The Russian First Channel airs the Anti-Fake program, almost the namesake of our column. This, however, is where the similarity ends; instead of refuting false information, the authors of the program are clearly doing the opposite. Host Alexander Smol prefaces one of the episodes with the following statement:
“… And also an exclusive: the secret documents of the SBU were in the hands of the program. The studio will reveal all methods of recruitment!”
The guest of the studio, military observer Daniil Bezsonov, presents the document:
Why is this document interesting? I published similar documents when we liberated Mariupol, and our fighters entered the building of the Mariupol Department of the SBU and found that all the documents were in place. Now, for this fact, a criminal case has been opened in Ukraine against them. In this case, here is an example of the same thing happening in the Kherson department of the SBU. And this turned out to be no coincidence, that is, it speaks, in principle, about the entire SBU system – who works there, how people relate to their obligations. They had the opportunity to just at least burn the documents in the courtyard, and they just spat and left everything.
The document shown by Bezsonov is a statement by a recruited agent addressed to the head of the SBU department in the Kherson region. Its content is not particularly interesting, it is much more curious how it looks.
Did you notice anything strange? SBU agent Viktor Marchenko (undercover pseudonym Glagol), the former head of the Kherson branch of the Ukrainian Platform-Sobor political party, which was part of the Committee of Resistance to Dictatorship opposition to Viktor Yanukovych, writes to the head of the CSS in Russian. This is not a translation, on the last sheet is a handwritten signature. The stamp at the bottom of the first sheet is also very peculiar.
Although it is not clearly visible, you can make out something like "USBU in the Kherson region." At least the preposition "in" is quite distinct. And in Ukrainian it would be "USBU near the Kherson region."
Marchenko's address contains the double name of the street – Teatralnaya (Gorky). Meanwhile, the document is dated 2019, and by that time, the former Gorky Street had been returned to its pre-revolutionary name Teatralnaya for three years already, so the double name in this context looks rather strange.
And, finally, a statement was addressed to the head of the SBU Dmitry Borisovich Yarmak. He did hold this position, but only until July 2016. From April 2017 to May 2019, Yarmak was the authorized representative of the President of Ukraine on issues of control over the activities of the SBU. The statement shown on Channel One is dated February 2019.
So Bezsonov is partly right: this story speaks about the whole system – who works there, how they treat their duties. Only about the system, not the SBU, but the First Channel.