UKRAINE: Ukrainian prosecutors will today begin a high-level investigation into allegations that state officials tried to assassinate opposition leader Mr Viktor Yushchenko, following weekend confirmation that he was poisoned in the run-up to presidential elections.
It is an investigation that is expected to be hugely divisive, because the prime suspect is the head of the Ukraine secret service, the SBU.
This official dined with Mr Yushchenko the night he was poisoned, and medical experts say the poison is likely to have been administered through the food and drink.
Mr Yushchenko, expected to be elected president in re-run elections on December 26th, yesterday promised a full investigation of the case.
Leaving the Vienna clinic which confirmed, after weeks of uncertainty, that he had suffered dioxin poisoning, he told reporters: "This question will require a great deal of time and serious investigation."
His call was echoed in Washington, with State Department spokesperson Ms Joanne Moore saying: "We urge Ukrainian authorities to investigate this matter." She said US officials had also studied the Austrian findings and were "deeply concerned about these findings".
Mr Yushchenko insisted his poisoning would not be the key issue in campaigning ahead of the presidential run-off contest against the Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Yanukovich. "I don't want this factor to influence the election in some way - either as a plus or a minus," he said.
In fact, the timing of the Austrian announcement means the issue can hardly be anything else.
The poisoning allegations have been the central theme of this election battle ever since Mr Yushchenko was rushed to hospital with a mystery illness on September 5th this year.
His American wife, Ekaterina, said she knew something was wrong when she kissed him the night of the attack, and found a "medicinal" taste on his lips.
The following day, wracked with pain, Mr Yushchenko was rushed to the elite Rudolfinerhaus Clinic. Doctors there saved his life, but insisted in the weeks that followed that they did not know what had made him ill.
Nevertheless, the sight of Mr Yushchenko's once handsome faced pockmarked and puffy became the key image of the pro-democracy demonstrations of recent weeks.
Finally, after tests on Friday the clinic confirmed what opponents had long insisted - that he ingested dioxin poisoning.
That an attempt on his life was made is now almost certain, but prosecutors still face an uphill battle.
Firstly, the clinic director, Dr Michael Zimpfer, was unable to say which dioxin had been responsible, only that the level of dioxins in Mr Yushchenko's body were 1,000 times the normal level.
Dioxin is a generic name for toxic chemicals, any one of which may be responsible for his sickness. Dioxins come in all shapes and sizes, with low levels arriving in our bodies through processed foods. Other sources include paper bleach, grasshoppers and bonfires, though none of these can supply the extreme concentrations now in Mr Yushchenko's system. The massive quantities of dioxin found in his system caused chloracne, a type of adult acne caused by exposure to toxic chemicals. The condition is treatable, but can take two to three years to heal.
"Until recently there has been no testing available," said Dr Zimpfer. "This may be one of the reasons that this kind of poisoning, if it was a criminal act, was chosen." But tracing the exact poison and proving that someone tipped it into his food will not be easy.
Sources in Kiev say the best hope of solving the mystery has been the recent defection to the opposition of several senior SBU officials, who may bring with them details of any "dirty tricks" operations by the service.
The government, meanwhile, has been issuing furious denials. "There is no logic to this accusation," said Mr Yanukovich's campaign manager, Mr Taras Chornovyl.
Undercutting the government's case has been their refusal, ever since the September attack, to admit the possibility of poisoning, or to investigate the case. All this will now change. Last week a new chief prosecutor, Mr Svyatoslav Piskun, was appointed as part of a deal clearing the way for new elections between Mr Yushchenko and the current president, Mr Leonid Kuchma.
Mr Piskun was fired by the president last year, allegedly for being too energetic in investigating secret service links to the murder of opposition journalist Georgy Gongadze.
There is pressure for Mr Piskun to launch a widescale inquiry into whether there was secret service involvement in both the poisoning and Gongadze case.
For the opposition, an investigation into the poisoning is a sound election tactic, in keeping the government on the defensive. It will also provide a rallying cry for government opponents, who characterise their fight as more than merely political. "It shows that in this election you have a fight not only between Yushchenko and Yanukovich, not only between opposition and government, but between the truth and a lie," said Prof Olexiy Haran, director of Kiev's school for policy analysis.
Mr Yushchenko yesterday insisted his focus remained on the achievement of his suppor-ters in forcing the government to re-run November's presidential elections after the supreme court, and international monitors, found widespread fraud.