New information about attack on Vitrenko appears to reveal a surprising conspiracy (10/31/99)

New information about attack on Vitrenko appears to reveal a surprising conspiracy

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The investigation of the October 2 grenade attack on presidential candidate Natalia Vitrenko took on a new dimension on October 21 when a Russian parliamentary hearing revealed that Ms. Vitrenko's own people might have been involved in the conspiracy.

The hearing was conducted by the State Duma Committee on Geopolitics to ascertain the involvement of the two Russian citizens charged by Ukrainian law enforcement officials in the attack, after the mother of one of the accused sent a letter to the committee asking that it defend his honor and dignity.

During the session, the committee's chairman, Aleksii Mitrofanov, presented a copy of what he called the official transcription of the initial interrogation of one of the two men arrested, in which the suspect allegedly implicates a member of Ms. Vitrenko's own campaign team in a conspiracy to kill the presidential candidate.

The suspect, Vladimir Ivanchenko, who along with his accomplice, Andrei Samoilov, has been charged in the grenade assault in which more than 33 people were injured, is said to have told Ukrainian law enforcement officials that he was offered $3,000, and $2,000 to a partner of his choice, by Natalia Sokurenko, who presented herself as a registered official of the Vitrenko campaign.

"She offered me a good amount of money and said that if I agreed to put together a theatrical attack on her boss, Natalia Vitrenko, and spend three to five days in a detention cell, I would get $3,000," Mr. Ivanchenko is alleged to have told Ukrainian interrogators after his arrest. He said that he was assured by Ms. Sokurenko that after a few days in jail, he would be released.

Mr. Ivanchenko writes further that the point of the conspiracy, as explained to him, was to discredit his brother, Serhii, who was a registered representative of the campaign team of Oleksander Moroz in Kryvyi Rih.

The brother disappeared after the attack, and Ukrainian law enforcement officials in conjunction with Interpol began conducting an international search for him after a cache of arms was discovered at his dacha. They suspect that he is the prime conspirator in the attack on Ms. Vitrenko.

Mr. Mitrofanov, who belongs to Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party, did not reveal how he came into possession of the documents, although he suggested that they were obtained from the accused's lawyer and mother. He said during a Kyiv press conference that he wanted to verify the validity of the documents by meeting with Mr. Ivanchenko in Kyiv. However, he said, the Security Service of Ukraine refused the Russian parliamentarian permission to do so.

Mr. Mitrofanov explained that he had been prepared to have a handwriting analysis done of the note to ascertain its authenticity, but will wait until the same Ukrainian officials conduct their own analysis, which he said would occur after the October 31 presidential elections.

The State Security Service of Ukraine issued a statement on October 22, underlining that it was determined to find the source of the information leak, but denying that it was responsible because it did not immediately receive the case from the state militia.

For her part, Ms. Sokurenko has denied any involvement in the grenade attack. In a fax she sent to the Kyiv newspaper Den, which first published excerpts of the alleged admission by Mr. Ivanchenko on October 22, Ms. Sokurenko said the documents in Mr. Mitrofanov's possession are fakes, which the Russian parliamentarian has "without basis called copies of the original interrogation of Vladimir Ivanchenko."

"The examination of this document, which as of today has not been authenticated by either Mr. Ivanchenko or investigators, is nothing more than the most basic of provocations, which I rate as the interference of Russian politicians into the Ukrainian election process," said Ms. Sokurenko in her fax.

Ms. Sokurenko went on to explain that, as a result of the grenade explosions, she suffered multiple shrapnel wounds and spent 20 days in the hospital for treatment of head and kidney injures.

On October 22 Serhii Liashenko of the Security Service of Ukraine said that both Mr. Samoilov and Mr. Ivanchenko had admitted throwing two grenades into a crowd of about 100 individuals who had lingered outside a public hall in Kryvyi Rih, from which Ms. Vitrenko had just exited after a campaign appearance. Mr. Liashenko also said that the serial numbers of the two grenades matched the series of similar grenades found in the arms cache discovered in a cellar of the dacha owned by Serhii Ivanchenko.

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