Oleksii Podolsky says that his role model is the main character of Jack London’s short story The Mexican. “It is the story of a guy who took part in a boxing bout to earn money to buy weapons for the revolution,” Podolsky notes, “and, although he was knocked down several times, he won thanks to a strong desire to win. He brought the earned money to the party, but the revolutionaries did not even know his name. This Mexican was a rank-and-file soldier of revolution. I also belong to soldiers…”
Podolsky had to pay dearly for this attitude during the presidency of Leonid Kuchma. His story is a familiar example. Unless you study it, your knowledge of Ukraine’s contemporary history, including the Gongadze case, will be incomplete. For the crime against Podolsky was a rehearsal for the murder of Heorhii Gongadze. Policemen with the recently-convicted ex-General Oleksii Pukach at the head kidnapped him in June 2000 under a similar scenario. They took Podolsky to the woodland outside Kyiv and savagely beat him up, demanding that he stop human rights activities, but still they left him alive.
Podolsky is a hardcore realist. It is not the Internet he draws knowledge from. He personally looked through the materials of the criminal cases of Podolsky, Gongadze, and Kuchma (the latter was not heard in court on its merits because a court overruled the decision to open a criminal case against Kuchma), took part in the trials of the perpetrators of the crime against Podolsky and the chief perpetrator of the Gongadze murder Oleksii Pukach, as well as in the hearing that overruled the Kuchma case decision. This list can be continued.
Where are the roots of the current state of affairs in the police? What are the prospects of the criminal cases of Yeliashkevych, Podolsky, and Gongadze? What about the Pukach sentence appeal? When can we expect surprises in high-profile cases? Why were many “Orange” politicians unwilling to have them investigated? How can one become a good professional journalist? These questions were discussed in an interview with the public activist and journalist Oleksii PODOLSKY.
“KUCHMA WAS GOING TO MAKE KRAVCHENKO HIS SUCCESSOR…”
Hanna STAVYTSKA, Zaporizhia National University: Five mayors have been killed in the Crimea in the past three years. The latest case was Feodosia’s Oleksandr Bartieniev. Media reports claim that he was shot at with a sawn-off hunting rifle which was to have been disposed of by policemen in Ternopil oblast. Crimes of this kind are bringing us back to the 1990s. You know only too well what a crime is – particularly one committed by police officers. What do you think of the situation today?
Oleksii PODOLSKY: “I have always been asking myself why we have this kind of police. Once, speaking to some law-enforcement pundits (now retired), I managed to learn where the roots grow from. We have a police that performs the uncharacteristic functions of political and covert action, which were established not in the 1990s but much earlier – in the Soviet era. For example, the still existing outdoor surveillance (‘pavement artists’) – the department Pukach was in charge of – was not the invention of Kuchma, it was established in the Soviet Union. There is outdoor surveillance in all the secret services and police forces of the world, but in the USSR it was actively used as auxiliary secret police which persecuted, staged provocations against and helped imprison dissidents on the trumped-up charges of rape and drug abuse.
“Even the staff is sometimes the same. For instance, there was General Eduard Fere, the Pukach of Volodymyr Shcherbytsky’s times. At that time, too, people were taken to woodlands, threatened, and beaten up. For example, Serhii Fedorynchyk, an organizer of protests after the Chornobyl accident, was, under a well-tested scheme, carried 80 km from Kyiv into Zhytomyr oblast, had his documents taken away and all his buttons cut off, and was then freed. Then all the district units were given the description of his appearance. It took him three months to reach the city because every local police unit apprehended him for three days to establish his identity.
“If you carefully study the biography of ex-minister of internal affairs Yurii Kravchenko, you will see that he was making his way up in cooperation with the aforesaid Fere. Kravchenko was in fact Fere’s close confidant. In his turn, Pukach was a creature of Kravchenko and Fere. He would carry out the instructions they were in turn receiving from the country’s top leadership about political opponents, journalists, businesspeople… Incidentally, Kuchma was going to make Kravchenko his successor. But, thank God, this plan was not implemented due to the ‘Kuchmagate’ scandal.
“What was recorded on the ‘Melnychenko tapes’ is just a fraction of the crimes the topmost officials committed at the time. The tapes particularly mention Oleksandr Yeliashkevych, Heorhii Gongadze, and me. And how many crimes were committed against our team alone – the organizations ‘We’ and ‘Ukrainian Prospects’ – and remained outside the tapes? Some of our people were murdered. Oleksandr Yakymenko, our Donetsk activist and local councilor, was burnt alive in his car – moreover, they phoned his wife and told her to look out the window to see her husband burning.
“Serhii Odarych was shot at. A man came up to Serhii and told him to stop political activity. Receiving a decisive answer, he shot him in the legs from two steps away. It was an act of intimidation. On the very next morning the then Prosecutor General Mykhailo Potebenko said it was the result of a financial conflict between Odarych and Yurii Orobets. But, in reality, they were best friends who would go kayaking together and whose families were in close contact. They had no serious financial problems, let alone grounds for a shootout.
“Ukrainian politicians inherited the police from the Soviet era. We saw no change of elites, as was the case in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and the Baltic states – we have the same old nomenklatura. No police reforms have ever been carried out – be it the times of Kuchma and Yushchenko, or now. They left intact the filthiest part of the old system and made use of it. Therefore, what happened in Vradiivka is a small tip of the iceberg, and what is down below is terrible. And these ‘birthmarks’ of a totalitarian society will be tormenting us very long.”
Ivan KAPSAMUN: What do you think are the ways out?
O.P.: “There is only one way out – the development of civil society. We are all instinctively aware that it is better to live in Europe than in an authoritarian Russia which is still unable to shed its complex of imperial and Soviet past. We want to live as humankind’s ‘golden billion.’ There are no alternatives here for me personally. But, to do so, we need to improve ourselves. The very fact of moving towards Europe is a process of purification. What really matters here is not so much the result as the road that we must pass to become Europeans in terms of living standards, democratic setup, and so on.
“The problems of police are in fact also inherent in the other spheres of our life. This applies not only to the state, but also to society. The Soviet system may have been mendacious and with double standards – we strove for an abstract goal which it was impossible to achieve a priori – but still there was some idea of good and evil in society. Even in informal situations, people showed respect for justice and virtues… But now all this is being condemned. Cynicism is the main cult in society. There is no ideology. I used to study abroad – people are totally different there. We have sort of a beastly capitalism. Therefore, the only way is purification and a Europe-bound course.”
“SOME EXTERNAL FACTORS HAVE EMERGED, WHICH WILL RADICALLY CHANGE THE SITUATION WITH HIGH-PROFILE CASES IN UKRAINE”
Olena ZASHKO, Donetsk National University: In January this year, ex-general Oleksii Pukach, the chief perpetrator of the Gongadze murder and the cruel violence against you, was sentenced to life imprisonment. After the sentence was read out, the judge asked whether the defendant agreed to it. “I will agree when there are Kuchma and Lytvyn next to me in this cage,” Pukach answered. At the same time, you said in an interview: “We will have nothing until we force our presidents to answer for their crimes.” Do you think the Gongadze case will be finally solved and the masterminds will be found?
O.P.: “Pukach is just a ‘court executioner.’ He received orders to kill, and he killed. In reality, he is both a cruel cold-blooded murderer and a man who also suffered in this system. Can you imagine a young country boy who was recruited to the law-enforcement bodies by a Yong Communist League call? He was sure he was going to fight crime, but the bosses gradually turned him into a criminal. Incidentally, he said about it sincerely at the trial: ‘How could I dare not to follow the instructions of Kuchma, can a president say something bad?’ Moreover, he was persistently told that Gongadze was a US spy.
“When the Orange Revolution broke out, the Gongadze case was resumed. I was summoned and told that there would be an investigation. I immediately told them that I had already identified the people who committed a crime against me. It is easy to find all this information. Indeed, the perpetrators’ case was solved within two months. In other words, they could do nothing for many years, but now they upped and solved it… Were any concurrent processes going on?
“At approximately the same time Kravchenko was killed. The investigative team reported to the then SBU chairman Oleksandr Turchynov that it was a contract killing committed so that Kravchenko could not testify about the orders he had been receiving from Kuchma and then giving to Pukach to fulfill. And what did Turchynov do? He called a press conference and said that it was just suicide.
“Also noteworthy was the behavior of Lutsenko. When he became minister of internal affairs, we requested him to instruct the police to investigate the murder of Oleksandr Yakymenko in Donetsk. He agreed. There was our man at the regional police directorate. He was given a task force composed of western Ukrainian policemen – to exclude illegal connections – and began to work. Two months later Kravchenko was killed and the Turkmen opposition made a statement. Suddenly I got a call from Donetsk: our acquaintance says he was dismissed from the police and the task force was disbanded, even though the case was at the final stage. We went to Lutsenko, but he refused to receive us…
“Many Orange politicians were part and parcel of Kuchma’s system, so nobody was going to seriously investigate the high-profile cases of Yeliashkevych, Podolsky, and Gongadze.”
I.K.: And what about the current leadership? What about your appeal against the Pukach sentence?
O.P.: “The current leadership uses these cases to keep everybody ‘on the hook.’ Incidentally, the Prosecutor General’s Office helped Kuchma’s side to appeal its own resolution to institute criminal proceedings against the ex-president. The authorities are so far interested in delaying this case. On the other hand, we should not forget that the Kuchma clan controls a vast political space in Ukraine and, hence, wields a great deal of clout.
“We have lodged an appeal now against the Pukach sentence because the judge, Andrii Melnyk, deliberately drew a veil of secrecy over the trial, categorically rejected the aggrieved party’s demand to summon Kuchma and Lytvyn to the courtroom, and refused to inquire into the Kravchenko murder materials. But this judge had long been involved in the miscarriage of justice in order to exempt Leonid Kuchma from criminal liability. He became deputy chief judge at the Pechersk Court. Pukach is now reading the minutes of court sessions. But he does this very slowly. Pukach is brought to the Pechersk Court, and he looks through the minutes of only one session in a day. And, as we know, the trial lasted for 18 months! In a word, this case is being procrastinated. As a result, the authorities get an opportunity to influence the Kuchma clan, particularly in the light of the next presidential elections.
“To tell the truth, some external factors have emerged now, which I think will radically change the situation. The US Congress Helsinki Commission, a very influential organization, is now seriously concerned about the cases of Yeliashkevych, Podolsky, and Gongadze. The well-known Congressman Steve Cohen has put them under his personal control to speed up the investigation. Western politicians and officials can be fooled until a certain moment (this applies to our government and opposition) and even bought in some cases (which the Kuchma family has been doing for a long time), but this cannot last eternally.”
“THE KUCHMA CLAN IS MOSTLY AFRAID NOW OF INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE YELIASHKEVYCH CASE AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE KRAVCHENKO MURDER”
Solomia BUI, Lviv National Ivan Franko University: You once noted: “There have been cases like the murder of Gongadze in many Western countries. Those were symbolic cases. Whenever they were finally solved, societies changed.” What role do you think the Gongadze case may play, if finally resolved, for Ukrainian society?
O.P.: “As I have already said, Pukach is only a perpetrator. Therefore, speaking today of the Gongadze case as a symbol of the government’s permissiveness, I will say that the goal is not to take revenge on Kuchma but to open this ‘ulcer’ in order to teach others a lesson. The finally solved Gongadze case may cure our society. If Kuchma finds himself in the dock, this will be a precedent that will keep the next presidents from using authority so barbarically against the freedom of speech and civil society.”
Ivanna KOSTIUK, National University of Ostroh Academy: Today, when the whole information on high-profile cases is freely accessible, there is an impression that Ukrainian and foreign politicians are unable to draw conclusions. Or, maybe, they have some special reasons for this?
O.P.: “You must have read how some ‘incorruptible’ European politicians are working for the Russian Gazprom. Our hero is also engaged in this activity to some extent. Incidentally, the US has evinced a keen interest in this. When I give a press conference there (at the invitation of the Helsinki Commission which raised the question of investigations into high-profile cases in Ukraine last May during the hearings on Ukraine’s OSCE presidency), I will definitely speak of this. No matter how venal some politicians in the West and, moreover, in Ukraine may be, nobody in the civilized world wants to deal with people who have blood-stained hands. Incidentally, if you have noticed, now that the Shcherban case has been opened, in which Yulia Tymoshenko figures as one who put out a contract, the support of the ex-premier by Western governments is clearly on the wane. It is not a ‘gas case,’ it is a real contract killing. It is up to the court to decide whether or not Tymoshenko was implicated in it.”
Maria PROKOPENKO, Donetsk National University: Oleksandr Yeliashkevych, an MP of two convocations, said after an attempt on his life in 2000 that the crime was ordered by the then president Kuchma. As his life was under a threat, he even had to emigrate to the United States of America in 2002. Ukraine held a bogus trial in the Yeliashkevych case – it was just on paper. The European community has repeatedly urged the Ukrainian authorities to investigate this crime. What do you think about the prospects of this?
O.P.: “The man who tried Pukach is the same judge who rigged the Yeliashkevych case. It contrived to hand down a ruling in the absence of the aggrieved party. Moreover, the investigation was carried out without the aggrieved party, nobody contacted him, there was no identification parade – they juts found a junkie in a prison and forced him to take the blame upon himself. The defendant was not even brought to the courtroom. My impression is that judge Melnyk was simply furnished with a ready sentence. And this person is now deputy chief judge at the Pechersk Court of Ukraine! I am deliberately not saying ‘of Kyiv.’ We have recorded all these offenses, we have evidence. This will be extremely interesting for the Helsinki Commission which is very much concerned about the Yeliashkevych case. Big sensations are in the offing. I am sure that the Kuchma clan is mostly afraid now of investigations into the YeIiashkevych case and the circumstances of the Kravchenko murder.”
“LACK OF SOLIDARITY HAS TURNED JOURNALISM INTO ‘CASH FOR COVERAGE’”
I.K.: After a court ruled that the Prosecutor General’s Office had illegally opened a case against ex-president Kuchma (he figured as one who ordered the murder of Gongadze and the crime against Podolsky), Renat Kuzmin, First Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine, reproached journalists for insufficient support. Would you comment?
O.P.: “On the one hand, the Gongadze case has brought about the idea that journalists should not be hurt. Take, for instance, the latest example, when a Fifth Channel female journalist was manhandled on Europe Day, May 18. What was the journalist community’s reaction? It was impossible to imagine this in the Kuchma era. On the other hand, journalists also bear responsibility. For example, before the Orange Revolution, not a single Ukrainian journalist interviewed me, not a single Ukrainian publication showed interest in this. This is the level of our guild. Lack of solidarity has turned journalism, almost entirely, into ‘cash for coverage.’ This also applies to the coverage of high-profile cases.”
Roman HRYVINSKY, Kyiv Mohyla Academy alumnus: Addressing recently the Summer School of Journalism, a well-known sociologist, Yevhen Holovakha, pointed out that, while the Kuchma regime tried to fight journalists by physical methods, including killings, now censorship has opted for the tactic of ignoring. For example, when there is a high-profile inquiry into corruption, it is simply left unnoticed. Taking into account these and other manipulative techniques, do you think there is more freedom of speech now in comparison with the Kuchma era?
O.P.: “Why was Gongadze killed? In order to browbeat all journalists: if you write the way you want, the same will happen to you. They did not think that this murder would stir quite a ripple all over the world. And they beat me up to send certain signals to public figures. The aim of the attempt on Yeliashkevych’s life was not only to physically eliminate him, but also to intimidate oppositional and active politicians. All those crimes were committed within one year (2000). Shortly before that, in 1999, Kuchma was reelected for a second term by way of enormous rigging. He wanted to intimidate his opponents so that nobody stood in his way.
“In comparison to the Kuchma era, there is, of course, more freedom of speech. No matter what manipulative techniques may be applied, there is such thing as the Internet which has triggered a worldwide revolution. While, earlier, we used to print leaflets almost manually, now information can spread throughout the world in a jiffy. What inspires optimism in this situation is the fact that all these manipulative techniques and the existing system of media influence are ruining. It is far more difficult to manipulate in the new information milieu because a manipulation immediately catches your eye.
“The personality now begins to play a greater role than it did in the times of classical journalism. It is economically possible now to launch a blog. If you are a personality, you will sooner or later be influential. There are two most important things in the profession of journalist: first, to stock up ammunition, i.e., to get education, and, second, to sharpen your pen. Society and the government are always in contradiction. There are no good presidents, good MPs, or good bureaucrats. You will become popular journalists when you meet these two criteria and stand up for public interest.”
