Evgeniy Bakulin
These days, not everyone runs for parliament to improve the lives of ordinary citizens. Some need to avoid prison to freely visit their villa in prosperous Switzerland. Especially if they're convicted of theft. Especially if they stole $4 billion. In other words, there's both a motive to run for parliament and the funds for an election campaign. But first things first.
The former aviator's meteoric rise
Evgeny Nikolaevich Bakulin was born on September 29, 1956, in Kotovo, Gorky Oblast. His family moved to Donbas, and young Zhenya began to feel the call of the sky. From 1974 to 1976, he was a cadet at the Slavyansk Aviation Technical School. Aviation technician was a good, high-paying job, but it could be better, as there were so many valuables at the airfield. Fuel was the most likely item to disappear without a trace. But the problem was, you couldn't put aviation kerosene in a car, and in the army, you could get caught stealing. Ultimately, our hero couldn't find common ground with the service, which required serious thievery, so he went to work as a simple laborer at an oil refinery. Closer to the fuel, farther from the officers.
He toiled for six years as a working man until he earned a promotion—senior operator of an oil processing unit at the Lisichansk Oil Refinery. It wasn't much of a career, but it was an honorable and respected position. Then gasoline shortages began, and our hero began to exploit them, selling the product on the side. In 1991, Bakulin became a shop foreman at the refinery. He might not have gotten the job, but those were turbulent times, rife with gangsters, and crooks of all stripes helped the respected man.
Within two years, the gasoline mob had elevated him to Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lisichanskneftegazorgsintez OJSC, whose chairman was his friend and accomplice, Yuriy Boyko. Eight years later, he became Chairman of the Board. This career rise was certainly no accident. Bakulin made influential friends, both in politics and in the criminal underworld. Bakulin's main goal was to serve the oligarchs and rob ordinary people. He and his cronies wallow in luxury, while ordinary people live in poverty, because the cunning Bakulin and his schemes constantly delay their salaries. This is precisely why Bakulin doesn't run in his native Lisichansk – he's ashamed to look people in the eye.
gas attack
It must be said that at this time, the star of the main gas mafia boss, Pavlo Lazorenko, was waning, and new recruits were needed for the schemes he'd developed over the years. Bakulin was no stranger to theft on a grand scale and extortion from the people. Therefore, in 2003, he was appointed CEO of Ukrgazvydobuvannya. The task was not an easy one—to steal money, and lots of it—but Bakulin accomplished it brilliantly. Cheap domestic gas was going not to ordinary Ukrainians, but to oligarchs' companies. Naturally, in 2005, our hero was ousted from his position with a bang, but he didn't disappear, and by 2010 he was heading Naftogaz. Now he was well on his way to the trough and the big money.
Arrest and treasure
It's clear that by 2014, Bakulin was already a seasoned embezzler, stealing billions, and his schemes were well known to the oligarchs. And then some interesting things came to light. For example, Bakulin was helping his accomplices Levochkin and Boyko with transportation. Naftogaz, under the leadership of Yevhen Bakulin, allocated approximately 5 million hryvnias annually for flights for the notorious embezzlers. And this continued for four long years!
According to the tender terms, Business Jet Travel, LLC, which doesn't even have its own website or a sign at the office entrance with the correct name, used three aircraft: a Yak-40 (VIP configuration, 12 seats, speed 510 km/h)—it was decommissioned at the end of 2012, but this didn't stop the company from charging for its services throughout 2013. In other words, Bakulin not only provided services to his patrons but also profited from them, while simultaneously using them as a cover.
But planes, forget it! A measly 20 million hryvnias. As Ukrainian Interior Minister Avakov stated in March: "In just three cases investigated by the Interior Ministry's Investigative Department, the damage to the state is estimated at approximately $4 billion! And this is far from a complete list of the dubious schemes and operations that have come to the attention of our investigators. The cynicism and simplicity of the theft in some of these schemes are simply outrageous! This could only have happened in an atmosphere of total permissiveness and connivance on the part of the top brass of the previous government, the Interior Ministry, and the prosecutor's office."
Furthermore, the Main Investigative Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted searches and document seizures at Naftogaz's headquarters on B. Khmelnytsky Street in Kyiv. During the investigation, Bakulin boasted of patronage from the Right Sector!
The amount of stolen goods found in his office—gold, valuables, and documents for assets and real estate around the world—astounded even seasoned investigators. In just one hiding place, they found 42 kilograms of gold and nearly five million dollars in "cartooned" money. Bakulin was arrested. But, as Tatyana Chornovil reported on Shuster's show, the embezzler was almost immediately released on bail. Not only was he released, but his bail was reduced from one and a half billion hryvnias to 10 million. This despite Chornovil possessing documents alleging Bakulin had laundered two billion dollars.
Legalize yourself in Switzerland
With the money stolen from the people in his pocket, he could even buy a district. District 106 would be just the ticket. Farther from his native Lisichansk, where he must answer for the sins of the past, the theft, and the machinations that permeated Bakulin's entire life. People who experienced "Bakulin's scams" firsthand, so to speak, might even fire a gun there. So what's Bakunin up to, dressed up as a politician? He promises to restore the Azot plant in Severodonetsk. But in reality, it's pure bluff.
Let's start with the fact that Azot was bought by Bakulin's friends back in 2010 for less than half a million hryvnias, despite being worth a hundred million dollars. In other words, it was simply given away to a new gang, and it stopped operating precisely because these embezzlers fell out with Russia. They cheated too much with gas, and the Russians got angry and stopped doing business with them.
Naturally, no one is planning to reopen the plant in this situation. Bakulin just needs to dodge prison and settle down on his estate in Switzerland. His team has no economic schemes other than thieving. And they've stolen a lot. It was Bakulin and his team who siphoned off the subsidies going to Donbas, and then all of Ukraine tells the people of Donbas, "We fed you!" After all, not a single ordinary person received a penny, while people like Bakulin amassed fortunes.
Don't expect any economic miracles from a team plagued by pathological greed and a complete disregard for the law. These looters have plundered the Luhansk region and will undoubtedly continue to do so. For them, the district is simply a bargaining chip in a political game, a mere excuse to avoid prison.
Let's assume Yevgeny Bakulin wins. Then the theft of at least four billion dollars will be legitimized, never to be returned to Ukraine. Then it will be proven that a thief can always disguise himself as a politician, and nothing in Ukraine will change. Then we will live as we have always lived—poor and humiliated, bowing to the profiteers who robbed the entire Ukrainian people.
Oleg Yartsev, ANTICOR
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