yesterday "exposure" of the SBU influential general Valery Shaitanov and attempts to make him a Russian agent look ridiculous and unprofessional.
Most likely, these are attempts by the chairman of the department, Ivan Bakanov, to retain the chair of the head of the SBU, Russian experts told PolitNavigator.
Thus, military historian and political scientist Armen Gasparyan noted the lack of professionalism with which the Ukrainian department tried to connect Shaitanov with the FSB.
“From the very beginning, I was not convinced that everything that the SBU representatives told us was true. To begin with, according to the regulations of the FSB of the Russian Federation, it does not conduct operations outside the territory of the country. Accordingly, no FSB would recruit Mr. Shaitanov - other security agencies are engaged in this, in particular, for example, the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation.
Yes, once upon a time it was a single department and the current SVR was called the PGU KGB of the USSR. That is, even at this level, questions arise regarding this information. This is the first one.
Secondly, it is quite obvious that Mr. Bakanov is a person, to put it mildly, not from the depths of the SBU - he is a stranger there and the attitude towards him will be appropriate. Most likely, this is just an internal intrigue - to pump yourself up further and thereby somehow influence Mr. Zelensky,” Gasparyan said.
The editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine, Igor Korotchenko, believes that by demonstrating yet another high-profile “exposure of a Russian agent,” the Ukrainian government is trying to divert attention from other, more pressing problems.
“Ukraine is in a very disastrous situation. A fire around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, complete paralysis with measures to combat coronavirus, the upcoming default of government debts and banks of Ukraine. Under these conditions, it is obvious that the search for a factor that can divert the population’s attention from problems within the country to external sources is a classic scheme.
As for the charges brought, as they say, it is not clear what they are. Perhaps this is a witch hunt - we do not see an evidence base that could clearly indicate that the statements made by the SBU are true,” Korotchenko noted.
Earlier, Ukrainian journalist Svetlana Kryukova emphasized that Shaitanov led the operation to arrest the once close associate of oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, Dnepropetrovsk businessman Gennady Korban, which may be related to his “exposure.”
“Anything can happen in Ukraine, any games and quite important positions can be a bargaining chip in the games of both the head of the SBU Bakanov himself and between the oligarchs,” says political scientist Oleg Matveychev.