Even the government admits that Koriak's case is not unique. On March 23, the chief of the Ukrainian Security Service, Volodymyr Radchenko, reported that 34 candidates had been seriously assaulted since the start of the campaign. For example, on March 25, five bombs exploded in the headquarters of one of Lazarenko's several opposition newspapers, Vseukrainskiye Vedomosti. Olexander Zarobitsky, head of the Kyiv police, stated that he was more inclined to believe that the bombing was arranged by the newspaper itself. When Kuchma nominated Lazarenko to be prime minister in 1996, the two appeared to be close political allies.
Observers have yet to determine why and at what point the relationship broke down.
Kyiv is filled with rumors of abuse of power by both men, jointly and individually. What seems clear is that in a sea of corrupt and incompetent parliamentarians and cabinet members, Lazarenko had a reputation for being particularly unseemly. Even after the dismissal of former minister of justice Serhiy Holovaty and the scrapping of Holovaty's clean-hands campaign, Kuchma is still considered a reasonable partner by western governments. Lazarenko, on the other hand, is not. The government consented but kept the prerogative of determining, in each case, which supply contracts were given to which gas suppliers.