They Are so Afraid of Losing Power They Will Stop at Nothing

Two RGD-5 hand grenades that went off Saturday announced he start of a new lap in the presidential race. Political analyst Mykola Tomenko may have had a point saying several days previously that the election campaign has not really started. Now apparently it has.

First we heard from UTN and a while later from the press service of the Internal Affairs Ministry that an attempt had been made on presidential candidate Natalia Vitrenko. As she and a group of activists stepped out after a meeting with the electorate at the House of Culture of the Inhulets Mining Concentration Combine, grenades were hurled injuring over thirty persons. Eighteen were hospitalized and the foot of a young woman had to be amputated. As for Mrs. Vitrenko, she is all right, thank God, and judging from the television report, she got off practically scot- free. Two perpetrators of this act of terrorism were arrested on the scene, both from Rostov oblast, Russia.

The ministry further informs, “According to one of the malefactors, the two received the grenades from a woman with whom his brother lives in and his brother heads head of Oleksandr Moroz's campaign headquarters in Kryvy Rih, as well as of the city's Truth against Force Association.” From what we know he is now on the lam.

While the Internal Affairs Ministry's dispatch struggled on its way to the media, the brother mistress somehow vanished from other reports and the UTN evening news had it that the grenades were supplied and terrorists delivered to the scene personally by the head of Moroz's campaign headquarters. Taking this into consideration, it is hard to foresee what course events will take: whether the missing Moroz man is found and made to testify that Oleksandr Moroz had given him his personal blessings to blow up Mrs. Vitrenko, or he will never be found and his “brother from Rostov oblast” will inform us through the militia, sharing with us any such particulars as may be topical at the moment.

The haste with which the Ukrainian public was informed about the Moroz campaign headquarters involvement in the act of terrorism, showing the Rostov brother on television and quoting from his testimony (varying at different periods within the same 24 hours) makes one wonder in a minor key.

One ought to take a closer look at Serhiy Ivanchenko, a businessman with a criminal record: illegal possession of firearms in 1994 and destruction of someone else's property this summer. Both cases rated terms behind bars, yet nothing happened. He even took up politics, siding with a person Leonid Kuchma and his entourage hate the worst. The natural question is why. Why Serhiy Ivanchenko, considering that hundreds of others like him have been and are still dealt with ruthlessly?

Somehow one suspects an agent provocateur stratagem; the man was “hooked,” caught red- handed but kept on ice until the right time and then given a certain assignment. Or even simpler, the way it is practiced by the racket or special services: he was made an offer he could not refuse. Remember the truck driver that “happened” to be on the highway as Vyacheslav Chornovil was racing from the airport in March? That gentleman was described as having a clean record and the case was soft-pedaled, yet in reality he did have problems with law enforcement authorities but was pardoned, a practice generally known the world over.

Yevhen Marchuk described the Moroz headquarters' involvement version as “shortsighted” and “provocative,” adding “How come the underworld is practically playing into the regime's hand, directing its unlawful acts mainly at the acting President's political rivals?... One ought to ask who is pressuring whom — and why — with a version presenting the Vitrenko incident in a light detrimental to Oleksandr Moroz, one of the acting President's rivals?”

Personally, I would like to pose another question. In the morning an informed newspaper, relying on a version developed by Leonid Kuchma's campaign strategists, reports that Mr. Kuchma would like to emerge in the second round with none other than Natalia Vitrenko (precisely because topnotch social and political analysts among his entourage feel certain that this would make rigging the second tour a piece of cake, since Vitrenko's numerically weak party would not be able to monitor the turnout properly); in the evening grenades are hurled at Mrs. Vitrenko (fortunately, inaccurately). What is this? Coincidence or alibi?

And the final question (actually the uppermost): Whose interests does it all serve? Objectively, what happened is detrimental to Oleksandr Moroz and the Kaniv Four, being the only force seriously opposing Leonid Kuchma, because the televised start of the current election phase promises: Dr. Gobbels's and Stalin's propaganda might seem child's play compared to the capacities of today's media working for “beloved Leonid Kuchma.” Objectively, what happened also plays into Natalia Vitrenko's hand, considering the consequences; obviously as a result of someone's blunder, two pro-presidential television channels joined in chorus reminding us of gunfire opened on candidate Lukashenka's limousine and that no malefactors were detected while the candidate became President Lukashenka. Doubtless, this incident is good for Leonid Kuchma: now there are more important things than the Volkov and Pinchuk cases, foreign bank accounts, budget embezzlement, or breaches of the Constitution and other laws. Uppermost in one's mind today is an altogether different topic. As a result, the two RGD-5 grenades hit the current President's rivals — except Natalia Vitrenko (may she live a hundred years) — with a loud bang. And now Mr. Kuchma is looking forward to meeting her in the second round, considering that Bankova Street has made every effort to preparing her for this historic rendezvous, as has been mentioned by The Day on more than one occasion.

Also, if one reminds oneself that Mrs. Vitrenko has of late been very nervous, fending off all media attempt to have a word with her, which is evidence of someone's taboo on such contacts; if one remembers that her curators at the headquarters would respond to all queries with the enigmatic “You will hear what she has to say soon enough”; if one considers that Petro Symonenko has finally pulled out of the “tender” for Leonid Kuchma's number one contender — considering all this, facts, feelings, and impressions, one has to admit that the operation proceeds according to plan. Meaning that the first act of terrorism will not be the last.

In fact, the situation started with the two hand grenades is dangerous for this country also in the sense that, all things considered, Leonid Kuchma lacks resolution — something about which his entourage feels so frustrated — and this explains the absence of forceful decisions, which could to some extent secure Ukrainian society against major upheavals. At the current stage all this is of no consequence. The struggle of structures nestling close to Bankova Street and supported by the military and security agencies is entering a phase where one has to fight to survive, when Mr. Kuchma's personal indecisiveness can no longer be an obstacle to taking any measures and using any methods, because no one is asking his opinion any longer. Clan families, also perhaps army generals, who have shown their hand in acts of unprecedented lawlessness attempting to secure Leonid Kuchma's victory come what may, are now fighting for their own welfare, against the ghastly prospect of being made to answer for their deeds. They are determined and will stop at nothing. And this is truly frightening.