QUESTIONS REMAIN ON PENSIONERS’ PLOT

The report of Leonid Derkach, chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), on an anti-constitutional plot exposed by his agency evoked interest bordering on agitation among Deputies and parliamentary journalists. According to Gen. Derkach, investigators have found “irrefutable evidence that the ultimate goal of this group was to overthrow the constitutional system of Ukraine.” The plotters, calling themselves a Revolutionary Council, had long been under surveillance, but the search and arrest decision was made only, the SBU chairman claims, when kitchen chats gave way to specific actions. Among these actions, Gen. Derkach cited the conspirators’ intention to carry out political agitation in military units stationed near Sumy and some other cities. However, this parliamentary report said nothing about sabotage at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the Kyiv Dam that the so-called Revolutionary Council had allegedly planned. The SBU head also confirmed that the group members maintained “informal” contacts with citizens of other countries “with the purpose of coordinating joint actions to stir up revolts in ten to fifteen cities.” As evidence of crime, Gen. Derkach pointed to leaflets and maps of a tank offensive on Kyiv. This was followed by the Right (Rukh’s Boiko) accusing the Communists and Socialists of giving direct instructions to the conspirators. Passions ran high when it became known that Yuri Petrovsky, one of the plot leaders, worked as assistant to Communist Deputy Oleksandr Baburin and was subjected to an SBU “preventive action” back in 1996. Gen. Derkach himself thinks “there are no reasons to politicize this issue.” “This decision was based on a sufficient amount of factual information,” he noted.

The audience was somewhat shaken, when Oleksandr Yemets said in his speech, “There can be no upheavals in this country, for there is nothing to heave up.” In his opinion, all the plotters are only psychos and fanatics far past the age of any active actions. However, Gen. Derkach assured the deputies that the accused are “people of sound mind “ and must answer for their actions. Quite interesting was the question of Petro Symonenko: “How come President Leonid Kuchma learned about the conspiracy against his state from the press rather than from the SBU chairman’s report?” The lawmakers heard no answer to this question.

The SBU head informed lawmakers that plotters Yuri Petrovsky and Valentyn Bulakhov had indicted on September 29, as was Volodymyr Kovalenko, a cell leader of the All-Ukrainian League of Soviet Officers, on October 5, in accordance with Part 1, Article 56 of, the Criminal Code of Ukraine. “As to Oleksandr Kozlobayev, the SBU has informed the Russian side and is preparing documents to identify the measure of his (Kozlobayev’s) responsibility for the crimes he has committed,” the SBU head said.