Yushchenko: Russian poison link

2005-02-27 08:53

Kiev - In a bizarre twist to the mysterious poisoning that disfigured the face of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, investigators in Kiev are probing a new lead that involves a Russian political consultant.

Prosecutors are studying an audiotape of a conversation which alleges a role in the dioxin poisoning by Kremlin-connected spin-doctor Gleb Pavlovsky, a spokesperson for the prosecutor general told AFP.

Pavlovsky, a key campaign advisor to Yushchenko's defeated Moscow-backed rival Viktor Yanukovich, dismisses the claims as a "fabrication".

"The prosecutor has said he knows whose voices are on the tape. This is one of the versions we are working on," said Vyacheslav Astapov, a spokesperson for prosecutor general Svyatoslav Piskun.

The tape recording is of a bugged conversation between a Kremlin official in Moscow and a man in Kiev who is close to Ukraine's SBU secret services, the journalist who passed the tape to prosecutors, Volodymyr Ariev, told AFP.

"The person in Kiev told his contact in Moscow that the poisoning was Pavlovsky's idea. The aim was to disfigure Yushchenko's face, not kill him," said the Channel 5 journalist, adding that the plot appeared to involve rogue Russian secret service elements.

The tape, made in November a few months after the poisoning, was passed anonymously to Channel 5, and when the network aired the recording, it was widely dismissed as a hoax or an attempt to discredit Pavlovsky.

'Gross fabrication'

The well-known political consultant, who helped to run Yanukovich's election bid with the Kremlin's blessing, emphatically denied the allegations and accused Ukrainian prosecutors of following a political agenda.

"It's a gross fabrication. The general prosecutor's office is working now for the new regime and is very politicised. But I don't think they will take it seriously," he told AFP by telephone from Moscow.

Yushchenko has said he believes he was slipped a large dose of dioxin during a secret dinner in early September with the head of the country's secret services and his deputy, while he was campaigning for the presidency.

But he has not accused either of them of responsibility.

Yushchenko fell seriously ill the day after and was rushed to hospital in Vienna, his face bloated and covered in pockmarks, knocking him off the campaign trail for weeks. Doctors took three months to diagnose poisoning with dioxin.

His features remain deformed to this day.

- AFP