Security Service of Ukraine

Security Service of Ukraine
Служба Безпеки України
(SBU) / (СБУ)

Service insignia

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Agency overview
Formed September 20, 1991
Preceding Agency Committee for State Security (Ukraine)
Jurisdiction Ukraine
Headquarters 32–35 vulytsia Volodymyrska, Kiev
Employees 30,000[1]
Agency executive Valentyn Nalyvaichenko[2][3], Head of the Security Service of Ukraine
Parent agency President of Ukraine
Website http://www.sbu.gov.ua
History of State Security of Ukraine
Ukrainian SSR
Ukraine
  • SBU (1992–Present)

The Security Service of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Служба Безпеки України (СБУ); Sluzhba Bezpeky Ukrayiny), or SBU, is Ukraine's special-purpose law-enforcement agency and main government security agency in the areas of counterintelligence activity and of combatting terrorism.

Duties and responsibilities

The Security Service of Ukraine is vested, within its competence defined by law, with the protection of national sovereignty, constitutional order, territorial integrity, economical, scientific, technical, and defense potential of Ukraine, legal interests of the state, and civil rights, from intelligence and subversion activities of foreign special services and from unlawful interference attempted by certain organizations, groups and individuals, as well with ensuring the protection of state secrets.[4]

Other duties include combating crimes that endanger the peace and security of mankind, terrorism, corruption, and organized criminal activities in the sphere of management and economy, as well as other unlawful acts immediately threatening Ukraine's vital interests.

Structure

Directors

All Ukrainian Extraordinary Commission (Cheka)

Department of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs

Directorate of Extraordinary Commissions and Special Departments

Special Commission of the All Ukrainian Revolutionary Committee

Central Directorate of Extraordinary Commissions

Special Commission of the Council of People's Commissars of Ukraine

All Ukrainian Extraordinary Commission (Cheka)

Special Commission of the Council of People's Commissars of Ukraine

State Political Directorate (GPU)

Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs

Ministry of State Security (MGB)

Committee for State Security (KDB)

For more details on this topic, see Committee for State Security (Ukraine).

Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)

Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, current Director

History

Soviet era

The All-Ukrainian Cheka was formed on December 3, 1918 in Kursk[15] on the initiative from Yakov Sverdlov and Lenin's orders. The commission was formed on the decree of the Provisional Workers' Peasant Government of the Ukrainian SSR and later adopted on May 30, 1919 by the All Ukrainian Central Executive Committee. To support the Soviet government in Ukraine in Moscow was formed a corps of special assignment with 24,500 soldiers as part of the All-Ukrainian Cheka. In spring 1919 there was created the Council in fight against counterrevolution and consisted of Adolph Joffe, Stanislav Kosior, and Martin Latsis. In its early years the security agency fought against the "kulak-nationalistic banditry"[16] (against people who opposed creation of collective farms). On August 19, 1920 the All Ukrainian Cheka arrested all members of the All Ukrainian Conference of Mensheviks after accusing them in counterrevolution.[17] On December 10, 1934 the State Political Directorate was liquidated.[15]

1990s to present

33 Volodymyrska Street, SBU Headquarters in Kiev

The SBU is a successor of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's Branch of the Soviet KGB, keeping the majority of its 1990s personnel. Since 1992, the agency has been competing in intelligence functions with the intelligence branch of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. Despite this, a former Military Intelligence Chief and career GRU technological espionage expert, Ihor Smeshko, served as an SBU chief until 2005.

In 2004, the SBU's Intelligence Department was reorganized into an independent agency called Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine. It is responsible for all kinds of intelligence as well as for external security. As of 2004, the exact functions of the new service, and respective responsibilities of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine were not regulated yet. On November 7, 2005 the President of Ukraine created the Ukraine State Service of special communications and protection of information, also known as Derzhspetszvyazok (StateSpecCom) in place of one of the departments of SBU and making it an autonomous agency. The SBU subsumed the Directorate of State Protection of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Управління державної охорони України), the personal protection agency for the most senior government officials, which was the former Ninth Directorate of the Ukrainian KGB.

The SBU's State Directorate of Personal Protection is known for its former Major Mykola Mel'nychenko, the communications protection agent in President Leonid Kuchma's bodyguard team. Mel'nychenko was the central figure of the Cassette Scandal (2000)—one of the main events in Ukraine's post-independence history. SBU became involved in the case when Mel'nychenko accused Leonid Derkach, SBU Chief at the time, of several crimes, e.g., of clandestine relations with Russian mafia leader Semyon Mogilevich. However, the UDO was subsumed into the SBU after the scandal, so Mel'nychenko himself has never been an SBU agent.

Later, SBU played a significant role in the investigation of the Georgiy Gongadze murder case,[18] the crime that caused the Cassette Scandal itself.

In 2004, General Valeriy Kravchenko, SBU's intelligence representative in Germany, publicly accused his agency of political involvement, including overseas spying on Ukrainian opposition politicians and German TV journalists. He was fired without returning home. After a half-year of hiding in Germany, Kravchenko has returned to Ukraine and surrendered in October 2004 (an investigation is underway).

Later, the agency commanders became involved in the scandal around the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko—a main candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election. Yushchenko felt unwell soon after supper with SBU Chief Ihor Smeshko, at the home of Smeshko's first deputy. However, neither the politician himself nor the investigators have ever directly accused these officers. It is also important to note that the Personal Protection department has been officially responsible for Yushchenko's personal security since he became a candidate. During the Orange Revolution, several SBU veterans and cadets publicly supported him as president-elect, while the agency as a whole remained neutral.

In 2005, soon after the elections, sacked SBU Chief Smeshko and other intelligence agents stated their own version of the revolution's events. They claimed to have prevented militsiya from violently suppressing the protests, contradicting the orders of President Kuchma and threatening militsiya with armed involvement of SBU's special forces units. This story was first described by the American journalist K.J. Chivers of The New York Times and has never been supported with documents or legally.

Analysts agree that SBU is relatively free of political involvement compared to the Ukrainian militsiya, which is considered to be mainly responsible for persecution of opposition activists and ignoring crimes against them. However, the SBU is widely suspected of illegal surveillance and eavesdropping of offices and phones.

An episode of human rights abuse by SBU happened during the case of serial killer Anatoly Onoprienko. Yuriy Mozola, an initial suspect in the investigation, died in SBU custody in Lviv as a result of torture. Several agents were convicted in the case.[19] The SBU remains a political controversial subject in Ukrainian politics.[20]

The former Security Service of Ukraine Head Valeriy Khoroshkovsky is also the owner of U.A. Inter Media Group which owns major shares in various Ukrainian TV channels including Inter TV.[21] 238 members of the Verkhovna Rada voted for Khoroshkovsky, however the head of the parliamentary committee for the National Security and Defense Anatoliy Hrytsenko stated that the committee accepted the decision to recommend Verkhovna Rada to deny the candidature of Khoroshkovskiy on the post of the chairman of Security Service of Ukraine.[22]

Khoroshkovskiy said the SBU's main duty was to protect the president rather than the interests of Ukraine. On July 26, 2010 it arrested an internet blogger, producing a warrant for his arrest the next day. SBU accused the blogger of threatening the President of Ukraine, citing his comment "May thunder strike Yanukovych!"; he was released after a short discussion.[23] However, SBU showed a rather passive reaction to the statements of the Russian state official who claimed that Crimea and Sevastopol belong to the Russian Federation.[24] Protest group FEMEN said that after the early 2010 election of President Viktor Yanukovych the SBU attempted to intimidate the FEMEN activists.[25]

On May 22, 2012 Volodymyr Rokytskyi, Deputy Head of the SBU, was photographed in public wearing a $32,000 luxury wristwatch despite the fact that its price amounts to his yearly official income. The instance happened at a joint Ukrainian-American event dedicated to fighting the drug trade.[26]

The SBU uncovered seven spies and 16 special service agents in 2009.[27] A large number of arrests and searches occurred in 2011.[28] In February 2014, numerous documents, hard drives, and flash drives, including data on over 22,000 officers and informants, were stolen or destroyed in a raid on the SBU allegedly ordered by Viktor Yanukovych.[29]

SBU and Khoroshkovskiy

Khoroshkovskiy was involved in several controversies during his tenure. The rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv Borys Gudziak heavily criticized a visit from the SBU, forcing Khoroshkovskiy to apologize. Later the head of the Kiev Bureau of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Nico Lange, was detained for a short while and released only after several high-ranking officials from the German Chancellery vouched for him. The Security Service described the incident as a misunderstanding.

Khoroshkovskiy, as the Chairman of the SBU, eliminated the main competition of Ukrainian TV-giant Inter, officially owned by his wife Olena Khoroshkovskiy, in the face of TVi and Channel 5.

In July 2010, Konrad Schuller of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote that Khoroshkovskiy had connections with RosUkrEnergo.[30][31][32] The most important source of Khoroshkovskiy's came from RosUkrEnergo. The President's spokesperson, Hanna Herman, in an interview with this newspaper, did not dispute that Dmytro Firtash was one of the sponsors of the Presidential Party of Regions, with the help of which Khoroshkovskiy was appointed to the position of the State Security chairman. Khoroshkovskiy denied any connections to RosUkrEnergo. However it is a fact that Firtash possesses certain privileges in Inter. Schuller also stated that the SBU acts in direct association with RosUkrEnergo, arresting their main opponents (see RosUkrEnergo) in order to recover their invested money in the recent presidential campaign. Khoroshkovskiy having declined to give an interview to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Schuller posted a quote from one of his other interviews:

“ All my experience until now indicates that I am a patriot. ... I see through economic intrigues, crime, know methods of money laundering, banks that illegally exchange currency. ... My knowledge is much wider than most of those who work here. ”

When Minister of Finance Fedir Yaroshenko resigned on January 18, 2012, Khoroshkovsky replaced him in the post on the same day.[10]

Long Service Medal

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://rieas.gr/images/tarask.pdf
  2. ↑ "Rada appointed Nalyvaichenko with authority for the actions of the SBU". Lb.ua (in Russian). 22 February 2014.
  3. ↑ "Chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine: VALENTYN NALYVAICHENKO". SSU.
  4. ↑ "Objectives and Duties of the SSU". Official website of SBU.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Mantsev". hrono.ru. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Chysnikov, Volodymyr. КЕРІВНИКИ ОРГАНІВ ДЕРЖАВНОЇ БЕЗПЕКИ РАДЯНСЬКОЇ УКРАЇНИ (1918–1953 рр.) [Directors of organs of State Security of the Soviet Ukraine] (in Ukrainian). SBU.
  7. ↑ "Balitsky's profile" (in Russian).
  8. ↑ "People's Committee of State Security".
  9. ↑ "Igor Drizhchany's Complex Inheritance".
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Yanukovych dismisses Khoroshkovsky from military service". Kyiv Post. 19 January 2012.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Yanukovych names new Kalinin as state security chief". Kyiv Post. February 3, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Yanukovych appoints Rokytsky as acting SBU chief". Kyiv Post. January 19, 2012.
  13. ↑ "President calls on officials for joint work on reform in SBU". Kyiv Post. January 10, 2013.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Ukrainian parliament appoints Nalyvaichenko as security service chief". Interfax-Ukraine. 24 February 2014.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "All Ukrainian Extraordinary Commission". leksika.com.ua. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  16. ↑ "All Ukrainian Cheka". leksika.com.ua. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  17. ↑ "ЦЕЙ ДЕНЬ В IСТОРIЇ" [This day in history]. Den (in Ukrainian). 19 August 2010.
  18. ↑ "Gongadze Case Investigation". Ukrayinska Pravda (in Ukrainian).
  19. ↑ "Amnesty International Report 1997 – Ukraine". 17 July 2009.
  20. ↑ "Ukrainian MPs ask prosecution to probe Security Service head on several claims". Interfax-Ukraine. 26 December 2008.
  21. ↑ "Khoroshkovsky ready to sell his media business". 12 June 2010.
  22. ↑ СБУ віддали Хорошковському [SBU was given to Khoroshkovskiy]. UNIAN (in Ukrainian). 11 March 2010.
  23. ↑ "Yanukovych was damned by a blog" (in Russian and Ukrainian). glavred.info. 2 August 2010.
  24. ↑ "Luzhkov again returned to his routine" (in Russian and Ukrainian). glavred.info. 22 July 2010.
  25. ↑ "The Entire Ukraine Is a Brothel". Spiegel Online. 5 May 2011.
  26. ↑ Головний борець із корупцією з СБУ носить годинник дорожчий за його річну зарплату. Ukrayinska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 23 May 2012.
  27. ↑ "Seven spies, 16 special service agents exposed in Ukraine in 2009". Interfax-Ukraine (Kyiv Post). 30 December 2009.
  28. ↑ ТОП-5 арештів і "маски-шоу" 2011 року [The top-5 arrests and mask-shows in 2011]. Ekonomichna Pravda (in Ukrainian). 11 January 2012.
  29. ↑ Miller, Christopher (30 December 2014). "Ukraine's top intelligence agency deeply infiltrated by Russian spies". Mashable.
  30. ↑ Німецька преса - про «ладно зачесаного шефа СБУ» [German press about the Chief of SBU] (in Ukrainian). UNIAN. 20 July 2010.
  31. ↑ Schuller, Konrad (19 July 2010). "Original article". FAZ (in German).
  32. ↑ Schuller, Konrad (14 July 2010). "Inszenierung eines Missverständnisses" [A misunderstanding]. FAZ (in German).

External links