The State Bureau of Investigation has completed its investigation into the members of a criminal organization, which included a people’s deputy, a people’s deputy of the III-IX convocations, a former prosecutor and two heads of the Main Directorate of the General Staff from the Russian Federation.
This was reported today, September 16, by the press service of the State Bureau of Investigation and the Office of the Prosecutor General.
The defense has been granted access to review the case materials, after which they will be sent to court, the State Bureau of Investigation noted.
Law enforcement officials are not disclosing the identities of the participants. However, the case materials indicate that we are talking about:
- MP Alexander Dubinsky, who is under arrest;
- former MP Andrey Derkach, who recently became a senator from the Astrakhan region in Russia;
- Derkach’s former assistant Igor Kolesnikov, who has already been convicted based on SBU materials and is serving a sentence for treason;
- former prosecutor Konstantin Kulik.
On the eve of a full-scale Russian invasion, a former MP and a former prosecutor went abroad and are hiding from justice, the Prosecutor General’s Office noted.
It was established that the members of the organization acted on clear instructions from Russian special services:
- the deputies joined a criminal organization created by the first deputy chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (better known as the GRU) Vladimir Alekseev and his assistant Aleksei Savin;
- the organization had a clear hierarchical structure and detailed distribution of responsibilities. The project was financed by Russian special services, the money was transferred to Ukraine through the assistant of the former people’s deputy;
- According to preliminary estimates, Russian special services spent at least 10 million US dollars on this organization. But the MPs themselves have repeatedly traveled to Russia to meet with their curators.
It is noted that the DBR, together with the SBU, exposed this criminal organization, created by the GRU in 2016, in November 2023. Its participants carried out activities to discredit the image of Ukraine in the international arena in order to worsen diplomatic relations with the United States and complicate Ukraine’s accession to the EU and NATO. In particular:
- the current MP disseminated Russian narratives, including about the top political leadership of Ukraine. To disseminate them, he participated in public events;
- In November 2019, MPs organized a joint press conference where they disseminated information about alleged international corruption of US officials. In this way, they tried to worsen relations between Ukraine and the US;
- in June 2020, the former prosecutor held a joint press conference with the former MP, at which they publicly “substantiated” fakes in favor of the Kremlin, including about the alleged interference of Ukrainian officials in the US presidential elections;
- These deputies also registered in parliament draft resolutions on the creation of a temporary investigative commission of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to investigate the “facts” that they exposed at their press conferences.
Thus:
- the current and former people’s deputies, the former prosecutor are accused of high treason as part of a criminal organization (Part 1 of Article 111 and Part 1 of Article 255 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
- The first deputy chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation and his assistant are accused of creating a criminal organization and inciting treason;
- The sanctions of the articles provide for punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to 15 years with confiscation of property.
It is noted that the State Bureau of Investigation is also investigating, as part of the criminal proceedings, the fact that the current MP’s family acquired real estate in Spain using Russian money.
In particular, we are talking about the purchase of two apartments in Barcelona for 288 thousand and 100 thousand euros. The apartments were purchased by the common-law wife of the MP and his mother. Moreover, the latter’s only source of income all these years was her Ukrainian pension, the DBR notes.
According to law enforcement officials, the women received most of the funds for purchasing apartments in Spain into their bank accounts from Russia.
The money was transferred by two Russian citizens who are most likely connected to Russian special services, and one of them even worked in Putin’s administration, the State Bureau of Investigation added.
Source: DBR, Office of the Prosecutor General
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.