accused the police of reluctance to act. "I tried for three days to file a complaint before they would accept it," he said. "They kept turning me away. They said they had more important problems to attend to."
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