By Vyacheslav YAKUBENKO, The Day
Last Friday the Socialist faction demanded that the General Prosecutor's
Office start criminal proceedings in a case of threat to a statesman. It
began February 17 as the Verkhovna Rada was hearing the Lazarenko case.
PSPU leader Natalia Vitrenko spoke on behalf of the faction, saying they
were ready to vote for criminal prosecution against certain lawmakers provided
the list included the names of Surkis, Tymoshenko, Volkov, and Derkach,
Interfax Ukraine reports.
We learned what happened afterward from Volodymyr Marchenko. Hryhory
Surkis, Honorary President of the Kyiv Dynamo joint stock company, called
him out in the lobby and said he wanted Natalia Vitrenko to take back her
words or else there would a physical retribution. Mr. Marchenko did not
specify whether Mr. Surkis used words like "liquidate" and later addressed
from the podium: "I warn you and everybody else. Pray to God so that not
a single hair falls off Natalia Vitrenko's head."
Mr. Surkis seems does not seem to have expected the lobby talk reach
the General Prosecutor's Office. He could hardly control himself at the
podium, saying, "The Dynamo team and we all win not thanks to but despite
the likes of her," and that "there is nothing I can say about Natalia Vitrenko's
merits before the electorate." His emotional speech climaxed in this sentence:
"Is it possible to consider political blindness an occupational disease?
If so, Mrs. Vitrenko should pay serious attention to her health."
The General Prosecutor's Office is said to be studying a statement submitted
by a group of People's Deputies.






