The knives are out for Nestor. Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU) detained him in Kozyn at his castle outside Kyiv. That’s Nestor Shufrych, currently a member of Ukraine’s parliament and Rada’s free speech committee chairman, who is suspected of treason1.
We all remember Nestor just days before Russia attempted to decapitate Kyiv in February 2022. That wasn’t pretty. The lawmaker has been punched in the face many times during his political career.
In 2004, a crowd outside of the Central Election Commission attempted to rip his head off (captured for posterity in this compilation video).
The SBU so far has provided zero evidence that Nestor was/is in cahoots with Russia’s security services.
This is what the Metro Bridge looked like at 0530 this morning during the bomb alert.
Since February 24, 2022, there have been 865 bomb alerts in Kyiv lasting more than 1,000 hours.
Why Nestor wasn’t arrested 569 days ago, or 1,138 days ago, or 20 years ago, is a good question, but answering it would drag us directly into the rough and tumble world of ultra-competitive Ukraine-style politics, which would not be not appropriate during martial law, because our девиз is DO NO HARM.
The SBU sez Nestor allegedly was in cahoots with Volodymyr Sivkovych, ex MP and deputy head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council under disgraced ex-President Viktor Yanukovych (October 2010 to February 2014).
Recall that it was Sivkovych who dropped by Kyiv Mayor Oleksandr Popov’s office hours before platoons of riot police on November 30, 2013 beat the shit out of kids camping out on Independence Square. That sparked violent demonstrations outside the Presidential Administration on December 1, 2013 and, months later, the Revolution of Dignity. (Cf. Plan A).