Cassette Scandal
Encyclopedia
The Cassette Scandal also known as "Tapegate" and "Kuchmagate", erupting in 2000, was one of the main political events in Ukraine
's post-independence history. It has dramatically affected the country's domestic and foreign policy, changing Ukraine's orientation at the time from the West
to Russia
and damaging the career of Leonid Kuchma
.
The scandal started on 28 November 2000, in Kiev
, when Ukrainian politician Oleksandr Moroz
publicly accused President Kuchma of involvement in the abduction
of journalist Georgiy Gongadze and numerous other crimes. Moroz named Kuchma's former bodyguard
, Major Mykola Melnychenko
, as the source. He also played selected recordings of the President's secret conversations for journalists, supposedly confirming Kuchma's order to kidnap Gongadze. That and hundreds of other conversations were later published worldwide by Melnychenko.
Journalists nicknamed the case after the compact audio cassette used by Moroz. Mel'nychenko himself was supposedly using digital
equipment, not cassettes, for recording in the President's office.
and other countries became more deeply involved after one of the recordings revealed the alleged transfer of a sophisticated Ukrainian defence system "Kol'chuha" to Saddam Hussein
's Iraq
. As a result, Leonid Kuchma was boycott
ed by Western governments for a time. In particular, he experienced an offensive diplomatic demarche
when visiting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit that took place on 21–22 November 2002 in Prague
. Breaking the decades-lasting tradition, the list of participating countries was announced in French
, not English
. As a result Turkey
was named after Ukraine, instead of the United Kingdom
and United States, thereby avoiding the appearance of Kuchma next to Tony Blair
and George W. Bush
.
Moreover, widely publicized conversations depicted Kuchma as a rude, undereducated and spiteful person, using filthy lexics and speaking a freak mixture of Russian and Ukrainian languages. Advocates argue that excessive foul language is the proof of a deliberate montage of the recordings using extrinsic audio samples.
Influenced by all above-mentioned, the President soon became disillusioned with European integration
and started to loosen Ukraine's relations with the United States and European Union
, critical to his regime. Instead, he boosted integration with Russia, considering the fact that its new leader, Vladimir Putin
, was continuously supporting Kuchma and refusing to recognize the allegations.
In September 2003, Ukrainian troops joined U.S.-led stabilization forces in Iraq, which is widely perceived as Kuchma's effort to improve relations with the West. Since then, high-level relations were partially restored.
Commenting on the scandal and Mel'nychenko's actions in particular, Leonid Kuchma persistently claims they were a result of foreign interference, but never accuses any specific country. However, some of his statements on the issue may be interpreted as cautious hints on the role of either United States or Russia.
, Ukraine's Prime Minister
at the time and also Ukraine's former President. Oleksander Moroz concluded an alliance with Yushchenko, resulting in the reformation of Ukraine's constitution
(in favor of the parliament
). Hundreds of politicians and activists taking part in the 2001 protests led the 2004 Orange Revolution
. Yushchenko led the revolution after the presidential election
, and became President on 23 January 2005.
Mykola Mel'nychenko (who received U.S. political asylum) released new portions of his recordings. Some analysts find his behavior partisan and suspicious. In 2004, Volodymyr Tsvil', a Ukrainian businessman who assisted Mel'nychenko in his escape, publicly accused him of not revealing certain details of the case and trying to sell the audio archive to Kuchma's aides. Mel'nychenko visited Ukraine in 2005 to release new allegation details, but hasn't disclosed any details of his possible eavesdropping operation.
The criminal investigation regarding the circumstances of Mel'nychenko's records and Georgiy Gongadze's death remains inconclusive despite a mass of information revealed by numerous journalistic investigations.
Mel'nychenko's recordings where declared evidence when former President Kuchma was charged with abuse of office and giving illegal orders to Interior Ministry officials; a criminal case into the murder of Gongadze was opened against Kuchma on March 21, 2011.
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
's post-independence history. It has dramatically affected the country's domestic and foreign policy, changing Ukraine's orientation at the time from the West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and damaging the career of Leonid Kuchma
Leonid Kuchma
Leonid Danylovych Kuchma was the second President of independent Ukraine from 19 July 1994, to 23 January 2005. Kuchma took office after winning the 1994 presidential election against his rival, incumbent Leonid Kravchuk...
.
The scandal started on 28 November 2000, in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, when Ukrainian politician Oleksandr Moroz
Oleksandr Moroz
Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Moroz is a Ukrainian statesman and politician. He was the Speaker of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine twice: July 2006 to September 2007, and previously in 1994 through 1998. Moroz is one of the founders and leader of the Socialist Party of Ukraine, which was an influential...
publicly accused President Kuchma of involvement in the abduction
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
of journalist Georgiy Gongadze and numerous other crimes. Moroz named Kuchma's former bodyguard
Bodyguard
A bodyguard is a type of security operative or government agent who protects a person—usually a famous, wealthy, or politically important figure—from assault, kidnapping, assassination, stalking, loss of confidential information, terrorist attack or other threats.Most important public figures such...
, Major Mykola Melnychenko
Mykola Melnychenko
Mykola Melnychenko was a bodyguard of the former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma.Between 1998 and 2000 Melnychenko allegedly recorded numerous conversations that took place in the office of the Ukrainian leader before fleeing abroad with the secretly taped recordings...
, as the source. He also played selected recordings of the President's secret conversations for journalists, supposedly confirming Kuchma's order to kidnap Gongadze. That and hundreds of other conversations were later published worldwide by Melnychenko.
Journalists nicknamed the case after the compact audio cassette used by Moroz. Mel'nychenko himself was supposedly using digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
equipment, not cassettes, for recording in the President's office.
Immediate consequences
The described events provoked a crisis, with mass protests in Kiev from 15 December 2000 to 9 March 2001. Opposition started a campaign of non-violent resistance called UBK ("Ukraine without Kuchma!"), demanding Kuchma's resignation. Despite economic growth in the country, President Kuchma's public approval ratings fell below 9%.2002-2003
In 2002, the governments of United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and other countries became more deeply involved after one of the recordings revealed the alleged transfer of a sophisticated Ukrainian defence system "Kol'chuha" to Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
's Iraq
Ba'athist Iraq
The History of Iraq , referred to as Ba'athist Iraq, covers the period of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party's rule over Iraq. Ba'athist rule in Iraq first occurred briefly in 1963 under Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr until overthrown that same year. Ba'athism was restored to power five years later after...
. As a result, Leonid Kuchma was boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
ed by Western governments for a time. In particular, he experienced an offensive diplomatic demarche
Demarche
A démarche has come to refer either to# a line of action; move; countermove; maneuver, esp. in diplomatic relations, or# formal diplomatic representation of the official position, views, or wishes on a given subject from one government to another government or intergovernmental...
when visiting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit that took place on 21–22 November 2002 in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
. Breaking the decades-lasting tradition, the list of participating countries was announced in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, not English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. As a result Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
was named after Ukraine, instead of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and United States, thereby avoiding the appearance of Kuchma next to Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
and George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
.
Moreover, widely publicized conversations depicted Kuchma as a rude, undereducated and spiteful person, using filthy lexics and speaking a freak mixture of Russian and Ukrainian languages. Advocates argue that excessive foul language is the proof of a deliberate montage of the recordings using extrinsic audio samples.
Influenced by all above-mentioned, the President soon became disillusioned with European integration
European integration
European integration is the process of industrial, political, legal, economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe...
and started to loosen Ukraine's relations with the United States and European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, critical to his regime. Instead, he boosted integration with Russia, considering the fact that its new leader, Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
, was continuously supporting Kuchma and refusing to recognize the allegations.
In September 2003, Ukrainian troops joined U.S.-led stabilization forces in Iraq, which is widely perceived as Kuchma's effort to improve relations with the West. Since then, high-level relations were partially restored.
Commenting on the scandal and Mel'nychenko's actions in particular, Leonid Kuchma persistently claims they were a result of foreign interference, but never accuses any specific country. However, some of his statements on the issue may be interpreted as cautious hints on the role of either United States or Russia.
Legacy
Many figures of the scandal remained influential in Ukrainian politics. The case was directly connected with the political career of Viktor YushchenkoViktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution...
, Ukraine's Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
at the time and also Ukraine's former President. Oleksander Moroz concluded an alliance with Yushchenko, resulting in the reformation of Ukraine's constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
(in favor of the parliament
Verkhovna Rada
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is Ukraine's parliament. The Verkhovna Rada is a unicameral parliament composed of 450 deputies, which is presided over by a chairman...
). Hundreds of politicians and activists taking part in the 2001 protests led the 2004 Orange Revolution
Orange Revolution
The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter...
. Yushchenko led the revolution after the presidential election
Ukrainian presidential election, 2004
The Ukrainian presidential election, 2004 was held on October 31, November 21 and December 26, 2004. The election was the fourth presidential election to take place in Ukraine following independence from the Soviet Union...
, and became President on 23 January 2005.
Mykola Mel'nychenko (who received U.S. political asylum) released new portions of his recordings. Some analysts find his behavior partisan and suspicious. In 2004, Volodymyr Tsvil', a Ukrainian businessman who assisted Mel'nychenko in his escape, publicly accused him of not revealing certain details of the case and trying to sell the audio archive to Kuchma's aides. Mel'nychenko visited Ukraine in 2005 to release new allegation details, but hasn't disclosed any details of his possible eavesdropping operation.
The criminal investigation regarding the circumstances of Mel'nychenko's records and Georgiy Gongadze's death remains inconclusive despite a mass of information revealed by numerous journalistic investigations.
Mel'nychenko's recordings where declared evidence when former President Kuchma was charged with abuse of office and giving illegal orders to Interior Ministry officials; a criminal case into the murder of Gongadze was opened against Kuchma on March 21, 2011.
See also
- Myroslava GongadzeMyroslava GongadzeMyroslava Gongadze is a Ukrainian journalist and political activist now living in the United States. Her husband, journalist Georgiy Gongadze, was abducted and murdered in 2000...
, widow of Georgiy Gongadze. - Orange RevolutionOrange RevolutionThe Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter...
- Ukrayinska PravdaUkrayinska PravdaUkrayinska Pravda is a popular Ukrainian internet newspaper, founded by Georgiy R. Gongadze in April, 2000...
, newspaper founded by Gongadze - Mykola Mel'nychenko, bodyguard of the former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma.
- Politics of UkrainePolitics of UkrainePolitics of Ukraine take place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the Cabinet. Legislative power is vested in the parliament...
- History of UkraineHistory of UkraineThe territory of Ukraine was a key center of East Slavic culture in the Middle Ages, before being divided between a variety of powers. However, the history of Ukraine dates back many thousands of years. The territory has been settled continuously since at least 5000 BC, and is also a candidate site...