abdymok

cold bird (january 2012)

2012-01-27T20:08:00.001-08:00

winter (january 2012)

2012-01-27T20:07:00.001-08:00

it's raining envelopes

2012-01-23T20:24:00.000-08:00

kyivsky botsad (jan. 23, 2012)

2012-01-23T10:55:00.001-08:00

vydubichi (jan. 19, 2012)

2012-01-20T19:35:00.000-08:00

beach (1967)

2012-01-20T19:33:00.001-08:00

lazarevka (jan. 18, 2011)

2012-01-20T19:32:00.000-08:00

http://bit.ly/xqdyDi

little yellow birds (jan. 19, 2012)

2012-01-20T19:30:00.000-08:00

3/4 violin day

2012-01-10T21:17:00.001-08:00

charlie and michael (st. petersburg, 1969)

2012-01-09T17:23:00.001-08:00

botsad dnipro river run

2012-01-07T01:20:00.001-08:00

botsad dnipro run

9.6 miles / 15.4497024 km
Created 01.07.12 by guest

through the garden and along the river

same squirrel

2012-01-02T01:45:00.000-08:00

squirrel

2012-01-02T01:44:00.000-08:00

культ еды

2011-12-31T11:24:00.001-08:00

apple juice

2011-12-31T11:05:00.001-08:00

free sannikov

2011-12-31T09:35:00.000-08:00

salad

2011-12-31T04:13:00.001-08:00

orange beak

2011-12-31T03:26:00.001-08:00

train from minsk

2011-12-30T23:01:00.000-08:00

the millionth time meeting the train from minsk (dec. 31, 2011)

hanukkah mobile (kyiv, dec. 25, 2011)

2011-12-26T03:43:00.000-08:00

empty corridor (dec. 25, 2011)

2011-12-26T03:42:00.000-08:00

flowers

2011-12-25T21:47:00.001-08:00

abdymok (2006 cover)

2011-12-18T00:53:00.000-08:00

wine for breakfast

2011-12-18T00:49:00.001-08:00

bye bye putin

2011-12-17T03:48:00.000-08:00

soccer field

2011-12-14T03:49:00.000-08:00

steshka monster

2011-12-12T09:49:00.001-08:00

update

2011-12-10T10:27:00.001-08:00

new gloves

2011-12-10T10:02:00.001-08:00

breakfast

2011-12-08T22:52:00.001-08:00

ruslan vashkevich

2011-12-07T13:08:00.001-08:00

near pechersky spusk

2011-12-07T12:38:00.001-08:00

christmas time

2011-12-06T06:32:00.001-08:00

for-ua.com

rose

2011-12-03T04:51:00.001-08:00

steshka monster

2011-12-02T22:58:00.001-08:00

nika's birthday

2011-12-02T12:31:00.001-08:00

what a kyiv post invoice looks like

2011-11-30T21:48:00.001-08:00

oblivion

2011-11-29T04:23:00.001-08:00

and now for a cup of coffee (1990)

2011-11-26T19:40:00.001-08:00

aurora, st. pete (summer 1969)

2011-11-25T07:20:00.001-08:00

khreshchatyk

2011-11-24T07:47:00.000-08:00

certavi et vici

2011-11-24T07:02:00.001-08:00

wounded one's sumptuous pasta dinner

2011-11-23T11:04:00.001-08:00

more kitchen table

2011-11-23T11:02:00.001-08:00

oriole

2011-11-20T09:31:00.001-08:00

cube face number two

2011-11-20T00:34:00.001-08:00

conventional finality

2011-11-19T08:26:00.001-08:00

3-d cube

steshka monster

2011-11-19T00:01:00.001-08:00

pain killers

2011-11-18T18:20:00.001-08:00

* * *

2011-11-14T21:17:00.001-08:00

* * *

an ordinary black crow

2011-11-08T08:17:00.000-08:00

bright leaves

2011-11-07T00:43:00.001-08:00

a funny kind of yellow

2011-11-05T07:27:00.001-07:00

7:30 a.m.

2011-11-04T23:18:00.000-07:00

writing something

2011-11-03T21:20:00.000-07:00

i'm told i should write something on this site every once in a while.

oh, somewhere in the middle of all that the thumbnail link to the latest franz photo dropped off the front page, even though daily pictures were still being put up. you can go catch up if you like.

the worst thing about this weird hangover is the likelihood of the cms calling the shots, the server's internal works deciding what the text and picture in the post ought to look like.

every week the kyiv post offers another example of the ruination of reality by editors on autopilot. the result is a parody, a tragic approximation of the way ukrainians interact with roman upper- and lower-case letters.

blech.

color orange

2011-11-02T21:26:00.001-07:00

kp now offers polishing services

2011-10-31T11:19:00.000-07:00

fatigue

2011-10-31T06:09:00.001-07:00

shevchenko & green parrot

2011-10-31T05:33:00.000-07:00

taras shevchenko

2011-10-31T05:08:00.001-07:00

steshka monster on ipad

2011-10-26T08:44:00.002-07:00

peter on ipad

2011-10-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

spaso house (1969)

2011-10-25T22:40:00.000-07:00

mr. firtash

2011-10-25T21:43:00.001-07:00

abdymok

2011-10-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

anchor

2011-10-23T08:55:00.001-07:00

finger nails

2011-10-23T08:29:00.001-07:00

keming

2011-10-22T22:04:00.000-07:00

grisly death

peterhof (august, 1969)

2011-10-22T06:36:00.000-07:00

peterhof (august 1969)

kirill uspensky (july 1969)

2011-10-22T06:35:00.000-07:00

kirill uspensky

yellow

2011-10-22T05:04:00.000-07:00

dancing queen

2011-10-21T21:18:00.001-07:00

kelsey

2011-10-20T10:32:00.000-07:00

kelseybyrnemusic

speak memory

2011-10-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

here

oh, really?

2011-10-18T23:59:00.000-07:00

kuchma'scase: 200,000 euros to a con artist

melnychenko'scompanion 'hauled to the woods'

(part ii)

pinchuk'smen have so far been unable to find evidence of falsification in the'melnychenko recordings.' neither did they find records ofconversations made in kuchma's office after sept. 16, 2000. the onlytrophy they took home was a xerox copy of handwritten letter fromostrava authored by melnychenko. nevertheless, in exchange forsavchenko, tsvil successfully turned a profit.

the final stage of the operation to enlist volodymyr savchenko as awitness in the defense of former ukrainian president leonid kuchmatook place in kyiv's premier palace hotel. tsvil called melnychenko'sex-collaborator and insisted he meet with pinchuk's men. standingnear the foyer of the hotel, tsvil offered savchenko some last minuteadvice: “don't fuck around. they're being courteous with you fornow. they could just as easily stake out your apartment and haul youoff to the woods.”

mokhortov and konstantinovskiy had reserved a room at premier palacehotel for talks with savchenko, but the latter categorically refusedto come up to he room. he agreed only to talk in the hotel's lobbybar. it is not know what arguments pinchuk's people used to enticesavchenko, but the sides eventually reached an agreement. theyconvinced savchenko to work on 'melnychenko's recordings' along witha computer specialist from eastone at a secluded location. savchenkoinsisted he take a friend along (just in case the site was locatednext to the woods).

following the chit chat, mokhortov and konstantinovskiy gavemelnychenko's companion the paltry sum of usd 11,000, an advancepayment on the total sum. fittingly, it was savchenko's birthday.

several days later, from 16-18 may, savchenko found himself in thechervona ruta, a fortified hotel complex at konche zaspa outside ofkyiv. he spent about a week here with pinchuk's men, who urged him toidentify where and how he had falsified the 'melnychenko recordings.'

pinchuk's people also wanted savchenko to find recordings made aftersept. 16. these are the records of kuchma's conversations createdafter gongadze disappeared. the contents might show that thepresident knew nothing about the journalist's murder and was orallybriefed about the search for the journalists by the heads of thestate secret service and ministry of the interior. kuchma's defenseteam says that namely these records were digitally diced to provideunflattering snippets first made public by oleksandr moroz.

savchenko was accompanied by a computer specialist and an analystfrom eastone. the men spent hours at chernovna ruta pouring overdozens of cds containing kuchma's recorded conversations. a portionof these had been supplied from boston by yuriy felshtinsky, whopreviously worked on projects funded by exiled russian tycoon borisberezovsky. (felshtinsky refused comment on this article).

the biggest stack of cds was brought to kyiv from the czech republic,care of tsvil, who inherited the collection when the us grantedmelnychenko refugee status in april 2001.

the sound files contained on the cds were written in october 2000 andencrypted with a 13-digit winzip code. it was impossible to unlockthe audio files in chervona ruta; savchenko told pinchuk's peoplethat he didn't know the passwords.

melnychenko's companion insisted he first came in contact withrecordings of kuchma only in 2008, that is, after mykola suffered aminor stroke.

savchenko succeeded in outwitting his interlocutors, who wereunfamiliar with melnychenko's recordings archive. they asked savchenko toacknowledge that the recordings were made using a stationaryrecording device.

savchenko resposted by demonstrating an snippet during which melnychenkocarried the recorder from kuchma's office into the reception area, where the voices of security guards are clearly audible. listeners can hear melnychenkoswitching off the recorder while walking out of the building.

in brief, pinchuk's people learned nothing new about falsifiedsnippets from the 'melnychenko recordings.' they also didn't find anyrecordings made in kuchma's office after gongadze disappeared onsept. 16. their only trophy was a xerox copy of a handwritten noteauthored by melnychenko.

tsvil, nonetheless, earned good money for turning over savchenko.according to reliable sources, his bank accounts were topped up inmay and june of this year.

the fee also covers tsvil's witness testimony for the defense inupcoming court case against kuchma. it is also, in part, a reward forferrying copies of cds from the czech republic. it should be pointedout that tsvil has promised in the past to make the records freelyavailable to journalists, but has not kept his word.

tsvil himself denies he 'took any money from the jews,' saying heonly received compensation for out-of-pocket expenses. tsvil insistsaltruistic motives drive his quest to establish the truth about whoordered gongadze followed and killed. and this is how he came to meetsavchenko, tsvil says, adding that his decision to cooperate withpinchuk's people was informed and made independently.

by the way, immediately after working in chernovna ruta on the'melnychenko recordings,' tsvil helped savchenko organize a vacationabroad and receive a polish-shengen visa. savchenko's currentwhereabouts are unknown, although the sbu confirmed on oct. 17 thathe had been summoned for questioning.

there are several aspects about the case that still need to beexplained.

how informed was pinchuk about details involving savchenko'ssituation? is it true that he personally authorized and monitored theactivities of mokhortov and konstantinovskiy? according to tsvil'sversion, the oligarch deliberately put two of his most trustedlieutenants on the case and listened to attentively to their reports.

does viktor pinchuk understand that conducting a 'special operation'involving melnychenko's companion could become the basis for thatwitness to appeal to the general prosecutor's office of ukraine in astatement saying he has received threats, been deprived of hisliberty, and urged to give false testimony at trial? that savchenko'ssituation now satisfies criteria for granting him refugee status?

and finally, how, exactly is kuchma's defense team going todemonstrate that records of kuchma's conversations about gongadzehave been falsified as kuchma's lawyer, viktor petrunenko, hasaverred: “these recordings have been doctored and are cannot beused as evidence in the criminal trial.”

by the way, in the author's opinion, viktor pinchuk has alreadyagreed with 'the right people' who can quash the criminal caseagainst kuchma. the trial, which will start in several months, willbe not be emcumbered with extra noise and will end with a not-guiltyverdict.

in addition, it is unlikely that the state prosecutor's office willsuddenly make cases involving the wiretapping of kuchma's office apriority. and neither will plaintiffs, especially in the light of thelatest debacle involving pinchuk's people.

it's already obvious that they will feed us tall tales about powerfuland super-secret government agencies which provided support formelnychenko. and how the recordings themselves were made in order toimplicate kuchma in gongadze's murder.

the question whether ukraine society will accept the result of the'cassette scandal' remains open.

p.s. viktor mokhortov acknowledged in a meeting with the author thathe knows and has met with savchenko. yakov konstantinovskiy ignoredthe author's request for comment.

this is part ii of an article written by olexiy stepura. part i, published on oct. 8, can be found here.