Ten members of the Ukrainian secret service came looking for me last Friday. Armed and wearing ski masks, they brought no warrant but threatened to break down the door. Unsure what to do, my husband called the media. When the cameras arrived, my pursuers claimed they simply wanted to “invite” me to visit the prosecutor’s office. Luckily, I was out of the country.

For 13 months I served as Odessa’s chief of customs, overseeing the operations of five Black Sea ports on Europe’s eastern edge. The post I held is known as one of...