Alexander Lavrinovich: The Fraudster and Son Corporation
There's nothing worse than when the law is cynically flouted by those appointed to embody its letter and spirit. Many years ago, Oleksandr Lavrynovych was considered one of the few Ukrainian politicians whose openness and selflessness were believed not only by voters but also by many of his colleagues. But then it turned out they were all sorely mistaken! Lavrynovych turned out to be not only one of the greatest disappointments of Ukrainian politics, but also one of the greatest "achievements" of Ukrainian corruption...
Alexander Lavrinovich. A simple Soviet engineer.
Lavrynovych's biography is, first and foremost, the story of how one of the founders and most active figures of the People's Movement (Narodny Rukh) underwent a political transformation and joined Viktor Yanukovych's inner circle, even before the first Maidan. Lavrynovych is much less known to Ukrainians as a businessman, and this is unsurprising – given the specifics of his "earning" schemes, he was wise to keep quiet about them.
He started out as a simple Soviet engineer, seeking truth and a better life. Oleksandr Vladimirovich Lavrynovych was born on June 28, 1956, in the town of Ovruch (Zhytomyr Oblast). From his first year in school, he delighted his parents with his grades, graduating with a gold medal. This allowed him to enter Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv without taking entrance exams, studying in the Physics Department, a highly interesting specialty in optical instruments and spectroscopy. After graduating in 1978, he worked as an engineer at the Institute of Superhard Materials of the Academy of Sciences, where, in 1981, the military commissar's long arm finally found him. Here, a gray area appears in Lavrynovych's biography: officially, from 1981 to 1984, he served as the head of a radar station in Dagestan, but this was too long for the post-graduate service of Soviet engineer lieutenants, and radars weren't his specialty. Perhaps Lavrinovich spent three years doing something more important and secret than staring at a radar screen—for example, he could have been serving in a secret military laboratory. Incidentally, at that very time, the USSR was enthusiastically pursuing the development of laser weapons, including orbital ones (the "Skif" project).
Perhaps it's no coincidence that upon returning home, Lavrynovych completed his postgraduate studies at the Kyiv Polytechnic University, specializing in laser technology. But whatever his background, Lavrynovych still keeps this secret—at least publicly.
It's hard to say how the Soviet engineer's life would have unfolded after the collapse of the Soviet Union if Lavrynovych hadn't become fascinated with dissidence in 1989 and joined the newly formed People's Movement (Narodny Rukh), whose full name then continued with the phrase "for perestroika." Lavrynovych was lucky: he immediately joined the Rukh Council, becoming one of its deputy chairmen. Consequently, in 1990, he was appointed the party's representative to the Central Election Commission. It was then that he took root in Ukrainian politics!
Skelet.Org has heard speculation that, as someone connected to secret military projects and under KGB surveillance, Lavrynovych may have been a Soviet state security agent embedded within Rukh. This theory is supported not only by Lavrynovych's meteoric rise within Rukh (he was immediately a "lady" as soon as he joined), but also by one very noticeable characteristic: he was never a fan of national-patriotic ideology. Among his embroidered party comrades, who endlessly ranted about Mazepa and the Holodomor, Lavrynovych stood out as a black sheep. His specialty was law enforcement: first electoral law, and then law enforcement in general.
In September 1991, Lavrynovych became deputy chairman of the Central Election Commission, and during the political crisis of 1993, he served as acting chairman. He then went to the United States to "learn more," first at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), and then at the Brookings Institution. He spent several months learning, although upon his return to Ukraine, this experience was no longer useful, as Lavrynovych no longer worked at the CEC—he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada in 1994. So why did he actually fly to America?
Alexander Lavrinovich: Housing and Scams
One of Oleksandr Lavrynovych's first successful schemes was swindling the state out of an apartment—two apartments, in fact, both in central Kyiv. This story began in 1995, when Oleksandr Volodymyrovych was just beginning to find his feet as a member of parliament. And so, as deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee on legal policy and judicial and legal reform (despite not having a law degree), Lavrynovych decided to take advantage of the opportunities available. He either forgot that, not long ago, as a Rukh activist, Lavrynovych himself had mercilessly denounced Soviet party officials and post-Soviet officials for their privileges, or perhaps he wanted to live "in the big time." Therefore, with a clear conscience, he submitted a request to the parliamentary commission on parliamentary ethics and support for parliamentary activities, asking for better housing conditions.
Alexander Lavrinovich: The Fraudster and Son Corporation
So what's so special about that? Except, at that point, the Lavrynovych family already owned an apartment in Kyiv—a three-room apartment at 10-160 Natali Uzhviy Street. But Lavrynovych wrote in his application that his apartment was far from his workplace and that the area had "inconvenient transportation." What a compelling reason! He might as well have written about the "uninviting view from the window."
And so, after a long, agonizing wait, in the fall of 1996, Oleksandr Lavrynovych received from the head of the Verkhovna Rada's Department an apartment at 10-23 Pylyp Orlyka Street for himself, as well as another apartment at 13a-20 Instytutska Street for... his eldest son, Maksym. But on what basis did the Verkhovna Rada's Department allocate a separate apartment for the son of a people's deputy? And why was the allocation of these apartments made only by a resolution of the Verkhovna Rada's Department, without the required signatures of the Rada Secretariat leadership and the Speaker (or his deputy) of the Verkhovna Rada? No one asked these questions at the time to the head of the parliamentary committee on legal policy. And there was no time to answer them anyway: Lavrynovych immediately rushed to help his son privatize the departmental apartment! Moreover, in violation of all laws, the Lavrynovychs did not surrender their previous apartment on Uzhviy Street to the state.
It wasn't until 1998 that the capital's prosecutor's office invalidated the allocation of two apartments to Larynovich and the privatization of one of them. However, Lavrynovych simply ignored the prosecutor's decision, and even the Verkhovna Rada itself "ignored" it.
Lavrynovych Jr.'s apartment on Instytutska Street would later become embroiled in another scandal: in 2011, Maksym embarked on a massive renovation, including building a mansard roof (a trendy addition in Kyiv these days), which sparked numerous complaints and outrage from neighbors. They even wrote to the Kyiv City Council's architecture department, and then to MP Karmazin, demanding that the rich kid's plan be stopped, as the building was adjacent to the architectural landmark "Shleifer's Mansion." However, they received replies stating that Maksym Lavrynovych was not breaking any laws. This is unsurprising: after all, his father was already serving as Minister of Justice for a third term (2010-2013).
But not content with three spacious apartments in Kyiv, in 2003 Oleksandr Lavrynovych acquired a 654 square meter mansion on a 50-hectare (half a hectare) plot in the village of Plyuty, near the famous Koncha-Zaspa (Oleg Rybachuk became Lavrynovych's neighbor). According to media reports, he purchased the house from MP Mykola Shvedenko, but the purchase price remained unknown. It's not the largest house owned by a Ukrainian politician (although impressive by 2003 standards). Yet, there was a catch to this acquisition: according to his declared income at the time, Lavrynovych, the Minister of Justice from 2002 to 2005, received only 5 hryvnias ($1000) per month and had no other income. So where did he get the money?!
House of Alexander Lavrinovich in Plyuty
The story of one betrayal
On January 15, 1994, Mykhailo Boychyshyn, chairman of the People's Movement (Narodny Rukh) secretariat, the party's second-in-command (after Vyacheslav Chornovil), its chief organizer and treasurer, disappeared without a trace in Kyiv. According to the recollections of his associates and friends, Boychyshyn was the linchpin of the then-current Rukh: while Chornovil attracted voters with his speeches, Boychyshyn united the party's disparate leadership. This was no easy task: where there are three Ukrainians, there are two hetmans and one traitor. Boychyshyn's disappearance remains an unsolved mystery of Ukrainian politics, although the blame for it was unofficially placed on the "gang of werewolves" led by UBOP Lieutenant Colonel Igor Goncharov, uncovered in 2003. Why him? In the 90s, Goncharov had connections with members of the Rukh headquarters, where he frequently frequented. When it later became clear that the "bird" was a lieutenant colonel, all suspicion fell on him. The motives for Mikhail Boychyshyn's kidnapping seemed even more mysterious than his fate, but everyone was inclined to believe it was a thwarted attempt to extort a large ransom. But why, then, did the kidnappers never make a ransom demand?
Bas-relief by Mykhailo Boychyshyn on the building of the Shevchenkivska District Council (Lviv)
However, there is another theory: many years ago, a source told Skelet.Org that Boychyshyn's kidnapping could have been directly connected to Oleksandr Lavrynovych. Specifically, Boychyshyn allegedly interfered with Lavrynovych's "small business" by bringing wealthy businessmen into Rukh, who desperately wanted to become members of parliament or even ministers. Of course, not for free: they were willing to contribute both to the party's coffers and to the pockets of their lobbyist, Lavrynovych. Among these "clients of Lavrynovych," the first to be mentioned was Mikhail Brodsky ( read more about him in MIKHAIL BRODSKY - A PROFESSIONAL "SCAMMER" ), whom he introduced into Rukh in 1993, and with whom Lavrynovych maintained business contacts for many years. However, Brodsky immediately came into conflict with Boychishin, which led to the latter expressing serious dissatisfaction with Lavrinovich.
Moreover, Boychyshyn's disappearance was advantageous to Lavrynovych, as it made him the second-in-command in Rukh. And so a rumor surfaced that Boychyshyn could have been removed by Lavrynovych's mysterious handlers in the security services. Although the KGB had transformed into the SBU, the state security service continued to control political parties, promoting its old "moles" within them.
And so, in 1994, Lavrynovych received his first parliamentary seat and the chairmanship of the parliamentary committee on legal policy and judicial reform – despite having no legal training other than a "certificate" confirming he had completed an "electoral law" course in the United States. This didn't stop him from becoming one of the authors of the new Ukrainian Constitution in 1995-96! It wasn't until 1998 that Lavrynovych received a law degree from the National Law Academy. As Skelet.Org sources reported , he practically received it as a gift – as did many of his fellow deputies. But from whom?
It was precisely at this time that Lavrynovych became the center of destabilization within Rukh: he began to demonstrate his opposition to Vyacheslav Chornovil while simultaneously criticizing the party for its softness toward the government. In the absence of Boychyshyn, who had been a reconciler, this laid the foundation for the future split within People's Rukh. But what was the reason? Later, many said it was Lavrynovych's revenge for Mikhail Brodsky, who had been forced out of Rukh after all (he had joined Lazarenko's Hromada). However, there was also the theory that Lavrynovych began to undermine Rukh on orders from outside, possibly from Bankova. However, at the time, many still believed that this was due to Lavrynovych's unprecedented, crystal-clear honesty. And he indeed managed to maintain this image, even when in 2000-2001 he effectively deceived the investigative commission he headed into the Gongadze case. The commission's work ended in nothing (only an endlessly lengthy examination of the "Tarashcha body"), but Lavrynovych, riding on this wave, managed to jump into the chair of State Secretary of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.
Who was this gift from—Yushchenko or Kuchma? By that time, Lavrynovych's relationship with the split Rukh party was already quite strained: he was unwelcome in either Udovenko's or Kostenko's parties, and he himself perhaps considered his mission accomplished. However, thanks to Yushchenko, he still secured the easy spot #70 on the Our Ukraine list for the 2002 elections. But he declined the mandate and accepted an offer to join the new government of Anatoliy Kinakh, and subsequently remained as Minister of Justice and in Yanukovych's government. Lavrynovych's defection to the camp of his ideological and political enemies caused such surprise that no one noticed the modest Minister of Justice's purchase of a mansion in Plyuty.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Maxim Lavrinovich: The Fraudster and the Father Corporation
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