In March 2005, on the territory of his own household was found dead with 2 bullet wounds to the head of the ex-Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Yury Fedorovich Kravchenko. It became known that on that day, March 5, the official intended to arrive at the Prosecutor General of Ukraine for questioning in the “Gongadze case”. On the morning of that day, the ex-Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine was killed.
The official version of the investigation, according to which the case was closed, was: the general committed suicide by shooting himself in the head 2 times with his own hands. According to experts, this version does not hold water.
Unsolved Murder
In the investigation into the death of the ex-head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Yu. F. Kravchenko, as usual, there is a protocol. According to this document, as well as the conclusion of the examination, at the scene of the incident, the criminalists discovered fingerprints suitable for identification that belong not to Y. Kravchenko, but to another person. The investigating authorities did not take any measures to identify the person who left these prints at the scene of the tragedy, and his possible involvement in the death of Kravchenko. The question of determining the blood type of a person who has left imprints unsuitable for identification (there are also those) was not raised. Opportunities for such studies have been available for 30 years.
It is also known that on one of the fingers (index on the left hand) of the deceased, investigators found a long (35 cm) - dyed, torn hair, torn from a person’s head with a quick and strong movement. According to the conclusion of the examination, this hair does not belong to the late Kravchenko. However, no measures have yet been taken to establish the face to which this hair could belong. According to experts, no particles of gunpowder or traces of burnt hair were found in the area of the wound inlet openings on the victim's body.
The criminal case on the death of General Kravchenko has long been closed due to the absence of any corpus delicti. And yet, many with whom Yuri Fedorovich Kravchenko was closely associated, especially in those difficult times, have their own point of view. The truth of this version, which destroys all the grounds for creating an official conclusion on the causes of the tragedy, is evidenced by numerous media materials. So what is Kravchenko’s death - murder or suicide?
Unnecessary witness
Obviously, this outstanding person could tell the investigation a lot. It is known that even after the resignation of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Kravchenko Yuri Fedorovich continued to independently investigate the “Gongadze case”. And probably, during the interrogation, he could set out not only his version of this resonant case, which cost him both a good name and a career. He could have been called the “puppeteers” of this dirty story — the customers and organizers of the “cassette scandal,” which has become — and this is already obvious today — the cause of the journalist’s tragic death.
One way or another, and today it should become obvious to the public that another thing: the case of the assassination of General Kravchenko is falsified. This was extremely necessary for someone: the fact of Kravchenko’s murder was hidden, the cause of death was falsified, the evidence was destroyed, the witnesses were silent.
Handwriting
The criminals are not only given a lot of silent evidence, they are also given a “handwriting” in the destruction of the “Kravchenko case”, a style of hiding these same evidence. To those on whose orders Yuri Fedorovich Kravchenko was killed, a rich arsenal of possibilities was involved in planning, implementing a crime, hiding his traces, “collapse” of a criminal case at the investigation stage, falsifying forensic and forensic examinations in the framework of this case, destroying a witness (or a “burning” artist?), the organization of cover for the ongoing “special operation” through appropriate campaigns in Ukrainian and Russian media. Only persons with “their own people” in the entire administrative vertical of the SBU and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as the courts of Kiev and the Prosecutor General’s Office, can have such opportunities.
The Gongadze Case
At the end of 2000, Kravchenko, Yuri Fedorovich, was one of the participants in the so-called cassette scandal. Then there was the publication of audio recordings on which allegedly Yury Kravchenko, President of Ukraine L. Kuchma and V. Litvin, the head of the presidential administration, discussed the possibilities of physically eliminating opposition journalist G. Gongadze. As a result, Interior Minister Y. Kravchenko was removed from office.
In mid-September 2000, unidentified men kidnapped an opposition journalist returning home and was taken away in an unknown direction. Soon, a criminal case was opened on the fact of G. Gongadze’s disappearance. The investigation was conducted under the personal supervision of President Leonid Kuchma. November 2, 2000 in the forest near with. A headless body was found in the Kiev region, according to the investigation, belonging to G. Gongadze. At the end of February of the following year, the Prosecutor General's Office recognized the fact of the journalist’s death and a murder case was opened.
About the “cassette scandal”
On September 28, 2000, the leader of the SPU, Alexander Moroz, published in the Verkhovna Rada certain records, which were later called "Melnichenko films." The audio recordings were allegedly secretly made in the office of President L. Kuchma, Nikolai Melnichenko, who at that time served as a major in the presidential guard. Subsequently, the former officer received political asylum in the United States.
On the provided audio recordings, you can hear that the allegedly incumbent president is discussing an opposition journalist as a nuisance. Conversations are held in turn with Yuri Kravchenko, then Minister of the Interior, Mikhail Potebenko, then Prosecutor General, L. Derkach, head of the SBU, and Vladimir Litvin, head of the presidential administration. On one of the recordings, the president allegedly gives the order to Minister Yu. Kravchenko to “sort out” the objectionable journalist, while another Kravchenko is already reporting on the work done.
In the United States and Europe, an examination of audio recordings was conducted. Highly qualified independent experts recognized the authenticity of the voice of President L. Kuchma. But due to the fact that the recordings were made on a digital voice recorder, the experts neither proved nor disproved the possibility of its subsequent mounting.
Accusations of the “Gongadze Case”
On March 3, 2005, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Svyatoslav Piskun announced the intention of his subordinates to question the ex-Interior Minister Y. Kravchenko the next morning. BP deputy Grigory Omelchenko, the former head of the parliamentary commission involved in the investigation of high-profile cases, proposed arresting Kravchenko, as well as Leonid Derkach (head of the SBU) and President Kuchma himself.
According to the press secretary of the GPU, Yury Boychenko, during the investigations it was found that the former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Yuri Kravchenko, was the only culprit, i.e., the customer and instigator of the murder of the journalist. In connection with the death of the suspect, the trial was suspended.
A note
The official version claims that General Kravchenko committed suicide. To do this, he had to shoot himself twice in the head. The investigators allegedly discovered a suicide note, the contents of which were voiced by the Minister of Internal Affairs Yu. Lutsenko. In it, the deceased said goodbye to his relatives, assured of his innocence and that he was the victim of presidential intrigues. The note was written with a ballpoint pen on a lined sheet torn from a notebook and hidden under clothes. Not only near the body, but throughout the house were not found objects that the deceased could use to write a dying message. But on it suspicious brown spots resembling blood were found - despite the fact that no traces of blood were found on the hands of the corpse. There are many inconsistencies in this case. The death of Kravchenko - what is it, murder or suicide? For many, the question is still open.
Yuri Kravchenko: biography
The former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and later the STAU, was born on March 5, 1951 in the city of Alexandria (Kirovograd Region, Ukraine). In 1970, he graduated from an industrial college, in 1978 - from the Higher School of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Gorky. In 1998 he defended his thesis (Kharkov University of Internal Affairs).
Yu. Kravchenko began his career in the distant 1970: at the mine No. 3 bis (Alexandria, Kirovograd Region) he worked as an electrician. After serving in the army, starting in 1978, he entered the law enforcement bodies: starting from the post of inspector of the OBKhSS in the city of Svetlovodsk, he rose to the post of head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and then chairman of the STAU.
He died on the eve of his birthday, March 4, 2005. He had the title of Honored Lawyer of Ukraine, many honorary awards. Yu. F. Kravchenko has a wife and two daughters.
Conclusion
In an interview with the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, one of the deceased’s close friends, police major general K. Bryl, expressed his belief that the former Interior Minister could not commit suicide. According to the general, Kravchenko was killed because he knew everything the truth about the death of journalist G. Gongadze. The ex-minister did not share the information known to him with anyone. He categorically denied his involvement in the disappearance and death of journalist Kravchenko.