You're reading: RIA Novosti: Kuchma says journalist death accusations ‘provocation’

Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma described on Wednesday as a "terrible provocation" accusations that he had ordered the killing of prominent journalist Georgy Gongadze in 2000. Ukrainian prosecutors on Tuesday accused Kuchma, the president of Ukraine in 1994-2005, of giving orders to former interior minister Yuri Kravchenko to eliminate Gongadze. "I am absolutely calm; I already said five years ago that this is a terrible provocation against Ukraine. This remains my position," Kuchma told journalists at the Prosecutor General's Office, where he was summoned for questioning. Read more.