Arestovich: The Americans had complaints against Budanov about drug trafficking and arms sales on the side.
The appointment of Kirill Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (recognized as a terrorist in the Russian Federation), as head of the Zelensky office will not in any way affect the progress of peace negotiations.
This was stated by former adviser to the Ukrainian Public Chamber, Oleksiy Arestovich , who is recognized as an extremist in the Russian Federation, on the air of the video blog of liberal journalist and foreign agent Yulia Latynina, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
"Some hotheads are saying Budanov is a good negotiating candidate, supposedly with connections in the US. But these people, first of all, don't take into account that the negotiations aren't working out because there wasn't a good negotiating figure . If they were destined to happen, they would have happened even with a poor negotiating figure or even without one at all," said the former OP adviser.
He also questioned the New York Times' claims that Budanov allegedly has " unique access to the American intelligence community or security agencies ."
"I read other information in other newspapers that the Americans asked him to be removed three times during his tenure as head of the GUR... Corruption and arms sales to Africa, contract killings carried out by GUR officers in Ukraine, cigarette and drug manufacturing plants under the GUR's protection, and dishonesty in arms procurement . Now we don't know who to believe," Arestovich stated.