- 19 Jun 2015 13:21
#14571509
Rumor has it that he was in some way connected to the Firtash group, which currently has a tense relationship with the presidency as the latter is seeking to centralize and monopolize power. Interestingly, when it came down to voting on the subject in Rada, the overwhelming majority of the Firtash group MPs abstained from voting, giving the motion just a bare majority needed to pass, and thus seemingly confirming the existence of such relationship.
But either way, he was definitely never the "president's man", rather he was appointed as part of the coalition quota for "UDAR" immediately after Euromaidan. And the president couldn't touch him in a while for several reasons, not the least of which was certainly the need to maintain unity in the face of the Russian-backed separatism. Now that the external situation with Russia has somewhat stabilized while the internal situation on the contrary is getting increasingly tense, it makes sense that Poroshenko would try to put the SBU under his direct control, he will need that.