Eastern Interrogation
// The General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine starts to arrest pro-Russian separatists
Yesterday in Kiev authorities arrested Boris Kolesnikov, the former head of Donesk Regional Council, who was invited to the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine for interrogation about a so-called separatist case. He was one of the local leaders who demanded separation of the eastern part of Ukraine and the creation of southeast autonomy right after the presidential election. According to observers, this arrest might just be the beginning.
Kolesnikov, who flew to Kiev from Donesk to be questioned as a witness in the General Prosecutor’s Office, showed up for interrogation at 10 a.m. An officer from the prosecutor’s office announced the arrest and called Kolesnikov’s aide and told him he needs a lawyer. Before that, the General Prosecutor’s Office stated that it’s renewing interrogation about the separatism case. Beside the Kolesnikov, prosecution wants to question Anatoly Bliznyuk, the ex-governor of Donesk region, Evgeny Kusharev, ex-governor of Kharkov region, and Alexander Efremov, ex-governor of Lugansk region and also Viktor Tikhonov, the chairman of the Lugansk regional council, and Raisa Bogatyreva, the co-chairman of parliament faction named Regions of Ukraine.
The General Prosecutor’s Office started to investigate the case of separatism right after Svyatoslav Piskun became head of it in December of last year. As a reminder, after the second tour of elections, the Viktor Yanukovich partisans, understanding they lost the elections, attempted to capitalize on the drastic ethnic differences between east and west. In Nov. 28, 2004, the congress of the members of the state authorities of southeast Ukraine met in the city of Severodonesk of the Lugansk district to demand creation of the new state – Southeastern Republic – with its capital in Kharkov. Yanukovich, the ex-prime minister of Ukraine, and Yuri Luzhkov, mayor of Moscow, were present in the Congress and supported the idea. About 3,500 delegates from Donesk, Dnepropetrovsk, Zhitomir, Zaporozhsky, Kirovograd, Lugansk, Nikolaev, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkov, Kherson, Cherkassk and Chernigov regions, and also from Crimea and Sevastopol, arrived for the congress. There idea that was born right before the Congress that after gaining autonomy to join with Russia. This decision was taken by Donesk regional council, headed by Kolesnikov and followed by Kharkov and Lugansk regional councils. Also, several eastern regions announced their intention to stop contributing to the Ukrainian budget and some local councils decided to take direct control over local law enforcements, making them subordinate directly to the regional governors.
Everybody was talking about the reality of a Ukraine split. President Leonid Kuchma demanded to cancel unlawful decisions about separations of some regions. And Viktor Yushenko demanded to bring criminal charges against the heads of the regional authorities who were promoting separatist ideas. Several days after the regions backed out, but the General Prosecutor’s Office started sending subpoenas. Kolesnikov’s arrest could have meaning that new authorities intend to bring criminal charges to the court and prosecute all participants.
Andrei Chernikov, Kiev
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 07, 2005
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