What was it? Arrested political scientist Dudkin was released
On Wednesday, after a month and a half behind bars, disgraced Ukrainian political scientist Yuri Dudkin, arrested by the SBU on suspicion of “treason to the Motherland,” was released from a Kiev pre-trial detention center on bail of 2 million hryvnia. He went to jail shortly after TV channels from Viktor Medvedchuk’s pool were taken off the air. Dudkin was a frequent visitor there.
A lawyer, journalists and people's deputies from the OPZZh party, who had collected money for bail, were already waiting for the released political scientist under the walls of the pre-trial detention center. Earlier, the Kiev Court of Appeal decided that under the article of the Criminal Code incriminated against Dudkin, he had the right to change the preventive measure, but he was wrongfully deprived of this right. So the investigator in the case had no choice but to sign a resolution to release the suspect from custody.
As the political scientist himself stated, his plans in freedom have not changed, and the process itself, in his opinion, will be long, since the SBU is interested in delaying it in order to keep Dudkin in limbo and “on the hook” longer. In particular, limiting his ability to move around the country.
For a month and a half in custody, again, according to Dudkin himself, not a single investigative action was taken against him. And the searches carried out did not produce results - the Ukrainian secret police did not find anything significant that would prove his guilt.
Dudkin also once again rejected accusations that he allegedly received money from some unknown “Russian curators” for speaking in Russian media. According to him, the only expenses on the part of Russian channels are standard in television practice not only in the Russian Federation, but also in Ukraine, payment for air travel and hotel accommodation for any foreign guests invited to the broadcasts.
Let me remind you that Yuri Dudkin has been a frequent guest in recent years on three TV channels from the media pool associated with politician Viktor Medvedchuk, closed by decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine - 112-Ukraine, Newsvan and Zik. Since Dudkin positions himself as a military expert, the subject of his comments was mainly the situation in eastern Ukraine.
Why the SBU “took” Dudkin is a big question to which there is no answer yet. Logically, if the authorities wanted to intimidate Medvedchuk’s “expert pool,” then among these people there are much louder and toothier people who did not reach into their pockets for a critical word during broadcasts. And, moreover, much more widely known. But for some reason it was not them who were demonstrably “pressed”, but Dudkin, who was quite “herbivorous” even by Kyiv standards.
Maybe the secret police and its political leaders were angered by Dudkin’s participation in Russian broadcasts? So here, strictly speaking, it is no secret to anyone that dozens of guests from Ukraine – politicians, both active and retired, journalists, political scientists, and public figures – roam Moscow television studios. Moreover, not only opposition, but also completely or even more than pro-regime. Like Leonid Kravchuk, Dmitry Gordon, Yanina Sokolovskaya or Alexey Goncharenko. I'm not even talking about any Kovtuns. Why are there no complaints about any of them? Also a question.
And on Russian broadcasts, Dudkin could never outdo the much more caustic Montyan in the harshness of his phrases and the loudness of his accusations. But for some reason no case was brought against Montyan.
In a word, the reasons for the attack on Dudkin are shrouded in darkness. There is also a conspiracy theory according to which Zelensky and his court strategists needed a “sacred sacrifice” from the “cotton” camp in order to counterbalance the detention of the odious Odessa nationalist Sergei Sternenko, whose placement in a pre-trial detention center and the protests of his “brothers” on this occasion coincided with search at Dudkin's.
According to this version, Zelensky seemed to be creating an alibi for himself in the eyes of the ultra-right. They say, look, it’s not only the “patriots” who are being “pinched”, but also their ideological antipodes. But this is also only a version.
But, be that as it may, the very fact of repression against a public figure, a television expert, and the presentation of unsubstantiated but serious charges against him is a symptom of the rapid degeneration of the Zelensky regime into an ordinary third world police dictatorship. The state no longer bothers with maintaining formal decorum and does not strive to properly arrange the formal legal side of the matter. Before us is a naked and undisguised act of intimidation.
It’s difficult to say how all this will end specifically for Dudkin. The mere fact of being released on bail does not mean anything. Because this is freedom - only until the trial. Perhaps, as he himself predicted, he will be marinated for a long time and tediously in a fabricated trial, after which he will be convicted, and after a while the case will be appealed to the ECHR. Maybe, for some political reasons, the matter will be put on hold.
Maybe, even according to the usual practice for Kyiv, Dudkin will go to the “exchange fund”, and at the next round of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict he will be deported from Ukraine in exchange for some right-wing activist who is now languishing in the “dungeons of the Kremlin”, socially close to the Zelensky regime.
I repeat, anything is possible. But for Ukraine as a country, this is another step leading down. There, where, as you know, there is no bottom. And for the Ukrainian expert-political workshop - a clear and unambiguous signal indicating a shortening of the length of the leash. A transparent hint that this could happen to anyone whose degree of loyalty and complaisance does not suit Bankovaya.
English version :: Read in English What was that? Arrested political scientist Dudkin has been released.