"To say that I will not steal, to say that I will change the government – that is to say nothing."
P. Poroshenko, 2013
Villa in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (detail). engelvoelkers.com
So, the Rada has adopted the entire package of anti-corruption laws proposed by Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk. But why isn't this at the top of the news? Isn't it because, when it comes to Ukrainian politicians' fight against corruption, even the Maidan electorate has managed to turn into a collective Stanislavsky with his "I don't believe it!"
A far more revealing piece of news about the "achievements of the dignity revolution": "The Deputy Minister of Revenue and Duties bought a villa in Nice."
"The house is registered to the offshore company Derastena LLC, whose beneficiary is Vladimir Khomenko's wife," realtors note. Vladimir Khomenko was previously Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs (under the "terminator of corruption Lutsenko," – D.S.), and now serves in the Ministry of Revenues... The deal, which amounted to 28 million euros, was closed in early May... The house is located on a slope overlooking the sea and is equipped with an elevator. The residence has nine bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and a six-car garage. The living area is 600 square meters, and the land plot is 1400 square meters. Furthermore, the estate grounds include a large swimming pool and a guest house."
What's symbolic here isn't just that the money cleaner is so "successfully" integrating into Europe, while rank-and-file "European revolutionaries" are collecting 5 hryvnias for the "killed" army. This concerns a representative of the ministry whose immediate liquidation (the very same "Ministry of Defense," now simply renamed the State Fiscal Service) Yatsenyuk has been promising since the Ukrainian uprising. And—to complete the picture—the beneficiary of the "revolution against corruption" is a civil servant with forty years of service, living solely on his salary! By decision of Yatsenyuk's cabinet, this fighter against the theft of socialist property, dating back to 1976, has been tasked with preparing documents for the creation of the Financial Investigation Service, which he is destined to head!
Without in any way questioning the purity of the hands of those called upon by Arseniy Petrovich to fight corruption in Ukraine (no laughing matter!), or the purity of the intentions of Petro Alekseevich (who actually introduced the package of relevant laws to the Rada), let us, just for the sake of objectivity, also recall the slander against this bright personality, which, alas, has never been refuted.
Here's what 2000 wrote a year ago: "Petro Poroshenko is perhaps the most overtly exposed oligarchic figure in the political firmament. A state administrator who successfully increases his net worth (and does so openly, proudly, with his head held high)—a unique image among figures like Pinchuk, Akhmetov, Zhevago, Firtash, Kolomoisky, and others. Not to mention, for example, Azarov and others, who, we believe, would have lost their nerve if Forbes magazine had listed them as very wealthy individuals. In a Western European country, a businessman hopping from one government post to another is something out of the realm of fantasy; it inevitably raises suspicions of abuse of office..."
However, does Pyotr Alekseevich consider that abuse of what he used to build his career as a rich kid?
Petya entered the capital's prestigious university, inaccessible to mere mortals, on the recommendation of the regional party committee, which his father had forced out. This also explains how, at the beginning of his military service, he—already a Kyivite—after getting into a fight with a warrant officer, was sent to the cushy service of the Vasylkiv Aviation School (a 20-minute drive from Kyiv).
Twenty years later, the godfather of the fledgling Petya, who had ascended the Pechersk hills, would thank his father for preserving such a valuable asset by awarding Oleksiy Poroshenko the Hero of Ukraine medal. At that time, Petro Oleksiyovych would hold the post of Chairman of the Board of the National Bank. Of course, we don't see any element of corruption here, considering that the award went to a man sentenced in 1985 to five years for "theft of state property through abuse of office." The totalitarian state, which exterminated Ukrainians, suffered damages amounting to 23,000 rubles (a true hero, we agree), which is almost two and a half Volgas – the most luxurious cars available to a Soviet car enthusiast. How much would 2.50 cost today? Not even a Maserati, but, say, a brand-new Cayenne? Incidentally, young Pyotr was already embroidering on his personal Volga during his student years.
Our hero heard his first public accusations of corruption while chairing the parliamentary budget committee. At the time, his colleagues Symonenko and Shufrych alleged the illegal redistribution of 39 million hryvnias in the 2003 state budget in favor of Vinnytsia, the Vinnytsia region, and specifically Poroshenko's electoral district.
Less than six months later, Poroshenko was accused by his colleagues of conspiring with the then Prime Minister of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Sergei Kunitsyn in the unjustified increase of compensation to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea by 50 million hryvnias for the relocation of the head office of Soyuz-Victan to Kyiv.
According to UK, at the same time, the head of the parliamentary committee, through his companies Ukrprominvest-Auto, LUAZ, and Bogdan-Service, established a fictitious export scheme from Ukraine to the United States. In payment for goods whose actual value was tens of times lower than that indicated in the cargo and customs declarations, sums of approximately 30 million dollars per year were funneled back from the United States—to the same Poroshenko-owned entities. "What is this if not money laundering?" asked UK's economic experts rhetorically, revealing the essence of the scam: "As is well known, Ukrprominvest-Auto, LUAZ, and Bogdan-Service are mechanical engineering companies that use components and assemblies imported from abroad (primarily from Russia) in their production. When importing these components and assemblies, Poroshenko's companies are required to reimburse the state budget for 20% of the value-added tax." To "save a few pennies" and "rip off" the state budget, Poroshenko's aforementioned enterprises engage in fictitious export operations. They are fictitious because the export documentation significantly inflates the value of the exported goods. The exporter receives payment for the goods shipped abroad. And then the state is obligated to reimburse the exporter for 20% VAT. This creates a kind of "offset" between the state and the business entity. It's not to the state's benefit—that is, to ours.
This operation significantly reduced the cost of products manufactured by the enterprises of the head of the legislative branch's economic committee, making them unprecedentedly competitive in Ukraine—to the envy of other automakers.
However, this scam only became publicly known when our "righteous man" (see epigraph) assumed the chair of the National Security Council of Ukraine. But not to ensure its economic security. This is the conclusion reached after brief deliberation by Oleksandr Zinchenko, head of Yushchenko's secretariat. A recent ally from the Maidan and longtime member of the united SDPU, he alleged corruption within the NSDC apparatus, the source of which, he claimed, stems from—believe it or not—Poroshenko himself, as well as Poroshenko's first assistant, Tretyakov, and the leader of the Our Ukraine faction, Martynenko.
Political scientist Rostislav Ishchenko, well-versed in the power dynamics in Ukraine, elaborated on Zinchenko's words: "Petro Oleksiyovych, having received the powers of Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (formally limited to preparing meetings and formalizing decisions of this body, but in his exercise, they grew to the level of shadow premiership), immediately began a campaign to establish his control over all Ukrainian business, offering the victim a choice: voluntarily give up control of the company or wait to be summoned to the prosecutor's office with the prospect of receiving a long prison sentence."
As we recall, Poroshenko's then-main "chocolate rival," Kyiv-Konti owner Borys Kolesnikov, was summoned. He was jailed for four months by the current chairman of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc party, Yuriy Lutsenko.
"On April 1, 2005, I was summoned to the National Security and Defense Council, where I met with Petro Poroshenko. He said things were bad for me—Rinat Akhmetov and I were in for a fight. He also said those behind the case were interested in the shares of two television companies—TRK Ukraina and NTN—as well as several of Rinat Akhmetov's industrial assets and the inclusion of 15-20 candidates on the Party of Regions list for the next parliamentary elections. Our meeting took place on the 1st, and on April 6, I was arrested," reads Kolesnikov's testimony, which he gave in April 2009 (still under Yushchenko) to the Verkhovna Rada investigative commission, which was investigating the circumstances of the falsification of the criminal case against him.
However, let's return to 2005. Two weeks after Zinchenko's demarche, Prosecutor General Piskun announced the opening of a case on the fact of the National Security and Defense Council's interference in the activities of judicial bodies, namely, pressure on the Luhansk Regional Court regarding the decision on the Azot enterprise and on the Kyiv Commercial Court regarding the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant.
Regarding the latter, "Criminal Ukraine" wrote back when Poroshenko was head of the National Security and Defense Council: "Parliamentary elections will be held in March 2006. Pro-Russian forces (the Yanukovych Bloc, the Lytvyn Bloc, the Social Democrats, the Progressive Socialists, and others) will compete for success against the 'Orange' forces. Until recently, we knew that the Inter channel would support the former, not the latter. Now we know the opposite. Because none other than Viktor Vekselberg (along with the same Alexander Abramov from Evrazholding) promised to transfer the Inter channel to people from Yushchenko's entourage – Ukrainian Security Council Secretary Petro Poroshenko and the president's first aide, Alexander Tretyakov. Why is the Russian businessman doing this? Because he desperately needs the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (NFP). Vekselberg and Abramov are currently purchasing this plant for $380 million from its current nominal owner, Viktor Pinchuk. However, the Kyiv Commercial Court has already ruled the privatization of NFP illegal. This means the Pinchuk-Vekselberg deal will also be illegal. The only chance for the Russian oligarch buyer is to secure a "correct" ruling from the Supreme Commercial Court of Ukraine. And this ruling has already been promised to Vekselberg: by those same Petro Poroshenko and Alexander Tretyakov. Because they desperately need the Inter channel, whose supervisory board is already chaired by Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, an employee of Evrazholding (and, coincidentally, a former associate of Viktor Pinchuk).
The Prosecutor General also released a statement, under a false name, from the company building at 9a Grushevsky Street. As a reminder, one of Yushchenko's "tsiatsyanki" was the demolition of this monstrosity, erected in violation of all possible regulations for the protection of Kyiv's historic environment. The "matter" was entrusted to a godfather, who handled it "accordingly."
In October 2005, Oleksandr Turchynov, then head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), confirmed that Piskun's statements (and Zinchenko's, even earlier) "were seriously substantiated, and the SBU had evidence that senior government officials were involved in banal extortion, in banal bribery." He stated that Yushchenko knew this even before Zinchenko's press conference. Turchynov cited an example related to a well-known luxury building in Kyiv at 9a Hrushevsky Street, whose owners, after the formation of the new government, were invited to Poroshenko's office and asked to either hand over a controlling stake, "either, or" ("The Secret of the House on 9a Hrushevsky Street: Poroshenko Demanded a Share!").
At the same time, the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) accused the former Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of corruptly appropriating strategic assets in Transnistria through offshore companies. But that's a fascinating story in itself. A whole epic.
According to Piskun, Poroshenko was saved from prosecution by his then-powerful godfather. The Prosecutor General, who was dismissed in mid-October, told the newspaper Svoboda that Yushchenko reacted "very violently" to the criminal case against Poroshenko: "To put it mildly, it was too unpleasant for him to hear." Piskun attributes his dismissal to the prosecutor's office's actions against Poroshenko.
But Yushchenko's intercession could not change public opinion.
As we remember, during the snap parliamentary elections of 2007, Our Ukraine even had to (to the deafening applause of the congress, however) exclude its main sponsor from the election lists.
Some good people were found... They found the right person... And even "warmed him up." As soon as the dearly beloved "Regionals" (Pyotr Alekseyevich is one of the founding fathers of the Party of Regions) appointed an irreplaceable figure as Minister of Economic Development and Trade in 2012, a recommendation began circulating in the corridors of the Cabinet of Ministers calling for a 6-15% increase in import duties on foreign cars with engine displacements between 1 liter and 2,2 liters. Then, unexpectedly, the Ministry of Economic Development began talking about car import quotas. The "not at all lobbyist" initiatives of the automobile-minded minister were shelved for two main reasons: the European Union, with which the association was being prepared, was far from thrilled, and the electorate (mostly those who drive cars of that displacement) would have been even more displeased, and this was on the eve of the 2012 elections!
"By inviting a prominent associate of former President Yushchenko to power, Viktor Yanukovych had very specific goals," 2000 wrote at the time. "Petro Poroshenko, a recognized Western politician with liberal economic views, was supposed to demonstrate the irreversibility of reforms in Ukraine and reduce the threat of international isolation for the current regime. However, by becoming a member of the ruling team, Mr. Poroshenko… demonstrated that when it comes to his own businesses, he is willing to part with them easily."
Is there any reason to believe our hero has changed in two years? Has the patriotic spirit of the businessman in his soul triumphed over the "fact of aggression from a cruel and treacherous enemy"? But only a naive "simple Ukrainian" would pose the question that way. A Ukrainian politician, however, looks deeper and broader—why shouldn't they coexist within that very soul?
Here's Nashi Dengi reporting that, even under the command of Yushchenko and Poroshenko's favorite, Kikhtenko, the Internal Troops entered into agreements with a certain LLC called Dozor Auto for the purchase of special vehicles worth 40,3 million hryvnias. Dozor Auto received the order without an open bidding process, citing an "urgent need for the purchase." And one more minor detail: as recently as June 2012, the company Dozor Auto was called Bogdan Vostok Auto. Its founder was Oleh Svinarchuk, a business partner of Poroshenko's who was a co-owner until 2009. Now, the company, now called Dozor Auto, is registered to Vladislav Balbes, director of trucks and buses at Hyundai Motor Ukraine. Bogdan is also an official Hyundai dealer.
The publication notes that Svinarchuk recently changed his surname to Gladkovsky. In August, Poroshenko appointed him chairman of the Interdepartmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation, which oversees all arms exports from Ukraine.
Hence the question: why does Petro Oleksiyovych (who never parted with his factories and steamships, despite his fine promises) need all this fight against corruption? Is it really just a matter of the "revolutionary masses" once again setting fire to the tires of the Presidential Administration and the Verkhovna Rada? Unlikely. Petro Oleksiyovych, like no one else, knows: if a Ukrainian uprising isn't paid for, it's easy to crush with police batons (as Avakov and Klitschko, who dispersed the Maidan, have already demonstrated).
Fighting corruption is a requirement of the World Bank, which in mid-September allocated $2,5 billion of the promised $3,5 billion to Ukraine this year for economic and social development. "Failure to adopt these bills creates serious problems, and I would ask that we all take this responsibly, as they were developed with the participation of many organizations and are currently generating considerable public attention," Poroshenko warned. The deputies didn't want any problems anyway, so they passed the anti-corruption laws. But whether they will overcome corruption is an ontological question. And therefore, in the case of Ukrainian politicians, it's fundamentally insoluble.
Our Century
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