At a time of national austerity under an International Monetary Fund-imposed bailout, Kyiv spared no expense on its public relations effort by inviting around 15 euro-deputies to dinner on Nov. 9 in the wood-panelled Maison du Cygne restaurant, one of the most expensive restaurnts in Brussels. Appetizers start at 25 euros, while roast duckling costs 78 euros at the posh place.
“Mr. Koroshkovsky, who will be in Brussels for meetings at NATO, will be pleased to have an exchange of views with guests on reforms of the security sector of Ukraine in the context of the European integration as well as on recent developments in Ukraine after the local elections,” the invitation, sent out by the Brussels-based PR firm Glocal Communications, says.
Maison du Cygne, an expensive restaurant in Brussels, is at right. It was the scene of a Nov. 9 dinner party hosted by Security Service of Ukraine chief Valeriy Khoroshkovsky and attended by members of the European Parliament. (Courtesy)
EUobserver understands that British centre-right member of parliament Charles Tannock and Polish right-wing member Michal Kaminski – who hail from parties hostile to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych – have agreed to go. Romanian centre-left deputy Adrian Severin, from the Yanukovych-friendly Socialist & Democrats group in the European Parliament, was also invited but could not attend.
Khoroshkovsky is one of the big men in the Yanukovych administration. On top of his duties as the chief of the Sluzhba Bezpeky Ukrayiny, known as the SBU, the 41-year-old also controls the country’s largest media company, the U.A. Inter Media Group, and sits on the High Council of Justice, the panel responsible for hiring and firing Ukraine’s judges.
He’s not the bully-boy type that you associate with the old nomenklatura. He’s a professional lawyer. He’s smart.”
– Elmar Brok, member of the European Parliament
The SBU has in recent months taken centre stage in complaints against Yanukovych’s alleged abuses of power.
SBU officers have interrogated members of leading NGOs and government-critical journalists. A number of civil society leaders and some EU diplomats posted to the EU embassy in Kyiv believe their phones and apartments are bugged. In June, the U.A. Inter Media Group almost forced off the air its competitors, the independent TV stations TV5 and TVi.
“This kind of thing didn’t happen in [former Ukrainian president Viktor] Yushchenko’s time. But now it is so,” Yevghen Bystrytsky, the Kyiv director of the George-Soros-sponsored International Renaissance Foundation said.
The Yanukovych-critical German centre-right member of the European Parliament, Elmar Brok, says the spy chief has a modern style. “He’s nice in his attitude. He says things like: ‘I understand. I see your problem. I will take this into consideration’,” Brok said.
Valeriy Khoroshkovsky has many roles, including part-owner of the pro-presidential Inter TV channel and head of the Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU.
The German deputy was unimpressed with Khoroshkovsky’s answers on substance, however. Asked on several occasions about the conflict of interest inherent in his multiple roles, the Ukrainian said that his job is to make sure that judges are not corrupt.
“You can favor a presidential system or a parliamentary system of power. But he doesn’t seem to understand that threatening the independence of the judiciary is one of biggest mistakes you can make when you are trying to build a new state,” Brok said. “He doesn’t seem to understand what are the proper limits of his mandate.”
Commenting on the Maison du Cygne event, the German parliamentarian noted that the heads of the British security services, MI5 and MI6, would never be allowed to take part in such a meeting: “It shows that he plays a much more political role than simply being the head of the secret service. Normally, the head of the secret service is a civil servant. But he is a type of politician.”
Andrew Rettman’s opinion was first published on the EUobserver’s website.
