News

Leaked docs appear to reveal Russia’s plan to destabilize Ukraine

Getty Images

Russia may have developed a sophisticated plan to politically destabilize Ukraine in the near future, according to several leaked documents from a top Kremlin official.

{mosads}Alongside nearly 2,000 emails, a Ukrainian hacker group “CyberJunta” on Tuesday released additional documents allegedly belonging to top Putin adviser Vladislav Surkov. 

The documents appear to detail Surkov’s strategy to politically destabilize Russia’s European neighbor and work closely with major opposition leaders in Ukraine.

“Achievement of the aforementioned objectives requires destabilization of political life in Ukraine, and must be followed by immediate Parliamentary and presidential elections,” one document states.

The documents are presented as detailed timelines of a geopolitical operation that is supposed to last between November 2016 and March 2017.

One of the documents provides a clear six-step plan to subvert Ukraine’s socio-political institutions.

The plan includes initiatives to “hold talks with leaders of the Ukrainian opposition” in November, “insert ‘right’ people into the volunteer movement” for the purposes of “internal influence and spread of information” by the end of December, and negotiate with business leaders that have “power leverage” over Ukrainian lawmakers until the end of fall.

Other steps include organizing fake protestors in order to “discredit government and law enforcement systems,” activation of “national minority groups” in an effort to advocate peaceful relations with Russia, and infusion of “influential politicians” into local media for the purposes of casting doubt on the effectiveness of Ukrainian lawmakers.

The Kremlin on Tuesday denied the legitimacy of the leak, stating that the documents do not belong to Surkov.

“I know Surkov for more than ten years and all sorts of things have always been imputed to him, either by our hacker or by foreign hackers,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as reported by TAAS.

“He is a talented man, so, it’s only natural that they have always been seeking to impute different alleged intentions to him.”

“In most cases, it has nothing to do with the real state of things,” Peskov added.

However, the chief of staff to the head of the Ukrainian intelligence, Oleksandr Tkachuk, claims that the documents are real, according to Foreign Policy.

Surkov, who has been a senior Russian official since 1999, is believed by many to be one of the top masterminds behind Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014.
 
Russia has consistently denier involvement in the ongoing Ukrainian conflict despite the evidence that connects many pro-Russian rebel forces with Kremlin. 
Tags

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

See all Hill.TV See all Video

Most Popular

Load more

Video

See all Video