SCRIPT REWRITE

Ukrainians, who transformed it into a festival of politics dubbed the Orange Revolution. Student activists from Serbia in the Balkans who had helped bring down their own dictator, Slobodan Milošević, arrived in Kiev to school the budding street-politicians of their near-neighbours. Neo-con proselytisers from the US poured into the country, sensing a real opportunity to give Moscow a bloody nose and drag Ukraine closer into NATO’s orbit.

From the start there were international implications to the sudden surge in political activity. By the time Yushchenko was finally declared President and Tymoshenko Prime Minister in January 2005, Ukraine had become a very live testbed for Russian–US relations that were steadily deteriorating. Both the new leaders not only affirmed Ukraine’s commitment to join the EU, but also announced their hope that the country would become a NATO member before too long. Even though this was destined to fail (it was, after all, only supported by 30 per cent of Ukrainian voters), Moscow interpreted their action as all but a declaration of war.

In the four years since he had first stumbled across Maksym Kovalchuk, the man who sold fake Autodesk products, Inspector Gregg Crabb had been patiently developing relationships with his colleagues from Ukrainian law enforcement’s baffling array of agencies. But while he had made important contacts, they politely turned down his requests for the arrest of Dimitry Golubov, aka Script.

The dramatic events of December 2004 and January 2005, when Yushchenko and Tymoshenko came to power, changed all that. Crabb realised that the Orange Revolution represented an opportunity that could not be missed. Early after the tumultuous events he received a call from the US Embassy in Kiev. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, he learned, had already been purged of the old hardliners and a new team, more inclined to work with the West, had been installed. ‘Get over here quick!’ the embassy told him. The man from the Postal Inspection Service didn’t need a second invitation.

He made it to Kiev in June 2005 and presented his evidence on the Golubov case to Interior Ministry officials. Two weeks later Inspector Popov of the Anti–Organised Crime Department was on his way to Odessa with instructions to track down and arrest the elusive Script.

Popov knew this was a tough assignment. Above all he was worried about any leaks, because if news of the raid were to arrive in Odessa