IKDIF Director: Ilko Kucheriv refused $1 million bribe

News Source: PASOS Secretariat, Czech Republic

Ilko Kucheriv, the founder of the Ukrainian think tank that now bears his name, once refused a million-dollar bribe to falsify exit-polling results, according to the think tank’s director.

Iryna Bekeshkina, executive director of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation in Kyiv, recalled the episode during an interview in Kyiv. The backdrop for the bribe offer was the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, and IKDIF was one of several groups involved in conducting exit polls.

“It was at the crucial presidential election in 2004,” Bekeshkina said. “It was a dramatic situation.” She said that supporters of Viktor Yanukovych, who eventually lost the 2004 election to Viktor Yushchenko, offered Kucheriv $1 million to create false results showing that their candidate was winning the election. Yanukovych was later elected to the presidency in 2010, and still holds that office.

Bekeshkina said Kucheriv, a prominent activist in the Ukrainian civil-society movement who succumbed to cancer last year, kept quiet about the bribe attempt during the rest of his life, not wanting to make the affair public.

Bekeshkina’s account of the bribe offer is included in the video below, in which she also recalls Kucheriv’s life and comments on how the Ilko Kucheriv Democracy Partnership Programme has created a legacy for the activist. The Programme seeks to assist the advancement of democratic practices in transitional democracies. It targets professionals at independent democracy and human rights advocacy NGOs and think-tanks from the CIS region.

The program, which includes a fellowship component, was made possible with the financial support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). PASOS, IKDIF, and the Institute of Public Affairs in Poland are partners in the program.