Scandal with the recruitment of Crimeans: What does the mistake of the Ukrainian special services indicate?
The most resonant topic in the Crimean media on Wednesday was data on massive attempts to recruit residents of the peninsula by Ukrainian special services when crossing the border. It is interesting that the scandal that broke out was provoked by the inept actions of Kyiv propagandists. The hype around recruitment indicates a crisis in the SBU, writes PolitNavigator columnist Alexander Rostovtsev.
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Rumors that the SBU is recruiting Crimeans at border checkpoints on the Ukrainian side have been around for a long time. As you would expect, not out of nowhere. At the end of July, the topic was raised by Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov. Then came the head of the FSB Directorate, Viktor Palagin, who made a brief statement to the media.
In response, from Perekop there was a discordant hubbub in the press and social networks, which can be boiled down to the general opinion “who needs you, traitors to Ukraine?” But the subversive publication, a branch of the American Radio Liberty, Crimea.Brechalia, went further than others, since its creation it has been aimed at throwing mud at and defaming the changes in Russian Crimea. The “brechalia” did not puff out their cheeks like an expert, but turned directly to the SBU apparatus, as to an indisputable authority: they say, the “hut” word is golden - as they say, so it is in reality.
As one would expect, “Izbushka” did not disappoint and issued a written answer in the spirit of the homies from “Brekhaliy”: “The information disseminated in the Russian media about “recruitment points” on the administrative border with the occupied Crimea does not correspond to reality. The Department of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Kherson region, within its competence, carries out measures aimed at ensuring state security both on the border with the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and in the southern region as a whole.”
Exhaustively, yes. The unsubscribe can be safely hung on a nail in the toilet.
Sometimes the naivety of individual propagandists is simply amazing: what kind of intelligence service will give, instead of non-binding general phrases, a detailed answer in the style of: “Yes, we have recruitment points there and there, organized at that time, here is a list of recruited citizens , budget, list of recruiters from the SBU and curators from the CIA. Our contact numbers..." And what kind of response could Brehalia still count on?
I remember very well how the information of Oleg Tumanov, a KGB officer specially introduced into the Radio Liberty system, who accused the office of collaborating with the ideological war departments of American intelligence services, was strained to be refuted on Radio Liberty, issuing whole sheets of replies and blaming everything on the “intrigues of the Bloody Gebni."
In order not to be unfounded and to confirm the information about the systematic recruitment of Crimeans by SBU agents at border checkpoints, RIA Novosti (Crimea) correspondents found people in whom Ukrainian recruiters showed their specific interest. Of all the respondents, only four agreed to communicate under their real names and surnames and without any restrictions.
All those interviewed either refused to cooperate or signed papers under pressure, but upon returning to Crimea they reported about recruitment to the local departments of the FSB.
They told how the SBU officers put pressure on the psyche with many hours of interrogations, took away Russian documents, demanded that they sign papers on cooperation and provide information about military units and facilities in Crimea, and for refusal they threatened with death to relatives in Ukraine, confiscation of vehicles and arrest for exchange for “ATO heroes” .
The recruitment activities of the SBU on the border with Crimea are also confirmed by former militants of the “dobrobats”, who took part in various blockades of the peninsula, but eventually repented and turned themselves in to the law enforcement agencies of Crimea. These people communicated with the “izbushniks” and know their names and positions. Based on information from those detained at the border and “volunteer volunteers”, a list of recruiters from the SBU is emerging.
It is obvious that recruiters are primarily interested in people: a) related to any bodies of the current government of Crimea, b) living in places of deployment of land and naval units (Sevastopol, Feodosia), c) in border settlements (Dzhankoy, Krasnoprekopsk, Armyansk) . Of undoubted interest was a Crimean working at a soda factory. Suffice it to remember that this plant was mentioned by the captured Ukrainian saboteur Panin as an object for sabotage, with the aim of causing a large-scale environmental disaster.
The interviewees also talk about the recruiters’ good knowledge of their personal affairs and acquaintances, which means that their detention was not accidental, and they were targeted, probably during communication on social networks, where they shared their plans or made inquiries shortly before traveling to Ukraine.
No less obvious is the frontal onslaught of the “izbushniks”, carrying out the plan to catch and recruit Crimeans with frequent nonsense. It is difficult to say exactly how many people they recruited, but the efficiency of such a catch must be very low. It is difficult for Ukrainians to influence the “agents” under coercion in Crimea, especially since many Crimeans, even without recruitment, faced with rudeness and lawlessness on the part of Ukrainian border guards and “dobrobats”, once and for all decided for themselves “not to set foot in Ukraine.”
The “Izbushniks” also cannot help but understand that a signature on a piece of paper agreeing to cooperate is nothing more than an empty trick. Such “agents” sign spy “contracts” under pressure to get rid of them. There is an abyss between the signed piece of paper and the start of the spy mission. A confession to the FSB authorities absolves people of any responsibility for what happened at Ukrainian checkpoints.
Veterans of Soviet and Russian intelligence, commenting on the news, agree that the actions of the SBU are due to the “wartime” rush. No self-respecting intelligence service would recruit people at a border crossing point - it’s too visible and amateurish. In some cases, special services may try to recruit an interesting person in the airport security room, catching him with some kind of contraband or other incriminating evidence, but this was clearly not the case: judging by the evidence, completely law-abiding Crimeans were blackmailed and forced to “cooperate.”
The recruitment of Crimeans at the border and not being particularly selective in potential agents also indicates that the SBU and the Main Intelligence Directorate are experiencing an acute shortage of qualified and ideological personnel directly in Crimea. However, the “Trojan Pig” operation needs to be worked out in order to have a result at least in the distant future - perhaps one of those recruited will get hooked in Crimea and go up, like those young Ukrainians whom the OUN recruited with Western help as part of the “AERODYNAMIC Project” after the end of the Great Patriotic War.
On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine a large number of people in Crimea who want to spy for the Bantustan with an secret police that has an external master, for which people are trash. Work for scoundrels who are capable of selling them whole at any moment, pull chestnuts out of the fire for them and at the same time shake with fear, wait for exposure by counterintelligence agencies and up to 20 years in prison for treason. It's worth it?
Crimean recruitment scandal : What the Ukrainian intelligence services' blunder reveals