Mykola Melnychenko

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Mykola Iwanowytsch Melnytschenko ( Ukrainian Мико́ла Іва́нович Мельниче́нко , born October 18, 1966 in Wassylkiw , Kiev Oblast , Ukrainian SSR ) was the bodyguard of the former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma . He was the author of the so-called Melnytschenko tapes that sparked the cassette scandal . Between 1999 and 2000, Melnytschenko recorded several conversations between Leonid Kuchma and high-ranking state officials in his office.

Life

Melnytschenko was born in the village of Zapadynka (now part of Vasylkiv, Kiev Oblast) into a family of miners from Donbass . He graduated from the Kiev Military Institute of Communications and Correspondence and became a KGB expert in intelligence control. In 1992 Melnytschenko started working in the Ukrainian State Security Service . Later he was part of the President's personal protection and held the rank of major at the time of the scandal .

Publication of the tapes

In November 2000, the decapitated body of the journalist Heorhiy Gongadze was found in a forest near Kiev, whereupon Melnytschenko passed some of the secret tape recordings to the politician Oleksandr Moros , who made them public. Melnytschenko had left Ukraine a few days earlier and took the rest of the recordings with him. He later got political asylum in the USA. Melnytschenko claimed to have acted alone. According to him, he positioned a recording device under the sofa in the president's office and switched tapes as he entered the office. His motivation was the extreme corruption of the political regime and the crimes of the president.

Politicization of his person

Melnytschenko only published some of the tapes and tried to sell some or use the content politically. Political opponents of the then president also tried to acquire some of the recordings. This has led to the politicization of his person and to criticism of his behavior from various sides.

Prosecution

A criminal case was opened under President Kuchma, but it was closed on March 1, 2005 after the Orange Revolution . After Viktor Yanukovych took power as President of Ukraine on February 25, 2010, the proceedings were resumed on July 29, 2011. Melnichenko was briefly arrested in August 2012.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Understanding Mykola Melnichenko , RFE / RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report. Vol. 5, No. 17, dated May 6, 2003
  2. ↑ US lawyer: Defense of Kuchma will be based "Melnychenko tapes" not being authentic , Kyiv Post of April 11, 2011
  3. ↑ Ex security guard of Ukraine's president detained in Italy , Voice of Russia of August 4, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Melnychenko, Mykola
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Melnytschenko, Mykola Ivanovich (full name); Melnichenko, Mykola; Мельниче́нко, Мико́ла Іва́нович (Ukrainian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ukrainian bodyguard of President Leonid Kuchma
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Vasylkiv , Kiev Oblast , Ukrainian SSR