​Video appears to show top security official supporting Kremlin-backed separatists (VIDEO)

Olena Hiklianska, a spokeswoman for the SBU, has denied allegations that Malikov supported Russian-backed separatists in Crimea.

Malikov, who was a member of Sevastopol city council in 2010-2014, became a deputy head of the SBU’s anti-terrorism center in October 2014. He was appointed a deputy chief of the SBU and head of the anti-terrorism center on June 23.

The footage, dated March 1, 2014, was provided to the Kyiv Post by Alexei Kiselyov, an ex-member of Sevastopol city council and an activist of the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.

The video shows a man identified by Kiselyov as Malikov and looking similarly to pictures of him among the 55 members of the city council present.

In the footage, all the members vote for a resolution describing the post-EuroMaidan government as illegitimate and the EuroMaidan Revolution as a “bloody coup d’etat.”

The resolution also supports Kremlin-backed separatist leader and Russian citizen Alexei Chaly, delegates executive functions to a coordination council headed by him and calls for holding a referendum on seceding from Ukraine.

“I strongly believe that Malikov’s vote on March 1, 2014 is punishable under the treason article,” Kiselyov, who says he has known Malikov since 1990, told the Kyiv Post.

He said that Malikov’s appointment by Ukrainian authorities as chief of Sevastopol police earlier on March 1 did not prevent him from voting. Russian-backed protesters prevented Malikov from entering the police department and assuming his duties.

Footage shows the man identified by Alexei Kiselev as Vitaly Malikov, now a deputy chief of the Security Service of Ukraine (the man with glasses in a violet sweater in the bottom left-hand corner at 1:32), voting in unanimity with other Sevastopol city council members to support the Crimean peninsula’s secession from Ukraine.

At a city council meeting on Feb. 26, 2014, Malikov proposed supporting Chaly’s idea to set up checkpoints and create Russian-backed self-defense units, Kiselyov said, citing video footage broadcast on local television. He believes this speech falls foul of the law that punishes separatism.

“I believe that Malikov became Ukraine’s first official separatist in Ukraine as a result of this speech,” Kiselyov argued.

On Jan. 28, 2014, Malikov also voted for a resolution urging Yanukovych to crack down on EuroMaidan protesters, calling them “extremists,” Sevastopol’s Sevas news portal reported then.

Malikov, who was a member of the city council in 2010-2014, first became chief of Sevastopol police in 2003.

In 2004 the SBU started a case against Sevastopol police officers accused of getting apartment owners drunk and then forcing them to sign deeds of gift for their property. Malikov was suspected of organizing the scheme, Kiselyov claimed.

At about the same time, a man was killed in a car accident when his vehicle clashed with Malikov’s, Kiselyov said. However, the victim of the accident was recognized as the culprit, triggering speculation that Malikov interfered in the investigation, according to Kiselyov.

In 2004, the city’s police department under Malikov’s leadership was accused of failing to prevent voting fraud in favor of then-presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych.

Malikov was fired in 2005 after documents on the alleged corruption of Sevastopol’s police department were submitted to then-Interior Minister Yury Lutsenko, Kiselyov said.

Malikov has been accused of accumulating luxury property and high-end cars, owning commercial assets in Sevastopol and nepotism, according to Ukrainian media reports.

The SBU has denied the accusations against Malikov and described them as a smear campaign launched against the new SBU leadership.

Kiselyov also confirmed media reports that, when he was appointed head of Sevastopol police, Malikov was the son-in-law of then Interior Minister Mykola Bilokon, who later fled to Russia to escape criminal prosecution after the 2004 Orange Revolution and worked at Russia’s Justice Ministry. It is not clear if Malikov is still Bilokon’s son-in-law.

Hiklianska denied that Malikov was currently Bilokon’s son-in-law.

Bilokon’s only daughter, Yelena, co-owns construction firm Stroyinvestgroup in Russian-occupied Sevastopol and another construction company, Stroydoralyans, in Moscow, the Glavkom news site reported on June 25, citing Russian registry entries on the firms and posting their screenshots.

Stroydoralyans is also co-owned by Andrei Ryumin, the son-in-law of Ukraine’s pro-Russian politician par excellence Viktor Medvedchuk, Glavkom reported.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected]