A spy scandal may be brewing in Ukraine after the media reported on
Monday that the security service suspects the director of a research
institute there of passing secret information to the United States.
On December 19 last year, investigators from the Ukrainian Security
Service visited the Institute of Sorption and Problems of Endoecology,
which researches sorbents capable of absorbing radiation, and
confiscated a computer used by the institute's director, Professor
Volodymyr Strelko.
They said Strelko, who was on a vacation in the United States at that
time, was sending information related to the Chernobyl disaster to his
counterparts in the U.S., for which he received large grants.
The Ukrainian Security Service has confirmed that it conducted checks
to see whether it was legal for the institute’s workers to send
information and documents abroad, but added that it did not conduct any
investigative work at the institute on December 19.
Strelko denies the accusations against him, saying the security service
is being manipulated to pressure the institute and remove him from his
post as director of the institute, which does research work on sorbents
for medical and ecological needs.
“Someone took advantage of my vacation and with the help of Security
Service officers is trying to impose pressure on me as a director, to
intimidate and isolate me from the institute, and to disrupt important
work on medical sorbents and a solution to Chernobyl's ecological
problems. I have no doubts at all that this raid was staged,” Strelko
said in an interview with Ukrainian weekly Zerkalo Nedeli (Mirror of the
Week).
Although no official charges were pressed against Strelko, the
74-year-old academic remains in the United States saying he fears arrest
if he returns home.
“I have a bad feeling that I would be put in a pre-trail detention
center until ‘circumstances are investigated’… I am turning 75 this year
and I am not sure if I would be able to stand this ‘investigation’
physically,” he said.
Strelkov’s colleagues at the institute also deny his involvement in
espionage saying his internet correspondence with scientists abroad was
necessary for research work and exchange of information.
“Any scientist understands that no work is possible without an exchange
of information. This is not espionage. There is always a common
interest in science,” KyivDaily.com.ua quoted Valeriy Zazhihalov, a
member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, as saying.
Strelkov’s deputy Volodymyr Brei said the professor was on the verge of
discovering a new technology and used internet correspondence to
discuss it with his foreign colleagues.
“The director has discovered some sort of technology, but he could not
give it without the proper permits. He is an academic, why would he ruin
his reputation?” Brei said.
Security service’s visit to the institute on December 19 was followed
by more visits, during which radiation levels at the facility were
measured, in an apparent attempt to find health violations.
“They think we are poisoning people with radiation,” Brei said, adding
that no work with radioactive materials is conducted at the institute.
Brei said he also believes that the spying suspicions are being used to
remove Strelkov from his post. The institute had planned to give him a
new term as director this April.
“There are people who are interested in his resignation,” Brei said, but did not give names.
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