Reporting Politics, Former-Soviet Style

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4317377.stm

The former Ukrainian Interior Minister, Yuri Kravchenko, has apparently shot himself on the day he was due to give evidence at prosecutors investigating the abduction and strangling of an anti-corruption journalist, Georgiy Gongadze. Gongadze was then decapitated and had acid poured over his remains in a clumsy atempt to conceal his identity. The head has never been found.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/1932609.stm

Even at the time, the blame for the murder was pinned on then-president Leonid Kuchma.

The murder in 2000 sparked massive demonstrations against Kuchma's government, and an investigation was one of Victor Yushchenko's main electoral promises.

A few days ago, the Prosecutor General announced that Gongadze was murdered by Interior Ministry agents following a 'criminal order', and stated that he knew who gave the order, but would not name him.

Two of the alleged killers were policemen working for the criminal investigations directorate, part of the Interior Ministry.

Audio tape recordings allegedly have Kuchma ordering Kravchenko to "get rid of" Gongadze. Kuchma denounced these as fakes. Then a former presidential bodyguard announced that he had placed the bug, to expose the corruption at the heart of the Ukrainian government. He promptly fled to the US and went into hiding in New York with a bounty on his head.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/not_in_website/syndication/monitoring/media_reports/1047181.stm

In June last year, a parliamentary committee declared that Kuchma should be impeached over the murder, well before the November elections.

Between 1990 and 2000, 13 journalists died in suspicious circumstances in the Ukraine, and 'Kiev Taxi Rides' (a.k.a. abduction by government thugs) was a regular tool for dealing with loud-mouthed reporters.

People can be such bastards at times. Let's hope Kuchma gets what he (allegedly) deserves.

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And, while on the subject of bastards getting what they deserve: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Karma in action, from what I've heard...