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Igor Dryzhchany, the former Deputy General Public Prosecutor of Ukraine and newly appointed head of the Security Service of Ukraine
(photo: dryzhchany.openua.net) |
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Igor Drizhchany, the former Deputy General Public Prosecutor of Ukraine and newly appointed head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is a well-known person in Ukraine. In the beginning of the millennium he became notorious for his failure to organize interaction with the investigatory bodies of the USA and Europe on a number of loud cases, such as the murder of journalist Igor Gongadze or homecoming of the ex-Prime Minister Pavel Lazarenko, who was accused in theft of hundreds millions of dollars. Today Drizhchany is facing practically mission impossible – a task of reforming the diseased structure of the SBU.
International Relations Instead of Investigations
On Monday, September, 12, the president of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko presented the new chief Igor Drizhchany to the employees of the Security service of Ukraine (SBU). Drizhchany, appointed to this post on September, 9, that is three days prior to presentation, replaced the protégé of ex-Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko Oleksandr Turchinov. The biography of the new chief is perfectly known to the majority of his subordinates in the SBU. Igor Drizhchany was born in 1961, in the city of Kiev, capital of Ukraine. In 1983, in the age of 22, he received the diploma of a faculty of law of the Ukrainian state university, and was employed as the inspector of the Office of Public Prosecutor of the Leningrad area of the city of Kiev. Due to a fine skill to get on with any superior, the young inspector began to climb promptly on a service ladder. As the result, four years later, in 1987, Drizhchany already was a senior inspector.
As against his many colleagues Drizhchany was almost not affected by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. On the contrary: mass outflow of the old skilled staff and also more active young comrades to the private business, cleared him a pass to the high posts. In the beginning of the Nineties, that is less than in ten years after his coming to the Office of the Public Prosecutor, Igor Drizhchany acquired a post of the chief of the department on control over legality of activities of the Security Service of Ukraine, and also of two other services - customs and boundary guard.
Since 1993, for 7 years he was the senior assistant to the General Public Prosecutor of Ukraine and was engaged in external relations of the service. At last, in April, 2002 he reached the post of the Deputy to the General Public Prosecutor of Ukraine. Thus, without counting the initial stage of his activity in the Office of Public Prosecutor, mister Drizhchany has devoted last decade not to investigations or public prosecutor's work, but, basically, to the organization of the meetings with foreign delegations and to his own and his superior's trips abroad.
Meanwhile, it is necessary to note, that as against the quiet Soviet period when Drizhchany had time to work as the inspector, the new post-Soviet period has brought new, earlier unknown threats - the organized crime, general corruption of government officials, illegal traffic of arms, illegal migrants and drugs, etc. Igor Drizhchany never faced any of these challenges being an inspector and, consequently, has no real skills needed to struggle against them. For this reason, during the short period of his stay in the rank of the assistant to the General Public Prosecutor, in 2002-2003, he practically evaded organization of the international investigation of such loud crimes, as multimillion financial frauds of the former Prime Minister Lazarenko and murder of the journalist Igor Gongadze. In November, 2003, following the assignment of Svyatoslav Piskun to be the new General Public Prosecutor, Drizhchany left the Office of Public Prosecutor retiring on a pension.
The Second Career in the SBU
Igor Drizhchany came to the Security Service of Ukraine at the beginning of 2004, after several months being on pension and engaging in private commerce. The management of the SBU was experiencing recurrent personnel shake-up during this period: at the end of 2003 Vladimir Radchenko was removed from heading the service, for overwhelming corruption, and his place occupied the former chief of military intelligence Igor Smeshko.
The SBU employees frankly did not like Smeshko. The antipathy to him was so strong, that in February, 2004 the resident (local fix-post spies head) of the SBU in Berlin General Valery Kravchenko has decided to not return to native Ukraine and even exposed during the interview at the German radio the crimes of Smeshko against the Ukrainian Constitution.
Compelled to struggle with the internal opposition in SBU, its new chief recollected Drizhchany and has made him one of his assistants. The head of the administration of the President Kuchma at that time Viktor Medvedchuk was a guarantor of fidelity of the former Public Prosecutor. According to the available information, Drizhchany carried out Medvedchuk's "delicate" orders even during his Public Prosecutor's activity, so when the head of the presidential administration needed to strengthen positions of Smeshko in the SBU, he did not hesitate to send Drizhchany to him.
Switching the Master
Being at the post of the SBU vice-president Igor Drizhchany was responsible for connections with the members of the Supreme Rada (Parliament of Ukraine), and also for monitoring activity of the opposition. He bears the responsibility for simply sensational case when during Viktor Yushchenko's pre-election campaign in Crimea the operatives of the SBU openly followed and spied after his cortege. However, the former Public Prosecutor made a correct choice at the right time and, following his patron Igor Smeshko, he started to support the leaders of the "Orange revolution". Together with the new colleagues at the management of the Security Service he prepared
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Oleg Rybachuk,
the State Secretary of Ukraine |
the well-known "statement of the SBU generals", and appeared on Maydan Nezalezhnosty (Sovereignty Square) and took part in negotiations with the Commander of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Corps Nikolay Bilokon, whose armed units were moving to Kiev.
The new authority did not forget Drizhchany's diligence. There is information also about his old connection with Oleg Ribachuk, former vice-Premier on the issues of the European integration in Yulia Timoshenko's government. Even before being assigned to this post Ribachuk was the vice-president of the Black Sea Bank of Trade and Development, and also worked as a director of department of the international connections of the National bank of Ukraine. Drizhchany, as the assistant to the General Public Prosecutor, was skilful enough to overlook his financial activity, a pretty dirty from the point of view of the law. In September, 2005, after scandalous resignation of the State Secretary Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ribachuk, the active participant of Viktor Yushchenko's team during the presidential elections of 2004 and "Orange revolution ", was appointed to this place.
Seven months prior to that, in February, 2005, he prepaid to Drizhchany for that by assisting in his joining the team of the new chief of the SBU Turchinov.
The Unexpected Assignment
For the whole seven months of Turchinov being the chief of Security Service, Igor Drizhchany has not done anything special. He was plainly sitting out silently, while Turchinov combated with the omnipotent Secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. However, as it appeared, he did not lose contact with his former chief and patron Igor Smeshko and the representatives of his team in the management of the SBU, who were dismissed by Turchinov.
These connections appeared to be very useful for Drizhchany already on September, 8, when suddenly the head of the SBU Turchinov and his patroness Timoshenko lost their posts.
Oleg Rybachuk, who was appointed to be the State Secretary exactly one day prior to that, once again said his word, approving the fidelity of Drizhchany, and specifying him as on the most desirable successor's of Turchinov. As for Drizhchany, in his turn he immediately appointed Igor Smeshko to the post of his adviser.
There is no exact data on new assignments in the management of the Security Service of Ukraine yet, however, the informed sources in the service approve that those people of Smeshko and Medvedchuk, who were fired just seven month ago, will replace the people from the Turchinov's team. The same sources assert that panic reigns among the employees of the service. The new personnel cleansings will follow, the results of which may be again reconsidered after the parliamentary elections of 2006!
The Frozen Integration
Summing up it is necessary to note that NATO and the European Community's leaders keep constant tracking of the events in Ukraine, and in the management of the SBU in particular. In the opinion of the majority of experts, in the view of these events, real reformation of the service is impossible in the near future. That is why its integration into Intelligence Community of Europe and the North Atlantic bloc is postponed for uncertain term.
Read in next article: The problems of the Security Service of Ukraine - demoralization and a chronic inefficiency
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