Ukrainiana

Reinstated! Crackdown General Popkov, Kuchma's Security Chief Radchenko

Newly-appointed Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko, SPU, has found himself a hell of a deputy. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome General Popkov, the wonderful guy who allegedly ordered a strike against peaceful protesters who gathered at Maidan. What a brave soul! He called it off only amid persistent reports that Orange Revolution-friendly security forces might thwart his plans. Secretary of State Colin Powell also pitched in when he put a call through to Kyiv and expressly warned the Kuchma administration against the Kristallnacht, or should we say Kremlinnacht, in the making.

Because the oranges we held in high esteem started rotting and falling too early, the likes of Popkov never got their asses kicked for what essentially was a near-civil war incident. In fact, they are alive and kicking. Small wonder if the Russian Orthodox Church nominates Popkov for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Congratulations, Minister Tsushko! Your screening and selection procedures certainly have the merit of consistency. Keep up the good work!

Oh yeah, we’ve been blessed with another one! Volodymyr Radchenko, also a general and one of Kuchma’s cowboys, has been promoted to Vice Premier. He will be joining a team that currently includes Messrs. Azarov, Klyuev, Rybak, and Tabachnyk, all of them natural born Vice Premiers.

Well-rounded in Kuchmocracy as Minister of the Interior, Chief of the SBU and NSC, Radchenko was valued for not sticking his neck out. His appointment comes in the heat of the war for talent — or shall we say, the war of attrition — raging on between the Yanukovych cabinet and Yushchenko administration. It appears to be a preventive measure meant to boost manpower and thus thwart any spring street agenda Tymoshenko and Lutsenko may have.

When questioned about his Cabinet duties, Radchenko said he will handle national security matters, improve defense capabilities, and coordinate law enforcement agencies, the usual drill.

Meanwhile, the PRU has launched an initiative to truncate the national security apparatus, headed by Vitaliy Haiduk, whose affiliation to ISD, Donbas’s second-largest business group, makes him extremely inconvenient, if not dangerous.

Thanks to the redeployment of mothballed Kuchma HR, the wheel of the Orange Counter-Revolution slowly but inexorably continues its course.