Putin's War Against Ukraine. Revolution, nationalism, and crime. by Kuzio Taras

Author:Kuzio, Taras
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taras Kuzio
Published: 2017-03-11T00:00:00+00:00

PRO-RUSSIAN FORCES IN THE YANUKOVYCH PRESIDENCY

In addition to the Donetsk clan, Yanukovych permitted leaders of the pro-Russian gas lobby to join the Party of Regions from 2006 and join the presidential administration and government when he was president. During Yanukovych’s presidency, the gas lobby controlled foreign policy through Hryshchenko and Leonid Kozhara, energy relations with Moscow (Firtash and Minister of Fuel Boyko) with Lyovochkin Chief of Staff.[1014] Anatoliy Orel, with extensive ties to Moscow, was brought in as a senior presidential adviser. Chornovil, for many years a Party of Regions deputy, described Firtash, Lyovochkin, Valeriy Khoroshkovskyy and Boyko as the ‘Moscow quartet.’[1015]

The Russian takeover and degrading of Ukraine’s security forces during Yanukovych’s presidency was largely missed or downplayed by Western experts of Ukraine and my description of this process at the time as the ‘Putinisation’ of Ukrainian forces was criticised as an ‘exaggeration.’[1016] From evidence collected since Yanukovych’s overthrow it can be ascertained that if anything I under-estimated the degree of Russian penetration of Ukraine’s security forces.[1017] Russia’s takeover of Ukrainian security forces and the practice of staffing security forces in the Crimea who were recruited locally, assisted Russia’s annexation. The extent of Russian penetration could be seen when commanding officers such as Pavlo Lebedev fled to the Crimea and Rear Admiral Denis Berezovskyy defected to the Russians. Of the 18, 800 Ukrainian armed forces in the Crimea only 4, 300 re-joined the Ukrainian armed forces.[1018]

Leshchenko said, referring to Dmitriy Salamatin, that the ‘Russian Minister of Defence of Ukraine destroys the defence capabilities of the armed forces in the interests of a neighbour-aggressor, and in parallel gives a gift to Yanukovych of American military technology from World War Two!’[1019] He was referring to the Studebaker US6-62 jeep, one of many vintage cars found at the Mezhyhirya palace.

The publication of the minutes of the RNBO meeting on 28 February 2014 confirms the depth of the treason undertaken during Yanukovych’s presidency.[1020] Four aspects of the minutes are worth highlighting. The first is recognition of mass support for Russia among Crimean residents which is not surprising as pro-Russian sentiment was always high in this region. Secondly, recognition of mass defections and fears of betrayals among local Crimean security forces personnel. The defection of the majority of the officers and personnel in the Ministry of Interior, SBU, military and prosecutor’s office constitutes one of the biggest single acts of treason in modern European history. In the Bakhchisaray rayon of the Crimea, 80 percent of the armed forces, 90 percent of prosecutors and 100 percent of the SBU and Ministry of Interior switched their allegiance overnight from Ukrainian to Russian.[1021] In the course of only 8 months up to March 2016, 30 SBU officers had been arrested for corruption and treason.[1022]

Third, a sense of disorientation on the part of the US coupled with an indecisive President Obama. Fourthly, recognition that armed resistance is futile because Ukraine had no large and well equipped security forces; in fact, the RNBO minutes confirm that Ukraine had only 6, 000 troops that it could utilise in spring 2014.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.