In an editorial comment published on March 28, the London-based Financial Times newspaper wrote: "It has taken 11 years, but last week’s charging of Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine’s former president, in connection with the murder of the journalist Georgy Gongadze is a big step. The importance for Ukraine and today’s president Viktor Yanukovych – who says he wants to bring the country closer to the European Union – of satisfactorily solving the gruesome case is difficult to overstate."
According to the editorial, Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's prime minister and opposition leader to Yanukovych alleges the Kuchma case is a “bluff” to "deflect criticism from the current government’s selective legal pursuit of her and several of her officials."
The editorial also points out thatsome observers "speculate" that business backers of Yanukovych "may be using the case to pressure" Kuchma’s tycoon son-in-law, Victor Pinchuk.
According to the editorial comment, the case poses "risks" for Yanukovych, who was "put forward as a presidential candidate in 2004, when alleged vote-rigging sparked the Orange Revolution, by some of Kuchma’s backers."
The editorial concludes that Ukrainian prosecutors "are considering as evidence tape recordings which, though never fully authenticated, appear to implicate the former president. Finding out who produced them is critical to getting to the truth."
Click here to read the full Financial Times editorial comment.
