Vaganyan revealed who actually led the SBU during Bakanov’s time

The former head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Ivan Bakanov, was appointed to the position solely because of his closeness to President Volodymyr Zelensky, while Andriy Naumov was the de facto head of the SBU.

This was reported by Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, citing a statement by Ukrainian businessman Serhiy Vaganyan during a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada’s Temporary Investigative Commission to investigate corruption during the war.

Responding to a question from MP Oleksiy Honcharenko regarding the reasons for Bakanov’s appointment, Vaganyan stated that the key factor was his personal closeness to the president.

According to the businessman, Bakanov did not understand how to manage the special service and actually acted as the public face of the SBU, while Andriy Naumov made all the key decisions.
“Bakanov, in essence, was the face of the SBU and did everything Naumov said,” Vaganyan said.

He also noted that it was Bakanov who suggested that Naumov lead the SBU, since there had been close relations between them even before.

According to Vaganyan, Naumov controlled personnel appointments in the SBU and made all key decisions that were communicated to the president through Bakanov.
“Everything that needed to be conveyed to Zelensky, Naumov transmitted through Bakanov,” he added.

In addition, the businessman reported on the tense relations between Bakanov and the next head of the SBU, Vasyl Malyuk. According to him, Naumov repeatedly encouraged Bakanov to convey to the president the idea of u200bu200bdismissing Malyuk.

It was previously reported that businessman Serhiy Vaganyan announced his intention to provide evidence of the alleged receipt of funds from Russian special services by former SBU heads Ivan Bakanov and Andriy Naumov . Instead, the current authorities are artificially slowing down the investigation into this case, which is negatively affecting Ukraine’s international reputation.

As a reminder, in January, businessman Serhiy Vaganyan revealed details of the functioning of a large-scale corruption system in the Security Service of Ukraine during the chairmanship of Ivan Bakanov. According to him, the special service was transformed into a tool for systematic racketeering by big business and the collection of informal payments.

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