The cousin of the head of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin Viktor Medvedchuk, being the head of the presidential administration, did not allow Leonid Kuchma to secret documents that could allow him to view Russia as a potential threat.
This in an interview with the publication "Gordon" told the former and. Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the SBU, Major-General Petr Kopka.
"At the end of the year (I do not remember exactly which one) several hundreds of documents addressed to the head of the state returned to us from the President's Administration, with the stamp" Tsilkom taєemno "and the restrictive inscriptions" Osobisto "and" Pіdlagayє porenennu ". All documents were signed by the then head of the presidential administration Viktor Medvedchuk. And not a single signature of the Ukrainian president, "he said..
According to the Major General, this meant that Kuchma did not see secret reconnaissance documents intended for him personally, as everything passed only through Medvedchuk: "he put the autograph and returned the analyst back".
As explained by Kopka, one example of how this affected the then Ukrainian-Russian relations is the conflict around the island of Tuzla in 2003.
"This was the first attempt of the Kremlin's pen to really" press "on the Ukrainian leadership, using for this unresolved border issues. The present Donbass is a continuation of the "boundless" epic, "he said..
The ex-intelligence officer recalled that after the urgent conversation between Kuchma and Putin, the conflict was hushed up, as the Ukrainian authorities did not consider Russia a potential threat, which was a mistake.
"Well, there was a discomfiture with Tuzla, who does not exist, we are almost brothers, of the same blood ...
If then, in 2003, Ukraine really rigidly demanded that Moscow explain the behavior of a seemingly friendly state, Would, in international organizations with a request to pay attention to this unfriendly act, gradually and demonstratively begin to change the point of view on Ukrainian-Russian relations as a whole - much now would be different, "he stressed..
As reported by the "Observer", Kopka also told how the Russian special services defeated the SBU in due time.
Join the "Observer" group on Facebook, stay tuned!.