A Republic of Popular Servants

Transnational clandestine fuckery

(Illustration by Володимир Цеслар)

Very little progress on at least three gigantic fuck-ups.

1. Wagnergate

2. Semenchenkogate

3. Chausgate

Scandals #1 and #2 involve Belarus. They may - or may not - be related to assassination of Belarusian activist Vital Shyshou in Kyiv last week.

The jury is still out on whether Ze and his top popular servants leaked details of a years-long special operation to lure Wagner PMC fighters to Ukraine.

Ex-MP Semen Semenchko has said Ze’s State Security Service (SBU) and military intelligence directorate were involved in his Belarus project. Few people trust Semenchenko, who remains locked up in a SBU prison, pending trial on bizarre charges popularized on Belarusian state television.

Scandal #3 is about ex-judge Chaus, who popped up near the Moldovan border five years after fled to Chișinău. Moldovan officials say Ukrainian officials kidnapped him there in April 2021. Ukaine’s High Anti-Corruption Court last week remanded him to 24/7 house arrest.