The British government fears that the Kremlin is planning to install a pro-Russian leader in Kiev. Moscow speaks of “targeted false information”.
After talks between the US and Russia in Geneva, hopes of a de-escalation of the Ukraine crisis grew. Now tensions are rising once more. London accuses the Kremlin of a “plot”: “We have information that the Russian government is trying to establish a pro-Russian leadership in Kiev while it is considering whether to invade and occupy Ukraine,” it said from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Names were also mentioned: a possible candidate for the leadership position in Kiev is the former Ukrainian MP Jewhenij Murayev. He was a confidante of pro-Russian ex-president Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia in 2014. However: Murayev was said to have certain sympathy values in eastern Ukraine, but he is by no means considered a political heavyweight. He has also been on a Russian sanctions list since 2018. The British Foreign Office seems “confused,” Murayev told the Observer: “It’s not very logical. I am banned from Russia. Not only that, but my father’s company money was confiscated.”
But London sticks to its version: “There will be very serious consequences if Russia takes this step,” said Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab on Sunday on Sky News regarding Moscow’s alleged plans. “We will not tolerate the Kremlin’s plot to install a pro-Russian leadership in Ukraine,” Secretary of State Liz Truss tweeted. Moscow knew that a military invasion would be a major strategic mistake and that the UK and its partners would exact a heavy price on Russia.
Connections to Vienna
In addition to Murayev, the British Foreign Office also named four political pensioners from the Yanukovych era as pro-Moscow leaders, including ex-top bureaucrats who had close ties to Vienna in the past. Andriy Klyuyev, formerly the powerful head of Yanukovych’s presidential office, held shares in companies together with his brother Serhiy through Slav AG in Vienna. Ex-Prime Minister Mykola Azarow, whose family owned real estate in Vienna and Mariazell, also stayed in Austria several times before the change of power in 2014. The former prime minister was later represented by the Viennese lawyer Gabriel Lansky in his lawsuit once morest EU sanctions.
For Moscow, the British broadcast was “disinformation”. Britain and NATO would escalate tensions. “We call on the British Foreign Office to stop these provocations, to stop spreading bullshit and to concentrate on the study of the Mongol and Tatar yoke (in the 13th-15th centuries),” scoffed Foreign Office spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
In the United States, the warning is taken seriously: they have similar information, it said. The Ukrainian people have “the sovereign right to determine their own future”. The US stands by its democratically elected representatives. There are also concerns in Kiev: “One should take this information as seriously as possible,” said an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky. Murayev is a “ridiculous figure”. But Moscow has already supported minor figures in leadership positions in Crimea and in separatist-held Donbass.
The USA in particular fears an invasion given the high Russian troop presence on the border with Ukraine. Moscow rejects this. Britain has sent Ukraine light anti-tank weapons. The United States and its allies have been demanding a withdrawal of Russian troops who have been massed on the Ukrainian border for weeks. In return, Moscow is demanding security guarantees and an end to NATO’s eastward expansion.
Efforts to ease the situation are in full swing, but so far without tangible results. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US colleague Anthony Blinken met in Geneva on Friday. (ag.)
