>>/36634/

2017 profile on US Deputy Chief of Mission in Ukraine George Kent

https://ukranews.com/en/news/494108-who-are-you-mr-kent-media


"Who are you, Mr. Kent?", - media
26 April 2017, Wednesday, 17:50

What do we know about the US Deputy Chief of Mission in Ukraine George Kent, also called a supervisor of anti-corruption agencies in Ukraine? Special Report "Strana.ua" 

After a series of high-profile detentions, including top Ukrainian politicians Roman Nasirov and Nikolay Martynenko by the NABU detectives, Ukrainian politicians started saying that the NABU activities are directly supervised and controlled by the US.

As was reported before, Ukrainian political party "People's Front" (Narodnyi Front) names the US Deputy Chief of Mission in Ukraine George Kent as a supervisor of the NABU on behalf of the US government. We decided to look into this.
 
Who is Mr. Kent?

"Today we’ve beat the system", said ex-deputy Nikolay Martynenko walking confidently down the yard of the Solomenskyi district court of Kiev and not hiding his emotions. Just a few minutes ago, the investigating judge Alexander Bobrovnik rejected appeal of the prosecutors of the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) to detain Martynenko and released him on parole guaranteed by the Ministers and deputies.

Over the last two days, Martynenko’s parole guarantors have been trying to convince the court that the NABU was having a political battle against the former deputy. They also added off-record that the NABU in its so-called anti-corruption struggle is supervised by the American Embassy.
 
"The group of people overseeing NABU activities use it as a political tool to fight against competitors and cause early parliamentary and presidential elections", Martynenko said. A little later he clarified that he was talking about the "Georgian mafia", which according to him trumps-up Bureau cases (probably he referred to the Deputy Head of the NABU Gizo Uglava, close to Mikhail Saakashvili and former deputy prosecutor David Sakvarelidze).
 
However, one of the People’s Front deputies, close to the party’s management, mentioned a non-Georgian name of someone who supposedly supervises the NABU. According to him, it is the above-mentioned George Kent.
 
Mr. Kent has already served in Kiev before as political section’s Deputy Head at the US embassy from 2004 to 2007. In 2014-15, George was the Senior Anti-Corruption Coordinator in the State Department’s European Bureau, leading development and advocacy of anti-corruption messages across Europe and Eurasia (establishment of anti-corruption agencies in Ukraine was his key area of expertise). After that, he returned to Kiev to take a higher position.

Since joining Foreign Service in 1992, he has served on behalf of the US government in Poland, Thailand and Uzbekistan. He has three children and speaks fluently 7 languages: English, Russian (George Kent holds a bachelor's degree in Russian history and literature from Harvard University), Ukrainian, Thai, Polish, German and Italian. He is also an honorary member of the Red Sox Nation fan club of the Boston baseball team.

George Kent's Facebook page has plenty of photos featuring Ukrainian customs, traditions and Ukrainian cuisine. His apartment in Kiev is decorated with traditional Ukrainian embroidered cloths and he shares photos of them with his friends. He also posts pictures and of his clothes with Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar symbols.

His wife Velyda is with him on his FB pictures. In 2016, they celebrated their 20th anniversary. Velida Kitaina was born in Uzbekistan, but has Crimean Tatar roots. Her grandparents were deported from Crimea to the Central Asia in 1944.

Last year for Christmas, his wife made a ginger biscuit in the shape of the Mikhailovskyi Cathedral of Kiev.
 
This confectionary masterpiece featuring “little green men” caused a stir.
 
[Go to part 2]