Malomuzh: Russian spy Shepelev formed shadow business in the LPR, financed terrorists and helped in preparations for the seizure of Crimea

Former deputy accused of a series of contract killings, high treason, financial and other crimes, an agent of the Russian special services, Alexander Shepelev, earned money in the terrorist quasi-republics of the DPR and LPR, forming a shadow business there. At the same time, he financed terrorist armed groups with part of his earnings for his own PR. This opinion was expressed by the former head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine Mykola Malomuzh in an exclusive commentary to UNN.

 Partly for PR purposes (in the territory of the LPR - ed.), he may have really supported armed groups and the like. This is also a criminal activity, but basically, as a rule, such people, and Shepelev in particular, I can see from him, knowing the operational information, that he is very selfish, and, of course, the main part of this money is to collect on these territories for himself, to form shadow businesses. And it is clear that the allocation of a certain share of his shadow business to these armed groups, which is the support of terrorist activities of Russian and pro-Russian forces

Earlier we told you that Shepelev turned out to be an agent of the Russian FSB and the game, he wrote about it in his own explanations to the director of the FSB.  

Malomuzh said that Russian special services primarily study all politicians, MPs, military officers, influential public figures and businessmen who can be really useful in a particular field of activity.

"People's deputies are a special category because, first of all, they have access to state and military secrets and certain official matters through, so to speak, the activities of the committee or through the performance of deputy duties. Another point is that they have relevant contacts, unofficial ones, with politicians, for example, the military, with representatives of special services, during which they can really find out classified information, information for official use, secret or top secret. That is why such a figure is always attractive for recruitment," said the former head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.

According to him, the special services identify "candidates" as soon as they appear on the political horizon as young activists working in business or in government agencies, or running for parliament as public figures. From that moment on, they begin to be studied, their entire dossier is collected. Then they are persuaded to cooperate, usually not directly, but by making them interested in, for example, business projects or international projects that provide an opportunity to receive some additional funds, usually unofficially.

Such cooperation with representatives of a foreign state can be qualified under Ukrainian law as tax evasion at the very least, and criminal activity at the most. Usually, Russian special services are interested in the mood in the parliament, the position of the President's Office and the head of state himself, individual government officials on a particular situation or project.

Malomuzh reminded that MPs have access to a large amount of information and can contact an authorized person, secret carriers, and directly, for example, the developers of certain military equipment, weapons, including missile systems. In addition, a deputy recruited by the Russian special services can help them in the selection of similar supporters in the political sector, sympathizers of Russia.

Malomuzh noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin planned to seize Ukraine and replace the government with Russian supporters - recruited FSB agents and people like former MP Shepelev or those under the influence of the special services.

 It didn't work out that way, it failed. So now he (Shepelev - ed.) is already being used by the special services in specific areas. For example, either in the occupied territories or, for example, using his connections somewhere to try to influence someone unofficially, here on the territory of Ukraine. Or outside of Ukraine, forming a corresponding bloc against our country, anticipating some future changes

In addition, according to Malomuzh, Shepelev, an FSB agent and a game player, could have helped enemy special services in preparing for the seizure of Ukrainian Crimea.  At the time, it was important for Russian intelligence and counterintelligence to understand whether there would be strong resistance to the attempted seizure of Crimea, or whether everyone would surrender when the Russians came.

We said that Shepelev actively justified Russian aggression and the annexation of Crimea, which he expressed during his communication with FSB representatives and actively cooperated with the terrorist DNR.

"Therefore, such deputies (like Shepelev - ed.) were actively used to persuade local activists to take pro-Russian actions and support the annexation, because this is one of the formats of using the status of a deputy, he has all the necessary organizational, political and other capabilities for this. Therefore, this format was actively used then and now," Malomuzh noted.

He also helped in finding people who were ready for such actions - sympathizers of Russia, those who were ready to act for money or to be involved in some dubious operation to persuade them to further cooperation with Russia.

To recap

Supreme Court judges Vyacheslav Marynych, Volodymyr Korol and Alla Makarovets considered the defense's cassation appeal against the verdict in the case of ex-MP Oleksandr Shepelev, accused of contract killings, high treason and other crimes, changed his sentence and tried to release him in the case of bribery and escape from the pre-trial detention center. The prosecutor appealed the actions of the Supreme Court judges to the HCJ.  

According to the automatic distribution, the complaint in Shepelev's case will be considered by the first ever HCJ member judge who is fighting on the front line against Russia Olena Kovbiy.