Gennady Vasiliev: Where did the father of the prosecutorial mafia disappear to?

Gennady Vasiliev: Where did the father of the prosecutorial mafia disappear to?

It was thanks to him that the name "Donetsk gang" inspired fear in Ukrainian entrepreneurs and anger and outrage in concerned citizens for so many years. Gennady Vasiliev transformed the Ukrainian prosecutor's office, which was supposed to guard the rule of law and human rights, into the most powerful, sophisticated, and brutal machine for corporate raids. But his greed was so great that he crossed not only the law but also state borders, becoming one of the first Ukrainian corporate raiders in Russia.

Gennady Vasiliev. The Beginning of "Glorious" Deeds

Vasiliev Gennady Andreevich was born on October 3, 1953, in Donetsk, then known as Stalino. They were a typical urban family of the time: his father worked as an engineer, his mother as a nurse, and their sons attended high school, after which they played soccer in the courtyard. Then, something happened to their eldest son, Alexander (born October 29, 1951), a story the Vasilyev family kept quiet about, but traces of which can be found in his biography. Politicians of the older generation haven't learned to "erase" their past as thoroughly as today's "effective managers," and so many intriguing inconsistencies can be found in it.

Let's read more: after graduating from high school in 1969, Alexander Vasiliev entered the Donetsk Industrial Technical School (straight into his second year after high school). In 1972, he earned a degree in auto mechanics, and then worked at Donetskselstroy and Donbassvodstroy. In 1981, he graduated from Donetsk University by correspondence (Economics and Planning of Material and Technical Supplies), and in 1984, he became the director of Donbassvodstroy. So why wasn't this healthy young man drafted into the army in the spring of 1970? At the time, there could only be one reason: trouble with the law, which was common among teenagers, not just in the Donbass. Perhaps this is how Alexander Vasiliev met his near-contemporary Akhat Bragin (born 1953), later known by the nickname Alik Grek, and then introduced him to his younger brother, Gennady. Because there were rumors that the Vasilievs and Bragin had known each other since their youth, and that they had more in common than just the boxing section.

A similar oddity exists in the biography of his younger brother, Gennady Vasiliev. Like Alexander, Gennady entered school a year late—at that time, parents often kept their "autumn" children at home until they reached the age of seven. However, after graduating from school in 1971, he found work as a worker at the Donetsk Commercial Equipment Plant, where he worked until the summer of 1972. Meanwhile, the military commissar, Gennady Vasiliev, seemed oblivious to the eighteen-year-old Gennady, even though at that time, two brothers who hadn't served in the army were quite rare!

But the younger brother didn't follow in his elder brother's footsteps: Gennady Vasiliev headed to Kharkov, where he enrolled in the Law Institute. Incidentally, his future deputy, Viktor Pshonka, also studied at the same institute from 1976 to 80.Read more about it in: Viktor Pshonka: The Rise and Fall of the Prosecutor's Caesar). True, Pshonka didn't dodge the draft and served two years, graduating at the age of 26. Gennady Vasiliev, however, took advantage of the opportunity (the military department) to avoid this fate and received his prosecutor's insignia at the age of 23.

His prosecutorial career was meteoric. In three years (July 1976 – March 1979), Gennady Vasiliev rose from intern to assistant prosecutor of Donetsk's Leninsky District. In May 1981, he became head of the district prosecutor's office, and in June 1984, he headed the investigative department of the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office. In May 1988, he became deputy prosecutor, and in December 1991, prosecutor of the Donetsk Region. It is unknown who initially advanced Gennady Vasiliev's career, but sources reported that by the mid-1980s, he was already providing services to two Donetsk organized crime groups: Alik Grek and Gena Uzbek (Gennady Minovich Uzbek). Incidentally, the latter successfully survived the turbulent 90s and continues to thrive to this day as the honorary president of the largest Ukrainian promotional company, Union Boxing Promotion (its president is Yuriy Ruban, who was convicted three times in the 80s).

Gennady Uzbek (second from right), Yuri Ruban (third from right),
Mayor of Donetsk Alexander Lukyanchenko (2002-2012) and Tatyana Bakhteeva
at the 10th anniversary of Union Boxing Promotion.
Leftmost  Armen Sargsyan  (Armen Gorlovsky)

There's a theory that Gennady Vasiliev was Gena Uzbek's man. This could explain why Vasiliev, despite dealing with people like Alik Grek and Rinat Akhmetov, never fell under the latter's wing, like the other "Donetsk men," and maintained his independence.

Moreover, Gennady Vasiliev conducted his affairs cautiously: he didn't try to subjugate organized crime groups, as, say, the Kyiv police did, and he didn't allow them to make him their underling. Vasiliev's brainchild was his own prosecutorial mafia, operating without brute force (if necessary, they brought in outside force), pressuring its victims not with batons, but with inspections, lawsuits, and criminal cases. The first stage of its creation was completed in December 1991 with Gennady Vasiliev's appointment as Donetsk Oblast Prosecutor. It was said that Vasily Stoyko, a "favorite" of high-ranking officials, initially held the upper hand in the race for the position, but Grek and Uzbek actively pushed for Gennady Vasiliev's candidacy. And, having received the position, he repaid them in full—for several years, turning a blind eye to their sawing and dividing up Donetsk and the region. At the same time, as they said, Vasiliev also received his share: the Maryinsky district was given over to the prosecutor's "protection".

Maryinka (now located on the ATO frontline) flourished in the early 90s with stalls, workshops, and bakeries operating under the strict supervision of the prosecutor's office and police. At first, the entrepreneurs were glad to be free of the "brotherhood," which threatened reprisals, and even relaxed their zeal. Meanwhile, in 1993, Gennady Vasilyev decided to run for the Verkhovna Rada and began collecting money (from "cooperators") for his election campaign. The extortion increased, and one of the entrepreneurs decisively declared, "Enough!"—after which he became the subject of a criminal case, closed only after his bakery was re-registered to someone named Vasilyev. Then this man came up with the idea of ​​monopolizing bread baking in the region. And so, it was said, in 1993-94, the regional prosecutor's bakery business began to flourish in the Donetsk region. Following this, other profitable businesses began to be squeezed out of entrepreneurs using this scheme, and the prosecutor's mafia realized that Maryinka alone would not be enough.

Prosecutor's "pilgrims"

Having become the Donetsk Oblast prosecutor, Gennady Vasiliev acquired his own inner circle of people who played very important roles in his subsequent, very successful life. Among them, according to Skelet.Org, three people deserve special mention.

First, it is Victor NusenkisIn the 80s, he was the young director of the Zhdanovskaya mine, a cooperative member from 1987 (he transported timber from Siberia to the Donbas mines), and in 1992, the founder and owner of the Energo concern, primarily engaged in the coal business. Starting with the simple export of coal, Nusenkis then began buying up mines, diversifying into coke, and privatizing the Makeyevka Coke and Chemical Plant. All this required a very serious "protection," especially since Nusenkis did not want to get involved with gangsters. So he was forced to seek patronage from Gennady Vasiliev. Vasiliev recognized the potential of such a "partnership" and made him his personal "client," forbidding his subordinates from even thinking about milking Nusenkis's business. Sources reported that in the mid-90s, Nusenkis was Vasiliev's largest source of income, and the prosecutor not only provided him with protection but also helped him expand his business. This collaboration gradually evolved into a partnership, and Vasiliev soon became a co-owner of many of Nusenkis's companies.

Victor Nusenkis

An interesting fact: Viktor Nusenkis, who had become seriously fascinated with religion, became an active sponsor of the UOC-MP and the Russian Orthodox Church, frequently meeting with bishops and metropolitans, building churches and chapels at his businesses, and even later becoming a deacon (on a voluntary basis). He also inspired Gennady Vasiliev with his piety, who in 1996 decided to build an Orthodox Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin in the Kalininsky district of Donetsk. Construction began in 1996, and the collection of "donations" was carried out under the auspices of the regional prosecutor's office. It's worth noting that this wasn't Vasiliev's own innovation: at that time, throughout Ukraine, not only the prosecutor's office but also the tax authorities and the Ministry of Internal Affairs were collecting money from businesses and businessmen for "churches" and other projects. Few dared refuse the official letters sent!

However, in this case, the scandal wasn't the fundraising, or even the construction of the church—which was entrusted to a Donetsk firm with the somewhat odd name "Holy Virgin Mary." The scandal wasn't that an Orthodox church was being built by a firm with a Catholic name; the scandal was that this firm, founded in 1994, was engaged in the semi-legal sale of contraband gasoline. But the most scandalous thing was that the land next to the church, originally allocated for the "bishop's garden," was decided to be used to build... the commercial market "Pokrovsky."

Nowadays, it's unlikely anyone can remember whose idea it was. But the scandal surrounding the Pokrovsky market is worth listing the people involved. First of all, it's worth clarifying that in 1994, Gennady Vasiliev was elected as a member of parliament to the 2nd convocation of the Verkhovna Rada (in constituency No. 109), and for two years he combined his mandate with that of regional prosecutor—until the new Constitution of Ukraine was adopted. Vasiliev initially resigned from the post (in July 1996), as he needed the mandate (and immunity) due to his strained relationship with Pavlo Lazarenko. However, with Lazarenko's resignation in 1997, Vasiliev returned to his post in Donetsk. During this time, his position was faithfully guarded by trusted aides and deputies, who were also Vasiliev's accomplices in the prosecutorial mafia and partners in businesses expropriated from the people. Among them, the Kuzmin brothers-prosecutors stood out in particular: Renat, Rafael and Konstantin (Read more about them in the article. Renat Kuzmin: The Family Business of Outlaw ProsecutorsBack in 1994, Rafael Kuzmin, an assistant prosecutor for the Kyiv district of Donetsk, was detained by the Berkut while accepting a large bribe, but avoided trial and even expulsion from the prosecutor's office thanks to the intercession of Gennady Vasilyev. Kuzmin's mother, an editor at a regional television channel, paid for this assistance, providing Vasilyev with unlimited time for election campaigning. Since then, the Kuzmin family, already subordinate to Vasilyev, became his loyal confidants. Thus, in 1997, Rafael Kuzmin was appointed assistant prosecutor for the Donetsk region (Vasilyev's son), Renat Kuzmin served as an assistant prosecutor in various districts of Donetsk in the 90s, and their cousin Konstantin Kuzmin made his career in the Kalinin district of Donetsk.

Another participant in the scam was Viktor Vasilievich Churilov, then the First Deputy Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) for the Donetsk Region (he would later pursue a career at Kyivstar), who was also involved in raising funds for the church's construction. And so, in 1997, the close-knit team of Vasilyev, Kuzmin, Churilov, and the newly appointed Deputy Regional Prosecutor Viktor Pshonka came up with the idea of ​​converting the church grounds into a market. To achieve this, the land was registered to the re-registered LLC "Holy Virgin Mary," whose founders included Churilov's son, Rafael Kuzmin, and Vasilyev's assistant, Sergei Nosatov. A dozen more Donetsk entrepreneurs were then invited as shareholders, with a colorful vision of the prospects of the "market-church complex" presented to them—they contributed $600 to the construction. However, when the Pokrovsky market was completed in 1999, the Donetsk prosecutor's office (already controlled by Pshonka) organized a rip-off, throwing these shareholders out of the founders' ranks.

Ironically, this story also ended in a rip-off: in 2016, the new authorities in Donetsk (DPR) ordered the confiscation of the Pokrovsky market from its former owners and handed it over to new owners—apparently members of the self-proclaimed republic's "elite." They then began demanding that the market's entrepreneurs re-register and pay new rent.

Gennady Vasiliev. General Director for a year

In 1998, Gennady Vasiliev was re-elected as a people's deputy and moved to Kyiv, leaving his position as Donetsk Oblast Prosecutor for good. He replaced Pshonka as his own deputy, pulled his brother, Oleksandr Vasiliev, out of a failing motor depot, and appointed him head of the Donetsk Oblast Audit Department. He also brought Rafael Kuzmin along with him as his assistant. Over the course of four years, Vasiliev switched factions (the People's Democratic Party, Labor Ukraine, and Independents), and in 2002, he was re-elected in the 61st constituency and joined the United Ukraine faction. Throughout this time, he did not sit idly by, but actively sought out allies and patrons in Kyiv, befriending everyone.

Gennady Vasiliev, Rinat Akhmetov, Boris Kolesnikov and Viktor Yushchenko
at a birthday banquet Efim ZvyagilskyDonetsk, 2002

The efforts were not in vain: from June 2002 to November 2003, Gennady Vasiliev occupied the seat of Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, and then Leonid Kuchma appointed him Prosecutor General of Ukraine to replace the dismissed Svyatoslav Piskun (which will then be restored through the court, more details about it - Svyatoslav Piskun. Scandalous and Unsinkableй).

Vasiliev immediately set about spreading his prosecutorial mafia system throughout Ukraine. Although Ukrainian law enforcement agencies were already mired in corruption by that time, Vasiliev sought to consolidate the prosecutorial mafia into a system with common rules and a vertical hierarchy. In the process, he installed his Donetsk-based men in the capital. Thus, Renat Kuzmin became Kyiv's prosecutor, his brother Rafael became senior assistant to the Prosecutor General, and Viktor Pshonka became first deputy to the Prosecutor General. Along with them, the "prosecutor's raiding" tactic, perfected in Donbas, arrived in Kyiv. It was this tactic that created an extremely negative image for all "Donetsk people," and especially for Viktor Yanukovych, contributing to the formation of the protest grounds for the first Maidan. On December 9, 2004, the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv, upholding Svyatoslav Piskun's complaint against his illegal dismissal by Kuchma, ruled Vasylyev's appointment as Prosecutor General unlawful and effectively dismissed him. This was the first such legal precedent in Ukraine.

Vasiliev was subsequently charged with the illegal appropriation of 1700 hectares of land in the Kagarlyk district of the Kyiv region, which belonged to Penal Colony No. 115. However, the case brought against him by the Prosecutor General's Office was purely formal: as soon as the political uproar died down, the case vanished.

Vasilyev's prosecutorial career ended there, and from then on, the Ukrainian prosecutor's office was "ruled" on behalf of the "Donetsk gang" by Pshonka (Deputy Prosecutor General from 2006-2007, Prosecutor General of Ukraine from 2010-2014), Renat Kuzmin (Deputy Prosecutor of the Kyiv region from 2005, Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine from 2006 to 2013), Rafael Kuzmin (Assistant Prosecutor General from 2006-2010), and other people appointed by Vasilyev. In other words, the prosecutorial mafia remained in place during Yushchenko's presidency; its key figures not only continued to hold high positions but also rose through the ranks! It is not surprising that during the “Pshonka years” (2010-2014), the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office was more like a huge and well-coordinated organized crime group.

Vasiliev himself devoted himself entirely to business, but continued to actively pursue his parliamentary mandate: in 2006, 2007, and 2012, he was elected on the Party of Regions list. Only once did he receive a new appointment: in April 2010, the new President Yanukovych offered Vasiliev the post of Deputy Head of the Administration. However, Vasiliev could not get along with his boss, Sergei Levochkin.Read more about it in the article: Levochkin. "The Gray Cardinal" and his sister), and in February 2011 he left the party, returning to parliament.

Gennady Vasiliev. The Unknown Billionaire

The conflict between Vasilyev and Levochkin had deep roots, dating back to the late 90s, when Viktor Nusenkis, while building his coal and metallurgy empire, encountered a similar empire belonging to Rinat Akhmetov. Akhmetov only managed to avoid crushing Nusenkis because he was protected by both Vasilyev and Gena Uzbek, the latter of whom Akhmetov greatly respects. Nevertheless, even then, some friction arose between Akhmetov's "Donetsk people" and Vasilyev's Donetsk prosecutorial mafia regarding the boundaries of their respective businesses.

For information: A few years ago, on the LiveJournal and Facebook of blogger Vladimir Petrov (the lump) there was information that he worked for Gennady Vasiliev, and it was Vasiliev, in the retelling, who "taught him about life." Now this information has been erased. Or maybe we couldn't find it.

Seeing that he had nowhere else to expand in Ukraine, Nusenkis turned his attention to Russia, to the Kuzbass region, in 2001, acquiring a stake in the Zarechnaya mine. By comparison, Zarechnaya consistently produced 5 million tons of coal per year, while Ukraine's largest mine, the Zasyadko mine, produced a maximum of 4 million tons. But Nusenkis was actively acquiring new mines, and by 2011, his enterprises in Russia were producing 8,5 million tons of coal per year. And that's not counting Nusenkis's coke and metallurgical businesses, nor his Ukrainian enterprises! Nevertheless, he gradually forgot about Ukraine, becoming absorbed in expanding his business in Russia—Nussenkis even moved to the Moscow region. This may have greatly alarmed Gennady Vasiliev, who decided to split up his joint venture with Nusenkis.

This was no easy task, as Gennady Vasiliev had never officially declared any major business ownership. This was understandable: for years, he'd been extorting property from others, using offshore companies and trusted associates to do so. Vasiliev appeared to be a modest, kindly man, whose only experience in life was small bribes. However, behind this simplicity lay one of Ukraine's richest men. According to Focus magazine, Gennady Vasiliev's net worth in 2008 was $575 million. Korrespondent magazine, however, claimed that the assets Vasiliev controlled amounted to $1,66 billion. A significant portion of this was his joint business with Viktor Nusenkis. And so Vasiliev decided to take back his share, and, as usual, try to squeeze Nusenkis's share out of his own hands.

Gennady Vasiliev

Their disagreement began in 2007, when Donetskstal CJSC (Donetsk Iron and Steel Works, Yasinovatsky Coke, Makeyevka Coke, and Pokrovskoe Mine Management OJSC) deposited $50 million with Kreditprombank and then took out an $80 million loan from the same bank, secured by that deposit. The fact that the loan issued was one and a half times larger than the collateral was easily explained: both Donetskstal and Kreditprombank were owned by companies owned by Nusenkis and Vasiliev. This was, in other words, a typical scheme for Ukrainian banks, whereby they issued huge loans to their own companies "without repayment" and then asked the state for refinancing (Privatbank was the most successful in this). By 2009, Kreditprombank's debt reached $400 million!

So, what’s interesting is that it was Levochkin who, at the end of 2010, achieved the introduction of state supervision over Kreditprombank, preparing it for takeover by structures Dmitry Firtash – who wanted to access Donetskstal CJSC and its mines through the bank. This caused a rift between Levochkin and Vasiliev. But at the same time, Vasiliev's relationship with Nusenkis also fell apart, and their long-standing relationship began to fray. Perhaps a factor was that Vasiliev, having lost his position, was simply no longer needed by Nusenkis, who by then was developing his business in Russia. And so, in 2011, at Vasiliev's initiative, they began dividing the business. It's worth noting that legally, this business was registered to the following offshore companies:

• INTERCONSULTING LLC
• FINTEST TRADING EIMITED
• IONOSCOPOS SERVICES EIMITED
• SALESI INVESTMENTS LIMITED
• CARLIT INVESTMENTS LTD
• MUNGISDALE ENTERPRISES LIMITED
• CHELCO MANAGEMENT SERVICES LIMITED
• BRONTE TRADING LIMITED
• CROZON ENTERPRISES LIMITED

All of them were shareholders in Donetskstal CJSC and the Energo concern, the latter also owning Kreditprombank and a number of Russian assets. Vasiliev would hardly have been able to develop his share of this business (without Nusenkis's talents), but he certainly hoped to sell it profitably. The buyers included Rinat Akhmetov, who had looked askance at Nusenkis's business since the late 1990s. After all, Donetskstal's enterprises, for example, outsold Akhmetov's plants in coke production and export (1.4 million tons) by a factor of 1.5. Akhmetov also desperately needed access to the Russian market (Kuzbass). And he hoped, having first acquired a portion, to then squeeze out the rest. Thus, Gennady Vasiliev decided to betray and cheat his partner Nusenkis, whom he had protected for so many years from Akhmetov. Interestingly, Gennady Uzbek supported him in this – apparently, he also had some share in this business.

And so, Gennady Vasiliev, together with Konstantinos Papounidis (the Cypriot custodian of their offshore accounts), began filing lawsuits in courts in Ukraine, Cyprus, and the UK, demanding the transfer of 50% of the shares in all of Nusenkis's companies. The lawsuits also demanded a freeze on all assets until the end of the legal proceedings—a move that threatened the companies with financial ruin and even the cessation of production. Unexpectedly, Yanukovych himself intervened in the conflict on Nusenkis's behalf, personally visiting the Donetsk Iron and Steel Works and the Makiivka Coke Plant, assuring their employees that he would not allow a "hostile takeover." This put a long ellipsis in the case and caused a rift between Vasiliev and Yanukovych.

But having lost the war for Ukrainian assets, Gennady Vasiliev began a war for Russian ones. And these were enormous, since the Energo concern owned the following Russian enterprises:

• JSC "Zarechnaya Mine"
• OJSC "Karagailinskaya Mine",
• Georesurs LLC, U-Trans LLC
• OOO Gramoteinskoye CEMM
• Karagaylinskoye Mine Management LLC
• Krasnaya Gorka Mine LLC
• Serafimovskoye LLC
• OOO "U-Trans"

In October 2012, Vasiliev filed lawsuits in the Moscow Arbitration Court, then in the Kemerovo Region Arbitration Court. He resorted to bribing judges and enlisting the help of Russian raiders (Sergey Uchitel's Regionservis company), and in 2013, several rulings were rendered in Vasiliev's favor. However, in 2014, Nusenkis's old friend, the "eternal" governor of the Kemerovo Region, Aman Tuleyev, who wielded enormous authority within the Kremlin, came to his defense. Investigations were conducted, several judges were removed and disqualified, and the court decisions were appealed. Thus, by the summer of 2014, Gennady Vasiliev had lost the battle for business in Russia and had no chance of regaining his former position in Ukraine. He then disappeared from the media spotlight for a long time. Apparently, he now prefers to live quietly and discreetly on his savings, no longer attempting to extort others' money. This is probably the most reasonable thing that someone who has seriously “upset” so many people in his life can do.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org

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