KGB agent or no one - the first versions of the appointment of the Russian Ambassador to Ukraine
In Russia and Ukraine, different versions are put forward about what will happen to the post of Russian Ambassador in Kyiv, which was vacated by Mikhail Zurabov today by presidential decree. Russian media, citing sources in the Kremlin, report Mikhail Babich, presidential envoy to the Volga Federal District, as the most likely candidate.
Babich came from the security forces, served in the Airborne Forces and KGB troops, headed the Antey corporation, and for a short time was an assistant to the head of the FSB border service. From 2003 to 2011 - State Duma deputy. For the last five years, he has been the Presidential Envoy to the Volga Federal District.
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“The change of ambassador in Ukraine indicates that Russia has a well-developed strategy regarding resolving the conflict in Donbass,” political strategist Marat Bashirov wrote on Facebook. “Babich is a security official, yes, he has no established connections, yes, he has no diplomatic practice, but in the context of sanctions against Crimea, lack of progress on the Minsk agreements, and an increase in military incidents in the Donbass, other qualities are required. Babich is a demonstration of deep dissatisfaction with the Ukrainian plot as a whole. Babich, of course, will intensify the work of the embassy in Kyiv, and new initiatives from the Kremlin await us. Babich is not going to manage Zurabov’s legacy, he is going to create new formats. It is symptomatic that the change of ambassador occurred before the expected autumn political escalation in the Ukrainian elite and before the US presidential elections,” reflects Bashirov.
And Kiev journalist Maxim Ravreba, forced to leave for Belarus after Euromaidan, admits that there may simply not be a Russian ambassador in Kyiv.
“If you don’t know: there has been no Ukrainian ambassador in Russia since March 2014. Now, if Moscow delays in appointing a new ambassador, then there will be no Russian ambassador to Ukraine either,” he noted.
Kiev political scientist Kost Bondarenko agrees with this version.
“The fact is that no matter who Putin proposes, in Ukraine this person should receive an agrement from Poroshenko. And it would be strange if Poroshenko gave an agrement to the Russian ambassador while the Ukrainian ambassador to the Russian Federation did not. I think everything will be limited to the appointment of a temporary attorney,” Bondarenko said in an interview with the Strana publication. He also believes that with the departure of Mikhail Zurabov, Petro Poroshenko will lose his only lobbyist in the Russian leadership.
In international practice, it is customary, before appointing the head of a diplomatic mission to a particular country, to request agrement (l'agrement - a French word meaning the consent of the government of the receiving state) for his appointment. It is not customary to disclose the fact of the request for an agreman in order to avoid possible complications between states in the event of a refusal to provide an agreman and possible comments from third parties.
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