On June 18, 248 Ukrainian lawmakers—out of the 422 present in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament)—approved President Petro Poroshenko’s request to fire Valentyn Nalyvaychenko as head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) amid rising public criticism and top officials’ growing recriminations over the government’s inability to investigate and punish multibillion-dollar corruption and crime (Pravda.com.ua, June 18). The Rada’s vote has seemingly concluded the first episode in a long saga of horse trading and backroom intrigues at the top of the Ukrainian government, which is now becoming public.
The story started in the first half of June 2015, when the SBU …read more
Source: The Jamestown Foundation