sbu goes nuts

the coup, part of the sub-genre of political hip hop, is once again in vogue

ukraine's security service on friday said that it had arrested a group of people who allegedly planned to carry out an armed coup and attack such targets as the chernobyl nuclear power plant and gas pipelines.

the sbu described members of the group as residents of the northeastern chernihiv and sumy and southeastern zaporizhia regions who supposedly planned terrorist attacks at the chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986, at a dam at an artificial lake near the capital kyiv and on gas pipelines.

but reports soon began pointing out what appeared to be questionable aspects of the sbu’s claims regarding the degree of the seriousness of the alleged coup attempt

as the new tv channel reported, one of the detainees, chernihiv resident volodymyr kovalenko, is the pension-aged head of the union of soviet officers.

according to the report, the average age of the 120-member union is 62.

"if we attempt a march, half of them would reach the desna river [local river in the chernihiv region] at best, while the rest would cross the bridge and just sit there", kovalenko said in an interview to the 1+1 tv channel.

politicians were also not slow to point a doubtful finger at the sbu’s seemingly bloated claims.

according to interfax, deputy speakers viktor medvedchuk and stepan havrysh expressed skeptical views regarding the sbu’s friday announcement regarding the alleged coup attempt.

havrysh pointed out what he claimed was the excessive sensationalism of the sbu’s announcement, adding that it was of a destabilizing character, while medvedchuk said that "it is not serious to say that several people may capture power by military means," the report said.

although the sbu has promised to provide details on the alleged coup attempt by the end of the week, as news wires reported, ukrainian and russian media services have framed some of their reporting on the nature of the sbu’s announcement within the context of the environment in which it was made.

uatoday, for example, posed the question of how it was possible for 120 elderly members of the union of soviet officers could pose a threat to a country of 49 million with a combined army and militia numbering nearly 1 million.

the report comes to the conclusion that the secret service had its own agenda when it made the announcement, with the main aim being to draw the public’s attention away from the case of missing journalist georgy gongadze, who disappeared in kyiv on september 16.

"it is possible that with such a sensational statement the sbu wants to gain a degree of authority against the background of constant criticism regarding the gongadze case and other serious cases over the last years."

- russia's izvestia newspaper

the russian newspaper izvestia said that the sbu’s announcement regarding the alleged coup attempt had the effect of creating the image of moscow as an enemy.

according to the report, the main pronounced aim of the union of the soviet officers is to unite ukraine and russia.

"ukraine, left without energy supplies before the start of winter, and being without russian permission to join its energy system, has to form an image of the ‘moscow enemy’," the report said, emphasizing what it characterized as president kuchma’s excessive calmness on the issue, as well as the skepticism expressed by the ukrainian parliament's leaders.

sbu chief leonid derkach, meanwhile, has has expressed serious concern, saying that "those who are under our investigation want to destroy our system by violent means."

according to derkach, a group of individuals was detained on the attempted coup charge "wanted more than an act of terror."

(sept. 2000)