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Cassette Scandal

The Cassette Scandal (Ukrainian: Касетний скандал, romanised: Kasetnyi skandal [kɐˈsɛtnɪj skɐnˈdɑl]), also known as Tapegate or Kuchmagate (Ukrainian: Кучмагейт, romanised: Kuchmaheit), was a Ukrainian political scandal in November 2000 in which Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma was caught on tape ordering the months-earlier kidnapping of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, whose decapitated corpse had recently been found. The scandal was one of the main political events in Ukraine's post-independence history, dramatically affecting the country's domestic and foreign policy. The scandal, triggering the Ukraine without Kuchma protests, also began a slow and gradual shift of Ukraine's political and cultural orientation from Russia towards the West, although this only became more pronounced after Euromaidan in 2013–2014. The scandal also damaged Kuchma's political career.

A silhouetted poster of Georgiy Gongadze's head, used by protesters against the government response to the scandal

Background

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Georgiy Gongadze, journalist, founder of a popular Internet newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, who was kidnapped and murdered in 2000.

Leonid Kuchma was re-elected as president of Ukraine in the 1999 presidential election. Kuchma's government had engaged in wide-reaching manipulation in order to win the election and was consistently dogged by accusations of committing crimes against its critics. Viacheslav Chornovil, leader of the Ukrainian independence movement and the centre-right Rukh party, died ahead of the election in a traffic collision. Academic Erik S. Herron notes that Chornovil's death, as well as other traffic collisions involving critics of Kuchma, led to conspiracy theories that he had been assassinated.[1]

Kuchma's government also oversaw censorship of independent press during his reelection campaign, issuing lawsuits and tax inspections against journalists who published materials seen as projecting a negative image of Kuchma. In an effort to appease Kuchma, most newspapers and television stations developed editorial policies that satisfied the presidential administration. Frustrated with government censorship, journalist Georgiy Gongadze founded the online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda,[2] which focuses on corruption. Gongadze disappeared on 16 September 2000.[3] Following his disappearance, Gongadze's family and Ukrainska Pravda colleagues vocally campaigned for an answer to his disappearance and sued the government of Ukraine to compel them to investigate the matter, raising the profile of the incident.[4]

A decapitated and partially decayed[5] corpse was found on 3 November 2000,[3] outside of the city of Tarashcha in southwestern Kyiv Oblast. A local forensic investigator identified it as Gongadze. Hours after it was viewed by close friends of Gongadze, Gongadze's corpse disappeared from the morgue, later reappearing in Kyiv after multiple days. The Prosecutor General's office then asserted that the corpse had been decomposing for longer than two months and that identification was impossible, both as a result of decomposition[6] and as the corpse's hands had been treated with acid. However, Gongadze's family identified it as belonging to him, noting that the corpse wore jewellery owned by Gongadze and that an X-ray of the corpse's hand showed shrapnel consistent with wounds Gongadze received while working as a war correspondent.[3] The Prosecutor General's office further claimed that Gongadze had been seen outside of Ukraine and issued an Interpol yellow notice identifying him as a missing person.[4]

Publication of recordings

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People's Deputies Oleksandr Moroz (right) and Yuriy Lutsenko playing recordings in the Verkhovna Rada, 28 November 2000

On 28 November 2000, Oleksandr Moroz, a People's Deputy of Ukraine for the 92nd electoral district [uk] (where Gongadze's corpse was discovered), leader of the Socialist Party of Ukraine and an opponent of Kuchma in the 1999 election, revealed recordings made at Kuchma's office between 1998 and 2000.[7] In a speech to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) Moroz accused Kuchma of involvement in Gongadze's killing, playing the recordings on cassette tapes.[4]

The speakers in the recordings frequently use obscenities and engage in antisemitism. The voice allegedly belonging to Kuchma is described as "consistently [seeking] retribution" against rivals and critics of his government, according to human rights activist Adrian Karatnycky, and discusses mass surveillance of People's Deputies and political allies, coercing voter turnout in the 1999 election,[8] interference in investigations (including United States money laundering investigations), political violence[7] and involvement in organised crime and corruption.[9] In one recording, another voice, believed to belong to interior minister Yuriy Kravchenko, describes a unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as "without morals, they don't have any principles", and expresses preparedness to work with chief of the State Tax Inspectorate Mykola Azarov to harass Gongadze through legal means. In other recordings, speakers expressed intentions to prevent the operations of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the BBC in Ukraine and celebrated attacks on other independent media (such as an arson attack against an anti-Kuchma newspaper), particularly Gongadze; the voice allegedly belonging to Kuchma variously suggests physically attacking him, deporting him to his native Georgia and abducting him or handing him over to Chechen militants. The recordings do not suggest that Kuchma directly ordered Gongadze's murder.[10]

Authorship

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Moroz named former presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko as the source of the recordings. Melnychenko also claimed responsibility for the recordings, saying he had created them in order to stop Kuchma's "abuses of power". According to Melnychenko, he had recorded conversations with a digital recording device hidden under a sofa in Kuchma's office.[3] Melnychenko, who maintains that alongside colleagues he produced over one thousand hours of recordings, defected from Ukraine shortly before the recordings publication,[9] living in the Czech Republic and the United States.[11]

Karatnycky has expressed doubt with Melnychenko's claim of being responsible for the recordings, noting the Verkhovna Rada stated they had been told by presidential representative to the Rada Roman Bezsmertnyi that Kuchma recorded conversations in order to keep records. He argues that Melnychenko likely took the tapes from the presidential archive and claimed responsibility in order to prevent other officers from being accused of neglecting their duties. Leonid Derkach, head of the Security Service of Ukraine and the individual who is believed, according to Karatnycky, to have created the recording system. Derkach was removed from office in February 2001.[12]

Political consequences

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President Kuchma denied that his voice could be heard in the recordings and accused his opponents of provocation, slander and attempt to trigger a political crisis.[3] Mass protests took place in Kyiv from 15 December 2000 to 9 March 2001. Opposition started a campaign of non-violent resistance called Ukraine without Kuchma, demanding Kuchma's resignation. Despite economic growth in the country, President Kuchma's public approval ratings fell below 9%.[citation needed]

In 2002, the governments of the United States and other countries became more deeply involved after one of the recordings revealed the alleged transfer of a sophisticated Ukrainian defence system Kolchuga to Saddam Hussein's Iraq. As a result, Leonid Kuchma was boycotted by Western governments for a time. In particular, he experienced an offensive diplomatic démarche when visiting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit that took place on 21–22 November 2002 in Prague. Breaking the decades-lasting tradition, the list of participating countries was announced in French, not English. As a result Turkey was named after Ukraine, instead of the United Kingdom and the United States, thereby avoiding the appearance of Kuchma next to Tony Blair and George W. Bush.[citation needed]

Influenced by all of the above, president Kuchma soon became disillusioned with European integration and started to loosen Ukraine's relations with the United States and European Union, both critical of his regime. Kuchma boosted integration with Russia, considering the fact that its new leader, Vladimir Putin, continuously supported Kuchma and refused to recognize the allegations.[citation needed]

In September 2003, Ukrainian troops joined U.S.-led invasion forces in the Iraq War, which was widely perceived as an effort by Kuchma to improve relations with the West. After that, high-level relations were partially restored.[citation needed]

Commenting on the scandal and Melnychenko's actions in particular, Kuchma persistently claimed they were a result of foreign interference, but never accused any specific country. However, some of his statements may be interpreted as cautious hints on the role of either the United States or Russia. According to Kuchma, his voice was indeed on the tapes, but he claimed that they had been selectively edited to distort his meaning.[13]

Authenticity of the recordings

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Dutch experts reportedly confirmed, that the tapes had no traces of editing or other alterations, but it was impossible to prove that the voice in them belonged to the president.[3]

Advocates argue that excessive foul language is the proof of a deliberate montage of the recordings using extrinsic audio samples. However, the United States ambassador to Ukraine, Carlos Pascual, said that the tapes are genuine, undistorted, unaltered, and not manipulated, based on the FBI Electronic Research Facility's analysis of the original recording device and the original recording. These analyses found that there were no unusual sounds which would indicate a tampering of the recording, that the recording was continuous with no breaks, and there was no manipulation of the digital files.[14][15]

Legacy

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Demonstration in memory of Gongadze in Tarashcha, near the location where his body had been discovered in November 2000

Many figures of the scandal remained influential in Ukrainian politics. The case was directly connected with the political career of Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's prime minister at the time. Oleksander Moroz concluded an alliance with Yushchenko, resulting in the reformation of Ukraine's constitution (in favor of the parliament). Hundreds of politicians and activists taking part in the 2001 protests led the 2004 Orange Revolution. Yushchenko led the revolution after the presidential election, and became president on 23 January 2005.

Mykola Melnychenko (who received U.S. political asylum) released new portions of his recordings. In 2004, Volodymyr Tsvil, a Ukrainian businessman who assisted Melnychenko in his escape, publicly accused him of not revealing certain details of the case and trying to sell the audio archive to Kuchma's aides. Melnychenko visited Ukraine in 2005 to release new allegation details, but has not disclosed any details of his possible eavesdropping operation.

The criminal investigation regarding the circumstances of Melnychenko's records and Georgiy Gongadze's death remains inconclusive despite a mass of information revealed by numerous journalistic investigations.

Melnychenko's recordings were declared evidence when Kuchma was charged with abuse of office and giving illegal orders to Interior Ministry officials; a criminal case into the murder of Gongadze was opened against Kuchma on 21 March 2011.[16] A Ukrainian district court ordered prosecutors to drop criminal charges against Kuchma on 14 December 2011 on grounds that evidence linking him to the murder of Gongadze was insufficient.[17] The court rejected Melnychenko's recordings as evidence.[18]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Herron 2007, p. 63.
  2. ↑ Prytula 2006, pp. 104–106.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Gentleman 2000.
  4. 1 2 3 Karatnycky 2024, p. 52.
  5. ↑ Prytula 2006, p. 105.
  6. ↑ Karatnycky 2024, pp. 51–52.
  7. 1 2 Kuzio 2007, p. 42.
  8. ↑ Karatnycky 2024, pp. 52–53.
  9. 1 2 Karatnycky 2006, p. 33.
  10. ↑ Karatnycky 2024, p. 53.
  11. ↑ Karatnycky 2024, p. 58.
  12. ↑ Karatnycky 2024, p. 56.
  13. ↑ Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia 2004 (Europa Publications), Routledge, December 12, 2003, ISBN 1-85743-187-1 (page 504)
  14. ↑ Pascual, Carlos (26 November 2002). "U.S. Ambassador's to Ukraine open letter to the editor of 2000 Newspaper". danskukrainsk.dk (Dansk-Ukrainsk Selskab). Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  15. ↑ Koshiw, J. V. (12 October 2007). Kuchma's "Parallel Cabinet": The center of President Kuchma's authoritarian rule based on the Melnychenko recordings (PDF). Third Annual Danyliw Research Seminar on Contemporary Ukraine. George Washington University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 January 2012. Retrieved 4 March 2022 – via University of Ottawa.
  16. ↑ Marchuk says he had no face-to-face interrogations with Kuchma or Melnychenko, Kyiv Post (April 1, 2011)
  17. ↑ Court clears Kuchma of Gongadze murder charges, Kyiv Post (14 December 2011)
  18. ↑ Court rejects Melnychenko's tapes as evidence in Gongadze case, Kyiv Post (14 December 2011)

Bibliography

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