Gennady Babenko, a puppet of the Crimean gangsters, Salem

Gennady Babenko, a puppet of the Crimean gangsters, Salem

Gennady Babenko is the notorious former mayor of Simferopol, who illegally held the mayor's office for four years. He made no decisions without the approval of his "masters," Alexander Melnik and Igor Lukashev, the leaders and backers of the Salem organized crime group. The gang plundered land, protected illegal trade, and then decided to defect to Russia.

About how a Crimean official committed lawlessness while hiding behind the law.

Gennady Babenko. The Life of a Soviet Political Commissar

Gennady Aleksandrovich Babenko was born on June 24, 1950, in the village of Maryanovka, Omsk Oblast, Russia. Nothing is known about the future politician's parents. However, his official biography indicates that the family lived in various Russian cities—Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky—between 1952 and 1967, before moving to Zhitomir, Ukraine. Based on this, Skelet.Org concluded that Gennady Alexandrovich's father was a military man.

In 1967, Babenko graduated from Secondary School No. 5 in Zhitomir. That same year, he moved to Simferopol and enrolled in the Sevastopol Instrument-Making Institute. In 1972, Babenko earned a degree in radio engineering. For the next three years, Gennady Aleksandrovich worked in his field as a process engineer at the Fiolent plant. At the plant, he was promoted through the Komsomol (Young Communist League) for his graceful speech and flamboyant manners. From 1975 to 1981, he served as deputy secretary, and then secretary of the plant's Komsomol committee. He also served as head of the Komsomol organizations department of the Simferopol city Komsomol committee.

Babenko studied for three years at the Higher Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. He then fully transitioned to party work, ending his communist career only in 1990 as First Secretary of the Central District Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. After the collapse of the Union, Gennady Babenko, who, strictly speaking, knew nothing, was left to enter politics. Like every principled communist, Gennady Alexandrovich, of course, became a militant democrat. However, he would not have had a political career if not for the secret life he led as an "honest" party worker.

Originally from the Salem organized crime group

Crimea has traditionally been considered one of the most crime-ridden regions in the country—this was the case both during the Soviet era and at the dawn of Ukrainian independence. In 1988, one of the most notorious criminal groups, the Salem organized crime group, emerged on the peninsula. The group borrowed its name from the Bulgarian cigarettes "Salem," popular in the 1990s. Rumor has it that all gang members smoked only this brand.

After it became clear that the Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU) had no time left, party workers began looking for a new haven where they could do nothing and earn money. The organized crime group welcomed all comers. Gennady Babenko was no exception. Since the early 1990s, he had been an underground member of Salem, but publicly, he was the chairman of the Central District Council and its executive committee. This double life lasted for seven years and would have continued if the authorities hadn't decided to restore order on the peninsula. In 1997, Gennady Moskal arrived in Crimea. (more about it in the article Gennady Moskal: the many-faced foul-mouthed general), the newly appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, who is launching an active fight against organized crime. But Babenko and "Salem" are cleared of the law. Having somewhat cleaned up the ranks of the minor underworld gangs, Moskal still hasn't caught the ringleaders.

Having survived the raids, the "Salemovtsy" decided to enter big politics to gain immunity. Babenko once again found himself at the forefront. Thanks to funds from the common fund, in 1998, Gennady Aleksandrovich became chairman of the Standing Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea on Industry, Construction, Transport, Communications, and the Fuel and Energy Complex. Three years later, he ascended to the post of deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. After three years in office, he was promoted to Minister of Construction Policy, Architecture, and Housing and Utilities of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. The situation remained under control until 2006. Then, Gennady Moskal returned to Crimea, this time in a new position as presidential envoy to Viktor Yushchenko. He publicly declared that the peninsula's Verkhovna Rada was heavily populated by organized crime groups and that a "witch hunt" had begun.

To ensure its security, Salem decided to push its representatives into Crimean councils. The choice fell on Babenko, who was slated to become the mayor of Simferopol. The candidacy was initiated by two of the Salem organized crime group's leaders—Aleksandr "Melya" Melnik and Igor "Lukash" Lukashev, who took over the group after its "father," Sergei "Voronok" Voronkov, was imprisoned.

Alexander Melnik and Nestor Shufrich

Alexander Melnik and Sergey Voronkov at a meeting of the Salem organized crime group

Melya and Lukash allocated the Salem money and installed Babenko in the mayor's chair. Essentially, this was a significant demotion for Gennady Alexandrovich personally, but what can't you do for the gang? Moreover, the leaders didn't even ask his opinion.

The investment in Babenko's election campaign wasn't without its payoff. At one of the meetings, the Salem gang members developed a plan for recouping the money, including stipulating interest rates for its use. They planned to recoup the proceeds from city lands, unprivatized capital buildings, including architectural landmarks, and, of course, countless retail permits. Rumor has it that Gennady Babenko himself drew up this plan for his "masters," and it was he who proposed dividing the city budget among the organized crime group members to snag a sweet piece for himself.

Gennady Babenko. The impostor mayor of the "third Donetsk"

In early 2006, the "For Yanukovych" electoral bloc (70% of candidates from the Party of Regions, 30% from the Russian Bloc) was formed in Crimea to participate in the elections to the Supreme Council of the autonomous region. Gennady Babenko was included on the list. The Party of Regions began nominating him for the position of mayor of Simferopol.

On March 26, 2006, the mayoral elections were held in Simferopol, and, of course, Babenko won. However, the elections were not without their usual conundrums. On March 27, the Simferopol Territorial Electoral Commission, headed by Chairman Vladimir Krylov, declared the elections invalid. The reason was the presence on the ballots of the names of withdrawn candidates—Aleksandr Gress (head of the Crimean branch of the Republican Party of Ukraine, part of the "Not So!" bloc) and Viktor Nevirko (leader of "For Ukraine! For Yushchenko!")—without the appropriate markings. Furthermore, Gress was deregistered on election day, which is strictly prohibited by law.

Babenko filed a lawsuit demanding that the commission's decision be overturned, and on April 22, he was finally declared the winner. However, the saga didn't end there—a fiery battle between the teams of Viktor Yanukovych and Yulia Tymoshenko began. So, stay tuned for the standings.

Alexander Gress filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the election. After a series of proceedings, his claim was denied. In early May, the Zheleznodorozhny District Court prohibited the commission from registering Gennady Babenko as mayor and from submitting information to the City Council on election results. Despite this, Gennady Babenko assumed his duties based on the Kyiv District Court's ruling, which found no criminal offense in the commission chairman's actions (by law, only the chair of the city election commission can declare the mayor).

The mayor's tenure didn't last long. On June 9, the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Simferopol overturned the election commission's decision and declared the mayoral election invalid, and the Appellate Court of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea upheld this decision. However, these rulings didn't deter Gennady Aleksandrovich; he continued working as if nothing had happened. Moreover, he immediately signed a decree granting bonuses to the mayor's salary.

Crimean civic activists are collecting signatures for the resignation of the mayor of Simferopol.

A new wave of outrage against the impostor mayor was sparked in the fall by Gennady Moskal, who persistently played the role of Gogol's inspector sent from Kyiv to combat local corruption on the peninsula. He insisted on holding new elections and called Babenko "illegitimate." However, Gennady Aleksandrovich reversed course here too, declaring that the electoral commission had no authority to hold new mayoral elections in Simferopol because the deadline had expired.

This situation is entirely predictable – Babenko's position was negotiated. A year before the election, Viktor Yanukovych attended a rally in Simferopol. Even then, he introduced Gennady Aleksandrovich to the public as the future mayor of the Crimean capital. It's worth noting that the Party of Regions garnered the third-largest vote in the peninsula, after Donetsk and Luhansk – half of the seats in the autonomous region's parliament were won by deputies from Yanukovych's bloc. Therefore, Simferopol was unofficially nicknamed "the Third Donetsk."

In 2007, Babenko's lawyer, Alexander Gnezdov, sought to resolve the dispute within the law. He appealed the decision of the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Simferopol to the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine. However, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling. Naturally, Gennady Alexandrovich remained in his position.

In 2008, Gennady Moskal, the newly appointed deputy head of the parliamentary committee on combating organized crime and corruption, once again launched an active campaign against Gennady Babenko. Armed with a Supreme Court ruling, he submitted a bill to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine proposing early elections for the Simferopol mayor. However, the Verkhovna Rada refused to comply. A special commission meeting determined that the Simferopol Central Election Commission should decide this matter, so the Verkhovna Rada rejected the bill. The Central Election Commission met several times on the matter, but no decision was made, and then it was suddenly dissolved.

According to Skelet.Org, another force began working against Gennady Aleksandrovich that year – the public organization "Civil Asset of Crimea" (GAK). Its active member, Sergei Aksyonov, decided to prove the mayor's illegitimacy by going to court.

Aksyonov positioned himself as a businessman, but his background is criminal – he hails from the Salem organized crime group (nicknamed "Goblin") and is a good friend of Sergei "Voronok" Voronkov, who, by a "coincidental" coincidence, was released from prison at the same time and decided to enter politics. The State Anti-Corruption Committee (GAK) was the joint brainchild of Aksyonov and Voronkov. The main purpose of the public organization was to recover the financial assets Voronok left to Melnik and Lukashev when he was sent to prison, and to gain control over new spheres of influence. The State Anti-Corruption Committee (GAK) decided to target Gennady Babenko in order to weaken and discredit Melnik and Lukashev. Aksyonov began actively collaborating with the Crimean branch of the Party of Regions, which was subordinate to Ukrainian MP Vasily Kiselev.

In 2009, Viktor Yanukovych's election campaign began. It was built on a good tradition: criticize the current government. The only problem was that power in Crimea was entirely in the hands of the Party of Regions. For Yanukovych, the peninsula became an "inconvenient" region: two warring factions of organized crime, Babenko-Melnyk-Lukash and Voronkov-Aksyonov, held complete control of the peninsula.

In early February 2009, the political council of the Crimean Regional Party of Regions, headed by MP Vasily Kiselev, expelled Viktor Plakida, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and Gennady Babenko, Mayor of Simferopol. The reasons were violations of party discipline: regular absences from meetings of the "For Yanukovych!" faction's coordinating council at the city council and nonpayment of membership dues.

In fact, a split had already occurred within the Simferopol Party of Regions at the end of last year. Babenko's opponents, supported by Kiselev, demanded changes to the composition of the City Council's executive committee, as well as the standing parliamentary commission on architecture, urban development, and rational land use, accusing it of non-transparent land distribution. Kiselev insisted on considering this issue at every session, while Babenko put the 2009 budget on the agenda. The mayor's actions were entirely logical – he feared that the party leadership would cover up the shady land distribution schemes being concealed by his "boss," Melnik (a former member of the Supreme Council of Crimea). Gennady Aleksandrovich even rallied party cells across Crimea against the head of the political council. About 25 party members voted no confidence in Kiselev. However, Babenko and Plakida lost. Skelet.Org It is known that the expelled went to Kyiv to see Yanukovych, but he did not receive them.

At the height of the party standoff, Viktor Yanukovych arrived in Simferopol on a working visit. There, he harshly criticized Babenko's activities, calling him... "an asshole."

After this, Gennady Babenko decided to play only with the "boss" Melnyk and against everyone. In mid-March, at a regular session of the City Council, Gennady Aleksandrovich brought a strange question to the attention of the deputies: the resignation of Vladimir Blinov, the secretary of the Simferopol City Council and chairman of the Simferopol organization of the Russian Community of Crimea. Two members of the "For Yanukovych!" Bloc faction, Vladimir Zhyvytsia and Boris Frotman, were also under attack. He awarded the vacant positions to candidates from the Rukh-Kurultay faction (the Mejlis-Kurultay organized crime group). At the same time, Babenko tacitly gave the faction representatives free rein to build mosques and protect illegally seized buildings from demolition. Incidentally, the new electronic voting system, purchased with funds from the city budget, was not working that day, so the deputies voted manually and using "secret" ballots. For their "correct" votes, the deputies received land plots ranging from 6 to 15 acres in the city center. The decision to single them out was made after Blinov, Zhivitsa, and Frotman were expelled.

Another incident occurred at this meeting. In protest, city council member Natalia Lantukh smashed four eggs on Gennady Babenko's head. Gennady Oleksandrovych estimated the emotional damages for the "scrambled eggs" at 10,000 hryvnias.

In April, an anti-mayor coalition formed under the leadership of Boris Frotman came out against Babenko. Its representatives demanded the resignation of the illegitimate mayor and the election of Vladimir Blinov as mayor. Blinov could have become acting mayor if he had been the city council secretary. However, Gennady Alexandrovich had calculated the outcome and removed him from his post a month earlier.

Babenko was non-partisan for five months. On July 7, the Presidium of the Party of Regions' Political Council decided not to expel the controversial mayor from the party, but changed its mind two months later, and on September 14, Gennady Aleksandrovich became non-partisan.

Mayor Gennady Babenko's "career" ended in 2010. Viktor Ageyev, who had previously served as chairman of the Crimean parliament's standing committee on industry, transport, communications, and fuel and energy, won the next elections. At that time, according to Vasily Dzharty, chairman of the Crimean Party of Regions organization, Babenko was not supported by approximately 60% of voters.

A month after the election, Gennady Babenko ended up in the hospital. He slipped in his own bathtub and broke his spine. He spent a year on sick leave.

Land grabbing and other lawlessness

Land scams. As soon as Babenko took the mayor's chair, he immediately classified city council decisions regarding land allocation from the press.

This completely untied the hands of Gennady Alexandrovich and his criminal friends. They were able to distribute land to the right people without hindrance and keep the money for themselves. Here are some examples of the most egregious shady schemes:

• — In 2006, deputies allocated 1,9 hectares of land to the Capital Construction Department of the Krasnodar Regional Branch of Disability Organizations for housing construction. The land was intended for the construction of a 142-apartment building, as well as a multi-story residential complex for the disabled. In reality, it was a banal commercial project, disguised as social housing.
• — the city council allocated a 1,2 hectare land plot for lease to the enterprise JSC Simferopol Service Station No. 14397 for the operation and maintenance of vehicles for 49 years;
• Babenko allocated 3 hectares of forested land for individual cottage construction. The forested area was initially designated as a nature reserve.

Squatting. In this case, we're not talking about the planned occupation of land by Crimean Tatars, but rather about instances of land appropriation for commercial gain. Land squatting was at its peak during Babenko's tenure. However, it's not that simple. Gennady Alexandrovich was directly involved with the land commission, which deliberately delayed land allocation. A business model emerged: the person in charge of the squatting would gather people and coordinate their actions; the land commission would issue no conclusions, and construction would eventually begin. It's not hard to guess who was receiving the kickbacks.

Monument to Catherine. Gennady Babenko was known for his brilliant ideas. In 2007, the mayor decided to restore the monument to Catherine the Great, which had been destroyed during the Soviet era. The idea was suggested to Gennady Alexandrovich by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov during his visit to Simferopol. Luzhkov gave Babenko two photographs of the monument to the empress, which once stood in the Crimean capital.

Inspired by support from Russia, Babenko quickly unveiled a granite stone installed the day before with the inscription, "A monument to Empress Catherine the Great will be restored at this site, at the initiative of Simferopol Mayor Gennady Babenko and with the support of city residents." Representatives of the Crimean Tatars, led by Majlis leader Mustafa Dzhemilev (more about him in the article) Mustafa Dzhemilev: The Dark Tatar Past of a Bright Fighter Against Regimes) staged a rally during which they accused the city's mayor, Gennady Babenko, of provocation and chauvinism.

It's worth noting that during the turbulent years of his scandalous activities, Babenko ceremoniously laid as many as six foundation stones bearing his signature. However, none of them have yet been converted into monuments.

Fatal road accident. In mid-December 2007, Gennady Babenko's Mercedes was involved in an accident that killed one person and hospitalized two others—a 26-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman. The car violated traffic rules, collided at high speed with a Daewoo, and the impact caused it to veer onto the sidewalk, striking a pedestrian, and then crashing into a utility pole.

According to eyewitnesses, there were two people in the Mercedes at the time of the accident, and the license plate had a "Wedding" sticker. According to traffic police reports, there were three people in the car—two boys and a girl—and no stickers at all. The driver, Andrey S., was driving, although the driver, Babenko, has a different name. Gennady Aleksandrovich was allegedly in the hospital with a cold at the time.

Yevgeny Velikolug, the head of the Simferopol City Council and Babenko's right-hand man, quickly identified the "culprit"—the female driver of the damaged Daewoo, who allegedly refused to let the official car pass. Community activists launched their own investigation and established that Yevgeny Velikolug was driving the Mercedes at the time of the accident. Eyewitnesses claimed the driver was drunk. However, Velikolug eventually obtained a certificate confirming the absence of alcohol in his blood. The case was hushed up.

Trip to Salem. Gennady Alexandrovich isn't a fan of the lavish lifestyle, but he's not averse to a little extravagance on public money. In 2007, he and his fellow Rotary Club members (formally, Rotary is "an international association of businessmen dedicated to helping those in need," though many consider this closed organization a Masonic club. Babenko has been a member since 1997) secretly traveled to Salem, a small American city in Oregon that is considered a sister city to Simferopol. The trip was financed by public funds. In Simferopol, no one knew where the mayor had gone. An American newspaper shed some light on the trip. According to the Statesman Journal, the five-day visit included skiing, a tour of the Salem City Hall, meetings at the local Rotary Club, visits to museums, casinos, beaches, an aquarium, shops, amusement parks, and... a performance by world-famous illusionist David Copperfield.

A week after this trip, Babenko hit the road again. This time, he traveled to the Turkish town of Eskisehir, where he spent five days.

In 2009, Gennady Babenko wanted to fly to London for four days, using public funds, to attend the World Trade Center 2009, as part of a delegation of 21 Crimean officials. The trip received widespread publicity. The deputies began to justify themselves, claiming they were traveling for "their own."

Calculation of bonuses. In 2009, the Crimean police's investigative department opened a criminal case into the illegal payment of nearly 800,000 hryvnias in bonuses to Simferopol mayoral officials. The case involved First Deputy Mayor Petro Poltavsky, Vice Mayors Marina Chernovaya and Olga Murko, City Council Secretary Lyudmila Pykhteyeva, Executive Committee Manager Yevhen Velikolug, and, of course, Gennady Babenko himself. The mayor issued these bonuses over a two-year period. Incidentally, Babenko awarded himself 161,000 hryvnias in bonuses.

Business in Moscow. In 1994, a certain Gennady Aleksandrovich Babenko became the owner of the Russian company Terminal K&M LLC, which specialized in the wholesale trade of fuel and lubricants. Four other individuals also became co-founders of the business, three of whom were from Simferopol and one from Russia. Moreover, two residents of the Crimean capital are also co-owners of a large chain of home appliance stores. Terminal K&M operated successfully in Russia until 2005; its subsequent fate is unknown, although there is no information about its cessation.

Gennady Babenko. Life After

After leaving the mayor's office, Gennady Babenko remained a member of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea. In 2011, he became Deputy Head of the Office of the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. A year later, he headed the newly created first non-profit public organization, "Builders of Crimea," which unites representatives of the Crimean construction industry.

In 2013, Babenko received a unique opportunity to head the Standing Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea on Regional Development, Construction, and Privatization Oversight. Here's a unique example of Gennady Aleksandrovich's performance in this position: in the first half of 2013, the Crimean budget received 17% of its planned funds from property privatization (the target was 15,4 million hryvnias, but almost 2,7 million hryvnias were actually received). The reasons cited for the failed privatization plan were a lack of consumer demand and problems with property registration.

In 2014, Crimeans voted in a "referendum" for independence from Ukraine. However, the new State Council of Crimea was made up of an old guard of odious politicians and former organized crime figures. All of them were accepted by the Crimean branch of the Russian Rodina party. The party's top candidate was Alexander Melnyk. Melnyk, of course, cannot live without his man, Gennady Babenko. He is running as a majoritarian candidate. Shortly before the elections to the State Council of Crimea, Gennady Aleksandrovich was deregistered.

Arina Dmitrieva, for Skelet.Org

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