On March 16 an electronic media outlet carried a provocative letter allegedly written by former Criminal Intelligence Department chief Oleksiy Pukach, now a fugitive sought by the Interior Ministry. In this letter “Pukach” claims that he had nothing to do with the murder of the journalist Heorhy Gongadze and accuses a number of current Ukrainian politicians of having engaged in a plot to release “Melnychenko’s tapes.” That same day, lawyer Serhiy Osyka, who represented Pukach, called the article published in the newspaper Rossiyskiye vesti [Russian News] a fake. The Day approached Yevhen Marchuk for comment.
Yevhen MARCHUK, former Defense Minister of Ukraine, leader of the election bloc “Yevhen Marchuk — Yednist [Unity]”:
“Such campaigns were and still are regularly staged against me ahead of all elections. The so-called ‘Turin affair’ was staged ahead of the 2002 parliamentary elections. Before the 2004 presidential elections another smear campaign began in which I was accused of masterminding the ‘tape scandal.’ Now there is another provocation in connection with the parliamentary elections. I begin to see a pattern.
“When the so-called ‘Turin affair’ was unfolding, its main player and provocateur flew to Moscow nearly 20 times a year.
“In early April 2005, almost simultaneously two former Russian special service agents — Shvets and Lytvynenko, who have stable clients in Ukraine, caused a stir the like of which we witnessed recently. Former Russian spy Shvets claimed that Marchuk and Moroz were allegedly plotting a coup in Ukraine to seize power. Meanwhile, the great supporter and defender of democracy in Ukraine, Felshtinsky, handed down instructions via the mass media to the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine to immediately arrest Marchuk and open a criminal case against him.
“I have an interesting observation. Whom else aside from Marchuk and Moroz, who are both running for parliament, did this provocation target? According to this ‘expose article,’ Poroshenko and Korol planned to have Leonid Kuchma impeached and Interior Minister Kravchenko ousted from his post. As a result, then Prime Minister Victor Yushchenko would become acting president, while Korol would take Kravchenko’s place. It turns out that Yulia Tymoshenko is ‘not a saint’ either: Pukach alleges that she was ready to pay a large amount to have him removed as an important witness. Thus, which one of the current election frontrunners is left with an impeccable record?”
