KIEV, April 14 – Mykola Melnychenko, the former bodyguard who claims to have secretly recorded thousands of conversations in the office of former President Leonid Kuchma, may have cooperated with Russian spy agencies, Kuchma said Thursday.

The comment underscores a turnaround for Kuchma, who has repeatedly - for almost 10 years - alleged the likely involvement of Western intelligence agencies in the scandal.

“I think it will soon be clear what relationship did [Melnychenko] have with the Russian special services,” Kuchma said before questioning at the Prosecutor General’s Office on Thursday.

Kuchma is investigated for his alleged role in the murder of journalist Heorhiy Gongadze in September 2000, and prosecutors have recently decided to use Melnychenko’s recordings as evidence in the case.

The murder, and the subsequent release of the recordings at which apparently Kuchma is heard ordering to settle accounts with Gongadze, sparked a huge scandal and massive protests in Ukraine.

The developments froze relations between Ukraine and the West, de-facto pushing Kiev politically towards closer ties with Moscow.

Vladimir Putin, then the Russian president, was one of few international leaders that had met Kuchma repeatedly after the scandal. At one point they signed an agreement - in July 2001 - to create a joint venture that would operate Ukraine’s natural gas pipelines that move Russian gas to Europe, but the JV had later stumbled and had never materialized.

The Kuchma probe, initiated by Renat Kuzmin, the first deputy prosecutor general, earlier in March seeks to tap the recordings while investigating whether Kuchma has been involved in the murder.

Kuchma denied any involvement, and said the recordings may have been used to stir up the scandal, to set up the murder and perhaps to frame him.

Meanwhile, the decision to use the recordings may open Pandora’s Box that could lead to a major political crisis in Ukraine. Many current political leaders, including President Viktor Yanukovych, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, are heard at some of the recordings, made between 1996 and 2000, openly discussing with Kuchma illegal issues - from vote rigging to covering up corruption schemes.

The developments come as relations between Ukraine and Russia have worsened over the past four months, with Kiev refusing to let Moscow get control over the natural gas pipelines.

In another setback for Moscow, Yanukovych and Azarov, at meetings with Putin in Kiev on Tuesday, refused to accept his proposal to join the Moscow-led trade bloc, the Customs Union, which would undermine Kiev’s free trade and political association talks with Brussels.

“We are talking about how to protect Ukraine’s independence. This is not even an economic issue. The super goal of this process is for Ukraine to lose its political independence,” Viktor Yushchenko, a former president and a pro-Western leader, said on Thursday. “This is the point of everything that has been happening around the Customs Union.”

Kuchma and Melnychenko had a face-to-face meeting – for the first time since September 2000 – at the office of prosecutor investigating the case on August 4.

Kuchma’s defense team accused Melnychenko of trying to secretly record the meeting by using a sophisticated watch, a charge that is apparently being checked by the prosecutors.

Just two days before the meeting, Melnychenko is known to have traveled to Moscow. Later, he refused to disclose the reason fro his trip to Moscow, saying it was a “personal matter.”

Ihor Smeshko, a former chief of the SBU security service, appointed to the post after the Gongadze murder, said Thursday the recordings could not be made by Melnychenko alone, and most likely involved a team work.

“There were facts of Melnychenko transferring information to foreign citizens, to representatives of foreign special services, and by doing so he has caused de-facto and de-jure colossal damage to the national security and defense,” Smeshko said. (tl/ez)