ANALYSIS: Yushchenko slams 'top-echelon criminals' for bogus letter aimed at discrediting him (03/09/03)

ANALYSIS

Yushchenko slams 'top-echelon criminals' for bogus letter aimed at discrediting him

by Jan Maksymiuk
RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report

Our Ukraine head Viktor Yushchenko on February 21 charged that "criminals in politics who are in the top echelons of power" are responsible for preparing and disseminating a false message to voters that attacks fellow opposition politician Yulia Tymoshenko, the UNIAN news service reported.

According to Ukrainian media, unidentified persons and/or institutions disseminated on February 14 in western Ukraine (and in some other regions of the country in subsequent days) a bogus letter bearing the logo of Our Ukraine and a portrait of Yushchenko that touches upon Mr. Yushchenko's opinion of, and relations with, Ms. Tymoshenko, the leader of the eponymous opposition bloc. The purported letter begins with Mr. Yushchenko's assertion that he once was of a high opinion of Ms. Tymoshenko and ends with an unambiguous suggestion that her place now is in prison.

"I have always respected Yulia Volodymyrivna [Tymoshenko] as an experienced specialist in her branch [the fuel and energy sectors]. I have never refuted the undeniable fact that all the real successes of my government should be fully and completely accredited to Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko," the Ukrainska Pravda website quoted from the letter.

Then the letter continues as follows: "It is quite obvious that for me, the recognized symbol and hope of the nation, it would be simply indecent to dig personally into the dirty 'sorting out' between our homespun oligarchs. Besides, it also wouldn't quite be safe. As for Tymoshenko, she was eager to launch a fight. After all the dirty work was done, Ms. Tymoshenko fully exhausted her usefulness [in the government]. ... What is more, she became a serious problem."

According to the letter, during her last month in Mr. Yushchenko's Cabinet, Tymoshenko was more concerned with creating her political image than pursuing "modest and quiet management work."

"Everyone to whom our Ukraine is truly dear ... will have to admit that for our struggle Ms. Tymoshenko was far more useful when she was incarcerated in the Lukianivskyi isolation prison [in Kyiv]," the letter states.

The bogus letter also suggests that Ms. Tymoshenko is now a "Trojan horse" among Ukraine's national-democratic forces, adding that her real aim is to prevent Mr. Yushchenko from becoming president.

"This is ignoble and primitive," Mr. Yushchenko said on February 21, adding that the message was concocted to sow discord among the leaders of democratic forces. "Our relations have never been, are not, and will never be base. We are political partners," Mr. Yushchenko said in reference to Ms. Tymoshenko. Reportedly, 2 million copies of the letter were disseminated primarily by the state postal service, Ukrposhta, following an order from the Ukrainian Television Agency, a bogus body apparently devised for this action.

On February 20 the Verkhovna Rada passed a resolution urging the Procurator General's Office, the Security Service and the Internal Affairs Ministry to investigate who was behind the dissemination of this false letter. The next day, unidentified people placed in a number of public places in Lviv posters depicting President Kuchma and Mr. Yushchenko in a scene known from Rembrandt's famous painting "The Return of the Prodigal Son." The inscription under the scene reads: "Bless me, father! Yushchenko asks Mr. Kuchma for permission to launch an anti-presidential revolution."

"The distribution of the posters is a subsequent attempt at discrediting Viktor Yushchenko," UNIAN quoted National Deputy Petro Oliinyk as saying. "Pro-government forces are proving by their actions that they have already begun a presidential race."

Jan Maksymiuk compiles RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report.

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