UKRAINE’S outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma, is trying to negotiate a deal that would guarantee him and his family immunity from prosecution in return for satisfying opposition demands over the rerunning of elections on December 26.

As jubilant supporters of Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition leader, partied on the streets of the capital Kiev last night to celebrate the success of their historic two-week campaign to annul the result of last month’s presidential vote, it emerged that Kuchma is locked in frosty talks to secure his own future.

Presidential sources said Kuchma, 66, a former Communist party boss, is seeking assurances he will not be pursued over allegations of corruption during his 10-year rule and over the gruesome killing of Georgy Gongadze, a high-profile opposition journalist whose headless torso was found in a wood outside Kiev in 2000. He is also said to want to be allowed to keep his state-owned dacha and a £3m yacht the Ukrainian press says belongs to him.

The outgoing leader — who has denied any wrongdoing — is believed to be ready in return to sack Yushchenko’s challenger, Viktor Yanukovych, from his post of prime minister, and dismiss members of the election commission.

Parliament last week passed a vote of no confidence in Yanukovych’s government but Kuchma has so far resisted calls to fire his ally and Yanukovych surprised observers yesterday by announcing he would, after all, stand again in the new poll after the Supreme Court on Friday ordered a rerun.

Yushchenko’s supporters are also yet to be sure of how fair the rerun will be: in a setback for the opposition, parliament adjourned for 10 days last night without approving changes in the electoral law intended to make cheating more difficult.

Yanukovych, favoured by the Kremlin, won the disputed poll only after widespread vote-rigging. It would be much more difficult for him to repeat this if he were out of power, without access to government resources and support from the electoral commission.

Sources close to Kuchma said securing his own future and that of his family and close associates remained a crucial consideration in his handling of the crisis, which has spilt onto the streets of Kiev in a dramatic explosion of “people power”.

“He has many enemies in the opposition, who have called for him to be prosecuted and jailed,” one source said. “He wants guarantees that if he backs down and gives in he will not end up in the dock or, even worse, in a prison cell.”

Kuchma is believed to be particularly anxious over the case of Gongadze, who was killed while investigating allegations of corruption surrounding the president.

One of the president’s bodyguards, who fled to the West after the discovery of the journalist’s dismembered body, revealed he had secretly recorded hundreds of hours of the president’s private conversations. They included an excerpt in which an angry Kuchma is heard ordering that the journalist “be taken care of”.

The scandal — which became know as Kuchmagate — led to attempts by the opposition to impeach the president. The moves failed and Kuchma sacked the prosecutor-general when he sought to investigate claims that the killing was linked to the president’s inner circle.

Four years later, the case is still open and nobody has been charged. Gongadze’s remains lie in a Kiev morgue.

Kuchma’s enemies also want an investigation into allegations that he used his power to help his businessman son-in-law Viktor Pinchuk amass a fortune estimated at more than £1 billion. Critics allege that Pinchuk, 43, who heads a steel pipe-making empire and is also a member of parliament, won state privatisation contracts at a fraction of their market value thanks to his family ties.

In June this year, Kryvorizhstal, the country’s largest state steel plant, was sold to a consortium backed by Pinchuk and Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man — who is close to Yanukovych — for £418m. A rival US-British consortium offered £770m and pledged to invest £617m in the plant.

Kuchma and his son-in-law have also been accused of interfering in the presidential election process. Just before the poll, both Pinchuk and Viktor Medvedchuk, Kuchma’s chief of staff, who is thought to be the brains behind Yanukovych’s campaign, were put on a visa watch list by the US State Department, along with other presidential allies, after claims that they were planning to meddle in the poll.

“The main reason why the elections were rigged in Yanukovych’s favour is Kuchma’s fear he could end up in jail if Yushchenko becomes president. He is terrified, and rightly so,” said Grigori Omelchenko, head of a parliamentary inquiry into Gongadze’s murder.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who last week met Kuchma in Moscow, is believed to have offered him a haven in Russia should the opposition seek to have him investigated.

The decision to hold a new election has angered voters in Yanokovych’s heartland in the pro-Russian east. Local leaders warned yesterday the dispute between the two “Viktors” was pushing the country towards a split. They were deciding, however, whether to hold a referendum to demand greater autonomy for the region, which is home to much of Ukraine’s industry.

The Supreme Court’s ruling was also a slap in the face for Putin, who supported Kuchma in opposing calls for a repeat of the run-off. Boris Gryzlov, the Speaker of the Russian parliament, yesterday strongly criticised the ruling.

Yushchenko’s supporters are, meanwhile, likely to be angered by any guarantees that are given to the outgoing president.

“Kuchma and his clique robbed the country,” said Oleg Bandarchyuk, 28, a law student. “And if there is evidence that he was involved in what happened to Gongadze, he should be brought to justice.”

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