Maidan cases: Investigation reveals influence of Russian special services on Ukraine's Security Service

Officers of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), in cooperation with the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), served notices of suspicion on the SSU heads under Viktor Yanukovych and twenty Russian FSB officers of aiding and abetting in the commission of state treason during the Revolution of Dignity.

Source: SBI, Office of the Prosecutor General

Details: Among the suspects:

• Army General Viktor Zolotov – former head of the Russian Presidential Security Service, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Internal Troops (currently Director of the Federal Service of the Russian National Guard);
• Colonel General Alexei Sedov – Head of the 2nd Service (Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order and the Fight against Terrorism) of the FSB of the Russian Federation;
• Lieutenant General Aleksey Zhalo – Deputy Head of the 2nd Service (Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order and the Fight against Terrorism) of the FSB of the Russian Federation, Head of the Department for the Protection of the Constitutional Order;
• Major General Sergei Yegorov – First Deputy Head of the Department for the Protection of the Constitutional Order of the 2nd Service of the FSB of the Russian Federation;
• Major General Volodymyr Pavlik – First Deputy Head of the Operational Information Department of the 5th Service (Operational Information and International Relations) of the FSB of the Russian Federation;
• Major General Andrey Yatsenko – former officer of the 2nd Service (Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order and the Fight against Terrorism) of the FSB of the Russian Federation, currently Deputy Head of the FSB Department in Moscow.

Also, the former head of the SSU (Oleksandr Yakymenko – ed.), his first deputy, the head of the Anti-Terrorist Centre (Volodymyr Totskyi – ed.) and the head of the Department for the Protection of National Statehood of the SSU under Yanukovych (Serhii Hanzha – ed.) were served with notices of suspicions of treason.

It was established that with the assistance of the Russian Federal Security Service, the then leadership of the SSU took part in undermining the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability, defence capability, state and information security. The former officials, on the instructions of their Russian supervisors, also incited ethnic and religious hatred and enmity among citizens because of their ideological beliefs.

By a joint decision of the leadership of the SSU and the FSB, a delegation of 20 Russian intelligence officers visited Ukraine from 13 to 15 December 2013. They assisted the SSU in the preparation of video materials and publications to create a negative image of Euromaidan participants and representatives of opposition forces.

On the instructions of the SSU leadership, 257 videos with provocative content were prepared and a YouTube channel was created to disseminate them. The SSU officers reported on the posting of these videos to the Russian FSB, sending them links to the posted videos.

It is noted that such actions by the former leadership of the SSU and Russian FSB officers harmed the information security of Ukraine and were intended to stop the protests due to the suspension of the European integration process by the top leadership of the state.

In order to create the alleged legitimacy of their actions, the former SSU leadership, after the Russian FSB delegation had left Ukraine, retroactively signed documents allegedly inviting them as representatives of the special services to the Commission on Information Security under the Council of Heads of Security and Special Services of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Thus, the investigation established and proved the influence of the Russian special services on the former leadership of the SSU to conduct joint subversive activities against Ukraine, counteract Euromaidan and incite national hatred and enmity in Ukraine.

The former head of the SSU, his first deputy, the head of the Anti-Terrorist Centre, and the head of the SSU's Department for the Protection of National Statehood were served with a notice of suspicion of treason.

Twenty Russian FSB officers, all citizens of the Russian Federation, were served with notices of suspicion of aiding and abetting in the commission of state treason and assisting the SSU leadership in assisting the Russian Federation in conducting subversive activities against Ukraine to the detriment of its sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability, defence capability, state and information security, as well as for inciting national and religious hatred and enmity, humiliation of national honour and dignity, and insulting the feelings of citizens in connection with their ideological beliefs by a group of persons by prior conspiracy.

The maximum penalty for committing these crimes is imprisonment for up to 15 years.

It is stated that in order to serve notices of suspicion to the FSB officers, the SBI investigator sent summonses to their place of service. Due to the failure to appear at the investigator's summons, the latter were put on the wanted list and a motion was prepared for the investigating judge to impose a preventive measure in the form of detention on them.

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