KIEV, Feb. 21 - Ukraine's former president Leonid Kuchma on Thursday described as a "provocation" new claims by prosecutors they had evidence implicating him in the murder of critical journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, AFP reported.

Kuchma compared the Ukrainian deputy prosecutor who made the claims to the Soviet prosecutor Andrei Vyshinsky who was behind the arbitrary justice of Stalin's murderous 1930s purges.