About this publication Bihus.info It became known from the response of the SBU to the deputy’s appeal.
In particular, the document states that Semochko’s wife Tatyana Lysenko, her daughter from her first marriage Anastasia Koton, Anastasia’s husband Vladimir Koton and Tatyana’s son from a previous marriage Stanislav Lysenko have Russian citizenship. The response contains the series and number of each passport and individual tax numbers.
Regarding the wife and son-in-law, these are the same passport numbers and TINs that were discussed in the Bihus.Info journalistic investigation 5 years ago. Regarding the stepdaughter, the SBU document already contains an up-to-date passport issued after marriage and a change of surname (therefore, the old passport with the maiden name previously published by journalists is now listed in Russian databases as “invalid, replaced by a new one”). Regarding the stepson, this is new information that has not been made public before.
Investigation about Sergei Semochko, a former top official of the SBU, and at that time the first deputy head of the SVR, Bihus.Info was published in 2018. The material dealt with the pressure of the SBU unit headed by him on the pharmaceutical market and interference in dialysis tenders, elite property of a value incomparable with official income, as well as Russian passports received by the wife and a number of relatives of Semochko, who lived with his family in Crimea until 2014.
After the publication of the investigation Semochko gave an interview, in which he stated that his wife only has a Ukrainian passport, and also filed a lawsuit against journalists demanding that they refute, among other things, the story about Russian passports. Semochko won the first instance, in fact abandoning relatives. Immediately afterwards, the journalists seized accounts and property, trying to force them to comply with the court’s decision and refute the investigation even before the appeal. The appeal also took the side of Semochko, however cassation canceled all previous decisions and sent the case back for a new trial from scratch.
Semochko is also still trying to resume his service in the SVR through the courts. Six months after the publication of the investigation, he was fired from the SVR, but they did it with an obvious (and therefore conscious) violation – when he was on sick leave. Therefore, it was quite expected that Semochko immediately went to court appeal your dismissal. In January 2023 his case took into consideration Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, where the claim will be considered by 17 judges. The date of the hearing is not yet known.
