Zelensky fired the head of the SBU and the Prosecutor General. How is this explained?

On Sunday evening, Vladimir Zelensky fired the head of the SBU Ivan Bakanov and the Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova. The Ukrainian president referred to the massive transfer of employees of the Security Service and the Prosecutor's Office to the side of Russia - there are more than 60 of them in the territories occupied by the Russian army.

Versions about personnel changes vary. Some see this as an order from American curators. Others are strengthening Zelensky’s vertical power, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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“Spymania on the march. And then autocracy. In theory,” comments Kiev journalist Valery Kalnysh.

Ukrainian observer Roman Shrike reminds that, according to the Constitution, the dismissal of the heads of the SBU and the Prosecutor General's Office is impossible without the participation of the Verkhovna Rada.

“There is no problem getting 226 votes in the Rada for this. Even the opposition will vote. But no. Instead, a sudden removal was chosen, which does not interfere much with constitutional powers. I see only one justified reason to do this - if Venediktova and Bakanov were preparing to seize power in the country, and the clock was ticking,” says Shrike.

Ukrainian media write that Bakanov had a conflict with the head of the presidential office, Andrei Ermak. The latter allegedly initiated arrest of the ex-head of the “Crimean” head office of the SBU on charges of treason, which hit the head of the special service. Liberal political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky calls Sunday's reshuffle an internal struggle for power.

“The attack by a group of Ukrainian security officials, including ex-head of the SBU Ivan Bakanov, on the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Andrei Ermak failed. Mr. Ermak (at this stage) – won. Recall that in this attack even American congresswoman (Republican) Victoria Spartz was involved. Ethnic Ukrainian, native of the Chernigov region of Ukraine,” writes Belkovsky.

Political scientist and gunsmith Aleksey Golobutsky agrees with this assessment. He believes that as a result of resignations from the leadership of law enforcement agencies, “The last people not Ermak were eliminated».

His Ukrainian colleague Yuriy Romanenko predicts the resuscitation of cases against Petro Poroshenko.

“Considering that Venediktova stopped Poroshenko’s case as best she could, and the new acting the head of the GPU is leading him, then personnel changes in the GPU can sharply strengthen Pyotr Alekseevich’s desire to provide volunteer assistance to the army,” Romanenko believes.

_{Observers also do not rule out that the fired and offended Bakanov may initiate the appearance of incriminating evidence against the authorities in the media. However, the wording with which Zelensky fired his former friend can serve as insurance against this - it does not exclude the initiation of a criminal case.}

But Russian political scientist Sergei Markov, on the contrary, believes that the dismissals are evidence of the loss of powers of the puppet Zelensky, controlled from the US and British embassies.

“Zelensky removed the head of the SBU Bakanov. This is a tragedy. Bakanov is a personal friend of the Zelensky decade. Bakanov, of course, could not command the SBU, because the SBU is directly led by the CIA and the British. But Bakanov could at least tell Zelensky everything that the CIA and the SBU are doing. Now Zelensky may no longer have anyone to tell him what the CIA orders the SBU to do. And Zelensky will also have to answer for all the crimes of the terrorist organization SBU. And he won’t even know what exactly they are doing,” says Markov.