Russian President Medvedev meets with journalists

The Kremlin drove 800 journalists to President Dmitry Medvedev's showplace business school outside Moscow on Wednesday for the first major news conference of his presidency, an all-day logistical endeavor that led to high expectations for a big announcement.

Medvedev, however, used his 2 hours 15 minutes with Russian and foreign journalists to tell them he has not yet decided whether to run for another term as president, assure them that he and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin think very much alike, and suggest that the New START nuclear treaty with the United States could fall apart if Russia perceives that the proposed missile defense system in Europe is aimed at Russia, despite U.S. assurances to the contrary, according to the Washington Post..

Russia will boost its strike nuclear capabilities if NATO refuses to cooperate with Moscow in the European missile defense project, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday.

"I hope that they [NATO] would respond to the questions put forward by President Barack Obama and me, and we will be able to forge a missile defense cooperation model. If we don't, then we will have to take retaliatory measures... then we will have to force the development of our strike nuclear potential," Medvedev said,

Top Moscow advertising company sold by under-fire Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch, under fire media mogul, is selling his Russian advertising company News Outdoor to investment bank VTB Capital.

News broke on Friday that a consortium including VTB Capital, Alfa Capital Partners and several private investors had closed a deal to buy the company.

“The deal was closed a few hours ago,” Peter Harvey, one of the minds behind the buy up, told RBC. He did not offer details of the agreement. According to one source, “on the whole the original structure of the transaction and its price have not changed,” the paper reported.

“The Board of Directors has appointed Yevgeny Senderov of VTB Capital as president of News Outdoor Russia,” a press release from the bank said

Murdoch was one of several international media figures that paid court to Russia’s burgeoning media industry in the topsy-turvy 1990s.

News Outdoor is a heavy hitter in the billboard advertising business. The advertising hoardings are strewn across the Russian capital and rake in $400 to $4,000 a month.

Departed mayor Yury Luzhkov was slated for his failure to bring widespread display advertising around town under control, they have become a significant source of income for mid-ranking city officials .

This now looks set to change, the bank said in a statement that the new management will, “interact with the federal and municipal authorities to implement programs aimed at improving the appearance of cities,” the press release said.

That comment is perhaps mindful of moves afoot in City Hall, where Luzhkov’s replacement Sergei Sobyanin is set to eliminate large-scale banner advertising.

Privatizing Russia's media

n a bid to free the media from state control, President Dmitry Medvedev is proposing that the government stop financing several major TV and radio stations – opting instead for public television stations with alternative funding.

Medvedev, speaking after a meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday, called for alternative funding schemes to ensure that the media doesn’t fall under the sway of the government or big business – as it did toward the end of the 1990s.

On their own

The president, who is heading an ambitious campaign to modernize the economy, has already called for weaning the media from the state.

At his annual speech to the Federation Council last November, Medvedev urged the media to become financially independent and start financing itself.

Currently over 80 per cent of local TV and radio stations, as well as print press is controlled by the state. Meanwhile, Reporters without Borders rated Russia 140th on the Press Freedom Index list in 2010, out of 196 countries, placing it next to several African countries.

And while the government will continue financing federal level media – including Russia Today, Rossiya [VGTRK], radio Voice of Russia, news agencies ITAR-TASS and RIA Novosti, Rossiyskaya Gazeta – all others should look for ways to finance themselves, Medvedev said.

Public television

Experts say that the only way to make the media self sufficient is to make it public.

“The only alternative funding scheme I see now for the stateowned TV stations and other media is advertising, since this will help them accumulate finances and become free from the state and entrepreneurs,” Iouli Matevossov, a media analyst at AlfaBank,said.

“The Internet… is a very cheap way of getting the news on current affairs. I’d say if TV will broadcast online, there is a future for it.”

In the UK and Ireland, public television is funded primarily through advertising and a system of licensing, which makes it free from any involvement in the editorial policy by the state or business.

But Matevossov said that TV licenses are most likely not going to work in Russia.

“I’d doubt this option can be applied to Russian reality.”

Creating public TV in Russia is next to impossible, according to Elena Vartanova, head of the journalism faculty at the Moscow State University. “This will require, at least, significant financial investments, a huge political will and an active civil society,” she said.

“Another important condition – support for viewers, as a subscription fee is a sort of voluntary tax and an important part of the "feedback" between society and public TV. Ideally, we should strive for public television, but in reality this seems unlikely.”

But it’s possible that media ownership will shift from the state to the business sector – media moguls in Russia often wind up controlling large shares.

“We can always say that media moguls will try and purchase these stations,” he said.

State control is not over

But according to political experts, the idea that state TV and radio will become public is unlikely, given the current political regime.

“Federal TV and radio station that broadcast news in Russia are the government’s most valuable political resource,” Maria Lipman, expert at Carnegie Center Moscow,said.

Lipman said that there are no signs that this situation will change soon and it still requires implementation through the use of stateowned media.

“The powerful political and business elite, having accumulated such great media resources, will never give them up,” she said. “Look at the way Medvedev speaks about liberalization – do we see any changes? No.”

Decline In Press Freedom As Yanukovych Tightens Grip On Media

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian publications complain of interference and attempts to suppress stories

For A country languishing in 121st place in the latest ranking on media independence, Ukraine made a lot of noise about World Press Freedom Day this month.

The country’s two main politicians issued competing paeans to the nation’s journalists and lauded them as pillars of its democracy, even as opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko accused president Viktor Yanukovych of trying to silence his critics and turn the country into an autocracy.

In rating Ukraine’s media alongside those of Colombia and the Seychelles, Freedom House noted the country’s “significant decline in press freedom” since Yanukovych took office last year and grabbed the main levers of political and financial power for himself and his allies.

Ukrainian publications complain of growing interference from officials and attempts to suppress stories that are critical of Yanukovych and his cronies.

Some cite a rise in physical attacks against reporters covering sensitive issues, and note that no one has been charged over the disappearance and suspected murder of investigative journalist Vasyl Klymentyev last August.

“We should ensure the completion of investigations into cases linked to the disappearance of journalists,” Yanukovych declared on World Press Freedom Day.

“The authorities will create conditions to allow journalists to feel free in our country. An independent Ukraine is not possible without an independent press.”

Few in Ukraine’s media will be reassured by such platitudes, but they carried added resonance due to Yanukovych’s sudden interest in Ukraine’s most notorious murder of recent years – the abduction and beheading of reporter Georgy Gongadze.

Gongadze’s headless body was found in woods outside Kiev in November 2000, six weeks after he vanished from the city, during the presidential reign of the less-than-media-friendly Leonid Kuchma.

Days later, an opposition leader revealed what he claimed were recordings of conversations between Kuchma and top aides, taped secretly by a presidential bodyguard.

On the tapes, a man who sounds like Kuchma orders officials to “deal with” Gongadze and suggests that he be “kidnapped by Chechens”.

Kuchma said the recordings had been doctored and denied involvement in Gongadze’s murder, but public anger over the killing helped inspire the December 2004 Orange Revolution, which brought to power pro-western leaders who promised to crack the case.

In March 2005, they announced the arrest of senior police officers for murdering Gongadze under orders from ex-interior minister Yuri Kravchenko.

Days later, Kravchenko was found dead at his dacha.

Despite suffering two gunshot wounds to the head, he was deemed to have killed himself.

Two of Kravchenko’s close colleagues also died before they could be questioned about the case.

Three police officers were jailed in 2008 for the killing of Gongadze, and the following year investigators finally tracked down Olexiy Pukach, the former interior ministry intelligence chief who had been on the run from charges of alleged involvement in the murder.

This elaborate web unexpectedly entangled one of Ukraine’s biggest political beasts last month, when Kuchma himself was charged with giving illegal orders to interior ministry staff that led to Gongadze’s murder.

Ukrainians, though well used to dramatic reversals of political fortune, were stunned; few had expected Yanukovych to turn on Kuchma, with whom his relations seemed cordial.

Even fewer believed the surprise development was about justice rather than politics.

The main theories are that Yanukovych is punishing Kuchma for failing to back him strongly enough during the Orange Revolution; or he is putting indirect pressure on Kuchma’s former chief of staff, the influential parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, or on Kuchma’s son-in-law Viktor Pinchuk, one of Ukraine’s richest tycoons.

Alternatively, the president may be trying to distract public attention from rampant corruption, stalled reforms and a stagnant economy, critics say.

Tymoshenko believes the Kuchma case is intended to defuse western criticism that Yanukovych is using Ukraine’s legal system as a weapon to neutralise personal enemies.

Prosecutors loyal to the president have opened several criminal cases against Tymoshenko and her allies, one of whom has been granted political asylum in the Czech Republic due to fears that he would not receive a fair trial in Ukraine.

It was particularly odd this month to hear Yanukovych, who previously showed little curiosity about the murder, pledge to “do everything to ensure that the investigation into the death of journalist Georgy Gongadze is brought to a conclusion and the guilty are punished”.

On the same day, Tymoshenko lauded reporters for risking their jobs and their lives “to convey the truth to people . . .”. It is becoming routine in Ukraine’s tawdry political world to invoke the ghost of Gongadze.

Finding out who ordered his murder, on the other hand, seems as unlikely as ever.

Ukraine Ditches Controversial Dubbing Regulations

MOSCOW, Russia -- The lifting of controversial dubbing regulations in Ukraine is likely to benefit Russian distributors.
Earlier this week, Ukraine's culture and tourism minister, Mikhail Kulinyaka, told reporters in Kiev that a regulation requiring that all movies slated for a theatrical release in the country, should be either dubbed or subtitled into Ukrainian, is no longer in force.

The regulation, which came into effect in early 2008, created a lot of controversy, especially in Ukraine's predominantly Russian-speaking eastern part, hitting those distributors which until then used Russian-language film copies.

A few theaters even went on strike, protesting against the regulation, and there were reports about some theaters going out of business.

Now, Russian distributors operating in Ukraine will be able to save costs by again using Russian-language film copies.

"There is a lot of Russian interest in the country, and what this is all about is re-distribution of revenues," Ukrainian television producer Igor Kondratyuk told Ukraine.

Media In Ukraine: Back To The Bad Old Days?

KIEV, Ukraine -- Last week Ukrainians marked the tenth anniversary of the murder of Georgiy Gongadze, an investigative journalist who had embarrassed the government.
Prosecutors recently pointed the finger at the the late Yuri Kravchenko, interior minister at the time, but contemporary tape recordings, not yet authenticated, suggest that then-president Leonid Kuchma may have been involved. Such tactics were commonplace in pre-Orange Ukraine.

The fear is that, after years of media plurality after the Orange revolution, they may be starting to return. Two well-known journalists have been beaten by police in recent weeks. During a recent trip to Kharkiv, in the east of the country, I met Andriy Kristenko, a civil-society activist.

Pointing to the shelves in his office, he said: "all those folders are torture cases. And you want to talk about press freedom? This government doesn't care about press freedom."

Yet for most Ukrainian journalists, state-sanctioned violence is less of a concern than state control, direct or indirect, of media outlets, particularly television channels.

Journalists at all the main private channels complain of pressure from above not to criticise, and two independent stations have had their frequencies revoked.

This may have as much to do with Ukraine's corrupt and sycophantic political and business landscape as much as it does government policy. Between them, four Ukrainian oligarchs control all of the country’s major television channels.

One of them, Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, also heads the security service, the SBU. Competition between the four, Mr Khoroshkovsky told me, would deliver media pluralism. The fuss, he said, was being driven by Yulia Tymoshenko's opposition block ahead of local elections in late October.

Mr Khoroshkovsky himself has not always gone to great lengths to showcase the country's media freedom. Earlier this year his Inter Media Group brought a case against the only two television outlets that Ukrainian media watchdog Telekritika deems genuinely independent, claiming they had obtained their terrestrial frequencies illegally.

Inter won, and the two channels have lost a large chunk of their distribution. Inter may have had legitimate business reasons for its case. Yet the effect on Ukraine's reputation has been damaging.

Many journalists and activists believe it suits the authorities for journalists to feel afraid. At Telekritika's headquarters in Kiev, Lesja Ganzha, who belongs to an anti-censorship movement, compared the current Ukrainian policy to that pursued by Russia in the early Putin years. "It's not just a comparable policy, it's exactly the same policy," she told me.

This may be a stretch. As Mr Kuchma once wrote, Ukraine is not Russia.

Ms Tymoshenko, for example, can still appear on Ukraine's most popular talk shows. Ms Ganzha agrees that Ukrainian civil society is still strong, and that President Yanukovych, who took power this February, is far less popular than Mr Putin at a comparable stage in his presidency.

Yet Ukrainians only have to look back ten years to know that things can get a lot worse.

How High Does Conspiracy Go?

KIEV, Ukraine -- It took ten years for the prosecutors to conclude that the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze was ordered by the then Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko. But the case should not end there.
It took 10 years, but the nation’s prosecutors have finally concluded what many others suspected a long time ago: Ex-Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko ordered a top subordinate, former police general Oleksiy Pukach, to kill journalist Georgiy Gongadze on Sept. 16, 2000.

But the case doesn’t end there and could reignite into a major scandal – the kind that, right after Gongadze’s murder, helped turn the nation against ex-President Leonid Kuchma, whose authoritarian rule lasted from 1994 until 2005.

Along with the prosecutors’ findings, announced on Sept. 14, came fresh disclosures that the conspiracy involving Gongadze’s murder and the subsequent cover-up may have reached as high as Kuchma, who left office in scandal nearly six years ago, and his former chief of staff, Volodymyr Lytvyn, who is now the speaker of parliament.

Their involvement in Gongadze’s murder has also been long suspected. Both Kuchma and Lytvyn this week, however, repeated their longstanding denials of involvement. They also ratcheted up their own accusations, blaming the journalist’s death on an international conspiracy designed to damage Ukraine.

The fresh evidence implicating Kuchma and Lytvyn allegedly comes from Pukach, who has been jailed since his July 21, 2009, arrest in the case after several years as a fugitive. Investigators say that Pukach, who took charge of police surveillance against Gongadze, has been cooperating and has given an extensive confession.

Pukach is expected to eventually stand trial on charges that he led three police subordinates – who all have been convicted and are now serving prison sentences – in the gruesome kidnapping, strangulation and beheading of Gongadze.

Valentyna Telychenko, a lawyer representing Gongadze’s widow, Myroslava, said on Sept. 16 that Pukach’s testimony implicates both Kuchma and Lytvyn in the crime and subsequent cover-up.

Citing investigators’ transcripts, Telychenko said Pukach claims that, in a meeting with Lytvyn and Kravchenko the day after Gongadze’s murder, Kravchenko told Lytvyn: “Volodymyr Mykhailovych [Lytvyn], this is our worker who personally took care of Gongadze.” According to Pukach, Kravchenko also patted him on the shoulder and said to Lytvyn: “Tell the president that we shall fulfill any of his orders.”

While Pukach’s credibility may be questionable, the jailed police commander’s version of events is also supported by the so-called “Melnychenko tapes,” the hundreds of hours of conversations in Kuchma’s office that were secretly recorded by ex-presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko.

The tapes capture numerous alleged crimes involving Kuchma from 1999 and 2000, when Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz publicly released excerpts of the recordings involving Gongadze.

On those Melnychenko tapes, whose authenticity is disputed by Kuchma and others implicated on them, the ex-president, Lytvyn, Kravchenko, ex-Security Services of Ukraine head Leonid Derkach and other top-ranking officials discuss ways to silence Gongadze.

The journalist had angered the administration with his critical reporting on corruption for the online news site he founded, Ukrainska Pravda, which is now among the nation’s leading news sources.

Besides repeating their longstanding denials, Kuchma and Lytvyn this week alleged that they and the nation are victims of an international conspiracy. Kuchma implied the United States was to blame.

“It’s an international scandal designed to compromise Ukraine,” Kuchma was quoted by the Kyiv-based information agency UNIAN as saying on Sept. 15. “They didn’t give me or Ukraine any peace for five years.”

The former Ukrainian president said foreign secret services were involved in Gongadze’s disappearance. He added that agents from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency were present at [anti-presidential] demonstrations following Gongadze’s disappearance.

“This was paid for. Money makes everything possible,” Kuchma said. Then he went on to say that he is satisfied that the United States, under President Barack Obama, is no longer trying to spread democracy around the globe.

In a Kyiv Post interview, Lytvyn said on Sept. 15 that the investigators’ findings exonerate him. He also blamed Gongadze’s murder on an international conspiracy.

“The investigation confirmed that I have nothing to do with this [Gongadze] case. I believe that all these events [Gongadze case, Melnychenko tapes] were directed also from outside of Ukraine and directed also by special services. I think this was organized in order to put Ukraine in its place,” Lytvyn said.

These comments appear to show that Lytvyn either knows inner details of the investigation, or he is very confident that he will not be considered a suspect despite Pukach’s testimony alleging his involvement.

Kravchenko is, of course, unable to help sort out the dispute. The nation’s former top police official, a close and longtime confidant of Kuchma, died from two gunshot wounds to the head on March 4, 2005, in his suburban Koncha Zaspa home. The mysterious death was officially ruled a suicide, a version long disputed by Kravchenko’s relatives.

As mourners lit candles on Independence Square on Sept. 16 to mark the 10th anniversary of Gongadze’s murder, the same questions remain as strong a decade later: Who ordered the murder, and are state investigators committed to solving the crime without fear or favor, regardless of where the evidence leads?
The wrap-up of the pre-trial investigation on Sept. 7 only means the case will be transferred to court, where judges could order further investigation. More investigation is what advocates for Gongadze’s relatives and their representatives want.

Telychenko, who represents Gongadze’s widow, Myroslava, has started looking through the voluminous files involving Pukach’s testimony that investigators released to her this week. She believes Pukach’s version of the Sept. 17, 2000 meeting with Kravchenko and Lytvyn clearly implicates the parliament speaker and Kuchma in both the crime and the cover-up.

Hanna Herman, President Viktor Yanukovych’s aid, said that the administration wants a credible investigation to be concluded but is not sure if it is possible.

“The case should be carried out objectively, so that the Ukrainian and international community believe in the results of the investigation,” Herman said. “I don’t know if it’s possible given the wasted opportunities.”

The momentum for finding the truth has been lost, Herman said, and part of the blame lies with ex-President Viktor Yushchenko, who had declared that solving the Gongadze murder was a “matter of honor” for him during his five-year presidency that ended on Feb. 25.

“The case that Yushchenko claimed to be a matter of honor turned out to be a big dishonor for him,” Herman said. “They should have carried out this case and protected the witnesses. But Kravchenko was killed in 2005. They [the wrongdoers] had enough time to cover up the tracks and now it’s really hard to find those who really gave the order to kill Gongadze.”

However, many also point the blame at close associates of Yanukovych, starting with pro-presidential lawmaker Syvatoslav Piskun, who served as prosecutor general for many years as the case dragged on. Kravchenko’s death came shortly after Piskun publicly called him in for questioning.

Myroslava Gongadze, the widow of the slain journalist and the mother of their twin teenage daughters, is now a journalist with Voice of America in Washington, D.C. She thinks that Kravchenko is a convenient scapegoat.

“Still, he is a thread that leads us to the top state officials of that time – Kuchma and Lytvyn,” Myroslava Gongadze said. “Kravchenko didn’t have any personal reasons to kill Georgiy, so it implies that he got the order from top officials.”

Even if it is difficult to prove Kuchma’s complicity in murder, the ex-president is still responsible for appointing and promoting “a criminal” who gave orders to terrorize the people, Myroslava Gongadze said.

Lesya Gongadze, the victim’s mother, also dismissed the prosecutors’ findings.
“What they are trying to do is typical: to lay the blame on a dead man,” Lesya Gongadze said on Sept. 14. “Let God be their judge. What they are doing is covering the tracks of their inactivity.”
Despite three presidential administrations and a changing cast of prosecutors and investigators, incremental progress has been made in the Gongadze case.

In 2008, three police officers who participated in the kidnapping and murder of Gongadze were convicted of the crime and sentenced to at least 12 years in prison. They are Mykola Protasov, Oleksandr Popovych and Valeriy Kostenko.

On July 21, 2009, authorities found Pukach – who allegedly supervised the murder – living in a rural area of Zhytomyr Oblast west of Kyiv.

Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, the former chief of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) under Yushchenko, said that criminal charges against Pukach should have come a long time ago. The official rationale for the delay is that investigators were waiting on certain test results, while the unofficial possibility is that Pukach was bargaining for leniency.

Pukach’s lawyer, Mykola Laptev, refused comment. Pukach faces a possible life prison sentence if convicted of murder charges.
Kravchenko ran the powerful Interior Ministry, where the nation’s police officers work, from 1995 until early 2001. Kuchma reputedly brought him in to stop the rampant mafia-style murders and contract killing that marred life in newly independent Ukraine.

Gangsters – and those who hired them – were fighting for control of businesses that were all of a sudden up for grabs after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

However, the Kravchenko-led police force committed their own crimes and were notoriously corrupt and politically subservient. In the environment of Kuchma’s authoritarian style of rule, all government critics – especially journalists – became potential targets of the repressive regime.

The murder of Gongadze had an eerily similar parallel to what happened with independent journalist and human rights activist Oleksiy Podolsky, who lived to tell of the incident.

A few months prior to Gongadze’s murder, Kravchenko ordered Pukach to “teach” Podolsky a lesson. His kidnapping was similar to Gongadze’s: Three police officers put him in a car and drove him outside of Kyiv.

The officers threatened him and forced him to dig his own grave. Instead of killing him, the police officers took his belongings and documents and left him in the woods. His apartment door was also set on fire.

According to the Melnychenko tapes, Kravchenko reported on the case to Kuchma; later, police officers were found guilty of threats and assault and sentenced to three years in prison.

Mykola Dzhyha, Kravchenko’s deputy at the time of the murder, a Yanukovych ally and current governor of Vinnytsia Oblast, has rejected the idea that Kravchenko had anything to do with Gongadze’s killing.

“Taking into account the man himself, his character, I can’t believe he would do such a thing,” Dzhyha told the Kyiv Post. But he doesn’t rule out that someone wanted to frighten Gongadze and simply went too far. “That could have happened,” said Dzhyha, whom Pukach also implicated in his testimony.

Kravchenko’s death isn’t the only suspicious one among officials implicated in the Gongadze murder. Eduard Fere and Yuriy Dagaev, other top officials close to Kuchma and Kravchenko, also died mysteriously. Fere went into a coma in 2003 and died six years later. Dagaev died, allegedly of a heart attack, in 2003.
Besides Melnychenko, the ex-Kuchma bodyguard whose tapes triggered an international scandal, Socialist Party leader Moroz has been close to the Gongadze case since the beginning when, as a member of parliament, he disclosed the recordings publicly.

Today, Moroz thinks that officials are continuing to be engaged in a cover-up of the crime in order to protect Kuchma and Lytvyn.

“For 10 years, Ukraine has been demonstrating to the world the supremacy of cover-up over the law,” Moroz said in a statement on the Socialist Party’s website.

“Maintaining this tradition, the authorities are trying to uphold their honor, though everybody clearly understands that they are simply trying to divert responsibility for the involvement in the crime from high-ranking officials, in particular the ex-president and the head of his administration.”
“Why did the former minister [Kravchenko] take interest in the journalist? Why did he give (if he did give) the criminal order? What was the reason for chasing the journalist and spying on him? Who sought to lead the [investigation] in the wrong way in the first weeks by giving false evidence? Who was obstructing the unbiased forensic examination?"

"Why didn’t authorities consider the large amount of irrefutable evidence – the recordings of conversations in the office of President Leonid Kuchma, although the investigators actually confirmed all the episodes, recorded by Major Mykola Melnychenko? Why wasn’t parliament controlling the investigation, as it had to, failing to comply with the requirements of PACE (the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe), as it was supposed to do?”

Moroz said the answers to the questions can be found on the Melnychenko tapes.

Melnychenko, meanwhile, has damaged his credibility over the last decade with conflicting, evasive and unreliable comments about the Gongadze case and the recordings he allegedly made. The whereabouts of the original recordings are unknown.

On Sept. 15, Melnychenko said: “I confirm that this was a special operation,” he said referring to the recordings. “I completely confirm that this was a special operation to remove not a legally elected president, but a person who in 1999 seized power. Only later did foreign intelligence services from other countries try to influence the situation.”

After pointing the blame in previous years directly on Kuchma, Melnychenko this week suggested that Lytvyn could have driven Kuchma to the crime.

“Kuchma did not have personal motives to give the order. But Lytvyn did have personal motives. I think he can, himself, tell more about these personnel motives," Melnychenko said.

"Kuchma regularly had all sorts of news reports written – and not written by Gongadze – put on his table … to wind him up. The ideologue of this operation, I declare, was Lytvyn,” Melnychenko added.

Missing Journalist Stokes Fears Of Soviet-Era Media Crackdown In Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- The disappearance and suspected murder of Ukrainian journalist Vasyl Klymentyev has again turned the spotlight on what many press freedom organizations fear is a return to Soviet-style crackdowns on dissenting media.
Klymentyev's disappearance in early August and the subsequent investigation into his possible murder draw a number of parallels with the killing of Hryhorii Gongadze in 2000.

Gongadze, a relatively-unknown investigative reporter, went missing in suspicious circumstances only for his headless corpse to be found some weeks later in a shallow grave in woods south of the Ukrainian capital.

The case exploded on an international scale after it was revealed that Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine's then president, had been recorded telling members of the Ukrainian security forces to "take care" of Gongadze.

Despite the evidence found on the secret audio tapes, the case is still unresolved a decade later.

Klymentyev is also a small-time investigative reporter, specializing in exposing official corruption and scandals in his role as editor-in-chief of the Novy Stil (New Style) newspaper in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city.

His exposés had unsurprisingly earned him many enemies in the local government, much like Gongadze's sensationalist revelations had for him. Shortly before he went missing, Klymentyev had been working on an article about the lavish lifestyles of four top officials, including one from Ukraine's security service.

Friends and family are convinced that - like Gongadze - Klymentyev had crossed some very powerful people and that he is already dead.

"It's worrying to see uncomfortable echoes of the Gongadze murder in Klymentyev's disappearance," Andrew Wilson, a senior lecturer and Ukraine expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Deutsche Welle.

"Klymentyev was a persistent critic of the government and while it is difficult to say that the regime has had a direct hand in his disappearance, it has certainly created a climate in which the local bad guys felt that taking him out was an option - if that indeed is what has happened."

Press freedom campaigners believe that Klymentyev's disappearance could be the most shocking indication yet that a wider campaign is being waged against the media by the government of Ukraine's new pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Yanukovych, who came to power seven months ago, is accused by journalists in Ukraine and by organizations monitoring the situation around the world of reversing the freedoms afforded the media in the six years following the 2004 Orange Revolution.

Under former President Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's media boomed during a period of unprecedented free speech and expansion.

However, since Yanukovych came to power, a number of dissenting TV stations have had their licenses revoked and the pro-Yanukovych Inter Media organization has become increasingly prominent.

Journalists in the country are talking about a new era of fear and censorship while Reporters Without Borders recently issued a statement saying that broadcast media pluralism in Ukraine was being "seriously eroded" and that a "disturbing level of hostility" and even "physical attacks" were being reported by journalists.
"A freer press was one of the main achievements of the Orange Revolution but it was only freed in the way that it was free of state direction," said Wilson.

"It was never free from oligarchic control so Ukraine had a pluralistic press but each newspaper and TV station had its own owner with its own editorial line. And while there was a real cultural revolution at the heart of the media industry during that time, journalists were still not adverse to accepting paid-for stories."

"Since Yanukovych has been in power, we haven't seen a return to state control of the media - at least not yet - but there has been a change in the ownership policy," he added.

"You can't have the head of Ukraine's SBU security service running the biggest pro-Yanukovych media outlet, which is what has happened with Valeriy Khoroshkovsky. It also appears that rival owners are being targeted for intimidation and rival channels removed so control is being exerted in different ways."

Graham Stack, a journalist at the Kyiv Post, agrees that ownership maneuvers in the Ukrainian television sector have been disputed and that channels and owners friendly to the president have been favored. But he rejects the idea that intimidation of journalists and owners have been part of the move for control.

"Yanukovych ostensibly tolerates media dissent and criticism," he told Deutsche Welle. "At the same time, however, Inter - the top Ukrainian TV channel - is owned by a political ally, Vladimir Khoroshkovsky, who is also head of Ukraine's security service, the SBU.

Obviously Inter gives the Yanukovych administration an easy ride. Moreover, Inter won a lawsuit against the award of additional frequency licences to two independent TV stations, TVi and Fifth Channel, which may restrict some of their broadcasting ability."

"TV journalists have been protesting increasing interference in news production from oligarch owners, but there is no evidence yet of systematic quashing of critical reporting or of use of violence or threats of prosecution to intimidate journalists," Stack added.

"This is also unlikely to happen not least because of the international outcry that would result."

Growing international unease over Ukraine's direction

European leaders, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and other western diplomats have spoken of their concern about the situation with some going as far as to suggest that Ukraine's new government - made up mostly of leaders from the pre-revolution regime - are "instinctively less democratic" than their pro-western predecessors and are now free of the shackles of democracy imposed on them during the Yushchenko years.

However, while rebukes have been issued and words exchanged, most experts don't expect western leaders to pressure Yanukovych too strongly to reform or agitate for a return to a more liberal form of government.

"All this suggests that Ukraine is heading in a worrying direction," Wilson said. "Yanukovych is pushing a kind of authoritarianism-lite at the moment and he's calculating that the Europeans and other leaders will turn a blind eye to it and not interfere because the alternative would be a return to the chaos and in-fighting of the Orange coalition."

"There is no doubt (the Yanukovych regime) have less democratic instincts, but, with sights officially set on future EU membership, and fears of being dominated by Russia, they are well aware they need to retain democracy for international credibility," Graham stark added.

"However, international partners want to see more stability in Ukraine and will tolerate more 'managing' or 'massaging' of democracy, if it facilitates urgently needed structural reforms."

Whistleblower: I Will Not Testify In Gongadze Case

KIEV, Ukraine -- The former major of the State Guard Department, Mykola Melnychenko, has said that he will not give evidence in court during the hearing of a criminal case against Oleksiy Pukach, the former head of the external surveillance department of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, who is accused of killing journalist Georgy Gongadze.
"No, I will not testify in court, because the court will not summon me as a witness to give evidence. Neither [second Ukrainian President Leonid] Kuchma nor [Parliament Speaker Volodymyr] Lytvyn will be brought to justice, because September 18 is a deadline, and charges cannot be brought against them," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.

"I have nothing to do with Pukach or external surveillance. I am related only to the documentation of Kuchma's and Lytvyn's crimes," Melnychenko said.

He said that there were no grounds to call him to the court as a witness, because these people had not been charged.

Melnychenko said that for Kuchma and Lytvyn to be prosecuted, indisputable evidence of their guilt was required, and added that apart from his tapes, there was no other evidence. The tapes themselves have not been recognized as 100% authentic, he said.

"Yes, Pukach gave evidence that clearly pointed to Kuchma and Lytvyn, but due to the fact that examinations conducted in Europe did not confirm the complete authenticity of the tapes, they cannot be prosecuted," he said.

Melnychenko noted that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) could have confirmed the absolute authenticity of his tapes, however, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine had not considered it necessary to turn the recordings over to the FBI for an authenticity check.

Ex-President Kuchma: Murder Of Journalist Gongadze Is 'International Provocation'

CHERNIHIV, Ukraine -- Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has said that the case on the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze is “an international provocation." He told this to reporters during his visit to Chernihiv.
"This is an international scandal designed to compromise Ukraine. They didn't give me or Ukraine any peace for five years," he said.

Kuchma said that foreign secret services had been involved in Gongadze's disappearance.

He added that agents from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency were present at anti-presidential demonstrations following Gongadze's disappearance.

“This was paid for. Money makes everything possible,” Kuchma said.

On September 14, 2010, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine announced the completion of the investigation into a criminal case against Oleksiy Pukach, the former head of the external surveillance unit of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's main criminal investigation department, who is accused of killing journalist Georgy Gongadze in 2000.

The investigators said that former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko had ordered the killing of the journalist.

Lieutenant General Pukach was arrested in Zhytomyr region in July 2009. On July 23, he was remanded in custody under a court ruling.

Former Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko was found dead in his house on March 4, 2005.

The investigators agreed that he had committed suicide. Kravchenko left a suicide note in which he said that he had not been guilty of anything.

Gongadze disappeared in Kyiv on September 16, 2000.

In November 2000, a beheaded corpse was found in a forest near Tarashcha in Kyiv region, and experts concluded that it was likely Gongadze's.

However, the mother of the journalist, Lesia Gongadze, disagreed that this was the body of her son.

Pamela Anderson Joins The Panel At Miss Ukraine Beauty Pageant

KIEV, Ukraine -- If there's one person who has made a career from looking good in a swimsuit, it's Pamela Anderson.
So judging the Miss Ukraine beauty pageant over the weekend can't have been much a stretch for the former Baywatch star, especially when it came to applying her specialist knowledge to the swimwear round.

The actress, 43, is famed for the high maintenance look that has inspired many an aspiring beauty queen.

Anderson recently said she was steering clear of on-screen acting in order to concentrate on other interests, which apparently include her stint on Dancing With The Stars in the US, a panto role as Aladdin in Liverpool this winter, and nightclub appearances such as the one she made to Funky Mojoe in Essex in August.

'I feel that, at this point in my career, I don't want to do another television show. I don't want to do a film. I'm really enjoying what I do now,' she said.

She continued: 'I have two homes in Malibu, a home in Canada that I'm building, and I just love pouring my heart out into this part of my life.'

Anderson was not the only celebrity face in attendance at the Miss Ukraine contest.

Action star Jean Claude Van Damme and swimwear model-turned-designer Elizabeth Hurley also lent their support to the competition.

Before arriving at the event on Saturday night, Hurley tweeted: 'In Kiev and climbing into skin tight glittery dress. About to hit the red carpet....

'Thrilled that my old friend Pamela Anderson here too. She is incredibly lovely and still looks amazing. Jaws drop when she walks past.'

Hurley, whose ex-boyfriend Hugh Grant was caught with a prostitute in 1995 while they were an item, also offered her opinion Coleen Rooney's current situation.

'Oh my, what miserable stories re Wayne Rooney. I've never met Colleen [sic] but she looks really sweet.....' she tweeted.

Missing Kharkiv Editor Ran Small Newspaper Covering Corruption

KIEV, Ukraine -- Kharkiv police chief suspects editor was murdered because of his professional activity.
Three weeks after the disappearance of Kharkiv editor Vasyl Klymentiev, there are no clear answers, only versions and plenty of questions, including: Was he working on a story for his small Novy Styl newspaper that could have gotten him killed?

Solving the mystery has attracted the attention of the top law enforcement officials in the nation, including Interior Minister Anatoliy Mohyliov. On Aug. 26, Mohyliov announced that the investigation will be coordinated from Kyiv, since the case might involve both current and former police officials.

On the morning of Aug. 11, Klymentiev set the alarm system in his apartment and left. Nobody has seen him since. A few days later, Kharkiv police launched an investigation into possible premeditated murder.

Even though investigators said they are not sure that’s what happened, Kharkiv chief of police Oleksandr Barannik on Aug. 27 said he suspects Klymentiev was murdered because of his professional activity.

67-year-old chief editor and publisher of the Novy Styl newspaper, Klymentiev kept a low profile. He always kept aloof. He was seen a lot at press conferences conducted by top-ranked police and prosecutors. They were the focus of his coverage.

The newspaper never had steady funding and its circulation varied. “Sometimes, if we had a scoop, we would publish 5,000 copies, sometimes 3,000,” Petro Matvienko, Klymentiev’s deputy said. Klymentiev has repeatedly tried to push the paper to retail, but it never happened.

But money was a recurring problem.

“Where did the money come from? Mostly, it was Klymentiev’s pension,” Matvienko said.

Klymentiev also took money from people he covered – including some who got into trouble with government officials.

“There are a lot of businessmen who get pressed. Some of them would come to Klymentiev and say – ‘the authorities are taking my business away.’

Klymentiev would help them out," Matvienko said.

"Then they would ask ‘how can we express our gratitude?’ and he would say – you can pay the print of our next issue or distribute the paper among your friends. That would be enough.”

Klymentiev focused his coverage on corrupt police officers and judges – so- called “werewolves.”

His friends say he was an anti-corruption crusader on these explosive and potential dangerous issues. But others suggest he got caught up in playing dirty games by smearing top officials in return for money.

Novy Styl scrutinized Kharkiv officials, such as the head of the Kharkiv tax administration, Stanyslav Denysiuk, and deputy prosecutor Sergiy Khachaturian.

Unsurprisingly, given his line of work, Klymentiev received threats. At a press briefing of former prosecutor Vasyl Sinchuk, he complained that somebody was shadowing him. According to Matvienko, Klymentiev rarely left his home in the days before his disappearance.
Matvienko believes that Klymentiev is dead. “His disappearance, or murder is definitely related to his job,” Matvienko insists. “There are a lot of people out there who were afraid that Klymentiev would disseminate negative information about them.”

Police think the same way. “The most feasible version is murder related to his professional activity,” Barannik, the Kharkiv police chief, said. “It’s not revenge. It rather looks like somebody wanted to prevent publication of compromising materials.”

Deputy Interior Minister Vasyl Farynnyk doesn’t rule this version out or others – such as murder by someone close to him. Farynnyk also didn’t rule out the possibility that Klymentiev might be still alive.

Investigators have published leads. They are questioning people named in Klymentiev’s stories.

Some of them might be unhappy with the author since, according to Barannik, accuracy and fairness weren't always hallmarks of Klymentiev’s journalistic skills.

Other times, Klymentiev turned out to be right on the mark and officials acknowledged that one of his reports provided the grounds for launching an ongoing investigation into a former police official.
When there is a murder, there is a body,” said Serhiy Yermakov, correspondent of Ukraina Kryminalna (Criminal Ukraine) newspaper. “There is no body, only a cell phone found under some mysterious circumstances.”

Klymentiev’s cell phone was found in Pechenizhske water reservoir on Aug 17.

One local resident found a cell phone and activated the found SIM card in his own phone. Nobody can explain how the guy guessed a pin code and why he took the SIM card, not the phone.

Klymentiev’s brother received an automatically generated message notifying that the number is in use again. He called the number and the man who answered said he found the phone. Police searched the area and divers searched the lake.

Shortly before Klymentiev’s disappearance, Matvienko said they went to take pictures of the house of a tax inspector, Denysiuk, the focus of a story.

The inspector lives near the reservoir where the phone card was found.

But Matvienko doesn’t think that Klymentiev might have returned to the same place.

Although law enforcement says that the Klymentiev case will be solved, Matvienko is pessimistic. He said he trusts the investigators, but not their bosses.

He calls the incident “Gongadze case #2” – a reference to muckraking journalist Georgiy Gongadze, who was beheaded on Sept. 16, 2000, in one of Ukraine’s most sensational unsolved crimes.

He regards the interior minister’s decision to take “personal control” over the case as a PR stunt.

On the other hand, hope exists that the authorities will solve the case to calm fears about what many regard as renewed curbs on freedom of expression since President Viktor Yanukovych took power on Feb. 25.

Ukraine's Interior Minister Suspects Police Involved In Journalist's Disappearance

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's interior minister says he believes a journalist who was reported missing earlier this month is likely dead, and that security forces are suspected of involvement in the disappearance.
Vasily Klymentyev, the editor of a weekly newspaper in the eastern city of Kharkiv, has been missing for two weeks. His deputy said Klymentyev was threatened after refusing to take money to halt the publication of a story about a regional prosecutor accused of accepting bribes to close criminal cases.

"We suspect that law enforcement officials, both former and current, might be involved in the case," Interior Minister Anatoly Mogiliov said in televised comments.

Law enforcement officials include the police, Interior Ministry troops, special security forces and prosecutors, among other agencies.

International rights groups have expressed concern about a deterioration of media freedom in Ukraine since Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych was elected to office in February.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe urged a "swift and transparent" investigation. Mogiliov, however, warned "the case will be quite difficult and take a long time."

Klymentyev's case is being followed with anxiety in Ukraine, where memories are still fresh of the unsolved murder of another journalist in 2000.

Like Klymentyev, Heorhiy Gongadze wrote about corruption. Gongadze, whose investigations implicated then-President Leonid Kuchma, had been missing for months before his decapitated body was found outside Kyiv.

The killing sparked months of protests against Kuchma, who was accused of involvement in his death.

Ukrainian Corruption Reporter Still Missing, Feared Dead

KIEV, Ukraine -- The International Press Institute (IPI) expressed concern today over the safety of Ukrainian journalist Vasyl Klymentyev, who has been missing in the country for 10 days.
Klymentyev went missing on Wednesday 11 August after leaving home with an unidentified man, according to local police reports. Ukrainian press freedom organisation, the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), has now expressed fears that Klymentyev may be dead after his mobile phone was reportedly found on a boat on a lake in the eastern region of Kharkiv.

Klymentyev, the editor-in-chief of the Noviy Stil newspaper, which focuses on corruption issues in Kharkiv, was known for his criticism of law enforcement agencies and, according to Associated Press (AP), he had been threatened after refusing money to kill a story about a regional prosecutor accused of accepting bribes to close criminal cases.

Police are investigating the case, with Klymentyev’s disappearance now classified as “premeditated murder”, although no motives or suspects have been officially identified.

After yesterday’s announcement that Interior Minister Anatoly Mogylyov was to take personal control of the case, AP reported today, 20 August, that President Viktor Yanukovych would be taking control of the case. Yanukovych was quoted as ordering the police to “make every possible and impossible effort” to find Klymentyev.

On Thursday 19 August Mogylyov had said that police had not ruled out that Klymentyev’s disappearance was linked to his reporting.

“Given the deterioration of press freedom in Ukraine, the climate of impunity surrounding attacks on journalists, and the reported statement from the police treating the case as a suspected murder and suggesting Mr. Klymentyev’s disappearance may have been linked to his work, we are extremely concerned for Mr. Klymentyev’s well-being,” said IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills.

“We urge the authorities to do everything in their power to thoroughly investigate his disappearance.”

Speaking to IPI about Klymentyev’s disappearance, independent broadcaster TVi director Mykola Kniazhytskyi said: “When those guilty of beating journalists are not prosecuted it breeds the atmosphere of impunity in the entire country.

“It is about as likely that Vasyl Klymentyev will turn up alive and unharmed as UFOs landing in Ukraine.

“Instead of ‘taking it under his personal control’ interior minister Anatoly Mogylyov should just ensure that the investigation proceeds according to law. And not only this investigation but other investigations of attacks on journalists as well. If this was done, his personal intervention would not be needed. Instead it can be reasonably feared that his ‘personal control’ means control over the information that might be unpleasant to the current government.”

Concern over the deterioration of press freedom in Ukraine has been growing. In an open letter to President Viktor Yanukovych last week, IPI called attention to a rise in attacks on journalists along with a growing climate of impunity, and a court case which may result in the loss of broadcasting licenses for two independent TV broadcasters.

In a recent development, a Kiev court decided to cancel the allocation of broadcasting frequencies to two privately-run TV channels - TVi and 5 Kanal, following apparent discrepancies in their licences. TVi director Kniazhytskyi told IPI that, “a number of topics became off-limits.” According to another IPI source in the country, 5 Kanal’s website was recently hacked and forced offline. It has since been restored.

Press freedom was particularly dire during the ten year presidency of Leonid Kuchma, who ruled until 2005. The low point came with the disappearance and murder of Georgiy Gongadze, the editor of the critical Internet newsletter Pravda Ukrayiny. His decapitated body was found on the outskirts of Kiev some two months after he went missing in September 2000.

There had been a marked improvement in press freedom since the Orange Revolution of 2004, although a number of concerns remained. Since the election of President Yanukovych in February 2009, the press freedom climate has again deteriorated.

Disappearance Raises Fresh Questions About Media Climate In Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- Vasyl Klymentyev was last seen last week, when he met a colleague to discuss an article he was writing about a local prosecutor and a tax official.
The editor of "Novyy Styl," a weekly newspaper in the eastern city of Kharkiv, Klymentyev is a well-known critic of the authorities. Police say they suspect he may have been killed.

Klymentyev's deputy, Petro Matviyenko, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that he and Klymentyev had met on August 11 to discuss photographs they'd taken of mansions belonging to regional tax chief Stanislav Denisyuk and other officials.

The authorities say Klymentyev was last seen later that day getting into a BMW with an unknown man. A manhunt is under way and officials are investigating on charges of "possible premeditated murder."

Klymentyev's case is raising new questions about the state of press freedom in Ukraine after pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych came to power earlier this year in an election that repudiated the Orange Revolution and its pro-Western leaders.
Opposition figures say the media crackdown is part of a wider drive to blunt criticism of the government.

In Kyiv, journalists are planning a strike on August 21 to protest the government's decision to withdraw the licenses of several television stations, including Chanel 5 and TVi. The Kyiv-based media watchdog Telekritika says those two channels are the only independent and unbiased television stations remaining in the country.

Some of the channels have appealed the decision, and a court is set to hold hearings on the issue on August 26.

TVi director Mykola Knyazhytskyy told RFE/RL he'd sent Yanukovych a letter protesting the deteriorating state of press freedom in Ukraine.

"I had to inform the president not only about our court case, but also about tendencies in the Ukrainian media, where free speech is being violated," Knyazhytskyy said.

Last week, the Vienna-based International Press Institute issued an open letter to Yanukovych urging him to respect press freedom, citing "a climate of impunity" surrounding the increasing numbers of attacks on journalists.

Officials from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Europe's main human rights watchdog, have also expressed concern over journalists' complaints about censorship and physical attacks.
Knyazhytskyy said his letter urged Yanukovych to look at the actions of officials connected to his own office.

"I described the fact that several groups of influence around the president are using absolutely illegal methods and non-European practices, and are engaged in conflicts of interests," Knyazhytskyy said.

"They're pressuring the courts, and using the special services to fight against journalists. Those groups are trying to monopolize power and change Ukraine into an authoritarian state."

The European Union and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have also criticized the government over the media environment in Ukraine.

Critics say the government is pressuring not only journalists, but also small and medium-size businesses, seen as the opposition's backbone of support.

They say the government has also moved to control the judicial system by giving the president power over the hiring and firing of judges.

Ukraine Journos Threaten Strike

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine journalists warned Sunday of strike action over work conditions, complaining of a deterioration in press freedom in the past six months under President Viktor Yanukovych.
Ukrainian authorities "pretend officially to support press freedom but in truth they ignore the problems, professional rights and claims of journalists," the press freedom group "Stop the Censorship" said in a statement.

The journalists published their warning amid fears that the pro-opposition and pro-western television channels TVi, 5 Kanal and Tchornomorska were to be closed down. On Saturday the three channels had organised a symbolic one-hour strike.

"The number of issues where journalists are prevented from working, the number of censorship cases and the pressure on journalists... is increasing constantly," the movement said.

On Monday the tribunal in Kiev will begin hearings to rule on whether the channels TVi and Kanal 5 had legally obtained their licenses.

On August 10, the Vienna-based International Press Institute appealed in an open letter to the Ukrainian president to respect press freedom, concerned by the rise in attacks on journalists being reported and "a climate of impunity."

The European Union, the US embassy in Kiev and the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe have all also expressed concern about the current media environment.

US Groups To Censure Ukraine’s Yanukovich

KIEV, Ukraine -- Viktor Yanukovich, the Ukraine’s president, will be criticised by two pro-democracy institutes for backtracking on democratic gains made since the Orange Revolution in 2004.
A joint statement will be made public in coming days by the institutes representing the top political parties from the US.

Written by the International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute, the statement – obtained by the Financial Times – focuses on recently adopted election legislation that unfairly undermines the chances of opposition parties in a forthcoming October 31 election to regional legislatures.

Marking the sharpest international criticism of Mr Yanukovich’s democratic credentials yet, the statement follows rising complaints by domestic opposition parties and media.

Both have accused Kiev’s Moscow-friendly leader and loyal coalition of waging a Kremlin-styled crackdown on democracy and press freedoms since taking over as president.

Referring to the election law that was adopted by pro-presidential allies in parliament on June 29 and signed by Mr Yanukovich on July 27, the statement attacks the law for “limiting electoral potential” of opposition parties by banning participation of election blocs and parties registered less than one year ago.

“Restrictions on new parties and independent candidates appear to be unreasonable in light of principles established by the Ukrainian constitution, as well as international obligations and commitments that Ukraine has undertaken,” the statement reads.

Pro-democracy activists have praised the progress Ukraine has made since the Orange Revolution. Back then, a rigged presidential vote favoring Mr Yanukovich was overturned leading to a five-year presidential term by his pro-western rival, Viktor Yushchenko.

Ukraine was seen as a rare beacon of democracy in Russia’s backyard and activists hoped the trend would continue despite Mr Yanukovich’s remarkable political comeback in winning the presidency this February.

But IRI and NDI point to the recent developments as big risks for democracy in Ukraine, saying: “These developments could be characterised as changing the legal framework to create restrictions on political competition and … unreasonable denial of citizens’ rights to legitimate choices.”

Mr Yanukovich’s majority coalition in parliament was also criticised for adopting the new rules too close to the election “in a non-transparent manner with virtually no public debate”.

Opposition parties claim that their leaders and associates have faced increasing political persecution. Three high-level officials that served last year in the government of Yulia Tymoshenko, now an opposition leader, have been jailed on corruption charges.

On Wednesday, Ms Tymoshenko’s party headquarters on the Crimean peninsula was raided by secret service agents.

Mr Yanukovich has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

But in an open letter this week, the International Press Institute urged Mr Yanukovich to put an end to a “disturbing deterioration in press freedom over the last six months”.

“There are fears that since then the clock has been rolled back on recent press freedom gains in Ukraine,” the Vienna-based institute added.

Media Watchdog: Ukraine TV Too Cozy With Leaders

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine's top television networks are too cozy with the country's leaders, reporters are hindered in investigations and independent journalism is under threat in the country's far-flung regions, an international media watchdog said Wednesday.
On a three-day trip to the former Soviet state, the head of the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders, Jean-Francois Julliard, called upon the journalists themselves to seek protection if the authorities won't oblige.

"If there is no political will to protect press freedom, journalists should keep fighting to defend their rights," he said.

Critics say media liberties have been stifled under pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych, who took over from a Western-leaning predecessor earlier this year.

Chief among Julliard's observations were that top management and owners of Ukrainian TV channels are very close with the country's leaders, undermining objective reporting.

Ukraine has one national TV channel and dozens of private networks, but critics say all follow an unwritten rule never undermine or embarrass the authorities.

Julliard noted numerous cases of censorship and political pressure on Ukraine's TV channels where journalists were not allowed to cover some news, such as when Yanukovych was hit by a wreath amid strong winds as he honored war victims.

Media executives also block muckraking probes by their reporters, Julliard said, adding that political pressure on journalists outside the country's capital is even higher than in Kiev.

"Usually journalists in provinces are not so well protected as in capital and we have to find way to protect them more," he said.

Julliard called on Yanukovych to say "he is very committed to defending press freedom."

"If there is no strong political will at the highest level, the situation will go in the wrong direction," he said.

Yanukovych has repeatedly denied accusations of press censorship.

Key Political Risks To Watch In Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- The new leadership of President Viktor Yanukovich has reduced a lot of the political tension in Ukraine, improved prospects of economic reform and set course for a new IMF bail-out programme.
The ex-Soviet republic now appears to be inching towards a crucial agreement with the International Monetary Fund for fresh credit of up to $19 billion which may spur renewed interest by foreign investors.

Yanukovich fulfilled many pre-election prophecies that he would tilt Ukraine back towards its old Soviet master by extending the Russian navy's stay in a Ukrainian port until 2042 -- a move which sparked riots by the opposition in parliament.

But the new cosier ties with Russia have brought dividends.

With the IMF talks dragging on longer than expected, Moscow stepped in with a short-term loan of $2 billion to help Ukraine bridge its budget deficit.

That could be repaid with a Eurobond, for possibly as much as $1.5 billion, which the Kiev government says it will issue in July once the IMF deal has been squared away.

An April deal with Moscow on the price of gas supplies enabled Prime Minister Mykola Azarov to get a 2010 budget through parliament, which should pave the way for the new IMF deal, though the government has struggled to convince the Fund that its target figures are realistic.

Whatever policy moves Yanukovich makes, he will have to bear in mind that he was elected by less than 50 percent of the electorate.

To be certain of a second term, he may have to improve his standing in the Ukrainian-speaking west and centre which voted primarily for his rival, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Below is an overview of the key political risks:

Yanukovich moved quickly to bring in Azarov, an ally, and restore to government many other old faces who fell from grace under the "Orange Revolution" leadership of Viktor Yushchenko.

But protests in parliament on April 27 over the Russian navy extension in the Crimea were a reminder of the opposition's potential strength.

The 2010 budget, rammed through parliament in almost siege conditions, has been a big step toward unlocking a new multi-billion-dollar IMF bail-out. A previous $16.4 billion programme was suspended late in 2009 after promises on fiscal restraint were breached under the previous administration of Viktor Yushchenko.

What to watch:

-- The size of the stand-by credit which the IMF will offer and how tough the Fund's conditions will be. The government is seeking up to $19 billion credit and an IMF mission currently in Kiev may give its answer in the next few days.

-- How hard will the IMF press for fiscal restraint? In particular, will it push for unpopular rises in household gas prices, something the Tymoshenko government balked at?

-- Signs of an economic turnaround in key areas such as metals and chemicals, real growth and new investment.

-- The Eurobond 'road show' -- set for the first half of July -- and the yield.

-- Real commitment by Yanukovich to end widespread corruption which deters foreign investment.
While Yanukovich has tightened his hold on power, the opposition has failed to re-organise and Tymoshenko is finding it difficult to get broad acceptance as opposition leader.

What to watch:

-- Further signs of moves to prosecute Tymoshenko and her allies for alleged past misdemeanours, which could destabilise the political situation.

-- Possible moves by deputies from Our Ukraine -- Yushchenko's party -- to join the coalition backing Yanukovich, something which would substantially help him consolidate power.
Under the April agreement with Russia, Ukraine will now receive supplies of gas at a 30 percent discount, relieving huge pressure on the government which struggled every month to meet its gas bill under a January 2009 agreement.

Past disputes over gas pricing and conditions have had a knock-on effect on Russian supplies to Europe which also transit Ukraine. In January 2009, a cut-off in supplies by Russia led to millions of European householders being left without heating.

The Ukrainian government has offered Russia a role together with the European Union in revamping Ukraine's gas pipeline network which carries Russian gas to Europe.

Moscow reacted with little enthusiasm to this idea and instead took the Ukrainians by surprise on April 30 with an offer to merge gas giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) with Ukraine's state energy firm Naftogaz.

The Yanukovich camp has effectively poured cold water on the idea, by saying Ukraine would want 50 percent of any such merger.

What to watch:

-- Reawakened interest by Russia in taking part in the three-way pipeline consortium.

-- Signs of strain in Ukraine meeting gas payments.
Ukraine's risk premiums have fallen and investors have returned since the vote, making it more likely that the government will be able to borrow domestically and even abroad to replenish its coffers.

Ukraine's FX reserves are worth $25 billion, providing around six months of import cover. High payments for Russian gas are a drain on Ukraine's coffers but the hryvnia currency has been on a strong footing since the elections, so at least there is no need to spend reserves on currency market interventions.

Credit default swaps have narrowed sharply since the vote, and investors have lined up to buy domestic debt, yields for which have fallen dramatically. This should enable Kiev to secure cash to meet sizeable debt repayments due.

Large corporate debt is a potential risk, including in the state-controlled sector, and restructuring is expected.

What to watch:

-- Will corporates be able to restructure debts easily?

-- April sovereign debt repayments were not a big problem thanks to improved sentiment but any signs of falling demand/ rising yields in domestic bond auctions could signal problems for the future. An IMF deal and/or other loans are key to keeping investors on side and thus risk premiums down.
Yanukovich says he intends to take Ukraine along a middle path between Russia and Europe, improving poor relations with the former but moving his country into the European mainstream.

But he has taken major steps toward Russia and exposed himself to opposition charges that he plays fast and loose with Ukraine's sovereignty. A visit to Kiev by Medvedev in mid-May formally opened a new chapter of more intensive economic and political contacts between the two countries.

What to watch:

-- Under Yanukovich, Ukraine has pushed NATO membership off the agenda but will he limit military cooperation with the U.S.-led alliance?

-- Will U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton make any oblique criticism of the Yanukovich presidency when she visits on July 2-3?

-- How far will Yanukovich go in overtures to the European Union to balance out his policy?

Director of Konrad Adenauer Foundation held for 10 hours at Kyiv airport

A leading Ukraine-based German analyst who recently criticized President Viktor Yanukovych was held for 10 hours at Kyiv airport while trying to enter the country, he said Sunday.

Nico Lange, the director of the Kiev office of German think-tank Konrad Adenauer Foundation, landed at Kyiv Boryspil airport Saturday afternoon but was not allowed to enter Ukrainian territory, he informed..

Only after intervention by the German embassy and long talks with the Ukrainian authorities was Lange was able to leave the airport and go to Kyiv at about 1:00 am Sunday (2200 GMT Saturday).

"Now I am at home in Kyiv. I was let go in the night," Lange told AFP.

"According to the official version it was misunderstanding," he added. "We will check this issue in Germany and will discuss it together with the embassy."

The spokeswoman of the Ukrainian security service the SBU, Maryna Ostapenko, declined to comment.

Influential news website Ukrainska Pravda wrote that Lange -- who has worked in Kiev for the last three years -- had encountered problems with the Ukrainian authorities due to his criticism of Yanukovych's administration.

In May, Lange published a report entitled: "The first 100 Days after Change of Power in Ukraine: Authoritarian Tendencies and Rapprochement with Russia".

In early June he expressed the doubts about the will of the cabinet to implement economic reform and concerns over the future of democracy in the country, in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

The incident comes amid growing concerns over a return to media censorship under Yanukovych, which has prompted a string of complaints from private Ukrainian television channels.

The presidency has vowed to look into the complaints and insisted it puts no pressure on the press.

But US ambassador to Ukraine John Tefft on Thursday said in a speech there had been "troubling reports of pressure on journalists" and warned there should be no going back to the "old system" of government pressure.