SBU should perform its functions, and not put pressure on the business – the State Department

State Department official George Kent drew attention to the fact that SBU investigators should not deal with economic crimes – this is not a function of the intelligence service.

The Security Service of Ukraine should not be involved in economic and anti-corruption crimes, since it is not part of the functions of the intelligence agency. This was stated by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Europe and on issues of Europe and Eastern Partnership countries George Kent in a comment to Gromadsky.

“The Security Service of Ukraine was formed with the KGB (USSR State Security Committee – ed.), And there is a legal function of the security intelligence service. As a descendant of the previous era, the Security Service also has functions that the intelligence services should not have – an anti-corruption function and an economic one,” he stressed.

According to Kent, the SBU is not focused on its functions, but performs the tasks of law enforcement.

He noted that the biggest fear of the Ukrainian business is the pressure from the SBU.

“I talked to a man who talked with 2,000 Ukrainian businessmen over the past six months. He said that the terrible problem is that the SBU puts pressure on the Ukrainian business. This is not the goal of the intelligence service and a democratic country. The SBU should focus on its core functions , and stop performing the functions of law enforcement, “- concluded Kent.

On November 2, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said that appeals to take away anti-corruption functions from the SBU and make it an intelligence agency solely mean a desire to stop the fight against corruption.

In turn, he sees the reason for the inadequate fight against terrorism in the excessive workload of investigators of the SBU by anti-corruption cases.

Info taken from: https://news.liga.net/politics/news/sbu-doljna-vypolnyat-svoi-funktsii-a-ne-davit-na-biznes—gosdep