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Bric-a-Brac

Rogue Valley

Lead or get out of the way
DP Veteran
Joined
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Messages
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Location
Barsoom
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Independent
For events that happen in Ukraine and Russia, but generally not found in articles outside of Ukrainian and Russian language media.



Ivan Bakanov

President Volodmyr Zelenskyy has appointed childhood friend Ivan Bakanov (44) as First Deputy of the SBU (Ukraine's Security Service). With no experience in the intelligence service, law enforcement, or the military, Bakanov is not qualified and ill-suited for this position. He is the head of Zelenskyy's media production company Kvartal-95 LLC (2013), and the head of Zelenskyy's Servant of the People Party (2017). He also ran the Zelenskyy presidential campaign. The Head of Ukraine’s SBU (Vasyl Hrytsak) has commissioned Bakanov with the military equivalent rank of Lieutenant.

Bakanov said that his wife Oksana, although born in Ukraine, received her university education in Russia and has a Russian passport. "Since 1998, she lives and works in Ukraine with a permanent residence permit in our state, and is in the process of registration for Ukrainian citizenship. Oksana has not visited the territory of the Russian Federation since 2013."

Quite frankly, I would never allow someone like Bakanov access to state classified information. But Zelenskyy apparently trusts him to a great degree.
 
Comforting that the US is not the only country with unqualified persons in positions of authority.
 
Rexedgar said:
Comforting that the US is not the only country with unqualified persons in positions of authority.
Click to expand...

Seems to be a consequence whenever TV personalities are voted into office.
 

President Zelenskyy has appointed Svitlana Shatalova as governor of the Odesa oblast. I suppose the question here is whether she will work with or against Odesa city mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov who is without doubt the most corrupt big city mayor in Ukraine. He has a political machine in Odesa similar to the Democrat machine in Chicago. Located on the Black Sea, Odesa an international port city with ships docking there from all over the world. Many languages are heard. The opportunities for graft are huge, from Customs scams to providing sailors with drink, gambling, and companionship. It is reported that Trukhanov also holds a Russian passport and offshore accounts. That said, Odesa is a beautiful city and it is run very well. Although all signage in Odesa is in the Ukrainian language, the majority of inhabitants speak Russian.
 
Next week Zelenskyy will meet in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron.
 

Ukraine and Canada delegations in Toronto.

Canada Vows To Support Ukraine In Wake Of Russian 'Aggression'

Canada agreed to continue assisting Ukraine with land/law/judicial reforms and with military advisors and possible weapons transfers.

Not counting Russia, Canada has the largest ethnic Ukrainian community in the world.
 
Ukraine and Canada are working out the particulars of transferring armored vehicles to Ukraine.
 

Volodymyr Tsemakh

Government prosecutors in Kyiv say that the SBU (Ukraine Security Service) has captured Volodymyr Tsemakh (Volodymyr Cemakh) in the occupied town of Snizhne, eastern Ukraine. He is wanted for questioning in the downing of Malaysian flight MH17 on 17 July 2014 which killed all 298 aboard. Tsemakh was "air defense commander" in this area which includes the town of Torez where the Russian Buk stopped right before it shot down flight MH17. His daughter Maria confirmed his apparent capture on 27 June. It is unknown how the SBU transported Tsemakh through enemy lines to government territory. It is thought he was smuggled through the Mariinka checkpoint.
 

Girkin confirms that militant captured by Ukrainian Security Service was commander of air defense during MH17 air disaster


Igor (Strelkov) Girkin.


Daughter Maria is no doubt lying about the time-frame to protect her father from culpability.
 
Ukrainian President Boots Official Out Of Meeting On Live TV


Interesting. He certainly knows how to seize the moment when the TV cameras are turned on.
 
Rogue Valley said:
Girkin confirms that militant captured by Ukrainian Security Service was commander of air defense during MH17 air disaster


Igor (Strelkov) Girkin.



Daughter Maria is no doubt lying about the time-frame to protect her father from culpability.
Click to expand...

Piggybacking on the above.....

The Arrest of Vladimir Tsemakh and Its Implications for the MH17 Investigation

The Bellingcat Investigation Team presents info on Vladimir Tsemakh and its possible far-reaching implications.
 
Ukraine's Zelenskyy Holds Talks With Putin for the First TIme


Cancelled. Ukraine will not allow Russia-state propaganda to be broadcast/re-broadcast on a Ukraine television channel.

Putin will accept a meeting with Zelenskyy in Minsk. He needs to measure the character of Zelenskyy in person.
 
The Parliamentary elections will take place on July 21. My take is that the new political party of president Volodmyr Zelenskyy - Servant of the People (named after his television show) party - will not capture enough seats to have a majority. They will need to select a partner party and form a governing coalition. Zelenskyy will have to stay away from the Russia-friendly party of Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk. Boisterous activists have already held demonstrations in front of the presidential building warning Zelenskyy to not cross any "red lines". He will also not be able to deal with the "European Solidarity" party of former president Petro Poroshenko who is known for allowing corruption. The choice remains then between the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) Party of Yulia Tymoshenko and Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, the Voice. Tymoshenko's party has a heavy oligarch influence. I think it would be politically much better for him to join with Vakarchuk to demonstrate to the Ukrainian electorate that he is going with new people, new ideas and a party that at least claims to be an ideology that wants to fight corruption. That said, I also believe Zelenskyy is a bit intimidated by Vakarchuk. I also think Zelenskyy has to stay away from appointing a Prime Minister who is well known or an Oligarch. He will need a technocrat who is strong on integration with the West. Possibly Aivaras Abromavichus or Vladislav Rashkovan. Washington will closely monitor who Zelenskyy appoints as Prosecutor General and what he does with the SBU.
 

Lyudmila Denisova (L) and Tetyana Moskal'kova (R).

Something is up.

The Ombudsmen of Ukraine (Lyudmila Denisova) and Russia (Tetyana Moskal'kova) met in Kyiv and discussed the issue of medical assistance to Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia.

This may be an opening from Putin for the release of the 24 Ukrainian sailors and as a signal to Zelenskyy that he is ready for serious talks. Hopefully so.

I think Putin may be amenable with a guarantee that Ukrainian prisoners serve out their sentences in a Ukrainian prison facility.
 


The Surkov Leaks: The Inner Workings of Russia’s Hybrid War in Ukraine

At the link above is offered a download of "The Surkov Leaks" material. Vladislav Surkov is Putin's closest aide and from 2014-2019 he was in charge of Russia's Ukraine portfolio ... both military and civilian affairs.
His personal email account was hacked and contains a bounty of material regarding his thoughts and actions regarding the Kremlin's hybrid war against Ukraine. The material proves conclusively that Moscow planned and carried out the 2014 invasion of eastern Ukraine and continues to occupy Ukrainian territory to this day.
 


Ombudsperson and Commissioner for Human Rights in Ukraine Lyudmyla Denisova has been implicated in a scheme to dismiss certain members of the High Qualification Commission of Judges [HQCJ] and help insure the appointment of others at the direction of the president of this court, Pavlo Vovk. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau [NABU] has taped conversations implicating Denisova.

Although Mrs. Denisova has accomplished much good regarding prisoner exchanges with DNR/LNR/Russia and Ukraine, if she is corrupt she has got to go.
 
The Ukraine Security Service (SBU) has arrested a former policeman from Zaporizhzhya on suspicion of spying for Russia. The SBU said that the ex-officer, whose name was not disclosed, "collected data on the social, political, and economic situation in Zaporizhzhya and regularly visited Crimea" following Russia's seizure of the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula in 2014. In Crimea, the suspect "handed the collected data to a representative" of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB)," it said.
 


Young Ukrainians entering their 2nd university grade have already seen 5 presidents. Russian students of this age were born under the same president they have now.

Both their freedom and their right to choose have been stolen ever since they were born.
 


Servant of the People party Members of Parliament (MPs). I wish them all success with legislating much needed nationwide reforms.
 


The destroyer USS Porter docking in Odesa.
 
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