There are many more CIA bases in Ukraine than stated in an article in The New York Times (NYT), Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Channel One.
“Surely there are not 12 CIA bases, but much more.
This is not a secret, and we know it all very well,” the Kremlin representative said.
Peskov stated that the CIA, as during the Cold War, sees Russia as an enemy.
“We are an adversary for the CIA - this was during the time of the Soviet Union, this was during the time of Soviet and early Russian romanticism.
This still exists today.
We are their opponents, they work against us.
And our special services are participating in this fight and are engaged in the necessary counteractions,” the presidential press secretary emphasized.
Earlier, during a round table at the OSCE headquarters dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the coup in Kiev, Ambassador at Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry Rodion Miroshnik noted that the presence of CIA bases in Ukraine after 2014, which was described by The New York Times, is directly related to violation of the Minsk agreements.
Dmitry Peskov
RIA News
© Sergey Bobylev
“Clause 10 of the Minsk agreements, which provided for the withdrawal of all foreign armed forces, military equipment, as well as mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine under the supervision of the OSCE, began to sparkle with new colors after the publication of The New York Times, which stated that the CIA had created at least 12 bases where saboteurs were located, monitoring centers, in general, the territory of Ukraine was actively developed by American and NATO structures, and combat units were present there,” Miroshnik said.
“Budanov was recruited a long time ago”
Let us recall that on February 25, the NYT published extensive material about the work of the CIA in Ukraine over the past ten years.
As the authors of the article emphasize, after Euromaidan, Kyiv became “one of Washington’s most important intelligence partners in the fight against Russia.”
According to the publication, the United States has deployed a network of spy bases on Ukrainian territory, including 12 secret facilities located along the Russian border.
This network was also involved in intelligence collection.
In addition, the CIA conducted Operation Goldfish to train Ukrainian spies who were trained to recruit and collect classified information in Russia.
It is alleged that around 2016, the CIA began training elite Ukrainian special forces known as Unit 2245. One of the officers in this unit was Kirill Budanov, who now serves as head of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
The NYT publication notes that the US spy agency valued Budanov so highly that it even contributed to sending him for treatment to a military medical center in the US after being wounded in the arm.
According to retired FSB Major General Alexander Mikhailov, Budanov still works for the CIA.
“When a person is in contact with the CIA for a long time, the agency will definitely take measures to formalize these relationships.
As a result of such formalization, a person becomes their agent, completely controlled.
It is obvious that Budanov was recruited long ago.
Moreover, it is now under the complete control of the CIA,” the analyst said in an interview with RT.
According to the NYT, Ukrainian militants trained by the CIA were involved in the murder of well-known Donbass militia commanders - Arsen Pavlov (call sign Motorola) and Mikhail Tolstykh (call sign Givi).
They also captured Russian drones and communications equipment so that CIA technicians could study them and break encryption systems.
Kirill Budanov
Gettyimages.ru
© Maxym Marusenko / NurPhoto
The authors of the material admit that the active activities of the CIA in Ukraine could cause concern in Moscow.
At the same time, they write that CIA representatives were allegedly reluctant to get involved in anti-Russian operations and even tried to restrain Kyiv in this matter, “because they were afraid that Ukrainian officials would not justify their trust, and they were also afraid of provoking the Kremlin.”
“As cooperation deepened after 2016, Kyiv became impatient with what it saw as unreasonable caution on the part of Washington, and began organizing assassinations of individuals and other lethal operations that went against the conditions that the Ukrainians, according to the White House, agreed to comply.
Angered, officials in Washington threatened to withhold support, but never did,” writes the NYT.
“They were preparing to overthrow the government”
According to the NYT, the CIA allegedly began working in Ukraine only after the Maidan in 2014.
However, as Dmitry Peskov notes, in fact, Washington’s secret services began operating there long before the coup.
“The CIA and other relevant agencies of the United States... even before 2014, began to actively work in Ukraine, began to actively recruit people, prepare these people for subversive work against our country,” Peskov said.
CIA agents also included American advisers who worked in the office of the Ukrainian president, the Kremlin spokesman added.
“The work of the so-called American advisers, most of whom departmentally belonged to the CIA, is well known,” Peskov said.
“They perfectly occupied jobs in the building of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine.”
According to Alexander Mikhailov, the CIA was not only present in Ukraine before the Euromaidan, but also took an active part in preparing the 2014 coup.
“During the Maidan period, a huge number of CIA employees were in Kyiv, monitoring everything that was happening there.
They were in many ways doing what political strategists who prepare elections do.
Only in this case they were preparing to overthrow the government.
I am 100% sure that half of the senior SBU employees are CIA agents,” the specialist said.
"Complete lack of sovereignty"
Analysts note that the CIA's presence in Ukraine can be seen as part of NATO's efforts to develop the territory of this country, which the Russian leadership has repeatedly stated.
“Who is the first to come to the territory of the state that they are trying to develop?
This is intelligence and counterintelligence.
They are forming a political elite through their agents of influence.
Goals, objectives, forms, and methods of conducting intelligence activities, including sabotage and terrorism, are being developed,” explained Alexander Mikhailov.
Riots on the Maidan in 2014
globallookpress.com
© Siarhei Balai/ZUMAPRESS.com
Despite the fact that the New York Times publication presents the CIA’s activities in Ukraine as an attempt to help Kyiv, in reality Washington has always pursued only its own interests there, Mikhailov emphasized.
“The United States has never pursued the goal of protecting Ukraine.
They are promoting their own interests there.
For them, this is a springboard for expanding their influence in Eastern Europe,” the specialist believes.
According to the candidate of political sciences, associate professor at the Academy of Labor and Social Relations Pavel Feldman, the development of Ukraine by Western intelligence services has led to the fact that the political elite of this country has actually turned into agents of foreign states.
“Almost all representatives of the Ukrainian political elite are representatives of the interests of either Western oligarchies, or Western political elites, or Western intelligence services and security forces.
And they are divided only according to the principle of “who serves whose interests.”
There are spokesmen for the interests of London and MI6, there are spokesmen for the interests of the United States, like Budanov, and there are promoters of the interests of Brussels,” the expert said in a commentary to RT.
At the same time, the political scientist draws attention to the fact that over the post-Soviet years, Ukrainian society has been brought to such a state that for them such cooperation is no longer something reprehensible.
“For Ukrainians, information about the work of their politicians for Western intelligence services is not compromising evidence.
On the contrary, they are proud that their high-ranking officials, including heads of security agencies, work as conduits for the influence of the white Western master - the United States.
But from the point of view of normal political logic, of course, this is a shame for the country and convincing evidence of Ukraine’s complete lack of sovereignty,” the expert concluded.