Intrigue Inside Ukraine's Spy Network

From the New York Times:

While wet snow fell on the rally in Independence Square, an undercover colonel from the Security Service of Ukraine, or S.B.U., moved among the protesters' tents. He represented the successor agency to the K.G.B., but his mission, he said, was not against the protesters. It was to thwart the mobilizing troops. He warned opposition leaders that a crackdown was afoot.

....

Having been prime minister for two years, Mr. Yanukovich was well known. Several S.B.U. officers said the premier, who was once convicted of robbery and assault and has close links to the corrupt eastern businessmen who have acquired much of Ukraine's material wealth, was a man they preferred not to serve, especially if he were to take office by fraud.

The story proceeds, with the S.B.U. chief, Ihor Smeshko, and others in the Ukranian intelligence service working on the side of the people to fight against fraud, and taking a tremendous gamble with their lives and careers to prevent the election from being stolen.

It's well worth the read. The behind the scenes workings of the Orange Revolution are unquestionably as intriguing as the public side that we have been treated to thus far. As the weeks go by we will undoutedly find more and more of these subplots, and only then begin to comprehend how they will effect Ukraine's new government.