The situation took an ominous turn for the opposition on November 21, 2002, when Kuchma appointed a new prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych, who many viewed as a regional enforcer for Kuchma.  As governor from 1997 of Ukraine's most populated and industrialized region, the Donetsk Oblast, Yanukovych has ruled it with an iron fist and has dealt summarily with the president's opponents.

An excerpt from the Melnychenko recordings illustrates his brutal character.  On March 30, 2000, Kuchma had telephoned Yanukovych to sort out a judge in a court case in which the lawyer Serhiy Salov — who was Moroz's election agent in Donetsk during the 1999 presidential elections — was being tried for "spreading misinformation about the president".

[Kuchma]  Since December [1999].  Your court has been twisting it and returned the case which said: "this must be viewed not as spreading [misinformation], but as an offense against the president".  Your judges are rif-raff.  I am now obliged to come and testify!  That's why you should take this fucking judge, hang him by the balls, let him hang for one night. [Yanukovych]  I understand.  We will look into it. [Kuchma]  Judges altogether, fuckers... [Yanukovych]  They are scum.  The judge is not reliable.  It is necessary to replace him. (Source: IP, ZL3003.wav, March 30, 2000)

Salov was under arrest from October 30, 1999.  In July 2000, Judge A. Tupytsky sentenced Salov to five years imprisonment, including two years in a labor camp, and fined 170,000 Hr (then about $50,000).  A higher court squashed Salov's sentence in response to the European court of human rights taking up his case.

Also the Donetsk Oblast governor Yanukovych had his own "Gongadze" case.  On July 3, 2001, persons unknown beat unconscious Ihor Aleksandrov, a Moroz supporter and the general-director of the TV station TOR in the city of Slovyansk, Donetsk Oblast.  Aleksandrov never came out of the coma and died three days later.  The murder incident remains unsolved.