Free Republic

Ukraine minister's death could have been murder disguised as suicide Whether the death of Ukrainian Transport Minister Heorhiy Kyrpa on 27 December was suicide or murder disguised as suicide is less important than the reasons behind it, according to an article by Oleksandra Prymachenko in the Ukrainian weekly Zerkalo Nedeli. Just like the banker Yuriy Lyakh, who was found dead in suspicious circumstances last month, Kyrpa knew a lot about the criminal activities in which many leaders of the outgoing administration reportedly engaged. This made him a liability to outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and his other close associates and a...

One of Europe's most respected football clubs, Dynamo Kiev, is on the brink of a bitter ownership battle which has been brought to a head by Ukraine's "orange revolution" that saw hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters pour on to the streets of Kiev last month. A majority stake in Dynamo is owned by Grigory Surkis, a controversial tycoon with ties to the corrupt regime of the outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma. But Konstantin Grigorishin - a minority shareholder who claims he was ousted by Surkis - plans a series of court actions to wrest control of the club. Grigorishin, a...

The violent death of Georgy Kirpa, the Ukrainian transport minister, whose body was found in his bath-house, is a grim reminder of the brutal underside of the country's public life. Kirpa, who died of a gunshot wound, was a close associate of Leonid Kuchma, the outgoing president, and, like many in Mr Kuchma's inner circle, a wealthy businessman. Aged 50, Kirpa played a key role in the rigging of the disputed presidential election by organising trains on which the authorities transported people to vote illegally at multiple polling stations. Prosecutors, who believe Kirpa shot himself, are examining the possibility that...

When I visited Ukraine in 1992, I ate every day in the canteen of Dynamo Kiev football club. It was one of the only restaurants in Kiev. Admittedly it was lacking in Michelin stars: when the club president's secretary passed through one day carrying an electric kettle, it felt like the difference between Them and Us. But at no other football club have I felt closer to a nation's centre of power. The stadium's forecourt, scene of a famous recent murder, was always full of Mercedes and skinheads wearing tracksuits. One day a club official told me over a beer...