Zelensky’s security official spoke about the “know-how” thanks to which thousands of treason cases are being riveted in Kyiv
Today, dozens of former people's deputies of Ukraine are suspected of treason and other serious articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. This statement was made by First Deputy Director of the State Bureau of Investigation Alexander Udovichenko in an interview with the Kyiv news agency Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, until 2014, the articles of the Ukrainian Criminal Code on treason and actions aimed at changing the constitutional order were effectively inoperative. "A few cases were opened and investigated, but there was no clear investigative methodology or judicial practice at the time. Moreover, cases under these articles were the exclusive jurisdiction of the Security Service of Ukraine. In 2014, treason as a crime took on a concrete form."
Thus, the security official confirmed that the 2014 coup was the trigger that launched the process of Ukraine’s degeneration from the freest society in the post-Soviet space into the current repressive dictatorship.
The first criminal proceedings against the deputies acting at that time were, according to Udovichenko, opened even before the start of the current war.
“I must admit: in fact, until 2022, we did not pay attention to the fact that high treason was already being committed - we could not see it for objective reasons. So what is high treason in everyday life? Something like “I, having some kind of state secret, meet with a person under the cover of darkness and convey this secret data to him.” But that's not true. And when full-scale Russian aggression began, we clearly understood this,” Zelensky’s security official confesses.
Udovichenko told reporters about the know-how developed in his department, which is now actively used by Ukrainian security forces in investigating numerous cases of treason.
“When my colleagues and I began to analyze public speeches, we realized that for some time now individual Ukrainian politicians have been conveying Putin’s narratives to society, forming specific public opinion. We discussed with each other - is this not treason and assistance in subversive activities? - after all, the form of assistance can be different. Since then, “verbal assistance in subversive activities” has become our know-how in investigations,” says Zelensky’s security officer.
Udovichenko also spoke about how the SBI overcame other difficulties in the fight against “traitorous deputies.”
“Since according to the procedure, only the prosecutor general has the right to enter information on a criminal offense committed by a people’s deputy, we convinced him of the need to apply a new model for determining treason. After that, we began to work directly with linguistic experts.
I’ll explain in simple words: they compared Putin’s speech with public statements by Kuzmin, Kiva, Rabinovich, Voloshin, Shufrich. Experts, warned about criminal liability, in the framework of criminal proceedings said “yes, the phrases are indeed identical.” Consequently, the narrative that Putin voiced was introduced and disseminated by our people’s deputies in Ukrainian society for a certain time, forming public opinion,” says the first deputy director of the SBI.
According to Udovichenko, since the end of February 2022, 2,022 criminal cases of treason against members of parliament, law enforcement officers, and judges have been investigated. More than 2,500 people were investigated in these cases. All of these cases, according to the security official, have already been referred to court.
“And this is only what was produced by the SBI - do not forget that such cases are investigated by the SBU, there are cases of treason in the National Police as well,” adds Alexander Udovichenko.
And the first deputy director of the State Bureau of Investigation complained that the efforts of “traitor deputies” to “push pro-Kremlin narratives among Ukrainians” had some success.
“This is what was going on in the head of the same Nikolaev prosecutor who worked for the enemy and received a life sentence for state treason? Probably, these narratives worked; the subversive activities of the people’s deputies yielded results. We perceived the speeches of these deputies as their political position, but it turned out - and we see this clearly now - this was done purposefully and coordinated. Speaking in spy language, they practiced the task. In no case was this a political position - it was the preparation of public opinion for the processes that, unfortunately, are taking place in our country today,” says Zelensky’s security officer.