Diamonds - not a mayor's best friend
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A bizarre media saga is developing over alleged jewel robbery involving Kristina Chernovetska, the daughter of Kiev’s wealthy mayor, which is raising some awkward questions for her father back in Ukraine.
French police reported yesterday that they were investigating a complaint by 30-year-old Kristina Chernovetska that €4.5 million-worth of jewellery was snatched out of her vehicle as it was stuck in heavy traffic on a highway near Paris on Monday 15 February. According to police, a thief smashed the window of the car and snatched the handbag containing the jewels at a spot well-known for this type of robbery.
The same day Kiev’s mayor Leonid Chernovetsky, dismissed reports of the dramatic affair as a "bad joke". A spokesperson for the mayor said that the story was either a media joke or a case of mistaken identity, because Ms Chernovetska was in Kiev at the time of the incident.
Yet, according to AFP news agency, the French police are insisting that the Ukrainian mayor's daughter is indeed the person who reported the crime.
The incident has turned an unwelcome spotlight on the controversial Mr Chernovetsky's financial affairs, with questions being raised about just what his daughter was doing carrying around jewels worth around 26,000 times the average monthly wage of one of his constituents.
The saga is unlikely to go down well with voters who have suffered severely in the recent financial crisis.
His political opponents have already seized upon the story, crowing that the mayor will be forced to raise millions of euros to recuperate the value of the jewels, which allegedly are family heirlooms.
