Citizenship Ukraine Website www.buzina.org | Name Oles Buzina Role Journalist | |
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Occupation journalist, writer, politician Died April 16, 2015, Kiev, Ukraine Parents Valentyna Buzina, Alexei G. Buzina | ||
Oles Buzina 13 07
Oles Buzina (Ukrainian: Оле́сь Олексі́йович Бузина́; 13 July 1969, Kiev, Ukrainian SSR – 16 April 2015, Kiev, Ukraine) was a controversial Ukrainian journalist and writer known for his strong pro-Russian views. He was affiliated with the Russian Bloc party but had been unsuccessful in seeking office.
Contents
- Oles Buzina 13 07
- Oles Buzina is not a journalist killed by Kiev junta Information ghetto in Crimea
- Biography
- Personal life
- Politics
- Political and public views
- Murder
- Reactions
- Publications
- References
He was murdered on 16 April 2015, shot on the footpath not far from his flat in Kiev. In June Ukrainian authorities arrested three suspects believed to be behind the murder. The main suspect responsible for the murder was described as a Ukrainian nationalist by the Ukrainian Minister of Interior.
Oles Buzina is not a journalist killed by Kiev junta. Information ghetto in Crimea
Biography
Oles Buzina was born on 13 July 1969 in Kiev and attended local schools. In 1992 he graduated from the Faculty of Philology Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv specialising as a teacher of Russian language and literature. He began a career in journalism working for a number of Ukrainian media outlets:
He was invited as a guest to numerous talk shows in Russia. Some of his articles were published in the Russian media.
As a writer he published eight books, mainly about prominent figures and the history of Ukraine and Russia.
Personal life
Buzina was married and the father of one daughter.
Politics
In addition to his reporting, Buzina tried to enter politics. He ran in the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election for a constituency seat in Kiev for Russian Bloc but failed to win parliamentary representation. In Constituency No. 223, his 8.22% of votes was insufficient.
Political and public views
Oles Buzina held anti-Orange Revolution, and anti-Euromaidan views.
On 20 January 2006 he claimed that as a writer he was aware of political censorship in post-Orange Revolution Ukraine, as some publishers were afraid to release his books.
In May 2009 he campaigned for adoption of a series of laws prohibiting Neo-Nazi organizations, propaganda of Nazism and ideological legacy of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists as a totalitarian fascist party. This initiative was supported by Borys Kolesnikov, one of the leaders of Party of Regions.
In May 2009 National Expert Commission of Ukraine on the Protection of Public Morality launched an investigation against Oles Buzina as a result of complaint filed by Petro Kononenko, director of Institute of Ukrainology. Kononenko stated that Oles Buzina "discredited most outstanding Ukrainian public figures and picks everything that's shameful in our history".
As of April 2009 Buzina was sued 11 times and every single time judges ruled out in his favour. In 2000 he was physically assaulted right after winning in court one of these cases. Some of these legal actions saw Ukrainian politicians as plaintiffs: Pavlo Movchan, Volodymyr Yavorivsky.
On 22 March 2009 he had a cake thrown at him by a FEMEN activist who declared his only fiction book sexist. Oles Buzina was rated 4th in the "Homophobe of the Year - 2011" list by the Ukrainian gay forum.
He identified himself as both Ukrainian and Russian, though having ethnic Ukrainian parents.
His views on Ukraine expressed on multiple occasions during years of journalism and political commentary included statements that Ukraine should be an independent state, not part of Russia, that it should be a bilingual federation and that it should favour an alliance of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan rather than joining the European Union.
His political stance was criticized for a comment to newspaper Den that he gave in 1999:
...my ideal is the reconstruction of the Russian Empire, but I am forced to adapt to the ugly conditions of "construction" of an independent Ukraine.
He stated that the quote was a fabrication.
Murder
Oles Buzina was found murdered on 16 April near his home. Previously, he said on a Russian TV show that he was receiving constant death threats. A previously unknown Ukrainian nationalist group calling itself "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" was reported to claim responsibility for the murders of Buzina and other pro-Russian figures. However, Markian Lubkivskyi, an advisor at the Security Service of Ukraine, said that linguistic analysis of the telephone call indicated they were not native Ukrainian speakers, and head of the Main Investigations Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Vovk said the organization was fake.
Reactions
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on live Russian TV that this murder was a political one and offered his condolences to the family of the victim. Radio Free Europe reported that "At 2:05, Ukrainian presidential adviser Anton Herashchenko confirmed the slaying on Facebook. And by 2:17, Russian President Vladimir Putin was already using Buzina's killing to attack Ukraine's "democratic" values during his annual call-in show with the Russian public." The German newspaper "Die Zeit" reported that the murder of opposition activist Buzina followed a string of murders and deaths of five public figures that were pro-Russian and supportive of the former president of Ukraine. Ukrainian officials blamed "Russian special forces assassins" for the murder. United Nations Human Rights Commission representative Seid Raad al-Hussein described this murder and others as disturbing and demanded quick and decisive investigation.
EU, Germany, United States, UNESCO, OSCE, Amnesty International have demanded an independent investigation of the murder of Ukrainian journalists Oles Buzina and Sergey Sukhobok and politician Oleg Kalashnikov.
On 18 June 2015 Arsen Avakov announced arrest of two alleged killers, Andrey Medvedko and Denis Polischuk. One of the suspects served in the Kyiv-2 Battalion of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine and was "С14" оrganisation activist, while the other was platoon officer in the UNSO Battalion; both deny responsibility for the murder.