Tuesday, 14 February 2023 — CovertAction Magazine

By Valeriy Krylko

[Source: hromadske.ua]

In October 2023, Ukraine will hold elections to the Verkhovna Rada. In the previous elections Vladimir Zelensky’s party “Servant of the People” received 43.16% of the vote. Since then the popularity of the party and Zelensky himself has been gradually declining, but in 2022 it rose again.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gives a speech at his Servant of the People’s Party Election headquarters in Kyiv on July 21, 2019 after parliamentary elections. [Source: thesundaily.my]

However, the U.S. has already begun active preparations for these elections. In particular, the U.S. has allocated[1] more than more than 1 million dollars to the NGO Civil Network Opora through the United States Agency of International Development (USAID).

[Source: usaspending.gov] [Source: usaspending.gov] [Source: usaspending.gov]

USAID was established in 1961 on the initiative of John F. Kennedy. The official purpose of the agency is “to support the development of democracy, economy and health, as well as conflict prevention in more than one hundred countries around the world.” Headquartered in Washington, D.C., USAID’s administrator and his/her deputy are appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate and act in coordination with the U.S. Secretary of State.

John F. Kennedy speaks to USAID directors and deputy directors on the White House lawn, June 8, 1962. [Source: usaid.gov]

Historically, USAID has served as a cover for CIA covert operations. The Kennedy administration, for example, at the behest of the Special Group on Counterinsurgency, established the Office of Public Safety (OPS) within USAID to train foreign police forces to counter left-wing subversion in the developing countries while keeping them in the “free world” orbit during the Cold War.

The head of the OPS, Byron Engle, was a CIA officer who had worked to stamp out the political left in Japan as part of a police training mission under General Douglas MacArthur during the U.S. occupation of Japan after World War II. Many other OPS officers had experience working with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and CIA.[2]

OPS police advisers in Vietnam in 1970. Byron Engle is fourth from the left in the bottom row wearing a suit. Next to him is Frank Walton, who ran the infamous Con Son prison outside Saigon where prisoners were held in Tuger Cages. [Source: khoa1hocviencsqg.com]

Very often today, USAID does not support local nongovernmental organizations, parties, or universities directly, but provides grants to various U.S. and European philanthropic foundations, as well as local government structures. These organizations in turn distribute funds to their final recipients in various countries. Among the largest U.S. charitable foundations involved in this process include:

• The People-to-People Reconciliation Fund (P2P)
• The Complex Crises Fund (CCF)
• The Open Society Foundations (OSF)
• The Eurasia Foundation
• The Ford Foundation
• The Rockefeller Foundation
• Rockefeller Bros. Fund (Building Civil Society)
• Charles Stewart Mott Foundation (Building Civil Society)
• House Freedom Fund
• The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
• Overseas Private Investment Corporation
• National Endowment for the Arts, International Activities Office
• International Republican Institute (IRI)
• National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
• National Democratic Institute (NDI)

The U.S. has unclassified the curious document No.1451843, dated March 27, 1973. “Joint CIA and USAID Training Course No. 7. Terrorism Investigations (Technical Aspects).” The document is publicly available on the USAID website[3].

[Source: pdf.usaid.gov] [Source: pdf.usaid.gov]

As we can see, a USAID employee, like a CIA employee on a special assignment abroad, had to know how to handle improvised explosive devices, booby-traps. Thus, the connection between the CIA intelligence services and the U.S. State Department’s USAID unit—as had been the case during the Cold War.

NGO Civil Network Opora specializes[4] in monitoring and advocacy in the areas of elections, parliamentarianism, education, and local government.

[Source: oporaua.org]

“Civic network “OPORA” is one of the non-governmental and non-partisan all-Ukrainian organizations of public control and advocacy in the field of elections, parliamentarianism, education, management of common property, energy efficiency, local self-government… We strive for sustainable development of society, irreversible changes, which can be achieved through qualitative institutional reforms…”

In addition, the organization is involved in spreading “democratic” culture, influencing the activities of the Verkhovna Rada through lobbying its legislative initiatives, and encouraging citizens to participate in elections.

“We are working to improve the electoral legislation in accordance with international standards…”

[Source: oporaua.org] [Source: oporaua.org]

“Since 2013, we have been systematically monitoring the activities of parliament and political parties, preparing recommendations to improve the quality of work of people’s deputies and parliamentary committees… We conduct educational campaigns to raise the level of political culture of voters…”

[Source: oporaua.org]

“Activate citizens to participate in democratic processes. Promote a sustained democratic culture. Participate in policy development.”

After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, this organization supported the Kyiv regime’s ban on the activities of opposition parties, such as the “Shariya Party,” “Opposition Platform—For Life,” “Party “Ours,” and others.

Ukrainian politician Anaotoly Shariya, whose party is among those that are banned. [Source: youtube.com/@SuperSharij]

In March 2022, President Zelensky announced that during martial law, imposed due to Russian special operations, the National Security Council (NSDC) of the republic would suspend the activities of 11 political parties, because they have ties with Russia.

This list includes the “Shariya Party,” which was created in 2015. The founder and members of the party denounced manifestations of Nazism in Ukraine. They staged protests against the persecution of journalists and social activists by right-wing Ukrainian forces.

In May 2022, the party founder and leader Anatoly Shariy was detained in Spain at the request of the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) because two criminal cases were opened against him in Ukraine—on treason and on incitement of national, racial or religious hatred and enmity.

Anatoly Shariy [Source: rac1.cat]

“Opposition Platform—For Life” opposed (1) forced restrictions on the right to use Russian and languages of national communities in the media, public and cultural life, as well as (2) the refusal of the authorities to support the UN General Assembly resolution condemning Nazism.

Viktor Medvechuk [Source: wikipedia.org]

On June 20, 2022, a court decision prohibited the activities of the party in Ukraine. One of the leaders of the party Viktor Medvedchuk stated that he supported the federalization of Ukraine, friendly relations with the Russian Federation and other CIS countries, and China. Medvechuk also expressed concern that since Viktor Yushchenko’s team came to power, Ukraine had become more subordinate to the U.S., which is evolving into a major problem.

On April 12, 2022, Medvechuk was detained by the SBU, and then in September handed over to the Russian side as part of the exchange of prisoners of war.

[Source: web.archive.org]

On March 19, 2022, the National Security and Defense Council suspended the activities of the Nashi political party during martial law. Party leader Yevgeny Muraev advocated an end to hostilities in Donbass, that Ukraine should adopt neutral status, and respect for the memory of the Great Patriotic War. The SBU accused Muraev of high treason for these views and of somehow harming Ukraine’s “information security.”

Yevgeny Muraev [Source: wikipedia.org]

“The civil network OPORA draws attention to the fact that the legislation does not clearly regulate the procedure for suspending the activities of political parties. However, under the legal regime of martial law the SNBO [National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine] or other authorized body of public administration has legal grounds to temporarily limit the activities of political parties or to update the issue of their prohibition… It is important to understand that under the legal regime of martial law all political parties are forced to restrict the implementation of some of their functions and legitimate interests (for example, holding mass or other public events).”

At the moment, Opora continues its anti-Russian activities in Ukraine: it replicates fake news about Russia’s “collapse,” and identifies countries and deputies in Europe who have opposed recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

“The hen takes it one day at a time, and Russia is finished.”

[Source: oporaua.org]

“Who did not support recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.”

[Source: oporaua.org]

The U.S. is supporting the Ukrainian government’s banning of political opposition parties considered to be pro-Russian as it prepares in advance for the upcoming elections.

The main task of the U.S. in these elections is to block certain factions of the oligarchy and people from parties deemed to be pro-Russian from coming to power, and to strengthen the position of transnational corporations. Quietly, during the war, Zelensky and his party have supported regressive new labor legislation and openly courted turning over Ukraine’s economy to foreign corporate interests. Recently, Zelensky even boasted before a meeting of the National Association of State Chambers of Commerce in Florida, that “We have already managed to attract attention and have cooperation with such giants of the international financial and investment world as BlackRock, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.”

In the Office of the President of Ukraine, one of the methods of maintaining control over the parliament and meeting U.S. demands is the use of electronic voting through the “DYA” (Action) application, which is characterized by serious vulnerability and possibilities for rigging the results, which will allow the Zelensky regime to control the outcome of the electoral process.

Currently, Ukrainian sources report that the Office of the President will go to the parliamentary elections for the Verkhovna Rada by three main political forces: “Servant of the People,” “Prytula’s Party” and “European Solidarity.”

The very fact that the U.S. is preparing for the parliamentary elections in Ukraine is evident. A number of politicians, economists, media outlets and investigative journalists point out that the U.S. is deriving significant financial benefits from the conflict in Ukraine and that the U.S. military-industrial complex is receiving super profits. So no wonder they are trying to further manipulate Ukrainian politics—and to perpetuate a war that has cost the lives of tens of thousands of people already.

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1. https://www.usaspending.gov/recipient/6621d239-6da5-ad8e-61d4-46c703d8553e-C/latest ↑
2. See Jeremy Kuzmarov, Modernizing Repression: Police Training and Nation Building in the American Century (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012). ↑
3. https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PCAAC304.pdf ↑
4. https://oporaua.org/about#Section1 ↑

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