person:volodymyr fesenko

  • Kuwait arrest raises specter of Ukraine black market as source of arms for ISIS
    http://mashable.com/2015/11/20/kuwait-ukraine-isis-weapons

    The arrest in Kuwait of a Lebanese man with ties to the Islamic State has raised the specter that Ukraine’s notorious illicit arms market may be a source of weapons for the the militant group.

    One senior Ukrainian official with access to intelligence agency reports told Mashable on Friday that it is “plausible” the man, arrested by Kuwaiti authorities on Thursday, had obtained FN-6 surface-to-air missile systems he admitted to getting from a broker in Ukraine. Calling news of the arrest “interesting,” the official stopped short of giving a definitive answer to a question about whether Kiev had direct information about the arms sale in question.

    Pour les purs et durs, ça ne peut venir, évidemment, que des zones tenues par les séparatistes…

    FN-6 shoulder-fired missile systems, manufactured by China, have never been sold to Ukraine, nor has the government given permission for their transit through its territory, the Ukrainian defense ministry said in a statement on Friday. And there have been no documented reports of the the FN-6 shoulder-fired missile systems appearing in Ukraine since the war began in April 2014.

    But that doesn’t mean the weapons couldn’t have been transported into the country another way, the senior official admitted, adding that Kiev has monitored the illicit trafficking of weapons to and from separatist-controlled territories since the start of the war, and that it "really struggles" to stem the “heavy” flow.
    […]
    But on both sides of the battle lines, weapons have a way of disappearing in Ukraine, where corruption remains rampant, an Ukrainian security official told Mashable in June.

    Weapons can disappear all the time,” possibly falling into the hands of extremist groups, said the official. “We have seen the black arms market flourish since the start of the war in Donbass,” the official said, using the colloquial term for eastern Ukraine.


    (photo illustrant un article de mars 2013, lorsque la FSA avait abattu un hélicoptère d’origine russe avec ce type de missile)

    • échantillon de démentis,…

      Claim of Ukrainian weapons sale to ISIS prompts denials, alarm
      http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/claim-of-ukrainian-weapons-sale-to-isis-prompts-denials-alarm-402511.html

      l’officiel,

      Ukraine has not manufactured or carried out purchases of the FN-6 anti-aircraft missile systems mentioned in the statement, and also has not provided the transport for their shipment,” a statement on [Ukraine’s Defense Ministry’s] website said.

      « impossibilités » diverses

      Andriy Lysenko, a Ukrainian military spokesperson, said there would be “nothing surprising” about such Chinese-made systems winding up in the occupied territory of Donetsk, noting that separatists could easily transport weapons across the uncontrolled border with Russia.

      But it would be “practically impossible” to move such weapons across territories under control of the government, he said.

      Apart from the war-torn east, however, the city of Odesa also has a reputation for a smuggling hub.

      Nikolai Holmov, a writer and consultant based in Odesa, said corruption could have made it possible to have weapons smuggled out of the ports in Odesa, “but that does not mean it’s necessarily probable.

      et l’incontournable, c’est les Russes !

      Volodymyr Fesenko of the Penta political research center warned that the news about the weapons sold to ISIS could play into Russia’s hands.

      The likelihood that this news is nothing more than another Russian information attack on Ukraine is rather high. They already did this several times in 2002-2003, when the news that Ukraine sold ‘Kolchuga’ radar systems to Iraq appeared in the media. That was when (Leonid) Kuchma decided he needed closer ties with NATO,” Fesenko said.

      There is a chance that someone in Ukraine could have sold weapons to ISIS, he said, but Russia will exaggerate the news.

      Russia is fighting against terrorism together with the West. And now it can show the West, “Look at this little nasty Ukraine! You protect them, and you confront us because of them! And they sell weapons to ISIS!” said Fesenko.

  • Mysterious group takes claim for high-profile murders
    http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/mysterious-group-takes-claim-for-high-profile-murders-386483.html

    The recent assassinations have been blamed alternatively on either Ukrainian nationalists or Russian intelligence agencies and have re-ignited speculation about possible links between the Kremlin and some Ukrainian ultranationalist groups. According to another version, Kalashnikov and Buzina were killed by ex-Yanukovych allies to prevent them from giving testimony.
    (…)
    Political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta research group, wrote on Facebook on April 17 that a group calling itself the Ukrainian Insurgent Army had sent him an e-mail taking responsibility for the murder of Kalashnikov and Buzina. They also claimed they were responsible for the deaths of former Yanukovych associates Mykhailo Chechetov, Oleksandr Peklushenko and Stanislav Melnyk earlier this year. According to the police, Chechetov, Peklushenko and Melnyk committed suicide.

    The unknown group borrowed its name from nationalist leader Roman Shukhevych’s Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which fought against Nazi and Soviet troops in 1942-1956 and is demonized by the Kremlin to this day.

    We are launching a ruthless insurgency against the anti-Ukrainian regime of traitors and Moscow’s lackeys, and from now on we will speak to them only in the language of arms until they are completely eliminated,” the group said, as cited by Fesenko.

    To prove its links to the murders, the organization said that Kalashnikov had been killed with two weapons with calibers of 7.65х17 and 9х18. They also said that Kalashnikov had shot his pistol before he was killed.

    This just confirms my suspicion that Russian intelligence agencies are behind these people, though the killers themselves may not even know this,” Fesenko wrote. “The statement also gives us grounds to suspect that the campaign of assassinations will continue and may be directed against top government representatives.
    (…)
    Analysts have speculated that Russia allegedly uses some Ukrainian nationalists to present Ukraine as a “fascist” country and to destabilize the political situation.

    One of those accused, Dmytro Korchinsky, used to cooperate with Alexander Dugin, a pro-Kremlin Russian imperialist who has called for killing Ukrainians. Korchinsky was on the board of Dugin’s International Eurasian Union before falling out with his Russian ally in 2007. In 2005 Korchinsky trained Russia’s Nashi pro-Kremlin youth group on ways to combat “color revolutions.

    Secret services often attempt to influence nationalist groups to use them for their goals, Fesenko told the Kyiv Post.

    Intelligence agencies often act this way,” he said. “They use local nationalist groups and plant moles there. They give them ideas and funding.

    Un terreau propice pour toutes sortes de #barbouzeries

    Les néo-nazis, c’est Poutine… comme ça il peut les diaboliser comme l’UIA et Chouchkevytch (qui viennent tout récemmment d’être reconnus comme combattants pour l’indépendance ukrainienne http://seenthis.net/messages/359655 )