MP Andrey Denisenko: The Unfinished Business of the "Patriot" Gang, Part 1
As we know, revolutions raise all sorts of people from the very bottom and elevate them to the heights of power. This includes hardened scoundrels who for years found refuge in radical forms of patriotism, lending it a negative connotation with their aggressive and absurd ideas. But they cause even more harm when they gain power, and with it, a license to commit lawlessness. A case in point is Andriy Denisenko, one of the leaders of Dnipropetrovsk's national radicals, a well-known troublemaker and provocateur in the city. He is linked to the "language patrols" that have appeared in Dnipro, the regular brawls on May 9th, and far more tragic incidents, including murders.
Forgotten past
Andrey Sergeyevich Denisenko was born on January 1, 1973, in Dnipropetrovsk (now Dnipro). Perhaps his birth on the same day as the father of radical Ukrainian nationalism, Stepan Bandera, somehow influenced Denisenko's worldview, as he embraced this ideology from a young age. However, his biography until the mid-2000s is a complete "terra incognita." And the reasons why this "professional activist" kept most of his life hidden from the public are unknown. Denisenko remains tight-lipped about his parents. He didn't reveal why he enrolled in the history department of Dnipropetrovsk University after high school—it wasn't the best career choice at the time, but it was typical for a young nationalist patriot. Denisenko chose to remain silent about his failure to fulfill his military service and how he managed to get out of the military. And most importantly, he stubbornly conceals what he did between 1995 (when he graduated from university) and 2005, when he first became known at the all-Ukrainian level as the chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk city branch of "Our Ukraine."
It was reported that Andriy Denisenko served for a long time in the leadership of the regional organization of the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists (KUN) and benefited from grants and other financial assistance that this party, unpopular even in western Ukraine (and especially in Dnipropetrovsk), received from right-wing organizations of the Ukrainian diaspora in the New World (the United States and Canada). It's possible that Denisenko's leadership and grants were secured by the same people who helped him graduate from the history department and avoid military service.
At the same time, doubts exist that such an active young man lived solely on modest grants, and his reluctance to reveal his past (especially in the 90s) and numerous connections to notorious and even criminal figures in Dnipropetrovsk raise numerous questions and rumors. In particular, some of these rumors claim that Andrey Denisenko was involved in some kind of shadow business in the late 90s. Other rumors, which SKELET-info Those who trust him more claim that, as an "irreconcilable and eternal oppositionist," Denisenko was hired (sold) to various influential forces, who used him for their own ends as a mouthpiece for merciless criticism or an organizer of protests. It was also said that Denisenko's close acquaintance with people such as the Dnipropetrovsk "authority" Alexander Nalekreshvili and his former "brigadier" Mikhail Koshlyak, did not happen during the second Maidan, but much earlier, in the “dashing” 90s, when they were not yet “respected businessmen.”
Mikhail Koshlyak
This is the same Koshlyak who was arrested in 2015 along with Gennady Korban in the high-profile case of a gang of “patriots” accused of smuggling in the ATO zone, kidnapping people, embezzling 40 million hryvnias of volunteer aid, and murder of an SBU officerA case that remains unfinished, and its main defendants remain unpunished.
From Maidan to Maidan
Let's go back a few years, when the political forces that emerged victorious from the first Maidan began an active struggle for the redistribution of power. By then, Andriy Denisenko had abandoned the KUN cell and moved to the People's Movement (Narodny Rukh), whose organization in Dnipropetrovsk was equally marginal. From 2000 to 2002, Denisenko's political activity was primarily limited to waging war against his former comrades who had defected from the People's Movement to Yuriy Kostenko's party. He continued to cultivate his image as a troublemaker.
Denisenko then defected to the Reforms and Order Party (PRP), whose Dnipropetrovsk regional branch had been founded in 1997 and financed for many years by Oleksandr Zhyr, a native of Marganets, a former SBU colonel, a member of parliament of the second and third convocations, a businessman, and generally a very powerful figure, now ensconced in the Artillery Weapons Design Bureau. Zhyr brought Denisenko into his orbit and even made him chairman of the PRP's Dnipropetrovsk city branch, and during the first Maidan, chairman of the city branch of "Our Ukraine" (then part of the OU bloc). Since Zhyr was primarily active in Kyiv at the time, he needed an active and reliable political assistant and "front man" in Dnipropetrovsk. Denisenko was very active, but he proved to be anything but reliable. Whether he came up with the idea himself or was "prompted" by someone, in late 2005 Denisenko decided to take over the city branch of the PRP, either for himself or for a new, unnamed sponsor (rumor has it they could have been people from Kolomoisky's circle). Ultimately, Denisenko decided to bite the hand that fed him and stage a de facto corporate raid on the Dnipropetrovsk branch of the PRP—created, we repeat, from scratch by Zhir. And by no means a marginal one, like Rukh or KUN, since Zhir had brought together many businessmen and business executives.
Alexander Zhir
Denisenko began to dig under Zhyr, turning members of the PRP against him. He spread the rumor that Zhyr had sold the scandalous Melnichenko tapes to Boris Berezovsky, to which Zhyr had access as the chairman of the parliamentary commission investigating the murder of Georgiy Gongadze. Denisenko then directly accused Zhyr of receiving money from Mykola Shvets, the former head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council since 2005, and the PRP's main political enemy in the region. Denisenko then organized a regional conference of the PRP on December 24, 2005, at which 47 out of 63 votes cast a vote of no confidence in Zhyr. Vladimir Chernyavsky was elected the new chairman. Denisenko and his supporters, along with city activists Pavel Khobot and Stanislav Belodidenko, huddled around him. They enjoyed the support of Alena Gagaruts, editor of the city newspaper "Litsa," known for its scandalous publications (often commissioned). However, Zhira's supporters also held their own conference, where they confirmed his chairmanship and simultaneously expelled Denisenko and other conspirators from the PRP.
As a result, two warring regional PRP organizations emerged in Dnipropetrovsk, causing the party to lose the March 2006 regional elections miserably, receiving only 0,7% of the vote. In November 2006, the PRP-Denisenko decided to end the standoff, announced its dissolution, and transformation into the public organization "Civil Asset of Dnepr" (GRAD)This name is worth noting. Firstly, it was ripped off from the long-existing "Civic Asset of Kyiv" (nicknamed by Kyiv residents "Robber's Asset"). Secondly, even back then, Denisenko was already campaigning for the "decommunization" of Dnipropetrovsk, while simultaneously opposing the return of the city's name to Yekaterinoslav (as being Russian-imperial). But since the name "Sicheslav," proposed by the national patriots, was ridiculed by the city's residents, being literally and vulgarly translated into Russian, the "conscious Ukrainians" scratched their heads and proposed shortening Dnipropetrovsk to the neutral "Dnipro." Also, even back then, Andrei Denisenko, with his manic hatred of everything Soviet, claimed that soon he and his "activists" All Soviet monuments in the city will definitely be demolished.
GRAD's actual activities were limited to scandals and protests, mostly commissioned. According to sources SKELET-info In Dnipropetrovsk, even their own pickets against development projects were often staged by the "Grad" members in the interests of the developers' competitors. Denisenko's activities were somewhat marked by the 2010 mayoral elections: Denisenko placed sixth, receiving 5477 votes from voters in the city of a million people. Interestingly, Denisenko was beaten in those elections by candidates such as Andrey Pavelko, who headed the regional "Front of Change", and the author of the competing "Civil Force" Zagid Krasnov, who was then working in tandem with Oleg Tsarev.
Disillusioned with GRAD, Andriy Denisenko joined the All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" in early 2011, which was then gaining popularity in the western regions and Kyiv. The former KUN activist fully shared the ideas. Oleg Tyagnibok and his associates, although gathering voters for them in Dnipropetrovsk was problematic: in the 2012 elections, Svoboda received about 4% of the vote in the region. On the one hand, this was below the electoral threshold, but on the other, it was a sensational number for radical nationalists in a city where such ideas had previously been perceived as alien. For Denisenko, this was a "clear signal": he concluded that Dnipropetrovsk could develop a base of "radical patriotism." And he found support in this from Kolomoisky's team, which had combined the ideology of nationalist radicals with the fists of "athletes" and "gopniks," creating their own army.
On Privat's payroll
On April 27, 2012, Dnipropetrovsk was rocked by a series of homemade bomb explosions, injuring 25 people. There were no casualties, but the public outcry was enormous: people were shocked, the government was panicked, and the opposition angrily claimed the whole thing had been orchestrated by the "Donetsk people"—to initiate repression in the country. Interestingly, Andriy Denisenko initially issued a statement, in which he directly statedIt was rumored that two of the detained suspects (Viktor Sukachev and Dmitry Reva) worked at the regional headquarters of the Party of Regions. But a short time later, Denisenko became Dmitry Reva's most active public defender—as he was hired for this purpose by Dmitry's sister, Oksana Tomchuk, who worked at the Dnipropetrovsk State Property Fund from 2002 to 2010 and then opened her own law firm, and had very close working contacts with the duo. Korbana-Filatova.
Oksana Tomchuk
Denisenko and Tomchuk then launched into a frenzy of activity—it could be said that from the fall of 2012 to the fall of 2013, the "Dnipropetrovsk terrorists" case was Denisenko's primary focus. Moreover, this was compounded by an alleged arson attempt at Denisenko's parents' apartment: someone smashed a gasoline bottle against their tin front door, leaving it heavily stained with smoke. Denisenko long claimed in the media that this was the work of a "criminal regime."
This story marked the beginning of Andrey Denisenko's direct collaboration with the Privat group. Although numerous sources SKELET-info They claim Denisenko knew them well before, perhaps since the 90s, and fulfilled some of their "requests." It was in 2013 that he joined their team, getting into the same boat with them. And they've sailed quite far!
But there was another character in this story: Ivan Stupak, a professional KGB agent (he graduated from the KGB Higher School of the USSR in 1985) who worked in the Dnipropetrovsk SBU from 1991 to 2006 and had extensive dossiers on numerous people. Sources reported that back in the 90s, Stupak recruited Denisenko as a minor informant, informing the SBU about the lives and activities of Dnipropetrovsk national patriots. From 2010 to 2012, Ivan Stupak served as deputy head of the regional state administration and was then elected to the Verkhovna Rada as a member of the Party of Regions.
Ivan Stupak
When Euromaidan began, in which the All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" and the "activist" and "self-defense" units it formed played a very large role (read more about this in our article about Igor Krivetsky), professional troublemaker and instigator Andriy Denisenko's moment of glory had arrived. He became one of the leaders of the Dnipropetrovsk Euromaidan, inspiring protesters daily to "overthrow the regime." And then... he played the role of "Priest Gapon." This happened on January 26, 2014, when a crowd of right-wing radicals, football fans, and simply mischievous youths, at Denisenko's call, moved from protest to action and attempted to seize the Regional State Administration building. Why was this necessary? Until now, no one has asked this question. And it culminated with the Berkut and titushki (illegal riot police) defending the building counterattacking and dispersing the revolutionaries, in the process injuring even completely innocent civilians caught in the crossfire.
But here's what's interesting: many media outlets later reported that Denisenko had orchestrated the storming of the regional state administration building by prior arrangement with Stupak, who was in control of the situation at the time. Denisenko allegedly knew that an "ambush regiment" was waiting in the building and deliberately led the Maidan protesters into a trap—so they would be attacked and dispersed, thereby ending the protests in Dnipropetrovsk. Incidentally, Denisenko himself, according to journalists, hid at Stupak's dacha for a month after this incident!
Even more interesting, among the "titushki" guarding the regional state administration were employees of the private security company "Leon," controlled by Mykhailo Koshlyak, who was also working with Stupak at the time. This same Koshlyak, who for many years had been called one of the leaders of Privat's security bloc. How did this happen?! It's very simple: in early 2014, a monstrously deceitful spectacle was staged in Dnipropetrovsk (and, presumably, not only there), the goal of which was to eliminate genuine democratic forces from the Euromaidan and completely seize the initiative by swindlers who simultaneously bet on both sides. In this case, they would win either way, regardless of who prevailed—the government or the Maidan. The apotheosis of this cynicism was the Leon employees' joining... the Right Sector. And Andriy Denisenko, who emerged after the Maidan victory, was elected leader of the regional Right Sector organization.
Andrey Denisenko
However, this happened not only in Dnepropetrovsk: for example, in Kramatorsk, the “brothers” from the local organized crime group “17th Precinct”, to which the people’s deputy is involved, decided to sign up for the PS Maxim EfimovSince Right Sector wasn't a clearly structured organization, anyone could don its symbols. And since the spring of 2014, "patriotism" has become the perfect camouflage for adventurers and criminals, because under the guise of "defenders of Ukraine," they could do anything.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: MP Andrey Denisenko: The Unfinished Business of the "Patriot" Gang, Part 2
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