Tatarov Has Influence Over Various Security Agencies Through His People — Ukrainska Pravda

Tatarov has influence over various security forces through his people – UP

Oleg Tatarov, deputy head of the Office of the President, influences various security structures by placing his people at different levels within these structures.

This is written by UP with reference to anonymous sources.

Now the deputy head of the OP is responsible for coordinating law enforcement agencies.

According to UP, the following pay attention to Tatarov:

• Oleksiy Sukhachov, director of the State Bureau of Investigation,

• Vitaliy Hagach, deputy director of the Bureau of Economic Security,

• Artem Shilo, head of the Main Directorate for Counterintelligence Protection of Critical Infrastructure Objects and Countering Terrorism Financing, SBU,

• Maksym Tsutskyridze, deputy head of the National Police,

• Iván Vygivsky, acting head of the National Police.

UP emphasizes that although the Minister of Internal Affairs, Ihor Klymenko, has power within the system and is building his team in the ministry in a system where decision-making is centralized in one center, Klymenko is forced to “coordinate” with the profile deputy head of the Office of the President.

In addition, according to UP, the deputy head of the Office also maintains working connections with several judges, among them Kyiv’s Pechersky District Court head Ruslan Kozlov and Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi District Court head Yevhen Martynov.

The question remains open whether the deputy head of the Office has influence over newly formed anti-corruption bodies.

An influential interlocutor from the head of the Office’s team told UP that, despite what is often said, Vasyl Malyuk, head of the SBU, is not acting on behalf of Tatarov, and that Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin is a person of the Office head Andriy Yermak.

“People often mistakenly say that Malyuk is from Tatarov. That’s not entirely true. Vasya is conceptually indebted to Oleg, since Tatarov helped him become SBU head. But Vasya was chosen by the president, who looked at him for a long time. As for the Prosecutor General, Kostin is Yermak’s man. Andriy simply shifted Kostin to work with Oleg,” a powerful interlocutor from the head of the Office's team told UP.

“You see, the new heads of NABU Kryvonos or his deputy Uhlava, to put it mildly, are hard to call Tatarov’s people. But Oleg doesn’t need to place his own people there to avoid a scandal with international partners. He only needs to recruit someone inside to obtain advance information about cases and searches,” explains an anonymous source involved in the creation of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Deputy head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) Andriy Synyuk, according to UP, also has good relations with former Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksiy Symonenko.

However, even with such a broad concentration of power in Zelensky’s team, they advise not to focus on Tatarov and not to overestimate his influence.