Ukraine Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin complained to U.S. President Barack Obama that various US authorities had plotted to discredit and arrest him while thwarting his investigation into the murder of a former member of parliament.
In a Dec. 3 letter to the American president made public a week later, Kuzmin also said the U.S. government had revoked his five-year multiple entry tourist visa to the US “without providing any... explanations.”
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John F. Tefft, meanwhile, confirmed that Kuzmin’s visa had been cancelled “but there were no plans to arrest him.” Tefft, speaking to reporters, would not disclose the reasons for the visa cancellation, but said those reasons were explained to Kuzmin at the time.
The unusual
correspondence to Obama comes only two months after Kuzmin wrote an Oct. 3 open
letter to the U.S. Congress, in which he complained about a Sept. 22 unanimous
U.S. Senate resolution that threatens sanctions and visa bans against Ukrainian
officials responsible for the imprisonment of ex-Prime Minister Yulia
Tymoshenko and other incidents that the West regards as human right violations.
Jim Slattery, a former U.S. congressman who features in Kuzmin’s letter as one of the alleged participants of a plot against him, said he was surprized with Kuzmin’s actions. He said it’s unusual for such a “minor official” to address a US president directly in a letter, without going through the usual diplomatic formalities.
“It’s hard for me to believe that as a member of the government, he is doing this without any kind of approval,” Slattery said.
The letter
to Obama, which was published on the general prosecutor’s office website on
Dec. 10, expressed disappointment with various authorities in the U.S. Justice
Department and U.S. State Departments. Kuzmin claims officials in these
agencies are stalling his investigation into the November 1996 murder of Yevhen
Shcherban, a member of parliament. Kuzmin requested Obama’s assistance in
“establishing the truth” and asked the U.S. president for an “unbiased
appraisal of American officials’ actions, involved in organizing provocation
against my person.”
Yet U.S.
authorities are saying there has been neither a provocation nor any intention
to arrest Kuzmin. “There was no plan to arrest him,” said James Wolfe,
spokesman of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine. “And of course, there is no government
plot against Mr. Kuzmin.”
Shcherban
murder case
Kuzmin
complained in his letter that the United States is stalling his investigation
of the murder of Shcherban. The prosecutor’s office has implicated the
imprisoned Tymoshenko in the murder without charging her.
Shcherban,
his wife and two of his accomplices were shot dead in Donetsk airport. The
gunmen crime were found and convicted, but not those who ordered the crime.
Kuzmin said
his agency sent 30 requests to the U.S. Justice Department asking to “assist in
interrogations” of a number of key witnesses, all of whom reside in the U.S., but
no response followed. Among them are former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko,
recently released from a federal prison after spending several years in prison for a money
laundering conviction, and his business partner Petro Kirichenko.
“Consequently,
there is an impression forming in Ukraine that some American officials are
concealing information, which could aid in the search for those who ordered
Eugene Scherban’s [Yevhen Shcherban’s] murder,” Kuzmin wrote.
Kuzmin also
said that there is an elaborate effort, initiated by some American and
Ukrainian politicians to “eliminate” the Shcherban case. Moreover, Kuzmin also
alleged that the plot does not end there. He writes to Obama of a plan to
discredit both the General Prosecutor’s Office and Kuzmin personally.
“A former
employee of President Leonid Kuchma’s security staff, Nikolai Melnichenko, who
has recently returned to Ukraine from the USA, gave evidence about this plan to
Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office investigators,” he wrote. “Initiators of
the plan presumed to provoke my arrest in the territory of the USA, based upon
specially fabricated indictments.
“During the interrogation process in Ukraine, Nikolai Melnichenko
named all of the Ukrainian and American citizens involved in this
unlawful plan,” Kuzmin wrote. “According to him, they were the representatives of
lobbying firm Wiley Rein, LLP, Joe Williamson and Ralph Caccia, who were
hired by Tymoshenko’s husband, Alexander, for creating her positive
image in the USA and to discredit Ukrainian investigators. Also among
those mentioned was former U.S. Congressman Jim Slattery, who lobbied
Tymoshenko’s interests in the U.S. Congress and before the State
Department, using personal relationships with the head of the U.S. State
Department, Mrs. Hillary Clinton. There was also the lawyer Steve
Bunnell, who assisted present Assistant Attorney General of the USA.”
Kuzmin wrote that Melnichenko’s warning “about the provocation being
prepared was the only reason my illegal arrest in the USA was
prevented.”
Melnychenko refused to comment for this story.
Slattery, the former U.S. congressman implicated by Kuzmin, denied the plot. “He was apparently misinformed. We’re not doing anything to personally discredit him,” Slattery said. “My commitment is to do everything I can to promote bilateral relations. I hope we can resolve the matter around Yulia Tymoshenko, which I see as a single big obstacle in the bilateral relations. When I see politically motivated prosecutions that threaten the democratic future of Urkaine, I will speak out and condemn this action. This is why I have been workign to encourage the release of Yuliya Tymoshenko and other political leaders associated with the Orange Revolution.”
Slattery also voiced disbelief not only in Kuzmin’s accusations, but also in the prosecutor’s apparent belief that Obama would respond to him. “The president will not respond to this letter,” Slattery said.
Visa
trouble
In his
letter, Kuzmin said that Tefft informed him
on Oct. 19 about the American government’s cancellation of Kuzmin’s five-year multiple
entry visa to the United States, without providing an explanation.
Kuzmin said
this happened soon after he wrote an open letter to the U.S. Congress, offering
to speak in front of the Congress to straighten the record on Ukraine in the
wake of the U.S. Congress resolution, which condemned political prosecutions in
Ukraine and called to release political prisoners.
Kuzmin
passed the letter through Tefft, but instead of a response he had his visa
revoked.
“From my point of view, these actions contravene the
international cooperation regulations between our two countries and undermine
the authority of the United States. The officials from the State Department and
the Department of Justice of the USA do not recognize international legal
regulations and, in fact, show the example of the office abuse,” Kuzmin
concluded.
But in fact
it might have been Kuzmin’s own actions that provoked the U.S. government’s
tough response. Kuzmin, who had a tourist visa, reportedly traveled
to the U.S. in July in a professional capacity, a Western diplomat with the
knowledge of the case said.
International practice,
however, provides for mutual coordination of activity if any law
enforcement work is done in the country of destination by a foreign
official. And this is something that Kuzmin had allegedly failed to do.
Other
sources said that Kuzmin’s new visa troubles may be a signal to Ukrainian
authorities that displeasure with Tymoshenko’s conviction for abuse of power, coupled
with new investigations, could lead to sanctions.
“Kuzmin
himself saw a warning in this,” says Oleksiy Haran, a political sciences
professor at Kyiv Mohyla Academy. “This is an important sign that the West has
moved from talk to action. This is a policy of targeted action against
individuals in the government, and I hope it will make officials think.”
Kyiv Post editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be
reached at [email protected].
