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Rada deputies understood Berezovsky differently
So did Boris Berezovsky give money for the election of President Viktor Yushchenko? At the end of last week, representatives of the Ukrainian parliamentary commission, which is investigating information about illegal financing of the presidential campaign in 2004, met with the oligarch in London. Following the meeting, the deputies made contradictory statements.The press service of the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) released a message about Berezovsky’s recognition of the fact of financing Yushchenko’s election campaign and the transfer of documents confirming this fact to them. According to the CPU, Berezovsky revealed the mechanisms for transferring money and confirmed that “in addition to the announced 15 million, another 6 million were allocated for activities within the framework of the special program “Promoting Democracy in Ukraine” common with the US State Department.” The first tranche was allegedly allocated on August 1, 2003, and this money was laundered through the Baltic states and Poland, and was also brought to Ukraine as diplomatic cargo.
At the same time, Mikhail Pozhivanov, a member of the investigative commission, said that Berezovsky “categorically refused” to confirm the fact of financing. If Berezovsky financed anything, it was organizations supporting civil liberties. He still finances them, but refused the mediation of the presidential entourage due to serious mistrust of him, said commission member Igor Shurma.
Berezovsky himself, who called the statement of the Communist Party of Ukraine “untruthful,” is ready to come to Ukraine to testify to law enforcement agencies in the event of security guarantees “at the highest level.” According to his version, there was an agreement not to comment on the results of the meeting “before the official text of the statement.” Perhaps different versions of Berezovsky's statements arose due to the fact that an audio recording of the conversation was not made and now every political force in Ukraine will interpret this data in its favor. The protocol signed with the deputies promised that the oligarch would cooperate with the commission and make an official statement no later than “Monday.” The text being prepared by the oligarch’s lawyers “must be signed by both parties” and submitted to the Rada and the media.
“Discrediting the presidential power in connection with the injection of Berezovsky’s money is the theme of the election campaign of the Communist Party of Ukraine, which has no other serious “tricks” on the eve of the 2006 parliamentary campaign,” Vadim Karasev, head of the Ukrainian Institute of Global Strategies, told Vremya Novostei. “But other players, including moderate political forces from Yushchenko’s opponents, are not interested in promoting the topic of impeachment.” The expert believes that Berezovsky “is not interested in a significant reduction in Yushchenko’s shares.” Berezovsky’s statement on the financing of civil funds in Ukraine “takes these financial flows out of the scope of criminal articles, depriving the Rada commission of the evidence base necessary to promote impeachment,” Karasev believes.