A couple of days ago leading editor of the sensational anthology "Donetsk Mafia", Boris Penchuk, admitted at a press conference that he "had slandered Boris Kolesnikov under pressure from the unscrupulous Yuriy Lutsenko." Kolenikov is one of Party of Regions 'top bananas'.
The book is the most detailed collection of articles and photographs on the grizzly events that took place in the Donbas in the early and mid-nineties, that has thus far been published.
At the press conference, attended and 'supervised' by PoR representatives Anna Herman and Halyna Bondarenko, [Boris Kolesnikov’s former press secretary], he claimed that in Spring 2005, representatives from the Ministry of Internal Affairs Ministry, then headed by Yuriy Lutsenko came to him, and 'proposed' he provide evidence against Boris Kolesnikov. [Lutsenko tops the current NU-NS VR list.]
Penchuk said he was subsequently taken by members of the 'organy' to Kyiv, where he was kept under house arrest for several months, and that he was forced to sign a statement which provided evidence for Kolesnikov's arrest. After several months in prison, Kolesnikov was released without charge.
Penchuk now claims his dispute with Kolesnikov was just a "small civil matter...transformed into political repression", adding, "I was a tool in unscrupulous game of an unscrupulous man [Lutsenko]." He said he initiated the press conference to prevent Yuriy Lutsenko ever returning to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in a BYuT-NUNS coalition.
As late as this August, Penchuk was reportedly suspiciously poisoned.
In Donbass today, even many PoR supporters consider that amongst PoR's inner circle, Kolesnikov probably is the one that has most skeletons hidden in his cupboard.
So, a complete volte-face from Penchuk.
Now an article in 'Ekomicheskiye Izvestia' claims head of president Yushchenko's secretariat Viktor Baloha, and Kolesnikov, with whom Baloha has cordial relations, may be behind this campaign to blacken Yuriy Lutsenko and prevent him from gaining the powerful 'sylovyk' position of minister of internal affairs.
The article claims they favour Valeriy Heletey for this position.
This is the same Heletey, currently head of the 'gosokhrana', whom earlier this year colleagues of the then minister of internal affairs Vasyl Tsushko had claimed had poisoned Tsushko. Most accounts said he had suffered a heart attack after leading the storming of the Prosecutor-General's offices.
Heletey, at a press conference on 1st June denied he had had anything to do with any assassination attempt, and called the allegations linking him to Tsushko's illness 'political blackmail'.
Ukrainian politics..you couldn't make it up.
p.s. Russia's sylovyky are poisoning one another too..[cribbed from here?]
I would believe that Baloha is trying to prevent Lutsenko from becoming head of Min. of Internal Affairs. Unfortunate but there it is in the cut-throat competitive world of UA politics and I feel for Penchuk esp. as he is a 'pawn' in all of these games. I wonder what skeletons Baloha does not want found that are in his cupboard?
ReplyDeleteImagine if politicians played the game 'what's in ur closet?' or 'who's on ur payroll?' or 'in ur pocket'? (a play on the tv commercial for 'what's in ur wallet?')
Lutsenko and PSD should have remained freelance/independent and outside of NU.
Sigh - I am reminded of the saying - Even a lion can be tied up by spiders. And news stories like this DO give credence that NU will go the way of a coalition with PoR. A Pox on Baloha and people of his ilk!