8 Sep, 2023 14:27

US spies see new Ukrainian defense minister as ‘even more corrupt’ – Seymour Hersh

Rustem Umerov “made a fortune” supervising the sale of government property, the American journalist has reported

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov is “even more corrupt” than his predecessor Aleksey Reznikov, American journalist Seymour Hersh reported on Thursday, citing an anonymous US intelligence official.

Reznikov was dismissed by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky earlier this week, with Umerov confirmed as his replacement on Wednesday. Reznikov and his subordinates have been implicated in numerous graft scandals, including a scheme by which his ministry purchased substandard winter uniforms for inflated prices from a Turkish supplier owned by a Ukrainian contact.

“The new guy is even more corrupt,” Hersh quoted a “knowledgeable US intelligence official” as saying. “He ran the sale of government property and made a fortune. Has a huge villa in Majorca.”

The source claimed that Umerov’s name was not on a list of 35 corrupt officials allegedly presented to Zelensky by CIA Director William Burns in January. Zelensky fired a host of senior officials and administrators after meeting Burns, although Reznikov defied media speculation to stay in his post. The existence of Burns’ list was first revealed by Hersh in April.

“The list was not a telephone book of crooks; just the ones receiving US military and economic financing,” Hersh’s source said on Thursday. The statement backs up earlier claims that Zelensky’s purge was carried out at Washington's request, with the US seemingly keen to stop the misappropriation of its aid.

Umerov’s appointment was welcomed by the Western media. Prior to taking over Reznikov’s post, Umerov had served as head of Ukraine’s state property agency, where the Washington Post said he “gained praise for instituting massive audits and weeding out alleged corruption and misappropriation of funds.”

However, Umerov and two of his former deputies at the agency are currently the subject of a corruption investigation, Ukrainian media reported on Wednesday.

Citing court documents, news site Comments.ua claimed that the High Anti-Corruption Court (VAKS) of Ukraine opened the probe in August after receiving reports thatUmerov had obstructed an embezzlement investigation and covered up the sale of electricity below market prices by Tsentrenergo, Ukraine’s only state-owned electricity-generating company.

Summing up the shakeup at the Defense Ministry in Kiev, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated on Wednesday that Zelensky had “fired one defense minister over corruption but would not launch an investigation and instead appointed another minister, who is being investigated for corruption.”

https://www.rt.com/russia/582592-ukraine-defense-minister-corrupt/

Why has Ukraine’s high-profile defense minister been fired and who’s the new man replacing him?

Both Aleksey Reznikov and Rustem Umerov have been hit by scandals, but the latter is perhaps more useful in other respects. According to experts, these scandals will not influence Zelensky’s decision to appoint Umerov, whose ethnic origin makes him a symbolic figure for Ukraine.

A convenient figure

Umerov is a representative of the Crimean Tatar ethnic group and a Muslim. He was born in 1982 in Samarkand, but grew up in and built a career in Ukraine. In 2007, he was among the organizers of the Crimean Tatar Community, and in 2011-2013 was co-founder and president of the Crimean Development Fund. He was also the deputy head of the Permanent Delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. From February to April 2022, he was a member of Kiev’s delegation during the failed Russian-Ukrainian peace negotiations.

Bezpalko believes that Umerov was selected for the post of defense minister based on the relevance of his background and his loyalty:

“He is a Crimean Tatar, which symbolizes Ukraine’s claims to Crimea. He collaborated with the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, which is banned in Russia.He was literally grown out of a test tube of pro-Western and anti-Russian ideology – this is his main and probably only important quality. He is very loyal and very manageable – an ideal candidate for making any decisions in the current situation. Though by and large, in Ukraine politicians have little say in anything,” the expert said.

https://www.rt.com/russia/582459-ukraine-new-defense-minister/

8 Sep, 2023 15:06

Ukraine seeks to blow up gas pipelines to Türkiye – Lavrov

Kiev’s backers are turning a blind eye to Ukraine’s attempts to attack Russia’s Black Sea energy infrastructure, the foreign minister has said

Russia’s ‘TurkStream’ and ‘Blue Stream’ pipelines, which deliver natural gas to Türkiye and parts of Europe, are under threat from Kiev, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday during a visit to Bangladesh. Moscow has reason to believe that Ukraine might be plotting attacks on the underwater infrastructure, the foreign minister stated.

Kiev’s forces tried to attack Russian military ships patrolling the waters near the ‘TurkStream’ and ‘Blue Stream’ connectors, Lavrov claimed, adding that Russia has “launched patrols to these areas of the Black Sea, since there is information that there are attempts to blow up [the pipelines] just as the Nord Stream was blown up.”

Now, “everyone” is demanding Russia consent to Ukraine’s agricultural exports under the Black Sea grain deal Moscow suspended in July, according to Lavrov. Russia is “not forbidding it … but we will not let them [the Ukrainians] through the humanitarian corridors,” he added, explaining that Kiev’s troops used these routes “to launch both surface and undersea vessels to attack not just our military ships, but civilian ones as well.”

Lavrov maintained that the attacks by Ukraine are ignored by Kiev’s backers and various international bodies. “No one is leading any real investigation” into it, he said, adding that the relevant authorities only claim that “national bodies are dealing with this issue” but “no information is provided.”

The minister’s words came just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin also claimed that the Russian ships guarding the Black Sea pipelines were “constantly under attack” and these attacks were “directed” from Ukraine’s ports. He also cited these attacks – as well as Kiev’s use of Black Sea humanitarian corridors for military purposes – as one of the reasons Russia suspended its participation in the grain deal, also known as the Black Sea Initiative.

Earlier, Moscow conceded that it would consider returning to the deal if the West were to fulfill its obligations and lift sanctions on Russian fertilizer and other agricultural products. Putin made his statements during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Sochi. The Kremlin then clarified that the president was only referring to attacks on the Russian vessels and not on the pipelines themselves.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported in May that it had repelled a Ukrainian attack on a vessel that guards the undersea infrastructure.

https://www.rt.com/russia/582597-ukraine-blow-gas-pipelines-turkiye/