Zaluzhny and the Nordstream prosecution
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Told that German investigators had moved past the story of a chartered pleasure yacht and were now pursuing Valeriy Zaluzhny, the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, by then Ukraine's ambassador in London, John Kiriakou treated the development as a problem for Washington rather than for Kyiv.

The reaction in Langley

"This is kind of a crazy development, isn't it?" Kiriakou said. His reading of the mood in American institutions was specific: "now in the halls of the CIA and the Pentagon, they just wish this thing would go away."

He gave the reason as a rule of the trade: "the truth is not supposed to come out in an operation like this." Whoever did it, he said, the result was a sop to the Ukrainians and the West, "and the Germans can't leave well enough alone."

He expected quiet pressure to follow. "Behind closed doors today, there are probably calls going back and forth to the Germans saying, come on, you guys, just let this go. It's not going to help anybody getting to the bottom of the truth."

Hersh, half right

Asked whether both things could be true at once, that Seymour Hersh was correct but had only half the story, Kiriakou agreed and generalised the point into his standing criticism of the reporter. "This is the problem with Sy," he said: "he'll run with a story when he has just one source."

The consequence he draws is not that Hersh is wrong but that he is incomplete: "oftentimes he does have that kernel of truth for the story. He just doesn't have the details. I think this is probably one of those cases."

His own conclusion follows from capability rather than allegiance: "It very well could have been a joint operation, which makes more sense. You'd need that kind of expertise if you don't have it in house."

The prediction

On where the German case ends, Kiriakou was willing to be concrete. "I think that we're going to see people prosecuted," he said, and singled out the Ukrainian officer the Wall Street Journal had named: "he's going to be in the dock soon. He's going to be forced to testify whether he likes it or not."

"And I think somebody, probably this guy, is going to go to prison."

Ted Rall questioned whether a man of that rank could really be delivered up, calling him Ukraine's Colin Powell. Kiriakou accepted the comparison and dismissed its protective force in a sentence: "Yeah, he's the Colin Powell. But I mean, he's a nobody now. It's all over for him."

See also

- Nord Stream pipeline sabotage
- The Nordstream patsy
- The Hersh publishing collapse
- Ted Rall
