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EESTI ELU reedel, 2. septembril 2022 — Friday, September 2, 2022
Nr. 35
Black Ribbon Day & Join Hands with Ukraine
English-language supplement to the Estonian weekly “EESTI ELU” Tartu College Publications Founding Chairman: Elmar Tampõld Editor: Laas Leivat 3 Madison Avenue, Toronto, ON M5R 2S2 T: 416-733-4550 • F: 416-733-0944 • E-mail: editor@eestielu.ca Digital: www.eestielu.ca
Russian spies, in Ukraine and elsewhere (II) Putin seems to be convinced that he’s the best informed of any world leader. But Putin’s grasp of what’s happening both near and far is bent because he expects and allows only good news. Just as he distorts history, he welcomes misrepresentations of current reality. And, according to accounts from Western intelligence sources, the FSB – Federal Security Service, the main inheritor of the KGB – should bear the brunt of the blame for their misguidance. The FSB was saddled both with overconfidence and incompetence. Deciphered Intercepts from senior officers of the FSB’s Department of Operation al In formation revealed that Russian handlers of their intelligence assets in Ukraine instructed them to arrange for safe houses in Kiev for the imminent arrival of Moscow’s operatives, after Russia’s lightning fast military victory and overthrow of the Ukrainian government. In fact their self-confidence was so misplaced that some resident Russian informants were told to vacate their apartments and leave the keys so that new FSB arrivals could use them as residences, safe houses or bases for operations. The FSB had been a sizable clandestine presence in Kyiv for decades. It had been targeting decision-makers in institutions, bribing officials with the aim of thwarting any drift toward the West. The FSB was embedded in all sectors of Ukrainian society and just prior to the invasion, this contingent was substantially reinforced by additional agents. Some managed to sabotage Ukraine’s defence objects but they were unable to muster any meaningful pro-Russian public sentiment. The FSB operatives and or proxies in Ukraine either misread the signs of any anti-Western attitudes and/or did not pass on the reality of the situation to Putin. Some of these paid agents followed instructions, others simply pocketed the money and didn’t follow through as the invasion proceeded. The Ninth Directorate of the Department of Operational
Information had been for years tasked with establishing and then maintaining Ukraine’s subordination to Moscow. In re-focusing its attention on Ukraine in 2019, the FSB boosted the size of this Ukraine unit from 30 to 160 agents. The recruiting enticement included free apartments near their Moscow training centre and significant bonuses. Having been assigned their territories in Ukraine, they were to compile lists of possible collaborators and those adver saries that had to be eliminated. In fact, they were able to organize, on paper, two potential governments that would assume power once the current government had been overthrown. Ex-president Viktor Yanu kovich, the former Kremlin puppet was to head up one version and had actually assembled with his group in Belarus awaiting marching orders. Victor Medvechuk, a Ukrainian oligarch, head of a pro-Russian party with close ties to Putin was the other possibility for a Russian proxy government in Kyiv. It’s obvious now that both FSB agents already located in Kyiv and those expected to enter the city with the advancing Russian troops failed miserably in their assignments. They weren’t able to recruit enough collaborators before and after the invasion as saboteurs and agents of influence, in replacing the legitimate government with Moscow’s proxies. A puzzling aspect of the FSB’s failure is the opinion polling conducted for them exclusively. It clearly indicated that the vast majority of Ukraine’s population were ready to resist any Russian incursion. And yet this did not have any part in Putin’s disastrous miscalculation. It was known to the KGB that in vading Russia would not be welcomed with flowers and a key to the city. By all Western accounts, the FSB’s performance has been a very costly disaster. And yet those, who under normal circumstances would be found accountable – the director, Alexander Bortnikiov and the head of the Ukraine directorate,
Photo: Christian Stanley Ciesielski
Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza, Saturday August 21st, 2022
and most recently, the Hong Kong Way of August 2019.
Miroslav Petriw, President of the League of Ukrainian Organizers from the Estonian, Canadians Vancouver, spoke Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish & about the war in Ukraine, and Ukrainian communities in urged participants to donate to Vancouver joined together to the Friends of Ukraine Defense co-organize and commemo Forces Fund which provides direct support to Ukraine’s rate Black Ribbon Day – a day of remembrance to troops. The BRD event helped honour the victims of Soviet to raise almost $1,000 in dona communism and Nazism and tions towards the fund with the to draw attention to the on sale of Black Ribbons. going war in Ukraine. In a powerful echo of the Vancouver City Councillors Baltic Way, the event concluded Melissa De Genova, Pete Fry with an invitation to those and Adriane Carr were in atten- gathered to join hands with dance as well as MLA Selina each other, while the Ukrainian Robinson. Councillor De patriotic song “Oi u luzi Genova, Deputy Mayor, pre- chervona kalyna” was persented and read aloud a formal formed by Iaroslava Tanko, Proclamation from the City of Mikhaylo Gajdejchuk & Aarne Vancouver recognizing August Tork, and as the entire Van 23 as Black Ribbon Day, and couver Art Gallery Plaza was expressed the City’s solidarity and remembrance of the victims and their families. The one-hour program also included a speech from Dr. Serhy Yekelchyk, a Canadian Ukrainian Historian, who has published widely on modern Ukrainian and Russian history and Russian-Ukrainian relations. His speech drew a straight line from the effects of the MolotovRibbentrop Pact on Ukraine and other nations, to the present-day totalitarian, territorial ambitions of Vladimir Putin and the Russian regime. President of the Lithuanian Community of BC, Algis Jaugelis, delivered a message of hope and call to action inspired by the Baltic Way of August 1989, and how the Baltic Way inspired future demonstrations such as The Ukrainian Human Chain of January 1990, the Taiwanese Hand-in-Hand de monstration of February 2004,
Sergey Beseda – still remain in top positions and enjoy Putin’s confidence. Numerous observers have pointed to Putin’s appetite for recklessness, a craving that the FSB helps to satisfy. Putin cannot be allowed to misread or led to misunderstand the end of hostilities in Ukraine as even a partial victory. Other targeted countries depend on this. LAAS LEIVAT
encircled with hundreds of participants standing hand in hand. A big thank-you to all of the organizers & volunteers and to the following organizations & supporters: Vancouver Estonian Society, Canadian Polish Con gress British Columbia, Lithua nian Community of British Columbia, the Latvian community in British Columbia, Ukrainian Canadian Congress BC Provincial Council, and the Central and Eastern European Council in Canada (CEEC). Photos: B. Zurock, V. Viktus, I. Soide, T. Pajur, A. Jaugelis, K. Jaugelis. #BlackRibbonDay #BlackRibbonDayVancouver #BlackRibbonDay2022 #BalticWay #BalticWay33 #JoinHandsWithUkraine #StandWithUkraine VANCOUVERI EESTI SELTS
