The curator is dead, long live the curator?

The Ukrainian security services hardly can record this small victory in their favour. However, good news came from the capital of the enemy. Vladimir Podolyak, a colonel of the GRU – the brother of Mikhail Podolyak, the “anti-crisis manager” of the Office of the President of Ukraine, died suddenly. Many investigative journalists claim his handler relative in the Russian intelligence services was closely connected to Andrei Averyanov, one of the heads of Russian military intelligence, who periodically held personal meetings with Mikhail, one of the most valuable agents of his department. At the same time, the impudence of the Russian military intelligence officers reached the point that they, using false documents, visited Mikhail Podolyak before the War even in Kiev.

The high-ranking Russian military intelligence officer was buried in the middle of May at cemetery in Moscow. Earlier in the media repeatedly appeared articles telling about the close relationship of a high-ranking Russian politician with his sibling. Recall, the father of Mikhail and Vladimir is ex-soviet officer. Both he and his son Vladimir, in spite of  their Ukrainian nationality, preferred a comfortable and contented life in the Russian capital to participation in the creation of an independent Ukraine. However, Mikhail Podolyak did not hide the fact that he had a brother working in the Russian special services, but just in case he denied the patronymic Mefodievich, which connects him with his father. By the way, before the beginning of the war, the brothers met in Italy with their families. But the only question arises, on what grounds did the GRU officer, whose exit abroad is prohibited, quietly travelled to meet his relatives, and even to Western Europe?

The answer is obvious – Vladimir, the eldest brother in the family, supervised Mikhail, a high-ranking “mole” in Zelensky’s administration. Moreover, Vladimir was repeatedly caught on TV and photo footage of journalists during the Russian-Ukranian talks in Belarus and Turkey in 2022. Obviously, the Russian side brought in its agent’s handler in order to monitor the Ukrainian delegation’s reaction to Russian proposals on the sidelines in “real” mode.

However, the question arises why neither the GUR nor the SBU showed any interest in Podolyak family ties? Could it be because Yermak and Zelensky planned to use him for informal contacts with Moscow? Or is it more complicated than that? Is Mikhail Podolyak simply so influential that he easily repels information attacks on himself, and he solves issues with disobedient law enforcers quickly and harshly? Let’s recall the murder of Ukrainian businessman and intelligence officer Denis Kireyev, which went virtually unpunished. He was the one who claimed about a “high-ranking Russian intelligence operative, a “mole” in the Presidential Administration.

Mikhail Podolyak himself has chosen an interesting tactic. He simply ignores all accusations of links with the Russian intelligence services, while his entourage claims that such “investigations” are provocations of Russians against an effective manager. Under such a sauce, it is possible to ignore any evidence and continue to further “leak” to the Kremlin secret data on planned military operations, Western aid, and negotiations with allies.

It would be naive to think that after the death of his brother Mikhail Podolyak will lose contact with his handlers. Let us recall that Vladimir was an employee and, more importantly, a close comrade of General Andrey Averyanov, a high-ranking executive in the GRU system. Moreover, they lived in the same elite apartment-house built for the top of the GRU (which testifies to Vladimir Podolyak high status) and walked their dogs together. So, Averyanov clearly will not let Mikhail out of his nets. In addition, Mikhail Podolyak is a high-level “mole”, such as those who are usually led by the leaders themselves, so, with a high degree of probability, Mikhail will now be supervised by Andrey Averyanov himself.