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Roman Kupchinsky Roman Kupchinsky, who founded and headed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian bureau in Kyiv and became an expert on corruption and energy issues in the former Soviet Union, died on Jan. 19 after battling cancer.

(Kyiv Post Staff) – Roman Kupchinsky, who founded and headed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian bureau in Kyiv and became an expert on corruption and energy issues in the former Soviet Union, died on Jan. 19 after battling cancer. He was 65.

Kupchinsky was born in Vienna, Austria and immigrated to the United States in 1949. He graduated with a degree in Political Science from Long Island University and was decorated with a Purple Heart for his service in the U.S. Army as a rifle platoon leader in Vietnam. From 1978-88, Kupchinsky was President of Prolog Research Corp., a Ukrainian language publishing house and research company.

Kupchinsky over the years wrote extensively about corruption in Ukraine, authoring numerous investigative articles during the late 1990s and early 2000s about government shenanigans, shady natural gas deals and illegal arms sales.

One of his most famous investigations was titled “The Tractor Driver of the State – the Case of Pavlo Lazarenko,” a 3-part investigation chronicling how former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko siphoned billions of dollars out of Ukraine into offshore accounts in the late 1990s before fleeing abroad.

From 1990-2002, Kupchinsky was the director of Ukrainian service of RFE/RL. Summing up his stay in Ukraine before relocating to RFE/RL’s Prague headquarters in 1998, Kupchinsky said then that he had concluded that Ukraine is “a country where the unwilling are led by the incompetent to do the unnecessary.” “Hopefully this will change,” he added.

Kupchinsky worked as a senior analyst at RFE/RL in Prague until 2008, specializing in Ukrainian affairs, Russian energy and international politics, editing RFE’s Organized Crime and Corruption Watch as well as two collections of articles, “The Nationality Problem in the USSR” and “Pogrom in Ukraine.”

More recently, the Arlington Virginia based writer served as a partner for AZEast Group, a consultant on Eurasian issues, contributing articles to a variety of publications, including the Kyiv Post. One of his last articles appeared Jan. 4 on the Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Monitor web site.

“Roman Kupchinsky devoted virtually his entire life to the cause of Ukraine’s independence and democracy,” Adrian Karatnycky, senior fellow for the U.S.-based Atlantic Council and former head of Freedom House. “After serving in the U.S. Army in Vietnam in the late 1960s, he returned to the United States and energetically engaged himself in the cause of Ukraine’s freedom.”

“Roman Kupchinsky is no more … but his contribution to the rebirth of a movement for Ukrainian statehood remains a lasting legacy,” he added.

In the 1970s, Kupchinsky was an active leader of the Committee for the Defense of Soviet Political Prisoners, mobilizing eminent Americans and Europeans on behalf of Ukrainian, Baltic, Jewish and Russian dissidents serving long terms in forced labor camps for their defense of human rights. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Committee was the key liaison with the Ukrainian Helsinki Monitoring Group. Kupchinsky worked closely with Tatyana Yankelevych, step daughter of the late Russian dissident, Andrei Sakharov, and his widow, Elena Bonner, among other democratic activists.

Colleagues have praised Kupchinsky for his strong dedication and the impact his work brought. They also said he will be remembered and dearly missed for his sense of humor. Upon learning of his terminal disease, Kupchinsky said he was not certain where he was heading, but promised to make contact, letting friends know where he ended up.

Kupchinsky is survived by a son, Markian Kupchinsky. Funeral services are pending. Burial will take place at Arlington National Cemetery with military honors.