Very few expected that on Nov. 24 Leonid Pasechnik would take over the position of Igor Plotnitsky, leader of the Kremlin-installed authorities of the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast.
The announcement was made by Pasechnik himself on a local TV channel stating that Plotnitsky resigned due to health reasons after “numerous wounds” caused by shelling.
Vladimir Degtiarenko, head of the local quasi-parliament, confirmed the decision by also making an announcement on TV, sitting next to Pasechnik and Sergey Kozlov, head of the so-called Cabinet of Ministers of the local Kremlin-backed forces.
Before taking over the position of the acting head of the of the Kremlin-installed authorities of the Russian-occupied Luhansk, Pasechnik was a warlord of the so-called State Security Ministry (MGB).
It is not clear if Plotnitsky is planning to return to Luhansk. His predecessor Valery Bolotov, who also resigned due to health issues, later suspiciously died of a heart attack in Russia.
Plotnitsky was noticed at Moscow’s airport on Nov. 23 after spending days being blocked by armed men at his office as a result of a power struggle between him and a local police authority Igor Kornet.
Kornet eventually won because of military support sent from Kremlin-backed Donetsk chief Aleksandr Zakharchenko. But surprisingly it wasn’t Kornet but Pashechnik, who took over Plotnitsky’s position.
Pashechnik initially didn’t take any side in the conflict between Plotnitsky and Kornet. But analysts and insiders say that both Pashechnik and Kornet are curated by the Russian FSB Federal Security Service while Plotnitsky is controlled by Vladislav Surkov, an advisor of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Some analysts say that Surkov has a long-lasting feud with Putin’s FSB.
With Plotnitsky being replaced by Pasechnik the FSB received a tactical victory over Surkov, Russia political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin wrote in his blog published at Ukrainian magazine Novoye Vremya’s web-site.
Denis Kazansky, a Donetsk native blogger who closely follows the events at the Russian-occupied Donbas, agrees.
“Putin cannot remain without chekists (Soviet-style secret service agents),” Kazansky wrote on his Facebook page. “He is promoting his men everywhere.”
Pasechnik’s background
Pasechnik, 47, is the son of a Russian police officer who spent his childhood in Russia’s north-eastern Magadan city. He studied at a military college in Donetsk and worked in Ukraine’s SBU Security Service anti-smuggling department in Luhansk Oblast.
In 2006, Pasechnik received a medal from then-President Viktor Yushchenko for successfully arresting smuggled goods at the Russian border.
He reportedly refused to accept a bribe during that operation.
But according to Myrotvorets website, a non-governmental platform organized by former SBU officers to uncover details of Russian-backed forces, Pasechnik was likely recruited by the Russian FSB Federal Security Service forces before 2006, and the successful anti-smuggling operation was staged to allow his military promotion.
Before the war, Pasechnik headed the SBU office in Luhansk Oblast’s Stakhanov city. Most of the initial Russian-backed Luhansk separatists are also from Stakhanov.
In October 2014, Pasechnik was appointed as the head of the so-called MGB State Security Service of the Russian-occupied authorities in Luhansk.
Feud with Plotnitsky
Pasechnik’s first open conflict with Plotnitsky was in October 2015.
When Plotnitsky went for a short trip to Moscow, Pasechnik arrested a local so-called energy minister Dmitry Lyamin for coal smuggling. Lyamin is known to be as Plotnitsky’s loyalist. Plotnitsky then tried to fire Pasechnik but failed after local police and Cossack paramilitary fighters supported the MGB head.
According to Myrotvorets website, Pasechnik and his MGB forces are also involved in smuggling food, coal, oil, and arms from Ukraine’s Russian-occupied territory into Russia.
The Pasechnik-Plotnitsky feud continued in 2016 when Plotnitsky survived an assassination attempt as a result of a failed coup.
