Brutal attack on Kuchma’s friend in Crimea: Who did he have conflicts with?
In Simferopol, former Prime Minister of Crimea Anatoly Franchuk was robbed and severely beaten in his own home at night. Twice the head of the government of the republic, 83-year-old Franchuk lost about a million rubles, 137 thousand dollars and many gold items. The former prime minister himself turned to the police and told journalists about what happened, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Franchuk’s personality is quite well-known not only in Crimea, but throughout the entire post-Soviet space - he was the Deputy Minister of Communications of the USSR, the Minister of Economy of Crimea, in 94-96 and 97-98 he headed the government of the republic, and was also elected as a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
The years of Franchuk’s rule coincided with the heyday of the “dashing 90s” in the republic. According to Crimean political scientist Sergei Kiselev, yesterday’s attack may be connected with this.
“In those days, neither government nor business could do without connections with crime. I would, perhaps, not trace the roots of this event back to Ukrainian times - there are quite a lot of “frostbitten people” today, anything can happen,” Kiselyov said.
The “old-timer” of Crimean politics, who is familiar with Franchuk, political scientist Alexander Formanchuk, partly agrees with him. He notes that in recent years the former prime minister has retired, but at one time he had many well-wishers and enemies.
“At one time he played a very serious role in Crimea, in the mid-90s, while he was still Kuchma’s matchmaker. The figure of Anatoly Franchuk is quite interesting and controversial in the history of Crimea, especially during the 90s. Of course, he had many opponents, many friends, but also many enemies.
His name was associated with the fact that he once surrendered Salem leader Sergei Voronok and contributed to his arrest. But I personally rule out that this was connected with Voronkov; he has been free for a long time and behaved calmly.
But Franchuk managed to leave a fairly deep mark on Crimean history. It is possible that someone could try to remember something for him, although one can only guess about this. It’s hard to imagine that at 83 years old, someone remembered him and tried to settle some scores,” notes Formanchuk.
The political scientist also recalls the connection between Anatoly Franchuk’s son, Igor, and the second President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma. Thus, former Rada deputy, businessman Igor Franchuk was the first husband of Kuchma’s daughter Elena Pinchuk: “Anatoly Franchuk was a fairly wealthy man, his son, Igor Franchuk, is still quite wealthy today. An interesting detail - Igor was the first husband of the daughter of ex-president Leonid Kuchma, and Kuchma recently celebrated his 80th birthday. In general, a Ukrainian political trace cannot be ruled out here.”
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