Kravchenko Yuri Fyodorovich (March 5, 1951, Aleksandria, Kirovohrad Region — March 4, 2005, Koncha-Zaspa, Kyiv Region) was a Ukrainian statesman and law enforcement officer who served as Ukraine's Minister of Internal Affairs from 1995 to 2001. Nizhny Novgorod connection: in 1978 he graduated from the Gorky Higher School of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.[1]
Biography and career
He was born in the town of Aleksandria in the Kirovohrad Region. In 1970 he graduated from the Aleksandria Industrial Technical School, after which he worked as an electrical fitter at a local mine. From 1970 to 1972 he performed military service. In 1978 he graduated from the Gorky Higher School of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, after which he joined the internal affairs bodies. In 1998 he defended a dissertation at the Kharkiv University of Internal Affairs, earning the degree of Candidate of Legal Sciences.[1]
After graduating from the Gorky school, he served as an inspector and senior inspector of the OBKhSS (the Soviet police unit for combating embezzlement and speculation) in the Svetlovodsk city executive committee in the Kirovohrad Region (1978–1981), then successively headed the criminal investigation and internal affairs departments in Aleksandria (1981–1986). From 1986 to 1988 he ran the anti-narcotics department of the Criminal Investigation Directorate of the Ukrainian SSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, and from 1989 to 1992 he was head of the Kirovohrad Region Internal Affairs Directorate. From 1992 to 1994 he was Deputy Minister and head of the criminal militia (police) of Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs.[1]
From 1994 to 1995 he headed Ukraine's State Customs Committee, after which he was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs. He remained in the post for six years, from 1995 to 2001, which became the peak of his career.[3] After his resignation he served as chairman of the Kherson Regional State Administration (2001–2002), in 2002 as director of the Saint Volodymyr Institute of Law at the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management, and from 2002 to 2004 as chairman of Ukraine's State Tax Administration.[1]
The Gongadze case and the "tape scandal"
At the end of 2000, Kravchenko found himself at the center of the "tape scandal": audio recordings made by Major Nikolay Melnichenko were made public, in which a voice attributed to then-President Leonid Kuchma allegedly discussed getting rid of the opposition journalist Georgiy Gongadze. A voice attributed to Kravchenko replied that he had people available to carry out such an assignment. The scandal led to Kravchenko's resignation as minister.[1][3]
In early March 2005, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun announced that the Gongadze murder had been solved and said that Kravchenko had been summoned for questioning. Hryhoriy Omelchenko, chairman of the parliamentary commission investigating high-profile cases, publicly urged that the former minister be detained immediately, warning of a possible "psychological breakdown, suicide, or physical elimination."[3]
Death
On the morning of March 4, 2005, Kravchenko was found dead in a utility room of his house in Koncha-Zaspa near Kyiv. A pistol lay beside the body. The official investigative version classified the incident as suicide: according to the investigators' conclusion, Kravchenko shot himself in the head twice — first through the chin, then in the temple. A suicide note was found at the scene, in which Kravchenko declared his innocence and called himself a victim of political intrigue.[3]
The official suicide version raised doubts among a number of specialists and people who knew the general personally. Forensic experts drew attention to the absence of powder traces and singed hair around the entry wounds, as well as to the discovery at the scene of fingerprints and a hair that did not belong to Kravchenko — yet no measures were taken to identify their owner. The criminal case was closed for lack of evidence of a crime.[1][2] Andriy Fedur, the lawyer for Gongadze's mother, put forward the theory that Kravchenko's death may have been aimed at covering up the traces of the journalist's murder.[3]
Nizhny Novgorod Connection
In 1978, Kravchenko graduated from the Gorky Higher School of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs — an educational institution in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) that later became the Nizhny Novgorod Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. It was here that he received his professional legal education, which allowed him to begin a career in the internal affairs bodies of Ukraine.[1]
Sources
- dosye.info — Kravchenko, Yuri Fyodorovich — DOSSIER
- fb.ru — Kravchenko Yuri Fyodorovich: Biography, Cause of Death
- zabytki.in.ua — A Controversial Figure. Yuri Kravchenko