• Українська
  • Русский
  • English
Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Will Coercion Structure Cadre Changes Give the President Confidence in the Future?

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

SBU’s personnel changes are geared to make the Security Service truly effective, Mr. Kuchma declared Monday night after visiting its A Directorate. He was there to inspect the Alpha elite commando force, and, coincidentally, changes in its command had been discussed the previous day as something already decided.

This time, however, the Chief Executive made no cardinal decisions. He said he liked the way Alpha CO Vasyl Krutov ran his unit. “I think the man who founded this organization fills every requirement in terms of morale and combat readiness,” he said. As for replacing ten SBU regional department heads, TSN television news service quoted the President as saying this was the finishing touch to the SBU cadre shifts project.

However, he praised General Krutov only after asked the question, “What will happen to Alpha?” It is hard to assume that the journalists formally invited to the Pyatykhatka trial ground were meant to see just another military show with the young commandos displaying their special skills, leaping into moving trucks or getting inside planes held up by terrorists. The President made his statement on Alpha in his usual ambiguous vein, but this time the reason could be that the next round of cadre shifts had been postponed. Why and for how long? Perhaps until the media’s interest in this subject wears off, although General Krutov is repeatedly suggested as the most likely SBU second-in-command replacement.

Granting that the SBU is approaching the standard the President wants, the National Guard is obviously lagging way behind, hence the spate of personnel shifts in it recently. A series of presidential edicts fired practically every Deputy National Guard Commander, appointing Volodymyr Frolov the new Number One, Hryhory Marchenko the new Chief of Staff, and Mykola Kostia to replace the general officer in charge of indoctrination. These mysterious personnel changes are perhaps best explained by the differences between the Guard’s old and new blood, the latter meaning primarily new Commander Oleksandr Chapovsky, who was suddenly promoted to the post three months ago, while in charge of an army corps.

 

Rubric: