President Kuchma shows signs of nervousness in Ukrainian crisis

"Our state is the target of a unique political campaign with all the attributes of psychological warfare," he said last week. Ukraine is certainly in the middle of its biggest political crisis since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and Kuchma finds himself right at the centre. He is accused of direct involvement in the disappearance of a journalist. A body found near Kiev in November last year is believed to be that of Georgi Gongadse, who wrote critical articles about Kuchma, distributing them over the Internet.

This scarcely made him a household name in Ukrainian opposition politics, as only around one per cent of the country's citizens have private access to the Internet. Kuchma, who presides over the second largest country in Europe by surface area, has been no stranger to protest and controversy since being re-elected in November 1999 with a clear majority over Communist Party candidate Petro Symonenko. Every summer thousands of miners descend on Kiev to protest about their unpaid wages and to call for Kuchma to go, and he carefully avoids the traditional May Day workers' celebrations, where the old-style communists participating have little but abuse for him. Nevertheless this most recent wave of protests appears to have struck home. "Political forces are fomenting hysteria and psychosis," the president told the nation in a statement that also bore the signatures of Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko and head of parliament Ivan Plyushch. Kuchma could not have been referring to the recent 5,000-strong protest rally in Kiev by a random collection of Communists, Conservatives and radical nationalists. In parliament infighting between these groups has merely resulted in their paralysis - to the president's advantage. Many believe that Kuchma is more deeply involved in the scandal surrounding Gongadse than he has acknowledged, although he claimed earlier not to have known of the journalist until the scandal broke over his head.

Kuchma has since said he might "possibly" have mentioned the name Gongadse before the journalist disappeared. This came after he was heard mentioning the journalist's name on recordings made secretly as he transacted official state business. The sacking of secret services head Leonid Derkach followed to universal surprise, and in his statement Kuchma lashed out at the "so-called tape scandal that has been used as a reason for social disruption ... "Anarchy, arbitrary action and unlawfulness will not be allowed," he said. The longer the crisis around Kuchma continues, the more Yushchenko, who is highly regarded among Western diplomats, is pushed into the political foreground. The prime minister is credited with securing modest economic growth for Ukraine over his first year in office, while the politically weakened Kuchma has increasingly turned to Moscow after years of playing off East against West. Nevertheless, Yushchenko is not suspected of manoeuvring against the president, although Kuchma is accused of undermining his head of government, who is thought by some to harbour presidential ambitions. The sacking and subsequent arrest last week of Julia Timoshenko, the deputy prime minister responsible for energy affairs, could be seen in this light. Yushchenko long backed his young colleague, but now she stands accused of tax fraud and illegally transferring funds abroad during the time she was head of an energy company.

Despite the strong words in his statement, Kuchma has yet to identify his political opponents, referring only to "reckless political forces", which he claims threaten to plunge the country into civil war. In Kiev it is speculated that business oligarchs are pulling the strings from behind the scenes, but thus far no candidate capable of securing a majority in the country or in parliament has surfaced.

(dpa)