There was an attempt to disrupt the meeting between Ukraine’s General Prosecutor Sviatoslav Piskun and former presidential security officer Major Mykola Melnychenko on American soil. This is the opinion of not only Melnychenko but also the widow of the slain journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, Myroslava. Speaking in a Radio Liberty interview, she said: “I suspect that they in fact attempted to disrupt the meeting. Judging by all the latest materials that are aimed against Melnychenko, I get the impression that this is an attempt to discredit Melnychenko or sideline him, for even though the General Prosecutor is saying that he wants to meet, I do not see the will in practice.” As she put it, “After returning to Kyiv, Piskun will say that because Melnychenko couldn’t or wouldn’t meet, we are closing this case, as we do not have sufficient evidence implicating those who ordered the killing and are therefore referring this case to court.” Myroslava Gongadze said that she did not meet with Piskun during his visit to the US and does not have “any information about what the investigators and the General Prosecutor are doing here.” When asked whether she has seen “much progress” in the investigation into the killing of her husband, about which President Viktor Yushchenko spoke recently, she said: “How can I evaluate progress if I have never seen the materials of the case and have never talked to the investigators or the General Prosecutor? I am very alarmed by the fact that Viktor Yushchenko is making such statements, because this is not the president’s job to comment on the investigation. This is the job of the uniformed services alone,” she added. In her view, such statements can be damaging to the investigation of the Gongadze case because “later, after the case has been referred to court, any party (both the plaintiff and the defendants) can submit complaints against the political leadership of Ukraine, claiming that it is a politically-motivated trial.”
