The special operation against the unrest in the eastern part of Ukraine was declared after a secret visit of CIA Director John O. Brennan and his meeting with Ukrainian acting intelligence authorities. People were killed in Slavyansk yesterday. Ukrainian MP Vladimir Golub emphasized that US coordination had not been a secret for quite a while, even during times when Valentine Nalivaychenko had been the head of the Ukrainian Security Service.
Ukrainian acting Interior Minister was specialized in business. He is one of the top 150 richest people in Ukraine, owning assets worth $100 million. Before February 4, 2005, he was the head of Investor and the Bazis Bank in Kharkov. President Viktor Yushchenko appointed him as the head of the Kharkov Oblast administration on February 4. He became a member of the Kharkov Oblast Council where he worked until the presidential polls of 2010.
Avakov lived in Italy in 2010-2012. In this period, he joined the Fatherland Party of Yulia Tymoshenko, became the head of the Khakov office of the party. He lost the elections of the Kharkov city head and was put on the international wanted list for illegal land privatization. On March 29, 2012, he was arrested in Italy. Italy refused to extradite him.
A year later, Avakov joined the parliament as a member of the Fatherland Party, focusing on ethical and status-related issues of legislators. In February 2014, he was named the interior minister, having 8 months of experience as a member of the National Security and Defense Council in 2007.
Secretary of the Security and Defense Council Andrey Parubiy was notable for anti-government protests even in the Soviet times. Oleg Tyagnibok and Parubiy were co-founders of the Social-National Party, renamed into the Freedom Party, notable for nationalism. Having worked at the Lviv City Council for 13 years, Parubiy entered the parliament as a member of the Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defense bloc in 2007. He joined the committee for international affairs. He joined the Fatherland Party in 2012. An activist of the Orange Revolution, Parubiy one of the leaders of the Euromaidan protest movement in late 2013. His group occupied the parliament, presidential administration, the Cabinet and the Interior Ministry on the night after signing of the February 21 agreement.
Alexander Yakimenko, ex-head of the Ukrainian Intelligence Service, insists that Parubiy has direct contacts with US agents. He believes that snipers were shooting from the Kiev philharmonic occupied by Parubiy’s men.
Valentine Nalivaychenko, acting security chief of Ukraine, worked at embassies in Finland, Denmark, Norway and the USA. He was supervising European integration processes in the first years of the Orange Revolution, achieving a simplified visa regime for Ukrainian citizens to visit the EU and 5-year visas to visit the US. In 2006 Nalivaychenko became the head of the Ukrainian Security Service. He became an oppositionist as soon as Victor Yanukovych became the president. He joined the Our Ukraine Party, then UDAR and entered the parliament in 2012.
He was under investigation in September 2013 for allegedly giving CIA agents secret information. Ukrainian protest leader Dmitry Yarosh is said to be in good ties with Nalivaychenko.
