With the kind permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, InfoUkes Inc. has been given rights to electronically re-print these articles on our web site. Visit the RFE/RL Ukrainian Service page for more information. Also visit the RFE/RL home page for news stories on other Eastern European and FSU countries.
Return to Main RFE News Page
InfoUkes Home Page
...AS EVIDENCE OF TORTURE IN CASE MOUNTS. "Novye izvestiya" reported on 30 September that prosecutors investigating the case have uncovered evidence that Pumane was raped while in custody, including an apparently used condom. "Kommersant-Daily" reported that investigators have confiscated numerous items from the police station where Pumane was held. "Novye izvestiya" reported that five police officers, including the commander of the station, have been given monetary rewards for "saving Moscow from yet another terrorist act." "Komsomolskaya pravda" on 28 September cast doubt on earlier media reports that Pumane might have been a "nonstaff officer" of Interpol. Pumane's friend, Stanislav Kulyasov, reportedly told investigators that Pumane had shown him an identification card purporting to show him as an Interpol officer. "There is no such thing as a special ID for a nonstaff Interpol officer," Interpol Moscow bureau spokesman Anatolii Simanovskii told the daily. "We have exactly the same papers as all other police officers." According to the daily, Pumane traveled frequently to Moscow, Ukraine, and Belarus, but friends did not know what he was doing there. RC
END NOTE: UKRAINIAN PREMIER SURVIVES EGG ATTACK xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
UKRAINIAN PREMIER WANTS RIVAL TO APOLOGIZE FOR POISONING ALLEGATIONS. The presidential election staff of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has issued a statement saying that opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko misled Ukrainians by alleging that he was deliberately poisoned, Interfax reported on 29 September. Yanukovych's staff demanded a public apology from Yushchenko. "Speculations about Viktor Yushchenko's health by his entourage have provoked ambiguous attitudes toward Ukrainian politics and our state," Yanukovych's staff said. "He has to honestly admit that before the Ukrainian people." The statement came after the Rudolfinerhaus hospital in Vienna, where Yushchenko was treated for a mysterious illness earlier this month, stated on 28 September that Austrian doctors have not confirmed Yushchenko's poisoning (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 September 2004). Rudolfinerhaus head Michael Zimpfer reiterated this stance at a news conference on 29 September. Speaking with the BBC's Ukrainian Service earlier the same day, Rudolfinerhaus doctor Lothar Wicke said that tests on Yushchenko gave no grounds for saying that he was poisoned. But Wicke added that he could not refute such a possibility either. Meanwhile, Yushchenko on 30 September flew to Vienna, where he is expected to spend "several days" at Rudolfinerhaus and undergo more medical tests, Interfax reported. JM
FORMER UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTER PROMISES 'SENSATIONAL' INFORMATION ABOUT MELNYCHENKO TAPES. Yevhen Marchuk, who was unexpectedly fired from the post of defense minister by President Leonid Kuchma last week (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 24 September 2004), said on Channel 5 television on 29 September that "sensational data" will be made public "soon" regarding the secret recordings made by presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko in Kuchma's office in 2000, Interfax reported. "There will be a sensational variant to keep up some versions [of the Melnychenko case] of a provocative character, which will overshadow all other events," Marchuk said. JM
YUSHCHENKO STILL AHEAD OF YANUKOVYCH IN PRESIDENTIAL POLL. A poll by the Democratic Initiatives fund, the Social Monitoring center and SOCIS from the end of August to late September among 2,000 Ukrainians found that Viktor Yushchenko would be supported by 34.4 percent of voters in the first round and 43.5 percent in the runoff, while his main rival, Prime Minister Yanukovych, would be backed by 27.7 percent and 35.9 percent of voters, respectively, Interfax reported on 30 September. JM
MOLDOVAN OSCE MISSION HEAD SAYS RESUMPTION OF NEGOTIATIONS IS DIFFICULT. In an interview with RFE/RL on 28 September, William Hill, head of the OSCE mission in Moldova, said the resumption of negotiations between Chisinau and Tiraspol is a difficult task, because four countries -- Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, and Romania --have stakes in the way the conflict is resolved. Hill also said that both the United States and the EU are displaying great interest in resolving the conflict and that he expects them to become more active in the resolution process. Hill added that he is unable to say whether the EU and the United States will become formal mediators but thus far no such intent has been expressed by them. MS
MOLDOVAN PREMIER REJECTS UKRAINIAN COMPENSATION DEMANDS. In an interview with RFE/RL on 29 September, Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev rejected the recent Ukrainian demand for compensation for damage allegedly caused to Ukrainian enterprises by the Moldovan restrictions on trade imposed at crossing points between Ukraine and Transdniester (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 September 2004). Tarlev said Moldova was compelled to impose the restrictions because "Ukraine refused to toughen control on its border with Transdniester" and, as a result, "that border became a zone of smuggling, including the smuggling of weapons." Tarlev deplored the fact that "some guarantor countries, which should be pursuing the goal of conflict resolution, pursue their own interests in parallel." MS
UKRAINIAN PREMIER SURVIVES EGG ATTACK
A series of alarming reports in Ukrainian media on 24 September focused the country's attention squarely on presidential candidate and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych and Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yushchenko are widely expected to take the first two slots in the 31 October election and qualify for the runoff three weeks later.
According to press reports, Yanukovych was in the town of Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine for a campaign meeting on 24 September when he was injured by unspecified objects described as "weighty" and "hard." His bodyguards took him to the intensive-care unit of a local hospital. Yanukovych's spokeswoman, Hanna Herman, pointed an accusing finger at the potential culprits: a crowd of Our Ukraine supporters, primarily young people, she said, were behaving "aggressively" when Yanukovych arrived in Ivano-Frankivsk.
Several hours later, Yanukovych -- sullen but otherwise apparently unscathed -- read a televised statement from the hospital, in which he explicitly accused Yushchenko's supporters of attacking him. "I am sorry for those young men who did this to me," Yanukovych said. "But I have no questions for them. At the same time, I have a question for [their] leaders, for Yushchenko's entourage, who pushed the young men to do this.... Is it your policy? Is it human?"
Who did what to Yanukovych in Ivano-Frankivsk on 24 September remained unclear all that day. Immediately after the incident, a spokeswoman from the Interior Ministry said Yanukovych had been hit by nothing deadlier than a raw egg, which she said was thrown by the 17-year-old son of a local university dean. Later, however, the Interior Ministry backed down from this pronouncement and issued a statement saying that the premier had been hit by "several hard objects."
There has been no other official version of the incident, and Interior Ministry investigators were unable to locate any "hard" or "weighty" or "sharp-edged" objects at the scene of the incident, but several Yanukovych associates have offered their own account of what happened.
Lawmaker Stepan Havrysh, coordinator of the pro-government parliamentary coalition, said Yanukovych was hit on the temple by an egg and collapsed from "pain shock." Lawmaker Taras Chornovil, a Yanukovych supporter, said he watched from the upper deck of Yanukovych's bus as the prime minister was hit on the temple by a stone. Serhiy Tihipko, head of Yanukovych's election campaign, said the prime minister was hit by a battery from a video camera.
Late in the evening of 24 September, the pro-Yushchenko Channel 5 TV station aired a video of the attack. The tape shows an egg smashing against Yushchenko's chest shortly after he steps out of his bus. After he's hit by the egg, the video shows Yanukovych grimacing, as if from a sudden pang of pain, then collapsing, then being swiftly carried from the scene by his bodyguards. On TV, the sequence of events looked more farcical than dangerous.
Channel 5's egg-attack video spawned a great deal of speculation in Ukraine. Most commentators said Yanukovych's reaction to the attack was exaggerated. Some maintained that he overreacted to get publicity, as a way to divert the public's attention from the much-publicized alleged poisoning of his main rival, Viktor Yushchenko. Some have even suggested that Yanukovych was expecting a much more serious attack -- that the whole incident was a planned publicity ploy dreamt up by spin doctors -- and reacted accordingly, even though the hurled object turned out to be only an egg, which spoiled the show.
Yushchenko campaign manager Oleksandr Zinchenko said the attack was a preplanned campaign stunt. "Feeling sympathy with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who actually endured some unpleasant moments, we, however, consider that the Ivano-Frankivsk incident was a purposeful provocation against Viktor Yushchenko, which developed under a scheme tested long ago," Zinchenko said. "This scheme implies that Yushchenko is traditionally held accountable for the actions that are staged spontaneously, or following an order from his opponents, by some citizens who have no relations whatsoever to Yushchenko."
Regardless of what Ukrainian investigators may eventually discover about the egg attack, it seems unlikely that the incident will result in additional votes for Yanukovych in the 31 October elections. The sight of the prime minister's 100-kilogram body collapsing under the impact of a raw egg is definitely not tear-jerker material, or even sympathy inspiring, particularly given Yanukovych's portrayal by the government-controlled media as a man of "iron character." Yanukovych spokeswoman Herman recently told journalists that she is planning to write a book about Yanukovych titled "The Iron Master."
Indeed, the Ukrainian public reacted to Yanukovych's misfortune in Ivano-Frankivsk with a plethora of jokes, several dozen of which are circulating on the Internet. We will repeat two here, to show that Ukrainians don't seem to believe the official version of the attack, and to underscore the fact that the country's presidential campaign, which has been marred by innumerable examples of biased media coverage and serious violations of election law, has a comic side, as well.
The first joke belongs to the so-called Radio Yerevan family of jokes, which were extremely popular in the Soviet Union during the Brezhnev era. Radio Yerevan was famous for providing sometimes silly, sometimes clever, but always funny, answers to listener questions. "Can an egg be sharp-edged?" Ukrainian Radio inquires of Radio Yerevan in the wake of the Yanukovych incident. "If it's a hedgehog's egg, it can," is Radio Yerevan's answer.
The other joke is this: Yanukovych shows up at a meeting with voters, looks around the gathered group, and asks, "Why are there only women here?" Someone offers this answer: "Because your chief bodyguard said no one with eggs could come in." In common usage, the Ukrainian word for eggs, yaytsya, also refers to testicles.