Відповіді

• 2002.09.24 | pan kotski

  And full text

  This preface to Quote No. 3 puts it is context:
  
  "He said the United States had not authenticated a section of the recordings in which a voice like Kuchma's tells aides to "deal with" reporter Georgiy Gongadze. He added: "Certainly our ssessment that this Kolchuga recording is authentic colors the way that we look at the other recordings."
  
  And here's another one: "Asked what Kuchma could do to redeem himself, the official replied: "At this point transparency on what Ukraine has done with Iraq certainly would not hurt."
  
  We can now sit back and see if Ku will take this advice... :)
  
  I personally don't think it's a coincidence that the Kolchuga business is becoming a high profile issue at this particular time. Many players with many goals are certainly at play, but I dear say that the outcome of the whole business will not fit any one initially constructed scenarior.
  
  >>
  U.S. Halts Some Ukraine Aid over Iraq Suspicions
  September 23, 2002 10:43 PM ET
  By Elaine Monaghan
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States
  has stopped tens of millions of dollars in aid to
  ally Ukraine, suspicious the former Soviet
  republic may have sold a military system to Iraq
  that could help bring down U.S. planes, a senior
  U.S. official said Monday.
  
  President Leonid Kuchma, who has faced
  charges of sleaze and involvement in the death of
  a reporter whose headless corpse was found near
  Kiev in 2000, denies the allegations which have
  sparked Ukraine's biggest crisis since
  independence in 1991.
  
  Talk has swirled for months about the alleged transfer to Iraq of the Ukraine-made "Kolchuga"
  system, but this was the first U.S. government acknowledgement that it might have happened --
  which would have implications for U.S. and British pilots patrolling no-fly zones there.
  
  The official drew no direct link with any U.S. war plans for Iraq. But the reported transfer coincides
  with efforts by President Bush to build a consensus for an attack against President Saddam Hussein,
  accused by the United States of having or trying to get biological, chemical and nuclear arms.
  
  "We have informed the Ukrainian government and NATO allies that we have reached this
  assessment, that there has been a pause in certain types of assistance and that a policy review is
  under way," the official said on condition of anonymity.
  
  The official said the Department of Justice had authenticated part of a recording made by Mykola
  Melnychenko, a former bodyguard to Kuchma, in which an aide who has since been killed in a car
  crash tells Kuchma Iraq wants to buy four "Kolchuga" systems.
  
  HIDDEN RECORDER
  
  Melnychenko says he recorded about 1,000 hours of conversations by hiding a device in the president's office. He has since won asylum in the United States.
  
  Any transfer of the system, which tracks moving objects on the ground or in the air when they emit radar signals, would violate U.N. sanctions and U.S. law, the official said.
  
  "We have not physically observed the Kolchuga in Iraq, although we have some information which I cannot get into that suggests it may be there," the official said.
  
  The official said $55 million that had been set aside for the central government in fiscal year 2002, which ends this month, had been put on hold -- including cash for economic reform and nuclear safety programs -- and further steps were being considered in a review that would last a week or two.
  
  The money makes up about a third of the cash set aside each year to promote Ukraine's development.
  
  Asked what Kuchma could do to redeem himself, the official replied: "At this point transparency on what Ukraine has done with Iraq certainly would not hurt."
  
  The United States has poured billions of dollars into Ukraine, a country of 50 million people, partly because it wants an independent counterbalance to Russia in the region.
  
  The official said the Ukrainian government had ample chance to explain Melnychenko's recording of the Iraq conversation -- which took place about five weeks after a visit by former President Bill Clinton -- but it had simply denied the claim.
  
  He said the United States had not authenticated a section of the recordings in which a voice like
  Kuchma's tells aides to "deal with" reporter Georgiy Gongadze. He added: "Certainly our
  assessment that this Kolchuga recording is authentic colors the way that we look at the other
  recordings."
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  • 2002.09.24 | Peter Byrne

    Re: And full text

    tks for the context.
    
    i agree this is not coincidental.
    
    interesting that the u.s. is more worried about military hardware than 48 million people (not to mention scores of prisoners of conscience)
    
    a very principled stance, indeed.

• 2002.09.24 | Serhiy Hrysch

  Yo! That's serious! (-)