With all that is going on in the Middle East, it is easy to forget that there is still a Ukraine and still a lot of intrigue surrounding that country's push toward democracy.
Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Yuri Kravchenko is said to have committed suicide over the investigation into the murder of reporter Georgiy Gongadze. There was even a suicide note where Kravchenko writes he killed himself because he claimed to have "become a victim of political intrigues of Kuchma and his entourage."
Still, one has to wonder how someone shoots himself in the head twice.
Vikor Yushchenko, fresh from solidifying his political base, promises an investigation into the death. This is likely to hamper the prosecution because Kravchenko was the primary witness and as analyst Ivan Lozowy puts it, he was the only conduit to Kuchma and it is very unlikely that Kravchenko would have given the go ahead for this "operation" without Kuchmas' approval. With Kravchenko gone, hopes of seeing Kuchma receive justice (if in fact he had anything to do with this) have all but vanished.
The former president has cut short a spa visit to return to Kiev and hopefully answer a few pertinent questions.
The discovery of Mr Gongadze's headless body in a wood near Kiev triggered a political scandal, especially after the emergence of a covertly recorded tape that allegedly implicated Mr Kuchma.
In the tapes, Mr Kuchma was heard to complain about Gongadze's reporting and allegedly ordered Mr Kravchenko to "get rid of" the journalist.
Mr Kuchma says the tapes have been edited to distort his words.
According to Ukrainian law, the former president has no immunity against criminal prosecution.
These recordings had been smuggled out of the country by Kuchma's ex-bodyguard.
Kuchma was implicated in the death after his former bodyguard Mykola Melnichenko released tapes that allegedly had recorded Kuchma, in between epithets, ordering Kravchenko to take care of the persistent investigative reporter.
Kuchma has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has called the tapes a fabrication. On Friday he said he was innocent "before God, before the people and before my conscience."
Melnichenko is also countering the notion that Kravchenko committed suicide:
"I knew Yury Kravchenko personally," Melnichenko told AFP by phone from Poland. "I don't believe that he could willfully take his life."
Melnichenko, who hid in Europe for months after the release of the tapes before receiving political asylum in the US, said he feared for his life after he heard about Kravchenko's murder while on a visit to Poland, where he said he was due to meet top Ukrainian officials.
"There was always a danger to my life and right now it has increased," he said.
One of the theories going around Kiev is that Kravchenko -- who served as Kuchma's interior minister from 1995 to 2001 -- was killed because he knew too much.
"Kravchenko was ready to carry out any order by Kuchma," Yermolayev [Andriy Yermolayev, a Ukrainian political analyst - Ed.] said. "Kravchenko's death played toward the thesis that Kuchma commandeered and Kravchenko organized (the killing)."
You'll recall that this is the same Melnychenko who doubted General Smeshko's supposedly heroic role in the Orange Revolution.
Veronica Khokhlova has background here and here.
Abdymok posts what he describes as a pr campaign:
mykola melnychenko, a former major in kuchma’s personal security unit, said this weekend he would today meet a high-level emissary of viktor yushchenko, the new president, to obtain guarantees for his own safety and for the recordings. only then would he be prepared to return from america, where he has been granted political asylum.
“i have guarded these recording for four years and the american authorities warned me four times about attempts on my life,” he said in an interview in london. “i don’t want it all to go to waste at the last moment. there are two very senior figures in the new administration who i am sure want to destroy the evidence and protect kuchma because they are on the recordings.”
Among Abdymok's post are these comments that bring the scandal into higher relief:
[he (Melnychenko) received his passport to travel abroad on the same day gongadze's body was uncovered in a ditch near the tiny town of tarashcha 150 kilometers from kyiv.]
[melnychenko has refused to explain who compiled the 21-minute recording released by socialist party of ukraine leader oleksandr moroz on nov. 28, 2000 in parliament. the audio file, released as an analog tape was created on sept. 18, 2000. the former guard has refused also to say why he has not released recordings made after gongadze's disappearance on sept. 16, 2000 or comment on his efforts to sell back the audio archive to kuchma cronies in early 2004.]
[so far, so bad. yushchenko and his administration have so far just muddled the mess by waging a political campaign instead of an investigation. they have not addressed the recordings issue at all].
More on the recordings here:
i have obtained and listened to the ipi and 5element.net recordings, which indeed implicate top officials, including kuchma, in various crimes, including the unlawful arrest and imprisonment of sloviansky bank founder borys feldman, harassment of government critics and other shenanigans, including vote rigging during the 1999 presidential election.
the 60 hours of audio files also contain sensitive information about ukraine’s sales of military hardware abroad, the state of the country’s law enforcement and intelligence services, and the state tax administration, as well as unreported information about relations between kuchma and leading politicians in the united states and russia.
the audio files do not, however, contain conversations indicating that kuchma specifically ordered gongadze to be kidnapped or murdered. such conversations may – or may not – be contained in the as yet unreleased 640 hours of recordings, which may - or may not - contain conversations following gongadze’s disappearance.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Svyatoslav Piskun announced that the murder of Gongadze has been "solved, " saying that he knew who gave the order. He also said that two of the four murderers where Interior Ministry police employees. One suspect has already been killed
But Ukrayinska Pravda seems to be saying, "not so fast:"
“My Government amd me consider Gongadze’s case a moral challenge, which must be promptly reacted to. I carry the full moral responsibility and in one or two months the criminal case will be transferred to the Ukrainian court. And you will witness the public consideration of the case in court”, - Yushchenko told that day.
The fact that the crime was not investigated in a proper way during that many years does confirm that the old authority "covered up the murderers “. But despite the disclosure of the case has been declared quite recently – right after Yushchenko’s coming in Bankivska Street and Svyatoslav Piskun’s return to Reznitska Street, it means in no ways this is the end and the full stop can be put…
We must not forget that there is a long path to the final disclosure of the crime. The Court is ahead , if God does not forbid. Ahead is the capture of the murderer’s clients. And ahead is, finally, the funeral of Georgiy, whose body has been kept in the mortuary, which is in Oranjereyna Street, for nearly 4.5 years.
Maidan is handicapping who the next bullet will be for:
..Which one of Ukraine's BAD ViP's ? will succumb to the suicide epidemic - Ihor Bakaj ? Mykola Azarov? Leonid Derkach ? Oleksander Volkov - Kuchma's chief money launderer ? senior police official Oleksiy,Pukach, who is at large and on an international warrant?
Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin is due to visit Yushchenko on March 19.
UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers.
Awesome post Daniel. I'm glad to see you were visiting Veronica and Peter for their background as well. This is intriguing stuff!
Posted by: Robert Mayer | March 06, 2005 at 03:54 PM