The former Speaker of the Crimean Parliament, now on the wanted list in Ukraine, says there was a contract out on the current Communist Speaker

The Crimean scandal burst out last Saturday when the peninsula’s most popular newspaper, Krymskaya Pravda, carried an open letter from former Speaker Yevhen Supruniuk, reading in part, “When I was still Chairman of the Supreme Council and discussed ways of securing public law and order in the Crimea, during a confidential meeting with one of the leaders of the state (it was generally alleged that the Communists were to blame for the unrest), I was offered a deal to have the Crimean Communist Party leader Leonid Hrach physically liquidated. In return I was promised...” (the three dots are in the original text — Author) And then the message specifies that, should anything happen to Yevhen Supruniuk, “copies and original texts will be made available to reliable journalists and two international organizations.”

More interesting details turn up. Precisely when Krymskaya Pravda published this letter the penninsula’s General Prosecutor’s Office started criminal proceedings on charges of conscious incitement to commit homicide pressed against Mr. Supruniuk. It was suggested he voluntarily come in “for questioning,” in return for which he was promised observance of all his constitutional rights. Apart from whether his involuntary detention would entail violations of those rights, suppose we try to understand something else: why so stubbornly refer the Supruniuk epic to his office as Crimean Speaker (Comrade Hrach has been repeatedly quoted as saying that at the time underworld lords reigned the upper Crimean echelons), and why are no references made to another key figure of the period, then Premier Anatoly Franchuk? Mr. Supruniuk would have never become Speaker, had it not been for his family ties with the Franchuks, just as the Ukrainian President would have never approved of the number one fireman getting all the way up to the Autonomous Republic’s leading political post, had it not been for the solicitations of both Franchuks. It was only when Verkhovna Rada demanded the government’s report that Anatoly Franchuk, by then Ukrainian Solon, had to leave his post ever so reluctantly, also marking Supruniuk’s political twilight. His letter refers to this: “It was precisely at that period that one of the closest family friends of the Ukrainian leaders warned me sharply, ‘Mind you own business and keep clear of F, or else you will find yourself in a very big trouble...’” Anatoly Franchuk took the Premier’s seat again, after Supruniuk’s retirement with others’ backing. No mention is made of any of this in the Crimea; no one seems “interested.” Yet this is precisely the reason why the bloodhounds have been let loose, ordered to sniff out Supruniuk come what may. There is a fair chance they will fail, unless the fugitive blunders, but this would be his own fault.

Meeting with journalists Monday, Leonid Hrach said, “This publication raises serious questions. I believe that the law enforcement agencies should have answers to all these questions. The Prosecutor’s Office responded absolutely correctly and effectively. The search for Supruniuk must be stepped up, so the man can say whether all this is true or false.”