Cassette Scandal

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The Cassette Scandal (Ukrainian: Касетний скандал), also known as "Tapegate", erupting in 2000, was one of the main political events in Ukraine's post-independence history. It has dramatically affected the country's domestic and foreign policy, changing Ukraine's orientation (temporarily) from the West to Russia and damaging the career of Leonid Kuchma.

The scandal started on November 28, 2000, in Kyiv, when Ukrainian politician Oleksandr Moroz publicly accused President Kuchma of involvement in the abduction of journalist Georgiy Gongadze and numerous other crimes. Moroz named Kuchma's former bodyguard, Major Mykola Melnychenko, as the source. He also played selected recordings of the President's secret conversations for journalists, supposedly confirming Kuchma's order to kidnap Gongadze. That and hundreds of other conversations were later published worldwide by Melnychenko.

Journalists nicknamed the case after the compact audio cassette used by Moroz. Mel'nychenko himself was supposedly using digital equipment, not cassettes, for recording in the President's office.

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[edit] Immediate consequences

The described events provoked a crisis, with mass protests in Kyiv from December 15, 2000 to March 9, 2001. Opposition started a campaign of non-violent resistance called UBK ("Ukraine without Kuchma!"), demanding Kuchma's resignation. Despite economic growth in the country, President Kuchma's public approval ratings fell below 9%.

[edit] 2002-2003

In 2002, the governments of United States and other countries became more deeply involved after one of the recordings revealed the alleged transfer of a sophisticated Ukrainian defence system "Kol'chuha" to Saddam Hussein's Iraq. As a result, Leonid Kuchma was boycotted by Western governments for a time. In particular, he experienced an offensive diplomatic demarche when visiting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit that took place on 21-22 November 2002 in Prague. Breaking the decades-lasting tradition, the list of participating countries was announced in French, not English. As a result Turkey was named after Ukraine, instead of the United Kingdom and United States, thereby avoiding the appearance of Kuchma next to Tony Blair and George W. Bush.

Moreover, widely publicized conversations depicted Kuchma as a rude, undereducated and spiteful person, using filthy lexics and speaking a freak mixture of Russian and Ukrainian languages. Advocates argue that excessive foul language is the proof of a deliberate montage of the recordings using extrinsic audio samples.

Influenced by all above-mentioned, the President soon became disillusioned with European integration and started to loosen Ukraine's relations with the United States and European Union, critical to his regime. Instead, he boosted integration with Russia, considering the fact that its new leader, Vladimir Putin, was continuously supporting Kuchma and refusing to recognize the allegations.

In September 2003, Ukrainian troops joined U.S.-led stabilization forces in Iraq, which is widely perceived as Kuchma's effort to improve relations with the West. Since then, high-level relations were partially restored.

Commenting on the scandal and Mel'nychenko's actions in particular, Leonid Kuchma persistently claims they were a result of foreign interference, but never accuses any specific country. However, some of his statements on the issue may be interpreted as cautious hints on the role of either United States or Russia.

[edit] Recent developments

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Today, many figures of the scandal remain influential in Ukrainian politics. The case is directly connected with the political career of Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's Prime Minister at the time and now Ukraine's President. Oleksander Moroz concluded an alliance with Yushchenko, resulting in the reformation of Ukraine's constitution (in favor of the parliament). Hundreds of politicians and activists taking part in 2001 protests led the 2004 Orange Revolution. Yushchenko led the revolution after the presidential election, and became President on January 23, 2005.

Mykola Mel'nychenko (who received U.S. political asylum) released new portions of his recordings. Some analysts find his behavior partisan and suspicious. In 2004, Volodymyr Tsvil', a Ukrainian businessman who assisted Mel'nychenko in his escape, publicly accused him of not revealing certain details of the case and trying to sell the audio archive to Kuchma's aides. Mel'nychenko visited Ukraine in 2005 to release new allegation details, but hasn't disclosed any details of his possible eavesdropping operation.

The criminal investigation regarding the circumstances of Mel'nychenko's records and Georgiy Gongadze's death remains inconclusive despite a mass of information revealed by numerous journalistic investigations.

Viktor Yushchenko has claimed on February 23 2005 that two witnesses on the case of Georgiy Gongadze were murdered: “I have information, which renders me optimistic, that we can put an end to this story… Many things were wiped out, two out of the four main witnesses were murdered”, said Victor Yushchenko, giving no details. According to him, the main problem in the Gongadze case is to preserve the materials which may indicate the guilty.

The President has disclosed, after his meeting with Lesia Gongadze, a “special group of police and SBU departments was set up and subjected to the General Prosecutor’s Office”. According to him, this group is being used for an effective probing into this case. "As of today, two cases, which are indirectly connected with the death of Giya Gongadze, have been passed by the PGO to court”, said the President.

On March 1, 2005, Yushchenko announced that the journalist's suspected killers had been arrested. [1] Prosecutor-General Svyatoslav Piskun announced the following day that the case had been solved, telling Ukrainian television that Gongadze had been strangled by employees of the Interior Ministry. Two of the alleged killers were said to be senior policemen working for the Interior Ministry's criminal investigations directorate (CID). Former Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko, one of those recorded with Leonid Kuchma in the "cassette scandal", was also said to be under investigation. The two police colonels accused of the killing have been detained and a third senior policeman, identified as CID commander Oleksiy Pukach, was being sought on an international arrest warrant.

The Ukrainian newspaper Siehodnia ("Today") reported that Gongadze had been abducted by the policemen and accidentally shot in the head while seated in a vehicle, necessitating his decapitation (to avoid the bullet being recovered and matched to a police weapon). His body had been doused in petrol which had failed to burn properly, and had then been dumped. [2]

On March 4, Yuri Kravchenko was found dead in a dacha in the elite residential area of Koncha-Zaspa, outside Kyiv. He had died from apparently self-inflicted gunshot wounds, though some speculated that he might have been assassinated to prevent him from testifying as a witness, as there were two gunshot wounds. Hryhory Omelchenko, who chaired the parliamentary committee that investigated the Gongadze case, told the New York Times that Kravchenko had ordered Pukach to abduct Gongadze on President Kuchma's orders. Kuchma himself has denied this allegation but has since been interviewed by investigators.

In April/May 2005, Piskun released more details of the ongoing investigation. He told the press that after Gongadze was murdered, a second group disinterred him and re-buried him in Tarashcha, the constituency of Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz. According to Piskun, the aim was to undermine the government (led by Viktor Yushchenko when he was still Prime Minister). The second group was part of or allied with the United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (SDPUo), a pro-oligarch grouping which had been hit hard by Yushchenko's crackdown on corruption. According to the journal Ukrayina Moloda (April 14, 2005), the SDPUo moved Gongadze in order to discredit President Leonid Kuchma and force early elections, which could have led to party leader Medvedchuk succeeding Kuchma.

As of January 2006, the trial for the murder of Georgiy Gongadze has been reopened and is ongoing. Pukach remains at large.

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