On external governance in Ukraine

On the recent days, the Security Service of Ukraine told a very interesting story. The story of how, after the Maidan, Russia’s FSB set up a “political office” in Moscow – an organization whose main task was to “spoil” the work of not only the SBU, but all other bodies of the State of Ukraine. This “political office” is still staffed with old FSB agents: Klyuyev and Sivkovich, who dream of returning to the sweet life in Kyiv on Russian bayonets, and in the meantime, they try to do as much harm to Ukraine as possible.

And then the story gets even more interesting: in May 2019, the FSB agent Kulinich (operational pseudonym “Kotyhoroshko”) was infiltrated in the inner circle of the SBU leadership. We remember that on May 22, 2019, Zelensky appointed the Chairman of the political party “Servant of the People” Ivan Bakanov as first deputy head of the SBU, sending Poroshenko-Medvedchuk’s Hrytsak on “vacation”, and on August 29, 2019, the SP faction in the Verkhovna Rada approved Ivan Bakanov as the SBU head…

Then it gets more and more interesting: according to the SBI, Sivkovich, through Kulinich (who constantly reported to Sivkovich via a “reliable” messenger), de facto began to manage almost the entire SBU, appointing an FSB agent Naumov (operational pseudonym “Okhotnik”) to the position of First Deputy Head of the SBU – head of internal security. Controlling the work of the Counterintelligence Department of the SBU, placing FSB agents as heads of the SBU Main Departments in the regions, especially border regions, judging by the recordings of conversations between Sivkovich and Kulinich, Sivkovich had plans to take control of the work of the NSDC of Ukraine… while staying in the Russian Federation, in the city of Moscow, at 12 Krasnopresnenskaya Naberezhnaya, in the “political office” of the FSB of the Russian Federation. It was Sivkovych, through his agents and agents of influence, who misinformed the top leadership of the State of Ukraine about Russia’s plan to invade Ukraine, forming the impression that there was no danger, pushing Zelensky into conflict with the West, which shouted about a guaranteed Russia’s invasion in February 2022… 

At the end of its video, the SBI strangely says that “the successful implementation of this special operation and the arrest of the FSB agent became possible as a result of the principled position of the state leadership.” Such an ending makes this whole story even more strange. That is, Kulinich, having successfully worked for the FSB of the Russian Federation, having ensured the successful surrender of the South of Ukraine, calmly came to Kyiv and until July 2022, together with Ivan Bakanov, continued to work in the SBU for Sivkovich, but suddenly, the principled position of the state leadership appeared and it was decided to remove Zelensky’s childhood friend from the post and to detain the “Kotyhoroshko” agent?!

Now Kulinich stays in a pre-trial detention center and probably gives evidence, but the SBI keeps silent about who exactly infiltrated “Kotyhoroshko” in Bakanov’s inner circle, under what circumstances and how. (hopefully for now)…

On July 17, 2022, Bakanov was removed from the duties of the head of the SBU by the Decree of the President of Ukraine. The President of Ukraine referred to Article 47 of the disciplinary statute of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which provides for the removal of a serviceman from the performance of official duties for “failure to perform (improper performance of) official duties, which led to human casualties or other serious consequences or created a threat of such consequences”, but the conducted internal investigation of violations in the work of Ivan Bkaknov did not reveal any grounds for opening a criminal case… Probably, the state leadership has not yet matured a principled position regarding the detention of Bakanov…

There is some hope that the state leadership will still have the principled position regarding Bakanov’s assistant Sivkovich, who carried his papers and briefcases for twelve years, and now professionally and systematically “spoils” the work of the entire economy of the State of Ukraine, pretending to be a helpless professor who got a little confused in economic theories, but still fights to fill the budget against shadow businessmen and schemes…

I wonder if the SBI already knows his operative pseudonym or Sivkovych has not destroyed the economy of Ukraine hard enough for the SBI to pay attention to his agents in other authorities in Ukraine.

It is very naive and dangerous to believe that such stories will be written off by the war and society does not need any explanations… an extremely high price is paid so that such stories are never repeated in Ukraine.

Vladyslav Olenchenkov

Ukraine Front Lines

Tags: russia ukraine war