Yushchenko's son pays 2,500 USD per night for his hotel in Turkey

Yushchenko's son paid $2,500 per night for his hotel while on holiday in Turkey

Andrei Yushchenko, the elder son of the Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, has got into a scrape again. In the dead of night on September 30th somebody set fire to Bentley owned by Valid Arfush, a publisher of the magazine Paparazzi. There are rumors going around Kiev that the car has been destroyed in retaliation for the publication of candid photographs showing Andrei Yushchenko's luxury holiday break in Turkey. Speaking to KP yesterday, the brothers Omar and Valid Arfush confirmed the rumors.

“There has been some confrontation between you and Andrei before, am I correct?

“Yes, you are. In March this year we took a picture of the president' son buying an expensive article of jewelry in the center of Kiev. We printed the photograph. Some time later my brother Omar and his sweetheart were having dinner at a restaurant. Andrei Yushchenko approached my brother and threatened to make the reporter disappear if our magazine prints any other pictures of Andrei. Later the head of security service of the president and the government minister telephoned us. They asked us not to make a fuss over the situation in Europe because it might damage the image of Ukraine.

“So what did you do after that?”

“We flew to France because we feared for our lives.

“But you did print the picture of Andrei for the second time, didn't you?”

“To be honest with you, my brother and I were considering the possibility of shutting down the shop. Alternatively, we could have stayed away from Yushchenko. We arrived at the conclusion that it was impossible to disregard Andrei. He likes partying, he gets in the spotlight. And our readers are keen to know things related to the president's son.

“What did you come up with this time?”

“Andrei was on holiday in Turkey,” says Valid. He brought along his numerous friends. His hotel bills ran up to $2,500 per night. Once he entered the restaurant, the owners shut it down for any other patrons."

“How could he learn about your plans to print the photographs about his Turkish holiday?”

“We published an announcement of the coming issue of Paparazzi in one of the Kiev newspapers. We got threats on the telephone shortly after that. Then I saw my car burning down on September 30th. Somebody smashed the window with a dumbbell and threw a can of gasoline inside. We moved to France again. But telephone threats keep coming in.