The Channel 5 TV web site summarizes a Jane's Intelligence Digest story as follows:

Півтисячі російських спецназівців перебувають в Україні на випадок можливої евакуації Кучми 10.12.2004  20:20:58 Півтисячі російських спецназівців перебувають в Україні на випадок можливої евакуації Президента Кучми, його сім"ї та важливих для Кремля документів.  Про це розповідає британське аналітичне видання Jane’s Intelligence Digest у статті “Спецназ в Україні”. Посилаючись на офіцера українських Військово-Повітряних сил, газета розповідає про два десятки російських командос, які начебто входять до особистої охорони пана Кучми та про підготовані гелікоптери, які під прикриттям кількох сотень інших російських вояків готові до евакуації і Кучми, голови його Адміністрації Медведчука. Це, на думку видання свідчить про недовіру Леоніда Кучми до власного оточення. www.5tv.com.ua/newsline/119/20/3333

My understanding of the above is as follows:

Five hundred Russian special forces troops are stationed in Ukraine in case of a possible Kuchma evacuation 10-Dec-2004  20:20:58 Five hundred Russian special forces troops are stationed in Ukraine in case of a possible evacuation of President Kuchma, his family, and documents that are important to the Kremlin.  This is described in the British analytic periodical Jane's Intelligence Digest in an article titled "Special Forces in Ukraine." Relying on an officer of the Ukrainian Air Force, the periodical describes around twenty Russian commandos who are allegedly assigned as Kuchma's security detail, and describes on-alert helicopters which are under the protection of several hundred other Russian soldiers, and which stand ready to evacuate both Kuchma and the head of his administration, Medvedchuk.  This [reliance on foreign troops], according to the article, testifies to Leonid Kuchma's distrust of his personal entourage.

One indication of inept Kremlin planning disclosed by the above report is the Kremlin's having failed to anticipate that its stationing Russian troops on Ukrainian soil would become common knowledge, and would be greeted not only by Ukrainians, but by Europeans and others, with disapprobation.

A second indication of inept Kremlin planning is its failing to recognize that if these Russian troops were ever called upon to shoot anybody, it would be Ukrainian armed forces attempting the lawful arrest of an escaping felon within their own jurisdiction.  Such a Russian unlawful and provocative use of force would place a very large obstacle in the path of improving Ukrainian-Russian relations and in the path of Europe crediting Russia with having renounced its Soviet heritage.

A third indication of inept planning is the Kremlin's failure to recognize that anyone who gives sanctuary to Kuchma will be regarded by the world as shielding a murderer and a thief.  Ukrainians in particular will pursue Kuchma until he is brought to justice for the purpose of broadcasting the warning that any who might contemplate murdering and stealing in Ukraine in the future cannot hope to do so with impunity.  Leonid Kuchma, then, is an albatross asking to be hung around someone's neck.  Russia's interests are not promoted by offering its own neck for this albatross to hang from.

I am driven again to a conclusion that I have brought to your attention previously — that if some malevolent power had wanted to plant one of its agents to rule Russia for the purpose of blackening Russia's image and dividing the Slavic world, it could not have done better than planting Vladimir Putin, who turned his back on the opportunity to win the trust of 48 million Ukrainians, and instead provoked them by attempting to re-impose upon them the same NKVD despotism which has inflicted wounds still unhealed, and by attempting to demonstrate to Ukraine's gangsters that when things get too hot for them in Kyiv, they together with their Ukrainian booty can count on finding welcome in Moscow.





Lubomyr Prytulak