kyiv journalist caught up in case of vanished reporter

investigative journalist oleh yeltsov doesn't write detective novels for a living. but considering the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of journalist georgy gongadze, you'd think that he did.

although he's not personally or professionally acquainted with gongadze, who mysteriously disappeared on the night of sept. 16, yeltsov, the investigative journalist is linked to the vanished reporter through the publication on the internet of several articles and editorials alleging high-level corruption in ukraine.

yeltsov won't say whether he wrote the material, which appeared under the name of ivan stepanov, but gongadze's disappearance and yeltsov's own problems coincided with the publication of "stepanov's" latest article, titled "volkov without a fleece."

the article is a 19-page investigative report on the influential businessman and politician oleksandr volkov. it details previously unreported and unappealing allegations against the oligarch, including alleged links to organized crime and shady business deals.

the article was first published on the russian-based web site federal investigative bureau on sept. 4. it appeared on gongadze's web site - ukrainska pravda - the next day.

according to yeltsov, several influential people, particularly volkov, interior minister yury kravchenko and president leonid kuchma, would have been very upset by the allegations in this and previous articles.

yeltsov says he started to receive threatening phone calls on sept. 15, the day before gongadze disappeared.

"oleh dmitrievich [yeltsov], shut your mouth and listen up. your articles on the internet are disturbing influential people, who are fed up with your secret services (sbu) tricks. your time is running out..."

"can you tell me what i can write about?" yeltsov asked.

but the caller hung up.

yeltsov immediately filed a complaint about the threatening call with his local police department in kyiv's kharkivsky district. militia officers later visited his apartment to interview him.

the next morning, on sept. 16, yeltsov received another mysterious call:

"ok, smart aleck, so you called the police..." then the caller hung up.

leaving his apartment building that morning, yeltsov said he noticed a dark green zhiguli car, bristling with antennae, parked near his building. two large men were inside.

yeltsov said he immediately recalled reading about a dark green car that had been parked outside the office of ukrainska pravda in july, when gongadze first said that he was being harassed by people who claimed to be agents of the interior ministry.

"when i saw the green car, it occurred to me that the authorities might be trying to pressure me psychologically. i didn't think there would be any physical retribution - after all, when they call you, they don't plan to kill you," yeltsov said.

later that day, yeltsov and his young daughter boarded a train bound for russia on a previously planned trip made more urgent by the threatening calls. an hour before leaving, he called his former colleagues at the unian state news agency and told them about the threatening calls and his interviews with the police.

the trip was an eventful one. a few hours out of kyiv, the train was stopped at shevchenko station. plainclothes officers identifying themselves as "railroad police" checked passengers' passports.

after asking the other passengers in yeltsov's compartment to leave, they thoroughly searched both his and his daughter's belongings.

"i asked the senior officer to show identification and provide me with a document showing i'd been searched and nothing had been found, but he refused," yeltsov said.

when the train stopped again next morning, at the border station of ilovayskaya, yeltsov and his daughter were searched again.

"this time two plainclothes agents, a customs official and a sniffer dog came into our compartment," yeltsov said. "one of the men showed me a card identifying himself as an sbu officer from odessa oblast. he said the sbu and customs would check our belongings.

"when i told him we'd already been searched, he seemed surprised. 'write out a [declaration that they've been searched],' he told his subordinate, adding 'hold the train for as long as it takes.'

"after delaying the train's departure for about 30 minutes, one of the agents left me his card and telephone number. 'we'll get to the bottom of this,' he said."

although yeltsov has yet to be contacted by the police in connection with gongadze's disappearance, the interior ministry apparently believes yeltsov is in need of protection. during an interview with the post in a downtown kyiv hotel on sept. 25, after his return from russia, yeltsov was taken aside for a chat with four men from the interior ministry. he returned with two of the men, whom he introduced as "bodyguards" assigned to him by the interior ministry.

as for the deepening mystery of the whereabouts of georgy gongadze, yeltsov believes that only by finding gongadze can the law enforcement agencies remove suspicions that they themselves were behind the journalist's disappearance.

"the whole affair could have been conceived in the bowels of the interior ministry or the sbu," yeltsov said in an interview with the web site proua.com on sept. 25.

"the leadership of these formidable agencies have enough clout to prove their innocence by just doing their job, that is, find the [kidnapper] - and gongadze."