In this part of the interview, we discussed:
- How did the SBU change after the Maidan?
- The situation in the SBU and a number of state structures after Trump's victory.
- What other countries interfered in the work of the Ukrainian special services besides the United States?
Transcript:
- Do you think that Poroshenko approved the operation against Manafort, that is, against Trump?
- Of course, the president of the country could not have been unaware of such an operation. You see, it's not even Paul Manafort 's personality that matters . Anyone could be in his place, anyone who was involved in cooperation with the Party of Regions in the old days. Moreover, if someone else became the head of Donald Trump's election headquarters, then, accordingly, this whole operation would be focused on another person, not Paul Manafort. For me, as a former secret service employee, the mechanism itself is of greater interest, how the American side, using its positions in Ukraine, carried out this operation. This is what interests me personally. You can even say where that I envy in a good way.
- What was the situation in the SBU after Trump's victory?
- Well, I must say that there was no particular panic in the SBU. However, we all understood that the country's leadership made a big mistake by betting on one candidate, and that this could entail the termination of various assistance. Everyone understood this, but there was no particular panic in the SBU. Meanwhile, my friends at the state security department, which is engaged in the protection of senior state officials, told me that in the presidential administration, in the cabinet of ministers, and in the Rada - there was chaos and panic for several days, officials rushed to clean up their comments on Facebook and other social networks. They were really at a loss, because everyone was confident in Hillary's victory. They could not imagine anything else, and here we can say the collapse of all their prerequisites. Panic and chaos were present for several days.
- How do you assess the situation in SBU over the past 5 years? Has the service also become very close to the Americans?
- Of course, after the Maidan, the vector of the SBU's work has completely changed. Counterintelligence units that were engaged in countering the special services of Western countries actually curtailed their work. It got to the point when the CIA, French intelligence, British intelligence got access to confidential Ukrainian counterintelligence data. The vector of the SBU's work changed, of course, to countering Russia, to countering representatives of Donbass, to the fight against “separatism”, suppression of internal dissent. It is true. Of course, there are many representatives of foreign special services in the SBU, in various fields.
- So, there are not only Americans, but also French, Germans, British?
- There are many British people. The Germans and French were also present, but of course in much smaller numbers. Of course, the lion's share are Americans and British.