"By designing the official Web site and contributing to the communications strategy for the conference, Rock Creek helped raise the profile of Ukraine's issues internationally. . . . It was one of many contributions to an atmosphere of change in Ukraine," the statement said. It went on to note that "Mr. Yushchenko deserves full credit for building a political platform that the majority of Ukrainians supported in the election."
In a phone interview, Johnson called the Tass story "a complete fabrication."
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"My customer is not the U.S. government, nor has my client been paid by the government," he said. Rock Creek "did what we said we did," he said. "I stand by what's in the [Feb. 8] release."
But officials with the Global Fairness Initiative, the nonprofit that hired Rock Creek to help with the Kiev conference, took issue with several of the company's claims.
Steven Bennett, the group's executive director, said the conference had nothing to do with the election. Instead, it featured former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright, Yushchenko and his future opponent for the presidency, former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych, talking about Ukraine's relationship with Western Europe.
He dismissed the notion that the Web site had become a "virtual freedom plaza" as "ridiculous."
"Until the release, there was very slow traffic to the site," Bennett said.
Just before the conference, a Czech firm took over the Web site, and Rock Creek had nothing to do with it thereafter, Bennett said.
"It was the most successful press release ever released, as measured by the amount of interest -- perverse interest," he said. "What that press release did was fan a lot of flames especially in eastern Ukraine and in Russia where people believe the U.S. was involved in the election. . . . From our perspective, this has been a catastrophe."
Public relations experts said Rock Creek ran afoul of one of the most basic principles of the trade.
"Rule number one: You shouldn't embarrass your client," said Helio Fred Garcia, a professor of management and communications at New York University who runs a crisis communications firm. "Even when you deserve credit, you should not crow about it without your client's permission."
But the incident also demonstrates another maxim of the public relations business: Any publicity is good publicity. Johnson said that since the controversy, he has been approached by companies that do business in the Ukraine about working for them. He said he turned down the offers because Rock Creek did not want to be seen as profiting from an incident that embarrassed the Yushchenko regime.
For the time being, Johnson said he does not plan on issuing more news releases. "We don't need to market ourselves," he said. "We have plenty of work."
