A Test of Wits

Person X goes from point A to point B. It is known that point A is Ukraine and person X is a citizen subject to an arrest warrant. The problem is to trace point B on the world’s map. The National Interpol Bureau and Ukrainian law-enforcement officers have been racking their brains over this unknown equation for a long time.

A total of 23 “red flags” have been sent to the Interpol General Secretariat. Each red flag concerns an individual whom Ukraine has put on the international wanted list. Last January 10 former VIPs were also put on this list, including Ihor Bakai, presidential property manager; Volodymyr Shcherban, governor of Sumy oblast; Mykola Zasukha, governor of Kyiv oblast; Vasyl Vartsaba, chief of police in Zakarpattia oblast; Volodymyr Satsiuk, first deputy chief of the Security Service; Odesa Mayor Ruslan Bodelan; and Police General Oleksiy Pukach. The only certainty is that they are all outside Ukraine, said Police Colonel Kyrylo Kulykov, chief of Interpol’s Ukrainian national bureau. Although the culprits’ whereabouts are unknown, Col. Kulykov hastened to assure journalists that the Ukrainian Interpol bureau, in cooperation with almost all the world’s law-enforcement authorities, is doing its best to track them down. “We have complete coordination with Russian law-enforcement officers,” Col. Kulykov added, leaving the audience wondering what he meant.

What common things can Russia and Ukraine find in, say, Mr. Bakai? The first thing is citizenship. While Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General Sviatoslav Piskun said he has received official confirmation of Bakai’s Russian citizenship, Ukrainian Interpol claimed the opposite on the same day. In May, when Bakai was placed on the international wanted list, Ukraine’s Interpol bureau requested its Russian counterpart to clarify his citizenship. On May 18 a letter came from the Federal Migration Service of Russia, stating that Mr. Bakai is not listed in Russian records. In other words, he is not a Russian national. Recently, Col. Kulykov queried the Ukrainian Citizenship and Migration Department, where he was told that Mr. Bakai is listed as a citizen of Ukraine. Through his relatives, the former property manager had applied to Ukraine’s law-enforcement authorities to waive his Ukrainian citizenship — the relatives were told that waiving one’s citizenship was a routine matter. On August 1 Ukrainian Interpol was informed by an official letter from Russia’s interior ministry, signed by first deputy minister Col.-Gen. Aleksandr Chekalin, that Bakai had indeed been detained, only to be released because he was a Russian citizen. “But does it really matter what country he is a citizen of if he has committed a crime?” Col. Kulykov asks in bewilderment. Under the 1993 convention on legal assistance in criminal cases, if Mr. Bakai considers himself a Russian citizen, he must be punished under Russian law. When Bakai was being granted Russian citizenship, he would have had to furnish complete information about himself. He should have eventually been denied citizenship on the grounds that criminal proceedings were instigated against him. A criminal case was indeed opened against Bakai. “It is up to Russia to decide whether to grant him citizenship, but it is our joint responsibility to mete out punishment,” says Col. Kulykov. As of May 18, 2005, Bakai was not yet a citizen of Russia. When he was apprehended in Russia on June 28, he produced an overseas passport issued on May 5-6. Could Bakai have become citizen of another country in just one month’s time?

Under Russian law, a person can obtain Russian citizenship through a normal procedure if s/he has lived 5 consecutive years in that country with a residence permit. Lawyers note, however, that this should be preceded by a query to the respective country (in this case, Ukraine) about whether the previous citizenship was waived. Otherwise, an individual can only become a Russian citizen if s/he has “special merits with respect to the Russian Federation.” Col. Kulykov said that, as far as he knows, the lawman who detained Bakai and then had to release him forced him to sign a pledge to report to the Russian law-enforcement authorities immediately upon receipt of a summons. But since it is not clear which country claims Bakai as a citizen, it is difficult to say what agency should handle his case.

Col. Kulykov does not know how a person on the international wanted list could cross the borders of Ukraine. The case is all the more perplexing because Bakai managed to transport his Maybach car, which could not go unnoticed even by people who don’t consider themselves auto buffs. “We know that some criminals are now in Russia,” says Col. Kulykov. And the others? Word has it that Odesa’s ex-mayor, Ruslan Bodelan, is hiding in South Africa. But in fact no individuals named Bodelan have ever arrived in that country. On the other hand, Col. Kulykov failed to confirm or deny that an individual known as Pukach on his documents is now in Israel. This raises the question: Why has Pukach, who is in fact the pivotal figure in the Gongadze case, been hunted for so long? Col. Kulykov explains the long delay by the fact that the case is “very difficult.” While tracing Pukach is a top-priority thing for Ukraine, it is of little concern to law-enforcement agencies of other countries. “For example, in Israel there are more important issues, and the entire police force is involved in them,” said the chief of Ukrainian Interpol.

Meanwhile, Interpol has lost interest in some current officials on which the international police force had dossiers. In May the Interpol General Secretariat decided to strike Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko of Ukraine off the international wanted list, Col. Kulykov revealed. The prime minister can now travel to various countries with no obstacles. Col. Kulykov emphasized that even if Russian military prosecutors had not dropped her case, they could not apprehend a citizen who enjoys diplomatic immunity.