David Zhvania
It's high time the state began asking questions of the odious businessman—through criminal proceedings.
The 140th electoral district (Odesa Oblast) was the hottest spot in the 2014 parliamentary elections. The leading contender for the seat, David Zhvania of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, lost the election resoundingly. Despite extensive fraud and forgery by the district election commission, which was effectively subordinate to him, and his "insiders" in the Central Election Commission, the controversial politician and businessman was unable to scrape together the votes needed to cover up the planned election fraud. He was defeated by two rivals by a wide, unbeatable margin: Vasily Gulyaev and Victor Dobryansky.
As soon as this became obvious, a "knight's move" followed: the chairman of the district commission, caught red-handed falsifying the votes in favor of D. Zhvania, fled his post under the protection of former Odesa Berkut officers. Eight members of the district commission fled with him. As a result, representatives of the precinct—the "grassroots"—commissions had no one to submit the voting protocols that documented D. Zhvania's defeat. The vote counting and the transmission of the results to the Central Election Commission were halted.
When the Central Election Commission appointed new members of the district commission to replace the defected ones, and the vote counting resumed, it became clear to D. Zhvania that the ploy had failed. Then, to stall for time and escalate the situation to the point of invalidating the district election (so they could then try their luck at a re-election), the defected commission members returned to the district election commission with the ruling of the Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal. The Kyiv court ruled that the Central Election Commission's decision to appoint new district commission members was illegal, and all powers remained in the hands of "Zhvania's people."
But whatever the legal outcome of David Zhvania's criminal "sleight of hand" in the district, it's already clear: the political career of this paid regular at Savik Shuster's studio in Ukraine is over. And the time has come to properly address Zhvania's "legacy"—most effectively through criminal cases against a number of his entrepreneurial and anti-state activities.
What has Zhvania done for Ukraine? What enterprise has he built? How many jobs has he created? What laws have he passed that are beneficial to society and the state? Where and how has he demonstrated his patriotism?
You won't find answers to these questions. Because David Zhvania's appearance in Ukraine in the first half of the 1990s resembles the insertion of a saboteur behind enemy lines: he arrived in our country with a Cypriot passport in his pocket, and his first company in Ukraine was registered under the same passport. David Vazhaevich Zhvania obtained his Ukrainian passport, as well as his citizenship, by decision of a corrupt Ukrainian court (!), using a false Georgian passport. This was revealed during the criminal investigation into the poisoning of Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko—a poisoning in which Zhvania was an accomplice (whether actively or unwittingly).
It was the current head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, who, during his first term in office, held all the evidence that D. Zhvania was not who he claimed to be. And judging by the sordid stories involving this active Georgian, which have caused enormous damage to the state and the nationhood of Ukraine, David Vazhaevich Zhvania fits the mold of a career Russian intelligence officer infiltrated into the highest echelons of government. For those who don't remember, when Zhvania's fictitious acquisition of Ukrainian citizenship was exposed, the question of his deprivation of citizenship and deportation from our country arose. Only the rise to power of Viktor Yanukovych (and the FSB) granted D. Zhvania the fortunate opportunity to continue robbing Ukraine, while simultaneously inflicting every possible damage on its nationhood wherever possible.
In case anyone has forgotten: D. Zhvania was one of those who voted for the dictatorial “January 16 laws”.
Retaining D. Zhvania's seat in the Ukrainian parliament is a "safe conduct" for an outspoken enemy of Ukraine, who could continue his hostile activities against our state with impunity. Now, parliamentary immunity will no longer prevent the SBU and the Prosecutor General's Office from asking D. Zhvania numerous questions that Zhvania would previously have avoided answering.
Let us recall the main milestones in the biography of D. Zhvania and his personal “contribution” to the destruction of Ukrainian statehood.
David Zhvania: A Man Without a Homeland
Only a fool or a scoundrel can deal with this man.
Only in Ukraine can a person with a proven false citizenship, a criminal past and present, and openly collaborating with the intelligence services of other countries, live lavishly while robbing the people who have given him shelter.
REFERENCE: David Vazhaevich Zhvania was born on July 20, 1967, in Tbilisi, Georgia, to a high-ranking party official. His father, Vazha Zhvania, was head of the agitation and propaganda department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia. 1973-1984: studied at Secondary School No. 61 (Tbilisi). 1984-1991: studied at Tbilisi University (Faculty of National Economic Planning, majoring in economics). 1986-1988: served in the Border Troops of the KGB of the USSR in Tbilisi.
According to D. Zhvania himself, he has lived and worked in Ukraine since 1991, and has been a Ukrainian citizen since 1999.
1997 – President of Brinkford Cons. (Ukraine) Limited, which supplied Russian nuclear fuel to Ukrainian nuclear power plants. 2001 – Chairman of the Board of Brinkford CJSC (this commercial entity was D. Zhvania's last place of work before moving to the Verkhovna Rada). D. Zhvania also, together with businessman and deputy Mykola Mrtynenko, created JSC Trading House.
2002 – Elected as a People's Deputy on the Our Ukraine bloc list (33rd place on the list). At the time of the election, he was non-partisan; later joined the People's Union Our Ukraine (NUNU) party and became a member of the party's political council.
During the 2004 presidential election campaign, D. Zhvania served as deputy chief of staff for opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko. He was a member of Yushchenko's inner circle and godfather to Taras Yushchenko Jr.
February-September 2005 - Minister of Emergency Situations in the government Yulia TymoshenkoHe resigned along with the first government of Yulia Tymoshenko.
2006 – People's Deputy of Ukraine (Our Ukraine bloc list). In the 2007 snap parliamentary elections, he was a member of parliament from the Our Ukraine – People's Self-Defense bloc (the main sponsor).
June 2010 – Joined the ruling coalition "Stability and Reform" (formed by the Party of Regions, the Communist Party of Ukraine, and the Lytvyn Bloc). A few days later, he created the parliamentary group "Right of Choice." Less than a month later, he joined the Christian Democratic Union party, effectively replacing its previous leader, Volodymyr Stretovich.
Business. D. Zhvania doesn't consider himself an oligarch, but he doesn't hide the fact that he is wealthy. He owns or controls a number of businesses, including Brinkford, the Kerch shipyard Zaliv, the Lugansk Machine Tool Plant, the Lugansk Cartridge Plant, Diamant Bank, and others. Zhvania himself claims he never owned any businesses, but rather served as an "effective manager," for which he received substantial bonuses. "Well, maybe I was a shareholder in some Cypriot company in 1995. I don't even remember its name," Zhvania asserts (Ukrainska Pravda, September 15, 2005).
For 2004, D. Zhvania’s declaration indicated income in the amount of 3,5 million UAH.
For 2005, as D. Zhvania himself told the publication "Seichas" (March 2006), his tax return listed a sum of 78 million hryvnias. "This income is from the resale of shares and from business activities. I have shown, and will continue to show, a profit. I have not stolen anything and have not carried out a single illegal transaction," D. Zhvania claimed.
In 2006, D. Zhvania officially earned 139,927 hryvnias (later official data is unavailable). Of this, his salary as a people's deputy amounted to 105,077 hryvnias, and financial assistance amounted to 34,850 hryvnias. His family members received an income of 9,600 hryvnias. D. Zhvania had 500,195 hryvnias in his bank account.
D. Zhvania owns a 1224,4 sq. m. residential building and a 726.4 sq. m. apartment. His family owns a 426,1 sq. m. apartment. Zhvania owns several Bentley Armadas, Mercedes-Benz 320s, and Mercedes-Benz 500s. His family owns a Jaguar, BMW 23, Mercedes-Benz 320, Morgan Afo, Isuzu, and Porsche 911.
According to Focus magazine, in 2006 D. Zhvania declared an income of 380 thousand 905 UAH.
According to the weekly Business and other sources, David Zhvania is associated with the following commercial entities:
Darill Holding Limited;
AB "Diamantbank"
Law Firm "Kerez, Shchukin and Sotkilava"
VO "Lugansk Machine-Tool Plant"
DP "Alfa-Impex"
DP "Euro-Alfa Exim";
DP "Mena Trading";
DP "Electrolink";
Subsidiary LLC "KSD "Welford";
CJSC "Bakhchisaray Plant Construction Industry";
JSC "Brinkford";
JSC "Integration"
JSC Interport-Kovel;
JSC "KSD"
JSC Lugansk Cartridge Plant;
JSC "Neftegaztekhnologiya"
JSC "Orsial"
JSC Plast;
JSC KSD;
JSC TD Kovel;
Machine-building plant "Kovelselmash"
MT-bank;
JSC "Zaporizhzhya Abrasive Plant"
JSC Firm "Trading House";
Association of co-owners of apartment buildings "Edelweiss"
Brinkford Consulting Ltd.
LLC "Warrant"
LLC "DA. I TA.";
Inter-Vent LLC;
LLC "KSD"
LLC "Poleskiy Granit"
Expo 2000 Ukraine LLC;
LLC Company "Trading House";
FDI "Daryll Ukraine Limited".
D. Zhvania is (was) the vice-president of the Cypriot bank "Glomain Holding ltd".
In 2006, 2007 and 2008 he was included in the “Top 100” most influential people of Ukraine, according to the magazines “Korrspondent” and “Focus”.
Family. D. Zhvania's wife is Oksana (born in 1971). He has three daughters: Anna (born in 1992), Diana (born in 1997), Sofia (born in 2002), and a son, David (born in 2008).
Hobbies. D. Zhvania loves singing; in his youth, he sang in a choir. He speaks Georgian, English, German, Serbo-Croatian, and Slovenian (where and when he learned the last two is unknown). In Tbilisi, D. Zhvania played basketball for the Maccabi Brinkford basketball club (according to the website Temnik).
Scandals
The nuclear fuel scam for Ukrainian nuclear power plants. 1997. During the implementation of intergovernmental agreements between Ukraine and the United States in the first half of the 1990s, the United States financed the supply of Russian-produced nuclear fuel to Ukrainian nuclear power plants. This fuel was obtained by reprocessing the nuclear warheads of strategic missiles transported to Russia from Ukrainian territory under the disarmament agreement.
In this project, D. Zhvania's then-unknown Brinkford CJSC, along with Mykola Martynenko's Trading House JSC, collaborated with the state-owned National Nuclear Energy Generating Company (NAEK) Energoatom. Brinkford supplied Russian-made fuel elements to Ukrainian nuclear power plants, with spent elements being returned to Russia.
The result of this operation: both the funds allocated by the US for the project and the proceeds from the sale of electricity generated at the nuclear power plant disappeared. From this operation, which at the time caused a major scandal, D. Zhvania, through "shadow" schemes, earned at least $200 million. As a result of this scam, Ukraine received NOTHING for its nuclear disarmament.
It is likely that D. Zhvania's company acted as a "front" in this scheme in the interests of the Russian special services.
Fraudulent acquisition of the Zaporizhzhia Abrasive Plant and the Lugansk Machine-Tool Plant. 2004. On June 7, 2004, the Zaporizhzhia Prosecutor's Office opened a criminal case on the illegal acquisition of 51% of the shares of Zaporizhzhia Abrasive Plant OJSC by citizens Kiselhof and Bereza through a criminal conspiracy.
According to the press service of the Department for Combating Organized Crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the Zaporizhzhia region, “in December 1998, an agreement was concluded between the Zaporizhzhia regional office of the State Property Fund of Ukraine and the Brinkford company for the purchase and sale of 51% of the shares of the Zaporizhzhia Abrasive Plant OJSC.”
According to it, Brinkford (president David Vazhaevich Zhvania, born in 1967) committed to invest 90 million hryvnias in the plant's production over two years. As a result, the press service noted, "between September and December 1999, Brinkford transferred 47,1 million hryvnias to the accounts of Zaporizhzhia Abrasive Plant OJSC, designated as payment under the investment program. Immediately after the funds were deposited into the plant's accounts, they were transferred to enterprises created with the participation of David Zhvania and his associates."
Something similar happened at the Luhansk Machine Tool Plant.
Here is an assessment of D. Zhvania's activities, given by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Gennady Vasiliev, and distributed by the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office on August 21, 2004, immediately after the search of the Brinkford corporation office as part of the initiated criminal case: "He (D. Zhvania - "A") is trying to artificially create a political scandal around his own person and hide behind it pure criminal activity... (The truth) ... is that D. Zhvania's name has been involved in several criminal cases for several years now.
Cases involving hundreds of millions of hryvnias: stolen, swindled, misappropriated. Some of these cases were closed at one time for unknown reasons. And this certainly doesn't reflect well on the prosecutor's office, as the law should apply equally to everyone, regardless of whether they hold a parliamentary mandate. As of today, a comprehensive, thorough investigation is underway in each of these criminal cases, and the truth will be established."
Describing the situation at the Zaporizhzhia Abrasive Plant, the Prosecutor General's Office noted in its official communiqué that "...a monopolist in its field, the company Brinkford, headed by D. Zhvania, acquired ownership back in 1998. The State Property Fund of Ukraine transferred shares in the Zaporizhzhia Abrasive Plant OJSC to Brinkford under the terms of investing over 90 million hryvnias in the plant. This was clearly stated in the tender documents."
And so, having acquired the plant, the new owner transfers millions in investment and... on the same day, secretly transfers it all to the accounts of his partners. In other words, he's essentially shifting money from one pocket to another. And the plant earns back the investment. And returns the investor's millions in full. This is how D. Zhvania supports domestic producers. Obviously, he's very reluctant to make this public right now."
The Prosecutor General's Office also noted that similar questions have arisen during the criminal investigation into the Luhansk Machine Tool Plant. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, Brinkford, headed by D. Zhvania, also acted as an investor in this enterprise. (It was this Luhansk plant that manufactured the 7,62mm cartridge production line, which, according to investigators, was illegally sold abroad—"A").
Prosecutor General Gennady Vasiliev also recalled that Zhvania's name appears in another high-profile case. The investigation has already established that companies headed by Zhvania were actively involved in "effective operations" in the country's energy market, which in 2000 caused the National Energy Generating Company Energoatom losses of 186,700,000 hryvnias. The Prosecutor General's Office claimed that these funds were intended to pay for the removal of spent nuclear fuel from Ukrainian nuclear power plants. Some of the documents involved in these schemes bear Zhvania's signature.
The criminal case on the above-mentioned facts was closed in 2005, following the victory of presidential candidate V. Yushchenko, whose team member D. Zhvania was at the time.
On the topic: Doniy: Ukrainian politics is overflowing with intelligence agents, both Ukrainian and Russian
The kidnapping of Ivan Rybkin, a candidate for Russian President. 2004. In the spring of 2004, D. Zhvania became one of the organizers of the disappearance from Moscow and return to Ukraine of I. Rybkin, a candidate for Russian President. "What happened to Rybkin was a major gamble, in which I had no part..."
"I don't know why Rybkin chose me to organize his visit, even though I kept in touch with him—we'd call each other, ask how he was doing, and when I was in Moscow, I'd stop by to see him. We have a normal, human relationship," D. Zhvania himself asserted (Ukrainska Pravda, March 7, 2004).
As it later emerged, a meeting was supposedly scheduled in Kyiv between disgraced Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky and Igor Rybkin, an opposition candidate he financed for Russia's highest office. To prevent this meeting, Dmitri Zhvania, a "friend" of Igor Rybkin and Boris Berezovsky, apparently acting on instructions from Moscow, isolated Rybkin in a Kyiv apartment. When an international scandal erupted, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) intervened, locating Rybkin, releasing him from house arrest, and sending him to Moscow. The SBU did not disclose the details of the operation, and Igor Rybkin himself claims to remember virtually nothing.
In August 2004, the Brinkford Corporation office in Kyiv was searched by the Organized Crime Control Department, but whether it was connected with the disappearance (abduction) of I. Rybkin or something else remains unknown.
The poisoning (alleged poisoning) of presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko. 2004. D. Zhvania is one of the main figures in the sordid story of the poisoning of the future President of Ukraine, as he was present at the infamous dinner between Yushchenko and the SBU leadership in September 2004. He was even allegedly one of the organizers of the meeting.
D. Zhvania himself denied the suggestion that V. Yushchenko was poisoned during a meeting with the SBU leadership: "I don't know where he was actually poisoned. And I assumed this as a person, as a citizen, not as an investigator and a dioxin expert. We were at that ill-fated dinner together. We weren't hungry, we ate little and practically the same thing, and we drank water from the same bottle. And I didn't see the possibility of poisoning in that situation. I proceeded from the following logic: you don't invite someone to your home to poison them. And I don't think there's anyone so bold, such an ideological supporter of Kuchma, who would invite Yushchenko to his home and decide to poison him to get rid of the opposition leader" (Glavred, April 21, 2005).
But in 2008, Viktor Yushchenko stated at a press conference that his godfather, Dmitri Zhvania, was involved in his poisoning: "I think so. This is a mild form, I want to emphasize, in order to maintain balance before the law, investigative bodies, and honest people." Following this statement, the Prosecutor General's Office renewed its interest in Dmitri Zhvania. He, in turn, stated in interviews that Viktor Yushchenko was not poisoned, that the test results were falsified, and that the head of state was poisoned by food. Dmitri Zhvania also suggested that the version of Viktor Yushchenko's poisoning was invented by his campaign staff when he was still a presidential candidate.
The criminal case regarding the poisoning of V. Yushchenko remains in limbo; investigative actions are effectively not being conducted.
Illegal financing of the Ukrainian presidential election of candidate Viktor Yushchenko. D. Zhvania stole money from Boris Berezovsky, the sponsor of the Orange Revolution. In 2005, Berezovsky stated that through Zhvania, he allocated funds for the Orange Revolution in Ukraine—a total of approximately $40 million. Berezovsky also claimed to have met with Zhvania five to seven times in London and once in Israel; at these meetings, the issue of Berezovsky's funding of civil society institutions in Ukraine was discussed.
"Buying Berezovsky's stinking bastard in London isn't expensive," was D. Zhvania's response to B. Berezovsky on one of his television broadcasts. When B. Berezovsky announced his intention to visit Ukraine and present evidence of this, D. Zhvania unexpectedly declared: "If Berezovsky comes, and Yushchenko and Tymoshenko don't extradite him to Russia, then I will. That's my understanding of democracy" (Segodnya, February 1, 2005).
In April 2006, Berezovsky filed a lawsuit in London's High Court against Alexander Tretyakov and D. Zhvania, demanding a full accounting of the use of $22,85 million transferred by the businessman to Elgrade Limited and Goldstar Agency to promote democracy in Ukraine. The lawsuit states that in 2003 and 2004, at the request of Zhvania and Tretyakov, Berezovsky transferred $13,85 million to the account of Elgrade Limited and $9 million to the accounts of Goldstar Agency. The outcome of the lawsuit is unknown.
During the scandal, D. Zhvania stated that he didn't rule out the possibility that Yulia Tymoshenko might have asked B. Berezovsky for money. "The contribution she declared and the amount she claimed to have spent on campaign preparations closely resemble the figure Berezovsky announced... Today, observing Berezovsky's behavior (sometimes giving money, sometimes not, and then, like Granny Paraska, trying to reconcile Vitya and Yulia), one can only logically conclude where Tymoshenko got the money," D. Zhvania concluded (Glavred, October 13, 2005).
On the topic: Doniy: Ukrainian politics is overflowing with intelligence agents, both Ukrainian and Russian
Apparently, D. Zhvania, acting on instructions from Russian intelligence agencies, managed to establish close ties with Boris Berezovsky, a Ukrainian opposition figure opposed to the Kremlin, and for a long time served as one of the disgraced Russian oligarch's "confidants." It is believed that after receiving funds from Berezovsky intended to finance the "Orange Revolution," D. Zhvania, acting on instructions from his handlers, seized them without fulfilling his client's instructions.
Thus, the Ukrainian presidential candidate's team lost some of its funding during critical times in the race for the country's highest office. And Russian intelligence agencies subsequently gained the opportunity to blackmail Viktor Yushchenko's team with the very fact that his election campaign was being financed from abroad. And Dmitriy Zhvania himself, having completed his mission, retained millions from Boris Berezovsky (as a reward:)).
On the topic: Ukrainian citizens Tretyakov and Zhvania managed to deceive Berezovsky himself.
Connection to Major Nikolai Melnichenko and involvement in the "cassette scandal." 2005. In February 2005, SPU leader Oleksandr Moroz stated that D. Zhvania had reason to fear in connection with the "cassette scandal." However, later, in an interview with the publication "Seichas" (March 2006), D. Zhvania stated that A. Moroz had been mistaken and even apologized for what he said.
"I know what this is all about—my wife. It was a conversation between Kuchma and Azarov about how to rein me in. Mykola Yanovich recommended Leonid Danilovich to influence me through someone, my wife. That's all I was on the Melnichenko tapes," claims D. Zhvania. Whether this is true is unknown. However, it is known that D. Zhvania had a close relationship and collaborated with the most notorious figures in the "tape scandal" long before it began.
On the topic: N. Obikhod: Major Melnichenko is connected to the "werewolf gang," the murderer Pukach, and Russian intelligence.
A car for Andriy Yushchenko. 2005. According to one theory, D. Zhvania was involved in the acquisition of an expensive BMW M6 (a gift) by President V. Yushchenko's son, Andriy. Davyd Vazhavich himself denies this: "I don't know where Andriy got this car, and I had nothing to do with its acquisition" (Ukrainska Pravda, September 15, 2005). Interestingly, almost immediately after Yushchenko acquired the car, it was deliberately exposed to the media by members of D. Zhvania's inner circle. This suggests that the "setup" of the car was a special operation aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian leader.
Theft of bauxite from Ukraine's strategic reserves stored in the State Reserve. 2005. In 2005, the National Trade Association (CEO Nazhmutdin Kurbanovich Makhmatov) addressed an open letter to Ukrainian President V. Yushchenko, reporting that D. Zhvania, the owner of the Zaporizhzhia Abrasive Plant, had effectively stolen a third of the state's strategic bauxite reserves stored on its premises.
The letter claimed that of the 1,5 million tons of bauxite reportedly stored, no more than 1 million tons actually remained at the plant's sites. The missing 500 tons of bauxite had already been stolen and processed by D. Zhvania's company. The letter also indicated the amount of damage caused to the state by such actions—up to 28 million hryvnias. Furthermore, complaints to the prosecutor's office regarding the bauxite theft remained unanswered, and no criminal cases were opened. The letter also explicitly stated that the atrocities were being carried out under pressure from D. Zhvania, who held the position of Minister of Emergency Situations at the time.
It is unknown how the scandal ended.
False passport and illegal acquisition of Ukrainian citizenship. 2008. From 2008 to 2010, the investigation into the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko focused on D. Zhvania's citizenship. Allegedly, when documents were prepared, at the instigation of a Georgian businessman, they were knowingly filled with false information. Viktor Baloha, the head of the Presidential Secretariat, even wrote a letter to his Georgian counterpart to obtain information about D. Zhvania's passport.
The question concerned Zhvania's Soviet passport XIX-TI #500353, allegedly issued on August 15, 1990 by the Isansky District Department of Internal Affairs in Tbilisi, which he submitted in 1994 to the Sovietsky District Court of Kyiv to establish continuous residence in Ukraine. On August 14, 2008, a response was received from the Georgian Ministry of Justice, stating that the passports of the series listed for Zhvania were registered in a completely different place—the Onsky District of Western Georgia—and were issued as early as 1994. Moreover, according to information available in the archive, passports up to and including number 500325 were issued in the Onsky District at that time, while number 500353 was not issued at all, after which the issuance of Georgian citizen identification cards (of the new type) began.
In the event of criminal prosecution of D. Zhvania (for which there are numerous grounds – "A"), this information is a "cast-iron" basis for stripping him of his parliamentary seat, since at the time of assuming his mandate, he did not possess genuine citizenship; in fact, D. Zhvania's Ukrainian citizenship was obtained illegally, criminally, using forged (invalid) documents.
Moreover, on February 11, 1997, Georgian-born David Zhvania was fined by officers of the Vatutinsky District Department of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Kyiv "for failure of foreign citizens to comply with registration procedures" (Protocol No. 03453). This confirms that he was a foreign national and therefore ineligible to be elected to Ukrainian representative bodies, according to Article 76 of the Constitution, which states: "A citizen of Ukraine who has reached the age of twenty-one on election day, has the right to vote, and has resided in Ukraine for the past five years may be a people's deputy of Ukraine." Alternatively, in addition to his Ukrainian passport, Zhvania held another passport, which is prohibited by law.
Fact: When registering one of his first businesses in Kyiv in 1994, D. Zhvania included his passport details—a Cypriot citizen's document—in the registration documents. This is confirmed by the relevant records in the statistical authorities.
The date of Zhvania's permanent residence in Ukraine, 1991, also raises suspicion (the reason for his move from Georgia was allegedly the harassment of the Zhvania family by the new president of that country, Zviad Gamsakhurdia). According to Zhvania's biographers, in 1991, after Gamsakhurdia came to power (he became president of Georgia on April 14, 1991), Zhvania lived in Slovenia (Ljubljana), Austria (Graz), and Cyprus, where he registered the company Brinkford Cons Ltd. in his name. Zhvania himself denies this: "I've only been to Cyprus once in my life! I came for three days to pick up my family from vacation" (Ukraina Moloda, July 29, 2004).
In light of D. Zhvania's own version of how his family experienced persecution in Georgia under Z. Gamsakhurdia, the following information is interesting: Zhvania's parents, "persecuted by the regime," moved to Ukraine only in 1995, three years after the death of Z. Gamsakhurdia himself, and from then on they lived in Kyiv—until their death (they are buried in the Baikove Cemetery in the capital).
Pressure exerted on Ukrainian journalists during the Georgian-Russian conflict in South Ossetia. 2008. D. Zhvania, having somehow learned of the presence of a number of Ukrainian media journalists in the "hot spot" of Georgia, obtained their direct phone numbers, personally called them, and urged them to side with Russia in covering the conflict, threatening them with "trouble."
Organizing a corrupt system of extortion from contractors at NNEGC Energoatom. Larisa Bernadina, director of Favorit Plus (which carries out engineering work on the design, production, and implementation of automatic radiation monitoring systems commissioned by the EBRD for the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, NNEGC Energoatom, and others), in her article in the newspaper "2000," accused D. Zhvania, his business partner N. Martynenko, and their protege, Energoatom director Yu. Nedashkovsky, of forcing the named businessmen and officials to pay 30% kickbacks from Energoatom contractors.
Contracts with companies that refused to pay what was effectively a bribe to this organized crime group were terminated, and the money earned was not paid. This led to the bankruptcy of the "uncooperative" companies. At the same time, the safety of Ukraine's nuclear facilities was compromised.
The reaction of the Prosecutor General's Office, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to L. Bernadina's series of publications, which effectively directly accused D. Zhvania and his partners of committing a number of serious crimes, is unknown.
All of the above-mentioned criminal cases and scandals, in which David Vazhaevich Zhvania was a key player or participant, according to experts, demonstrate Zhvania's undeniable involvement with the Russian Federation's intelligence services, of which he is clearly an agent.
D. Zhvania: "I live in this country, and I want a society to develop here. I don't claim first, tenth, or hundredth place in it. I want this to be a calm, understandable country. We are the first generation since the collapse of the USSR that can leave something as a legacy. I want to pass this legacy on to my three daughters without any fear. So that they can pass it on" (Ukrainska Pravda, March 7, 2004).
But what did David Zhvania himself do to achieve this? Nothing. Instead, he brought a great deal of harm to the country that sheltered him.
—
Egor Karnaukhov, "Argument"
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