Posted on 03/05/2005 5:31:43 PM PST by jb6
OSCOW, March 5 - The chief of Ukraine's security service said Saturday that the country's former interior minister, Yuri F. Kravchenko, had shot himself twice in the head on Friday, refuting speculation that he had been killed by someone else.
The official announcement and a note found in Mr. Kravchenko's pocket, the security chief added, left little doubt that Mr. Kravchenko had committed suicide.
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Oleksandr V. Turchinov, chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine, said in televised remarks that the note left by Mr. Kravchenko could provide significant details for prosecutors investigating the killing of Georgy Gongadze, a prominent journalist whose death in 2000 provoked protests and international criticism of Leonid D. Kuchma, who was then the president.
Mr. Kravchenko, who served as interior minister at the time of Mr. Gongadze's abduction and killing, was found dead Friday at a country cottage outside Kiev.
He had been scheduled to meet prosecutors on Friday for questioning about his involvement in Mr. Gongadze's case or his knowledge of the details surrounding it.
Mr. Turchinov was recently appointed by the new president, Viktor A. Yushchenko, who has vowed to revive the long-stalled investigation into Mr. Gongadze's death. Mr. Turchinov said in an interview on Ukraine's 1+1 television network that Mr. Kravchenko had been "one of the prime suspects."
His death has roiled Ukraine's politics, with some leading lawmakers criticizing the government's handling of the investigation and others calling for more arrests, including Mr. Kuchma's. Mr. Kuchma, who had been vacationing in the Czech Republic after stepping down in January, returned to Ukraine on Saturday after again denying that he had had anything to do with Mr. Gongadze's killing.
Mr. Turchinov, who examined the cottage and the shed where Mr. Kravchenko died, declined to describe the contents of the note, but indicated that Mr. Kravchenko's death had not brought the investigation to a halt.
"It provides quite a lot of information for the investigation," he said of the note, according to Interfax. "The note concerns particular people who are also suspects in the case. It provides investigators with a chance to plan the further direction of the investigation."
After years of inaction under Mr. Kuchma, the investigation has gathered momentum, raising speculation that senior members of Mr. Kuchma's government could face arrest and trial for Mr. Gongadze's killing, one of the most prominent and symbolic crimes committed in Ukraine since the country regained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Earlier this week, Mr. Yushchenko and the prosecutor general, Svyatoslav M. Piskun, announced that they had arrested three suspects, a general and two colonels who worked under Mr. Kravchenko. They also said they knew who had orchestrated the crime, though they did not elaborate. Mr. Piskun also publicly identified Mr. Kravchenko as a witness, announcing in advance that Mr. Kravchenko would be questioned by investigators on the day he died.
Mr. Turchinov said Mr. Kravchenko's daughter was walking the family's dog in the yard of the house in Koncha-Zaspa, an elite enclave that includes the country cottages of many of the country's political leaders, when Mr. Kravchenko went into a shed and fired two shots with a pistol registered to him. The first shot went through his chin and out his mouth, Mr. Turchinov said. The second bullet entered his right temple.
Wow !
"You Poles sold your souls out to a bunch of atheists."
Do you think Gary that we still have some chance to be forgiven ?
Wow. Reading the posts on this thread sure drives home the point that all isn't quiet on the Eastern Front...
Gary !!! Say something !
OMG ! Even Gary doesn't want to help us ! There is no chance for us...
Nothing is quiet on the Eastern Front; that's why the threads about eastern Europe are so interesting. A lot of interesting stuff happening there.
Uh, I wouldn't be all as negative about that.
First of all, the European "Union" is not bound to endure--and it could very well be the eastern European countries that crack it apart.
I doubt the European "Union" will last past 2020, and probably even shatter by 2015.
As we know, Paris, Brussels, and Berlin run the show.
Which of course they could do, as long as the European "Union" was reasonably compact. But as with all things, the larger it gets, the more unwieldy it gets.
Since the experiences of the eastern European nations are "different" from the experiences of Paris, Brussels, and Berlin, there are likely to be serious differences once the former are integrated with the latter.
I could very well imagine a scenario where the mere Bulgarians, of all people, might provide the banana-peel on which Paris, Brussels, and Berlin slip.
Who knows; man proposes, God disposes.
Yeah, sure, it is disappointing that Poland, the valiant independent assertive Poles, joined the European "Union," but one has to remember an important detail here.
Poland apparently joined the European "Union" so as to keep the socio-economic, political, and military influence of Russia at bay--something which must always concern them--and so as to strength ties with the west.
There is the matter of geography to be considered.
I am sure the general public support, in Poland, for the European "Union" is lukewarm (this is speculation of mine, not firm knowledge), but how else to accomplish their need to distance themselves from Russia and to join the west?
I mean, Poland cannot join South America, as much as they might wish to. One has to take what one can get.
It appears Poland is sorely aware that nothing has changed; everything is as it always has been.
For one example, the Russians negotiated a deal with Paris, Brussels, and Berlin, involving the sale of natural gas to the European "Union," via pipeline.
The easiest, quickest, and cheapest way would have been to build the pipeline right through Poland to Paris, Brussels, and Berlin--not to mention that it would have provided jobs, and income, for Poland.
And Poland, as a member of the European "Union," deserved such consideration--after all, what are the Europeans but brothers, and close brothers at that, and as all brothers concerned for the well-being of each other?
Or so it would seem.
Anyway, so Russia, and Paris, Brussels, and Berlin, agreed to build the pipeline underneath the Baltic Sea, bypassing Poland altogether.
So much for "unity" here.
I have no doubt Poland will inevitably see itself as merely being "used" by Paris, Brussels, and Berlin, and provide some of that which will inevitably shatter the European "Union."
I have confidence in Poland.
No, it was a regular handgun. You can read about the case in this book. I gave away my copy to someone who is studying forensics in college, so I can't check if the caliber was mentioned. The book said that the man's eyes were still moving and following the police as they entered the room. His secretary was pounding on the locked door as she heard the five shots. I figure that his temporary survival depended on the specific paths that the bullets took through his head.
It's funny how on their first year in the EU their unemployment rate went from a mind boggling 18% to an even more stupified rate of 19.5%, but then again, they're keeping ahead of their main competition in the EU: France 10%, Germany 12.5%. I'm sure they have nothing but upwards to look forward to. Wait till they actually switch to the Euro, oh the fun that begins then.
Poland has been meeting more and more with France's Chirac lately and coming on line to their stance, to include dumping Boeing for Airbus. Also, read up on those links I posted, the Loyalty Clause of the EU unConstitution is an eye openner. Did you know that there is no recourse to sue an EU cop? That's just a few examples, like the lack of Habeous Corpus and other "unnecessary" rights. But then again, there is no God in the EU so how can there be inalliable rights? And if things in the brewing police state start to really fall apart, well start a war, that's what most such regime do.
"We're not Russian..."
I'm your brother ! You don't have to hide it.
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