Rumors of Kuchma's death take on a life of their own (01/25/04)

Rumors of Kuchma's death take on a life of their own

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - By the time President Leonid Kuchma returned on January 17 to Kyiv from Baden-Baden, where he was undergoing medical treatment and rehabilitation at the world-renowned German health resort, rumor had it that he had died. The corollary to that rumor was that, naturally, the death was being kept secret from the public.

Kyiv's notoriously famous rumor mill - developed during the Soviet era when the only thing you knew for certain was that what you were told in the press was most likely a lie - was working overtime late last week.

By early evening on January 15, Kyiv's bazaars, kitchens and cafés were filled with talk of the demise of the country's president. Rumors abounded that a sick Ukrainian president had gone to Baden Baden in a desperate - and secret - attempt to save his life.

The rumor also spread quickly beyond Ukraine to the Ukrainian diaspora, and was the subject of countless telephone calls and e-mail exchanges beginning on January 16. It was bolstered by a report carried by a Russian-based news service, News-Info, which reported on its website that its sources in Baden-Baden had said President Kuchma died on an operating table in Baden-Baden.

For years, Ukraine's controversial state leader has been the subject of rumors on his impending demise from cancer alternately, the rumors have had him suffering from most of its virulent forms, including stomach, intestinal, throat and thyroid cancers.

In the end, he has always showed up at his next press conference looking full of vigor and health.

The latest rumor no doubt arose from the fact that back on November 17, 2003, President Kuchma had been hospitalized and later that same day underwent surgery to remove what was described as an "acute lower-intestinal obstruction."

He traveled to Baden-Baden in late December 2003 and returned from his time at the German health spa. Ukrainian Television announced that the president had returned alive and healthy in order to put to rest the widespread gossip.

1-Plus-1 TV reported on January 17 that Mr. Kuchma's course of rehabilitation in Germany lasted three weeks and that it followed intestinal surgery that he had undergone in Ukraine [in November]. The program also noted that President "Kuchma is grateful to Germans for their hospitality and will start working soon."

1-Plus-1 also reported that Peter Mauer, a 52-year-old gastroenterologist who treated President Kuchma, "told our program that the Ukrainian patient had undergone a very intensive course of physical therapy because his organism was exhausted as a result of the surgery and had lost much protein. Kuchma received a course of physio-therapy, rehabilitation and an electro-physiology program. Kuchma was administered amino acids, mineral substances and vitamins. Mauer said that this was a standard treatment for people who lose up to 25 percent of their strength following surgery. In Mauer's words, "now Kuchma's strength has been restored."

On Monday, January 19, however, a new rumor was floated. The latest buzz was that it was not the real Mr. Kuchma who had returned. The real president had died and a double had taken his place.

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