02/11/2001 | trick

February 10, 2001

Ukrainian President Says Growing Opposition Threatens Security

By PATRICK E. TYLER

OSCOW, Feb. 9 - President Leonid D. Kuchma of Ukraine said today that the growing opposition
movement on the streets of Kiev and in the Parliament posed "a threat to the national security."

Meeting with an organizing committee to plan celebrations for 10 years of Ukrainian independence, Mr. Kuchma
lashed out at his opponents, saying they had destroyed his majority in Parliament and were undermining the
government's ability to function.

In somewhat rambling remarks to the committee, Mr. Kuchma said that "the majority in Parliament had been
destroyed" by scandal. He compared opposition leaders to "Lenins of our own" who "lead the herd under different
banners" and had brought the country "one step away from fascism."

Mr. Kuchma did not threaten specific steps to crack down on the opposition, which has rallied crowds of 5,000 to
7,000 in demonstrations that began in December. But Western officials expressed concern that Mr. Kuchma's
remarks indicated that he was preparing to take action against the protesters, who are planning another weekend of
"Ukraine Without Kuchma" protests in Kiev, the capital, as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia arrives on Sunday
in southern Ukraine to meet Mr. Kuchma. The leaders are widely expected to sign agreements on cooperation in
space technology and in destroying Soviet-era missiles.

Since late November, Mr. Kuchma's government has been under siege over the unsolved murder of a journalist,
Georgy Gongadze, and the release of secret tape recordings that indicate that Mr. Kuchma may have ordered his
security forces to "get rid" of the journalist.

Recordings released last month indicate that Mr. Kuchma may have been directly involved in covering up high-level
corruption in the energy sector while threatening to torture a judge who had ruled against him in a case brought
against an opposition lawyer.

As Mr. Kuchma issued his warning to opposition leaders, a coalition of parties announced that it was creating a
Forum for National Salvation to demand Mr. Kuchma's resignation and to organize protests to drive him from
office. "We are setting up this forum," said Levko Lukyanenko, a former dissident who spent more than 20 years in
Soviet jails, "to speed up the liberation of society from this corrupt regime."

A large independent television channel, 1+1, issued a statement complaining that senior officials in Mr. Kuchma's
government, as well as prominent oligarchs who supported him, were "regularly interfering in coverage of political
events" and threatening freedom of the press.

Television journalists have reported receiving calls from Mr. Kuchma's allies threatening to fire them if they
broadcast reports about the opposition. Two Russian newspapers, Izvestia and Kommersant, said their Ukrainian
printing affiliates had censored articles about the tumult from Ukrainian editions.

Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company