Return to the 90ties. Just like the US (returns to 1992 with, this time, a severe recession and Russia seems to have warped back to 1992 with a Soviet flavour...)
Change.
J.
***
Russian businessman's assassination in Ukraine fuels fears over contract killing
Kyiv Post
Mar 28 2007
SourceKYIV (AP) - A sniper's brazen, daylight assassination of a Russian businessman being escorted from a Ukrainian courthouse under police escort fueled fears Wednesday that contract killings are again on the rise in This country.
Premier Viktor Yanukovych demanded answers from the country's top police chief about the slaying of Maxim Kurochkin, as opponents seized on the killing and a series of other slayings to criticize Yanukovych's government.
"The killing of businessmen, shady suicides .. give every ground to say that Ukraine has returned to early 90s when a majority of conflicts in business were solved with the help of guns," opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko's party said in a statement.
Kurochkin, known as "Mad Max," was shot in the heart as he stepped out of a central Kyiv courthouse Tuesday evening. The shot apparently came from an attic window of a neighboring building and seriously injured one of the officers escorting him. The shooters, identified by witnesses as two men wearing black masks, escaped.
The killing was not only shocking for its daring character; the businessman had repeatedly pleaded with the court where he was on trial for extortion, saying his life was in danger. Earlier this month, three other business associated were gunned down as they rode in a car and another associate was shot dead last October.
Other fatal shootings include two businessmen killed in the eastern city of Donetsk and one in central Ukraine last year and four attacks on prominent business leaders in the western city of Lviv.
Defense lawyer Sergei Vlasenko said police clearly violated procedural rules when escorting him.
"The car that was to pick him up should of course have come very close to the gate of the court and Mr. Kurochkin's getting into the car should have been done so that no one could have either visual or any other contact with him," he told Russian state-run television.
Ukraine, like other ex-Soviet republics, saw a series of violent business disputes as property was divided up after the collapse of the Soviet Union. But the situation has calmed in recent years.
Observers have suggested the new outbreak in high-profile killings is linked to battles for power in the wake of the 2004 Orange Revolution and the last year's parliamentary elections that shook up the political landscape.
Authorities denied that Kurochkin's killing reflected an increase in violence - and insisted that police were doing better at solving high-profile cases.
Deputy Interior Minister Mykola Kupyansky said there were 56 contract murders in Ukraine last year, 29 of which were solved. In 2002, there were 54, but only 15 solved. In the first three months of this year, there have been 11 contract killings, four of which have been solved.
Taras Chornovil, a lawmaker and ally of Yanukovych, said it was absurd to blame the prime minister.
"It's the same as blaming (U.S. President George W.) Bush when a student opens fire" in a school, he said.
Kurochkin ran an organization that supported Yanukovych during the bitter 2004 presidential campaign and the Orange Revolution mass protests. He was arrested in November at Kyiv's airport on charges of extortion accused of demanding $10,000, a one room apartment and plasma TV from an acquaintance, according to Ukrainian media.
Kurochkin, a millionaire and vast property owner in Ukraine, denied all the accusations and said the case was fabricated.
Ukrainian media reported that Kurochkin had repeatedly asked the court to release him on bail, saying he feared for his life. In November 2004, he was apparently the target of a car bombing that seriously wounded his bodyguards.
Hours before the shooting Tuesday, Kurochkin again asked the court to release him, but the court refused.
Police insisted they did everything to protect Kurochkin, noting that 18 policemen were in the courthouse to provide security. Usually, only three policemen protect defendants in court. Kupyansky said that Kurochkin had not asked about special security protection.
Yanukovych's opponents called the slaying an example of the ineffectiveness of his government.
"There must only be two ways out from the session court: to go free or to go to jail, but not to go the cemetery," said Viktor Baloha, President Viktor Yushchenko's chief-of-staff.
The killing dominated news coverage in the ex-Soviet republic since Kurochkin's trial had been closely followed and Kurochkin had been captured on video just seconds before his death. As Kurochkin was being escorted out of the courthouse, he was asked if he regretted coming to Ukraine.
"I do not regret it," Kurochkin said in footage shown on NTN television.
Moments later, he was shot.