Boris Kolesnikov: What We Forgot or Didn't Know About the Donetsk Huckster. Part 1
Who divided tens of billions of hryvnias from the budget among his companies, pioneered the idea of Donbas separatism, bankrupted and bought up enterprises, and after all this, not only escaped punishment but also took the seat of chief economic expert in the largest opposition faction in parliament? Not every Ukrainian will recall that we are talking about Borys Kolesnikov, who is trying to return to Ukrainian politics with his face cleansed of previous scandals and a completely new reputation. And it seems he is succeeding.
According to recent sociological surveys, Ukrainians are seeing a sharp decline in trust in the current government, while trust in politicians who served in it just a few years ago is rising. In eastern Ukraine, Rinat Akhmetov (49%) leads this ranking. Yuriy Boyko (25%), Boris Kolesnikov (17%), and Alexander Yefremov (16%). Well, Ukrainians have extremely short memories, which allows them to almost immediately forget everything their idols did just recently! Equally surprising is Skelet.Org and the fact that law enforcement agencies also have an equally short memory.
Boris Kolesnikov. The Oligarch's Marketplace Youth
Being one of Rinat Akhmetov's closest associates, Boris Kolesnikov earned the title of "Donetsk bandit" even before the first Maidan. It was a simple, commonplace conclusion: since Akhmetov is a bandit, and Kolesnikov is his right-hand man, he must be one too. But then the media released the first detailed information about the past of the main figures in the Donetsk clan. It became known that Kolesnikov had never been a member of Akhat Bragin's racketeering "brigades"; he had always been a market trader—both literally and at his core. If we apply Boris Kolesnikov's psychological profile to 19th-century social terms, he is not a "master" like Bragin or Akhmetov, nor even a "comrade master" (as the companions of merchants and adventurers were called); he is a typical "clerk" in a master's shop. There are many such types in the modern Ukrainian elite - for example, the same Ivan Avramov, who is Yuriy Ivanyushchenko's "clerk." However, "clerks" are far from unimportant, as many "waiters" and "cooks" have found their way into big business, and especially into big politics—they're the ones who talk loudest and most often on television.
But a few more years passed, and new details emerged about Boris Kolesnikov's life. It turned out that this seemingly indecisive and restless man was not so simple, and that he had a long criminal record, of which the high-profile "White Swan" incident was just one episode. However, this didn't detract from his psychological profile. It's just that, as the saying goes, you become like the people you hang out with. And Boris Kolesnikov hung out with the "dashing little guys" from the start.
Boris Viktorovich Kolesnikov was born on October 25, 1962, in the city of Zhdanov (now Mariupol). In the 70s, his family moved to Donetsk, where they settled in an apartment in a new (at the time) nine-story building at 40 Krasnozorinskaya Street (Kuibyshevsky District). However, in his interviews with journalists, Kolesnikov brazenly lied when he told tall tales about living on the same street as Rinat Akhmetov. He claimed that's how they met, and that Rinat Leonidovich was an honest businessman who wouldn't even harm a fly:
Boris Kolesnikov, Rinat Akhmetov, dossier, biography, incriminating evidence
But the fact is that Akhmetov's family lived a few kilometers from Krasnozorinskaya, in the village of Oktyabrsky (near the mine of the same name), closer to the airport—the same place as his "mentor," Akhat Bragin, better known as Alik Grek. Since 2014, this area has been subject to regular shelling, although the Akhmetovs' house (or rather, the mansion built on the site of the old house) is said to have miraculously suffered almost no damage—yet another mystery of the "hybrid war"!
The Akhmetov family estate in the village of Oktyabrsky
The Akhmetov family nest contrasts with the squalid and dilapidated houses of their neighbors.
After graduating from high school, Boris Kolesnikov faced two choices: either prepare for university entrance exams or prepare for military service. He chose the other option: one fine day, young Boris appeared on the street with a pained expression on his face, his left arm encased in a plaster cast and supported by a metal frame. He remained like this, by his own account, for three whole years. Thanks to the abstruse diagnosis of complete unfitness for physical activity (practically disability), written out over several pages by a traumatologist his parents knew, Boris Kolesnikov was barred from joining the army—even a construction battalion. Apparently, this automatically eliminated the need to enroll in university, as Kolesnikov continued his studies until 1988, enrolling as a correspondence student at the Soviet Trade Technical School. Instead, the 18-year-old "disabled man" went to work as a salesman – and it seems that his plastered left arm did not stop him from briskly selling groceries and fruit at the "Donetskvugillya" store of the Kuibyshev Department of Workers' Supply (ORS).
Rinat Akhmetov
It was in this Kuibyshev ORS that Kolesnikov became close with two other "retail workers": Akhat Bragin and Rinat Akhmetov. First with Bragin, who officially worked as a butcher in the early 80s (but unofficially played cards and ran rackets), and then, when he became the director of Donetsk Store No. 41, with its official shipping agent, Rinat Akhmetov (Bragin's closest aide in his dealings). However, at that point, they weren't yet Kolesnikov's authority figures; they were merely shortage speculators like himself, only with a well-known gangster reputation. Kolesnikov valued his connections with the ORS leadership, warehouse managers (including Shamil Ivankov), and other store directors—in short, those who had been part of the "retail mafia" during Soviet times—far more.
Akhat Bragin, aka Alik Grek
Akhmetov and Bragin, still from a 1991 operational video
In 1985, Boris Kolesnikov changed his business: instead of under-the-table speculation in shortages, he switched to fraud and embezzlement, landing a job at the Donetsk Wholesale and Retail Plant, where he made a good living by drying and squeezing fruit. Then, a flood of imported fruit, bought with petrodollars or obtained through barter, flooded the USSR: oranges and lemons began to be sold year-round, new varieties of apples appeared, and even pineapples, previously unseen in the provinces, appeared. But this trade had one peculiarity: almost everywhere, imported fruit was sold not in the typical Soviet vegetable stores, reeking of rotten potatoes and spoiled cabbage, but through consumer cooperatives. The secret was simple: these cooperatives, exercising their right to harvest, store, and sell fruits and vegetables, "harvested" imported citrus fruits directly at the depots, buying them up on the vine—then resold them to the public at their own cooperative stalls or from street vendors, with a hefty markup (from 50 kopecks to 1 ruble per kilogram). This scheme was pure speculation and operated practically throughout the USSR, but no one tried to shut it down, because everyone was in on the cooperatives' schemes: the directors of the depots and Soyuzplodimport, the police and prosecutor's office, local authorities, and, of course, organized crime groups. Furthermore, the sale of imported fruit through cooperatives was lobbied in Moscow itself: those at the top believed that cooperatives would be better off (with more retail outlets, better product preservation) than the outdated "vegetable" traders.
It was precisely in such a cooperative, opened at Donetsk's Central Market, that Boris Kolesnikov found a job in 1986. Formally, he was listed as only a "salesperson-procurement agent," but he was no longer operating the scales; he was instead engaged in purchasing goods from the warehouse, distributing them to the "points," and collecting the proceeds. Several members of Bragin's gang, who, in fact, "ran" this business in cahoots with the trade and prosecutorial mafia, also worked in this cooperative, also listed as salesmen or forwarders. Thus, Boris Kolesnikov, nicknamed "Borya Koleso," entered the circle of Donetsk's most notorious organized crime group—not as a "fighter," but as a savvy businessman, skillfully exploiting his connections and years of experience as a trader.
Bloody "South"
Among the people with whom Kolesnikov worked directly, was involved, and had dealings in the second half of the 80s, several are worth noting. First, there's Sergei Alekseevich Roman (nicknamed "Grey"), born in 1956, who lived in the village of Oktyabrsky near Akhmetov and was part of Bragin's organized crime group (it was reported that he was Bragin's schoolmate). "Grey" ran rackets at the very same Donetsk Central Market (their most powerful trading spot in the 80s), where the "head office" of the cooperative where Kolesnikov speculated in fruit was located. According to available information, "Grey" also acted as patron of this cooperative, and his stake in it was equal to Bragin's. In the early 90s, when Soyuzplodimport ceased operations, the trade in imported fruit in Donetsk continued through private firms importing it through the Azov ports. Thus, gradually, firms emerged that effectively monopolized the trade in imported fruit in the Donbas: Yug LLC (1993), Skandin-Yug Joint Venture, and then Fruits of the World LLC. These firms emerged from that very same cooperative, created through the efforts of two men: Sergei Roman and Boris Kolesnikov. The former was the de facto owner of the firms, which Roman and Bragin had initially invested in (along with privatizing the Donetsk Central Market under Yug), while the latter was their manager (director), building a retail network in the Donbas and traveling to subtropical countries to negotiate with suppliers.
By the way, according to the information available Skelet.Org According to information, in 1991, Boris Kolesnikov didn't receive, but rather literally bought, a diploma from the Donetsk Technical School of Soviet Trade, as he didn't have time to study there even part-time—he was completely immersed in commerce. He coveted the diploma when their fruit and vegetable cooperative was first re-registered as a private company, where Kolesnikov became commercial director. Apparently, a high school diploma wasn't enough, and economics degrees weren't yet for sale, so he had to make do with what he could "get."
Relationships among members of domestic organized crime groups in the 80s and 90s had a complex structure reminiscent of an early feudal system. Those close to the "authorities" either received markets, stores, or other profitable "points" from them as "feeding," or created them for themselves with the "authorities'" blessing, or they joined larger gangs with their own "fiefdoms," retaining them for themselves. However, they contributed a portion of their income (a "share") to the organized crime group, which was divided between the "brothers" and the "authorities," went into the organized crime group's "common fund," and so on. With the advent of capitalism, these relationships were formalized differently: organized crime group leaders (or their confidants) and their closest aides became co-founders of enterprises in which they received their legal share. Kolesnikov himself remained a "salaried manager" until the mid-90s.
Kolesnikov's position was changed by two deaths: those of Akhat Bragin and Sergei Roman, childhood friends. Bragin was killed first (on October 15, 1995), and his shares in various enterprises were seized by Akhmetov. Akhmetov, however, no longer shared with the gang, forgot about the "obshchak" (common fund), and seized control of all the organized crime group's assets, turning them into his own companies. But some of his inner circle also became shareholders, including Boris Kolesnikov. Thus, in 1996, during the latest re-registration of the Yug company, the composition of its founders and co-owners changed: Kolesnikov became Roman's partner in place of the murdered Bragin. How it came to be that he effectively acquired Bragin's share in Yug remains a mystery of behind-the-scenes gangster intrigue. It was even reported that Sergei Roman himself was involved in his friend's murder. In 1995, he became close to Yevhen Kushnir's Donetsk organized crime group—the gang that was later blamed for all the high-profile murders (Akhat Bragin, Yevhen Shcherban, Vadym Hetman). However, some sources claimed that Kushnir's gang was simply used as scapegoats. Furthermore, Kolesnikov would never have received Bragin's share without some special friendship with Akhmetov, who had become Alik Grek's heir. Akhmetov, on the other hand, would hardly have simply given Kolesnikov half of the company, which by that time had already acquired not only the Donetsk Central Market but also numerous stores and warehouses in the region. Rumors circulated that Kolesnikov had rendered Akhmetov some very important service.
Boris Kolesnikov: What We Forgot or Didn't Know About the Donetsk Huckster. Part 1
It's worth noting that the registration documents contain a mystery: Sergei Roman is listed as registered at an address on Krasnozorinskaya Street (the Kolesnikovs' apartment), while Boris Kolesnikov is listed at the building on Vakhrusheva Street, where Sergei Roman grew up and lived. This strange reversal subsequently gave rise to the legend that Kolesnikov allegedly lived on Vakhrusheva Street in his youth and was Akhmetov's neighbor. However, people who knew Kolesnikov from his school days claim that Boris and his parents lived in the Krasnozorinskaya Street high-rise and only moved to Roman's building on Vakhrusheva Street in the 90s, when Roman left the country after Bragin's murder. Perhaps, during the re-registration of the Yug company, Roman, having gifted (or sold) his house to Kolesnikov, decided to list the address of his partner's apartment in the documents.
A little later, someone rendered a crucial service to Kolesnikov himself: on May 23, 1997, Sergei Roman was murdered. Someone close to Roman lured him from abroad to Donetsk, ostensibly for a business meeting. There were several candidates for the role of Judas, including those from the Yug firm. Besides Kolesnikov himself, the names of several others with whom Roman had also started out in the cooperative at Donetsk's Central Market were mentioned: Viktor Gudinets, Andrei Babak, Vladislav Likhodey, and the "young lawyer" Ivan Shakurov (born 1970), who later joined them.
Babak was initially Kolesnikov's man, his constant assistant and deputy since the 80s, while Guditsen was considered Roman's confidant—and it was to Guditsen that he left the Yug firm when he went abroad. But later, witnesses noted that Guditsen had become close friends with Kolesnikov, who in turn was close friends with Akhmetov. Even the police claimed that only Kolesnikov and Guditsen knew when and where Sergei Roman would be on that fateful day—but the investigation soon stopped asking them questions.
Andrey Babak with his family
Be that as it may, after Sergei Roman's murder, everyone received an impressive "inheritance"—even one that the deceased's associates and top managers were supposedly not entitled to. Akhmetov received full ownership of several properties in Donetsk, which Roman had previously co-owned with Bragin. Roman's businesses at Donetsk's Central Market were largely transferred to Kolesnikov and his entourage, and he now became their owner. However, Roman's place in Yug was replaced by a new co-owner: Ukrinkom, a company owned by Zhigan Taktashev, a close associate of Akhmetov (he died in 2005). Viktor Gudinets received, as a "reward" for his mysterious services, the company "Frukty Mira" LLC, which became the main supplier of tropical fruits in the Donbas, the company "Vesna" (a flower trader), and the company "Skandin-Yug."
Boris Kolesnikov: What We Forgot or Didn't Know About the Donetsk Huckster. Part 1
Gudinets also became the director and co-founder of the firm "Reestr-Consulting," working with Maksim Viktorovich Kolesnikov (born 1975), Boris Kolesnikov's half-brother on his father's side. Andriy Babak effectively became second in command at Yug, after Kolesnikov, and when Kolesnikov was appointed to the Donetsk Regional Council, he handed over the director's position to Babak. As for Ivan Shakurov, a lawyer at Yug who was directly involved in dividing up the assets of the murdered Sergei Roman, he also received a piece of the pie, albeit in a different way: in 1997, Shakurov became co-owner and director of the law firm Ukrconsulting LLC, created by Kolesnikov to service his nascent business empire.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Boris Kolesnikov: What We Forgot or Didn't Know About the Donetsk Huckster. Part 2
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