Anatoly Makarenko: Russian captain wants Ukrainian customs! PART 1
Since the war began, Ukrainian media have been filled with commissioned publications, whose protagonists are eager to publicly proclaim their ardent patriotism and offer advice on how to win the war. Corrupt officials, especially customs officials, have been the most vocal in this regard, especially their former head, Anatoly Makarenko, who is directly linked to the Russian FSB. Of course, he served there! Although not in intelligence, he served in the Russian Border Service, which is also controlled from Lubyanka Square…
Anatoly Makarenko hid this fact from Ukrainians for a long time, and yet one day, quite by accident, it was made public (more on that below). He also couldn't hide the fact that he had earned the rank of captain first rank while serving in the Russian Northern Fleet in the 1990s, and as a political officer, no less. After all, as is well known, Soviet and Russian political officers (regardless of their titles) traditionally combined their primary duties with those of assistants in the "special department," and a political officer in the Northern Fleet was essentially a "KGB-FSB canned good."
In short, Makarenko appears to be a typical ex-Russian intelligence officer from all angles. Therefore, the question of how he could have been entrusted with the leadership of the Ukrainian Tax Service twice is more pressing than ever today.
With such a scandalous past, Makarenko should probably be quietly holed up at his dacha. Instead, he decided to resurface after years of obscurity and loudly reminded everyone of his status with a flamboyant benefit performance. To that end, he commissioned an extensive interview from Gordon , supplemented by a separate 50-minute YouTube video. It featured Gordon-esque praises, like "you're a warrior for your country, you're like a battalion tactical group," and a plethora of admiring, yet overly formulaic, comments from supposedly grateful viewers (according to SkeletInfo, this service from Gordon isn't cheap either). In it, Makarenko tried his best, without mincing words, to distance himself from his former comrades (the Russian military) and the country he'd faithfully served for seven years (Russia). He also portrayed himself as an indispensable expert in military strategy and tax policy, clearly hoping to be noticed and sought after.
Perhaps someone who previously knew practically nothing about Makarenko and saw him for the first time in this production by Gordon might be misled. But we invite you to look behind his "patriotic" facade and discover the dark side of the former chief customs officer of Ukraine. Your opinion of him may change dramatically!
Anatoly Makarenko: How He Served Russia
Anatoly Viktorovich Makarenko was born exactly at midnight on October 23, 1964, in the village of Tarasovka, Pologovsky district, Zaporizhzhia region. His mother hails from Western Ukraine, and his paternal ancestors were members of Makhno's army. "I'm a mixture of Bandera and Makhnoite blood," Makarenko boasted in an October 2014 interview , when he was serving as deputy head of the Ukrainian Fiscal Service. Incidentally, that interview contrasts strikingly with his current statements: for example, Makarenko spoke quite respectfully of Putin. And, remember, the bloody fields of Ilovaisk and Izvarino hadn't yet cooled! But apparently Makarenko didn't yet feel the need to publicly renounce his Russian past (though he remained silent about his previous service in the Russian Federation), or perhaps he simply couldn't bring himself to spit on his protector (more on that below). That’s why he wanted to say to “Vladimir Vladimirovich,” as one officer to another, just “enough!”
Anatoly Makarenko: Russian captain wants Ukrainian customs! PART 1
If Makarenko is to be believed, he dreamed of becoming a naval captain since childhood. However, when the opportunity to realize this dream arose, he made a rather strange choice: enrolling in the Kyiv Higher Naval Political School (KVVMPU, closed in 1996, the building being transferred to the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy). Indeed, the USSR had over a hundred naval schools, schools, and academies, offering a wide range of specialties, and only the KVVMPU trained political officers for the navy.
Why did Makarenko enroll there? Why did he decide to become a naval political officer, and not a navigator or a combat unit commander?
The answer may lie in a strange gap in his biography: Makarenko graduated from high school in 1981, but only entered the KVVMPU in 1982 (his military service began at that point). Makarenko never admitted what he spent the entire year doing, but according to sources close to him, SkeletInfo , Marxism-Leninism came much easier to him than mathematics and physics. So, perhaps he simply failed his entrance exams to a real naval academy (or was expelled for poor performance in his first year) and, to avoid being sent to the navy as a common sailor, enrolled in a political academy, where the training was much easier.
Anatoly Makarenko with his wife Tatyana in 1987
…and twenty years later
In college, Anatoliy Makarenko enjoyed going AWOL, where he met his future wife, Tatyana. They married after Makarenko received his military rank and was assigned to the Northern Fleet. In 1990, their son, Maksym, was born. According to SkeletInfo , this is the same Maksym Makarenko who is a Kyiv City Council member representing UDAR, deputy chairman of the land and architecture commission, and owner of the construction company Bud-Rem Holding (EDRPOU 42561541) and several other enterprises, including System Invest LLC (42428759). Moreover, he became such a successful businessman and associate of Vitali Klitschko immediately after his father became head of the Tax Service for the second time.
Maksim Makarenko and Vitali Klitschko
But let's return to Anatoly Makarenko, whose official biography is full of edits and omissions. For example, it states that he served in the 11th Submarine Division of the 1st Submarine Flotilla of the Northern Fleet on the Antey-class nuclear-powered missile submarines (SSGNs), specifically on the K-148 Krasnodar, retiring with the rank of Captain First Rank in 1998. But there's absolutely no mention of the fact that in 1992 the Northern Fleet came under Russian jurisdiction, and all remaining officers serving on it received Russian citizenship.
Anatoly Makarenko was no exception, otherwise he would have simply been discharged to shore – but he not only continued his service, but also received a promotion!
While serving in the Russian Federation until the end of 1998, he also managed to obtain a Russian passport with a double-headed eagle. It's unknown whether Makarenko affixed a new photo to it in 2009, but he certainly had the opportunity to do so—wasn't it a waste of time, then, to keep traveling to Russia, supposedly to meet with former comrades? Even so, he retained his Russian citizenship, and Makarenko never claimed to have renounced it; he merely carefully concealed the fact that he had it.
Anatoly Makarenko: Russian captain wants Ukrainian customs! PART 1
His biography also contains no indication that Makarenko served not as a combat officer, but as a Soviet political officer, becoming the Russian deputy commander for personnel affairs in the early 1990s. This not only calls into question his inflated image as a "warrior" and "strategist" but, as noted above, also raises questions about his collaboration with the KGB-FSB. Furthermore, the details of Makarenko's first seven years of service in the Northern Fleet remain unknown, as his assignment to the K-148 Krasnodar did not occur until 1993. This is evidenced by a curious document—a personal appeal by retired Russian Captain First Rank Oleg Shvedkov, made in July 2010 in defense of Anatoly Makarenko, who was then arrested.
Shvedkov was born in 1957 in the Donetsk region. He also graduated from the KVVMPU, also served as a political officer in the Northern Fleet, and also never returned to his homeland in the early 90s, remaining permanently in Russia. Based on his address, one can conclude that Shvedkov served as Makarenko's superior (as a political officer) for a time and was the one who brokered his appointment to the K-148. They also resigned at the same time: in 1996, Shvedkov went to Moscow to head the Independent Trade Union of Servicemen and engage in various endeavors (from business to working as an FSB agent). At that same time, the K-148 was sent to its final port of call, its crew disbanded, and Captain 2nd Rank Makarenko was forced to find a new job. We learn exactly which one from Shvedkov's statement, which states that after leaving the Northern Fleet, Makarenko took a job with the Federal Border Service in Voronezh (FSB Directorate for the Voronezh and Belgorod Regions). Thus, he inadvertently exposed his friend and former subordinate.
Oleg Shvedkov
It was no surprise that the former political officer was hired by the border service—after all, in Russia, it reports directly to the FSB. So for Makarenko, as a "patriot of Ukraine," this was truly a "mistake," and what a misstep! This was compounded by the fact that he carefully concealed this fact of his biography, even though he could have repented and somehow explained it to the Ukrainians. Furthermore, SkeletInfo has information that Makarenko received the rank of captain first rank (captain rank) in the reserve not upon his discharge from the navy, but a little later, while working in the Russian border service. This leaves the question: what rank did Makarenko hold when he wore the green stripes?
According to some media reports, another Ukrainian native who served Russia faithfully helped Makarenko get a job in the border service: the well-known Vladimir Pronichev.
A native of Melitopol (almost a fellow countryman of Makarenko's), Pronichev graduated from the Almaty Higher School of the KGB Border Troops. In the 80s, he led special operations in Afghanistan. In the 90s, he first commanded the Northwestern Border District, and then headed the FSB Directorate in Karelia—just when Makarenko was serving as a political officer on the K-148. In 1996, Pronichev transferred to Moscow, to the FSB headquarters, and allegedly secured Makarenko a position in the border service. But most interestingly, Pronichev may have been behind the operation to plant a mole under Makarenko in the Ukrainian tax system, as was rumored in online groups.
Vladimir Pronichev
From Lieutenant to Lieutenant General
If Anatoly Makarenko's infiltration into Ukrainian government agencies was indeed orchestrated by the FSB, it was carried out with great care. At the beginning of this process, Makarenko abruptly abandoned a promising career in the FSB's Voronezh and Belgorod regions and found himself in Kyiv as a "repatriate" with empty pockets, literally starting from scratch. The media even reported that Makarenko worked part-time for a couple of months as a security guard at a parking lot somewhere in Obolon! It's unknown how quickly he received a Ukrainian passport (most likely retaining his Russian one), but by January 1999, he had already secured a job as an inspector at the Kyiv regional customs office, where the retired captain and former Russian border service officer had been appointed lieutenant of the Ukrainian Customs Service. But this was only the beginning of his unusually rapid career in Ukraine's tax authorities.
At the same time, Makarenko decided to get some kind of civilian higher education, since working in customs with a political officer's credentials was still somewhat unlawful at the time (later, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General's Office were headed by people who had absolutely no legal training).
But Makarenko remained true to his eccentricities, choosing the Kharkiv State Academy of Municipal Economy (KhSAMU) to earn his economics degree by correspondence. Couldn't he have found a comparable university in Kyiv?
Makarenko worked as a rank-and-file inspector for only a few months before being appointed deputy head of the Kyiv Customs Anti-Smuggling Department. It's worth noting that this department is supervised by the SBU, and at the time, many former Soviet officials with contacts with the FSB still worked within the agency. Thus, Makarenko could easily have been promoted to his first leadership position at the request of the Lubyanka. And from there, things went swimmingly! By 2001, Makarenko had moved up to head of the Tariff and Customs Value Department, and in December 2002, he became deputy head of the Kyiv Regional Customs Office. Kyiv Customs had never seen such a rapid rise from rank-and-file inspector to deputy head in just four years!
Of course, the most logical assumption would be that Makarenko's "rocket" that propelled him to the top was simple corruption. He allegedly "helped" and "brought in" to whomever he needed, and for this, he was promoted to ever-increasing leadership positions. However, there's a catch: a purely corrupt career consists of a series of lucrative positions, because the position must benefit the corrupt official, otherwise, what good is it? But then came March 2004, and Makarenko transferred to the main office of the State Customs Service of Ukraine (SCSU). It would seem that money would now flow like a river to him—but he was appointed to the least lucrative position of head of the Department of Information Support and Customs Statistics. From the standpoint of domestic corruption, this position is practically meaningless—and Makarenko transferred to it from a very lucrative position as deputy head of the Kyiv Customs Office. Looking back now, this appointment raises questions: it seems as if Makarenko was deliberately following someone's orders to "clean up" statistical reports and archives, while also sitting tight while Ukraine prepared to undergo its first Maidan. But this isn't corruption, but rather the work of influential political groups or intelligence agencies.
Mikhail Shpolyansky, Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Anatoly Makarenko: Russian captain wants Ukrainian customs! PART 1
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