Andrey Kholodov
Having captivated Ukrainian voters with loud slogans about a ruthless fight against corruption, the "Ze-team" brought into the new Rada people who have long been the target of the prosecutor's office. But the "servants of the people" don't allow their allies to be harmed; on the contrary, they provide them with the opportunity to openly lobby for their businesses in parliament. And so, after receiving a parliamentary seat, the well-known Kyiv "tobacco vendor," Andriy Kholodov, immediately pushed through an amendment to Bill No. 1049, redistributing a significant portion of the proceeds from cigarette sales to the sellers—that is, to his own businesses.
At the same time, Kholodov categorically denied any connection to the tobacco business and hid behind hypocritical "concern" for the income of other entrepreneurs and jobs for ordinary people. Nevertheless, journalists quickly uncovered and detailed the Kholodov family's tobacco schemes . This infuriated the "servant of the people," who filed a lawsuit against the "Schemes" program and Radio Liberty. However, the facts presented were taken into account by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and became the basis for a criminal investigation , forcing Kholodov to stop pretending to be innocently slandered.
Meanwhile, journalists have become interested not only in Andrey Kholodov's current business but also in the murky past of his current wife, Ekaterina Shakhovskaya. Shakhovskaya is a longtime close friend and godmother of Oksana Marchenko, a well-known TV presenter and the wife of Viktor Medvedchuk , who is in turn the godmother of Vladimir Putin.
Victor Medvedchuk and Oksana Marchenko
Assyrian Heritage
Andrey Ivanovich Kholodov was born on August 20, 1972, in Kremenchuk, where he graduated from Secondary School No. 25. His biography claims it was "specialized," but this is not true. Built according to a typical Soviet design and opened in 1969, it was a mediocre city school—and only in the 2000s was it renamed the "Humanities Collegium." So its supposed "specialization" was invented by Kholodov's biographers to give him the image of some kind of child prodigy.
After high school, Kholodov enrolled in the Kyiv Automobile and Road Construction Institute (KADI, now the National Transport University), majoring in automobiles and automotive industry. While at KADI, he likely met Igor Kononenko , then secretary of the Komsomol committee , although it's unlikely he had a close relationship with him.
In 1994, Kholodov graduated, and a year earlier, he began his career at Duncan-Kyiv. He later became its sales director, and in 1998, he launched his own business. That's how his career began in the 90s, briefly described, after which there's a complete gap in Kholodov's biography until the 2019 elections. And if you ignore the details, there's nothing particularly remarkable about it: he studied, worked, and became an entrepreneur. A nearly perfect biography, meticulously edited and polished!
Viktor Avdyshev, champion of the 70s
But its authors clearly shouldn't have mentioned the company "Duncan-Kiev," which, by the way, wasn't a company at all, but a British-Ukrainian joint venture that sold "consumer goods," meaning practically everything from alcohol and cigarettes to cars. Of course, Duncan-Kiev employed many people—the company had numerous branches in various regions and hired numerous sales agents in the mid-90s—but only Andrei Kholodov, for some reason, was lucky enough to become its sales director (a key position), and then one of Ukraine's richest businessmen (though he hides his wealth). Oh yes, one could say he achieved everything through honest work, washing apples day and night for sale! But there's one curious fact that modern journalists have overlooked: according to Skelet.Org , the Duncan-Kiev joint venture was one of the enterprises controlled by the so-called "Kiev Group." "Assyrian" organized crime group of Viktor Avdyshev.
Avdyshev's organized crime group was, if not the most powerful, then certainly the largest in Kyiv: its membership reached a thousand "fighters." Many of them were officially employed: some in private security companies, others in commercial firms as managers and sales agents. This raises questions about what exactly Andrey Kholodov was doing at Duncan-Kyiv? Did he really come from the street and work in sales, or was he an organized crime member and the firm's "overseer"? And who had the best chance of becoming the joint venture's sales director?
Assyrian Brotherhood: Avdyshev and his organized crime group
Speaking of sales, the Avdyshev organized crime group's shadow business began at the Republican Stadium with the firm "Mercury," created by the scandalous businessman Semyon Yufa, Avdyshev's henchman Harry Gabovich, and Alexander Presman, who was appointed as the "overseer" by Semyon Mogilevich. Having amassed a huge fortune through racketeering and financial pyramids, in the mid-90s, the organized crime group focused on the trade in "consumer goods," profiting from tax evasion, the sale of contraband, counterfeit, and stolen goods, the creation of online retail pyramids, and so on. Duncan-Kiev played a key role in their schemes, boasting a huge turnover! Suffice it to say that, despite enjoying the tax benefits of a joint venture and paying only symbolic amounts to the treasury, Duncan-Kiev was still among the top ten largest taxpayers among joint ventures in Ukraine. One can only imagine the colossal sums of money evaded taxes. And the leadership of the joint venture, including Andrei Kholodov, was directly behind this. This is where he received his informal education as a "shadow economist," and this is where his cigarette schemes originated.
Now let's talk about how Kholodov got his business. In 1998, Avdyshev, who had been previously arrested, was released on bail of 200,000 hryvnia just a few days before his trial. Rumors circulated in Kyiv that the bribe to the judge who released Avdyshev was even larger – half a million dollars – and that it was arranged by Grigory Surkis , a friend and associate of Viktor Medvedchuk . Officially, the petition was filed by lawyer Yuriy Gaysinsky, the future prosecutor of Kyiv and the region and father-in-law of Gennady Kernes . Officially, Avdyshev was released to attend the funeral of his mother, who lived in Baku, but he never returned from Azerbaijan to Ukraine. Since the 2000s, he has lived in Russia, becoming Viktor Yuryevich Kochiev.
Immediately after Avdyshev's escape, the division of his organized crime group's business among the "brigadiers," "supervisors," and "directors" began. And it was then, in 1998, that Andrei Kholodov became an entrepreneur! True, you won't find the names of his first companies in his biography—for some reason, he conceals them. However, it is noted that he "was engaged in the sale and leasing of commercial real estate, business consulting, and development." Kholodov's biographers have diligently tried to portray him as a sophisticated office businessman, with a latte in one hand and a gold Parker pistol in the other—the only thing missing is a framed Harvard diploma on the wall! But the reality was somewhat different. According to Skelet.Org sources , Andrey Kholodov "inherited" something far more valuable than companies from Avdyshev—he received "unofficial exclusive rights" to sell cigarettes in those niches of the Kyiv consumer market controlled by the Assyrian organized crime group. He began actively developing this business, which became his own.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Andrey Kholodov: Zelensky's Tobacco Captain. PART 2
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