Operation Artek

The case of “pedophiles in Artek” is snowballing. New horrendous details appear every day. Attorney Tetiana Montian recently claimed that there was an entire den of pedophiles in the children’s summer camp Artek. The camp’s staff denies that pedophilia has taken place and asks that the camp be left alone and not used as a tool in electioneering battles. However, the scandal cannot be stopped — both Ukrainian and foreign mass media have picked up the case of “pedophiles.”

President Viktor Yushchenko is personally monitoring the investigation and demands that the Prosecutor General’s Office punish the guilty regardless of their status. Numerous mass media have been musing on the involvement of three MPs, all from the BYuT faction, in the case. In his interview given to the 5th Channel, Minister of Internal Affairs Yurii Lutsenko also gave the audience to understand that he believes this case to be engineered.

A strange detail is that the case was not opened immediately. Initially, a forensic medical examination did not reveal any symptomatic injuries in children. However, a later check detected traces of violence, and the case was re-opened.

Tymoshenko’s bloc is not going to conduct any inside investigation, deferring to the interdepartmental commission composed of representatives of the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Official commentaries will be made after a court verdict has been delivered.

Now, the question is whether this scandal will run through the entire presidential campaign. Will new details continue to be spilled to the mass media? What if these facts are confirmed? What then? Well, nothing. MP Taras Chornovil believes that our society has already become immune to political dirt.

“Look, what can be worse that the Lozynsky case? It’s a murder! Who is talking about it now? After Major Melnychenko went public with his taped recordings, it was expected that society would become totally intolerable to evil and lies, but the exact opposite happened — complete adaptation. People have become used to this. The populace has so little trust in and appreciation for the government that all of us (MPs. — Author) are being treated as bandits. Rapists? Murderers? No wonder, they are MPs after all.”

But pedophile MPs — this is too much…

“It is. But it is strange that this scandal coincided in time with the start of the presidential campaign.”

Artek, rather than Tymoshenko’s Bloc, has suffered the most — regardless of the court’s verdict, it will be stigmatized for years to come.