"Restoration of Ukraine" by Igor Abramovich from Kharkiv
While the war brings only grief and destruction to the Ukrainian people, for the corrupt officials parasitizing on them, it's a good opportunity to "cash in" by embezzling budget funds and international aid allocated for the country's reconstruction. And now, a parliamentary group with the eloquent name "Restoration of Ukraine" has emerged in the Verkhovna Rada, with former members of the Opposition Platform - For Life party hastily joining.
The group's co-chairs were members of parliament. Maxim Efimov and Kharkiv resident Igor Abramovich. About Efimov, his criminal and corrupt connections in Kramatorsk, and his political prostitution within the ranks of Solidarity and Revival. Skelet.Org I've already covered this in all its shocking detail. But Kharkiv native Igor Abramovich (not to be confused with his Russian namesake, as some in our editorial team do!), who until recently was a member of the Opposition Platform - For Life party, has remained virtually unknown to the Ukrainian public. Who is he? According to his asset declaration, he's one of the richest members of the Verkhovna Rada: 88 million hryvnias in cash, several expensive foreign cars, a collection of Swiss watches, and a wealth of jewelry. He has the image of a "young billionaire" (apparently, a hryvnia-based one), co-owner of gas production and construction companies. He's a friend and partner of oligarchs. Alexander Feldman и Vitaly Khomutynnik, deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation, and Customs Policy. That's almost all the media writes about him!
This is enough for a gossip tabloid, but clearly not enough for an anti-corruption investigation. However, Igor Abramovich's secret is that he only appears to be a good guy—because he diligently avoids public scandals and keeps a low profile of his corrupt inner circle, including his relatives. Worse yet, this inner circle has direct access to Kharkiv's construction sector and municipal budget, which they have been swindling for years. This means that these people are already eagerly beginning to distribute funds allocated for the city's restoration! And judging by the name of the new parliamentary group, its founders won't limit themselves to Kharkiv alone...
Igor Abramovich's family clan of "gold diggers"
Igor Alexandrovich Abramovich was born on August 24, 1984, in Kharkov, to a respectable and wealthy Jewish family that could be considered among the lower echelons of the Soviet elite. His great-grandfather, Alexander Moiseevich Abramovich (1895-1957), fought in the Civil War (on the Bolshevik side), then graduated from university and became a doctor. He married musician Rozalia Efremovna Abramovich (his great-grandmother).
His grandfather, Ilya Aleksandrovich Abramovich (1930-2005), was a renowned designer of water drainage and treatment systems throughout the USSR: he created sewer systems in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Krivoy Rog, and Leningrad. However, it's worth remembering here Kharkiv's "sewage Chernobyl" In 1995, after a heavy summer downpour, the Dikanivka wastewater treatment plant, which Ilya Abramovich had helped design in the 60s, went out of commission. Since 1967, he had been the chief engineer and then head of the design department at the Ukrgiprokommunstroy Research Institute. When this department was transformed into the separate UkrkommunNIIProgress Research Institute (Kharkiv) in 1991, Ilya Aleksandrovich became its director.
Memorial plaque to I.A. Abramovich on the building of UkrkommunNIIProgress
In the 1990s, UkrkommunNIIProgress was incorporated as a closed joint-stock company of the same name. In the 2000s, Ilya Alexandrovich's eldest son, Sergei Ilyich Abramovich (born 1951), took over the chair from his father. Thus, from its inception, the institute effectively became the Abramovich family's domain. This allowed them to manipulate its budget, real estate, and other resources to their own advantage. Thus, from being "gold miners" in the sense of sewer system engineers, the Abramovichs transformed into "gold miners" with money in their hands. They opened their first cooperatives in the late 1980s. Ilya Alexandrovich's second son, Alexander Ilyich Abramovich (born 1961), became fully involved in business. He is the father of two children: a son, Igor, to whom this article is dedicated, and a daughter, Nina.
Igor Abramovich's education: not a genius, but an ordinary rich kid!
While most of Igor Abramovich's peers grew up amid the shortages of the 80s and then the economic crisis of the 90s, his family lacked for nothing, both in the final years of the USSR and in the early years of Ukraine's independence. In 1995, his father, Alexander Ilyich Abramovich, registered his first major enterprise in Kharkiv, Fais LLC (EDRPOU 23150191), which engaged in everything from clothing manufacturing and retail to construction and currency exchange. Incidentally, his office (the company was liquidated in 2004) was located at 1 Biologicheskaya Street, right in the Dikanevskaya Wastewater Treatment Plant's administrative building. Here's an example of the "free" use of state property in the Abramovich sewage empire! It seems that if they had paid more attention to their work rather than to the family business, then perhaps the massive accident at this station in 1997, which was later attributed to an “unprecedented downpour,” would not have happened.
Thus, Igor Abramovich grew up as a typical Kharkiv rich kid, paved from an early age by the money and connections of his father, uncle, and grandfather. Although he later tried hard to present himself as an economic genius who rose to prominence solely through his talent and hard work. He even employed the simple method of "leaking disinformation" to achieve this, deliberately leaking information to the media that he had supposedly registered a significant portion of his business in his father's name. But in fact, the opposite is true—Igor Abramovich inherited the business of his father, Alexander Abramovich! Without whom (as well as without his grandfather, uncle, and father-in-law), he would, at best, have become a hired manager at someone else's supermarket.
Igor Abramovich studied at the Kharkiv Professional Lyceum (established in 1991 with the support of the Soros Foundation), where the emphasis was on English and computer science. After graduating in 2001, his parents sent him to England (they couldn't wait for a military draft notice!), where he spent another three years studying at St. Andrew's College.
Despite its grand name, it is simply one of many English senior schools that focus on preparing students for university.
However, whether Abramovich was an exceptionally poor student, or his family didn't have the extra money for British universities, or they simply didn't see the point, they brought Igor home in 2004. So, he earned his four university degrees, which Abramovich likes to boast about, in Ukraine. But even here, there were some nuances...
First, in 2007, Igor Abramovich earned a degree in economics from the Kharkiv Academy of Public Utilities (formerly the Institute of Public Utilities Construction). Considering that many of his grandfather and uncle's good friends were among the university's management and faculty, the choice of educational institution was obvious. With a basic higher education in hand, Igor Abramovich's future was easier. In 2009, he earned a management degree from Kharkiv Polytechnic University—another odd choice of technical university for a "trade" education. It wasn't until 2014 that he earned a specialized degree in geophysics from the Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas, and in 2017, he became a thermal power engineer with a degree from Kyiv Polytechnic University. These two engineering degrees are precisely what give him the image of an expert in all areas. However, if we look at Igor Abramovich's work history, we see that during this period he held senior positions in energy companies. Therefore, it's possible he simply bought these two diplomas to hang on the wall of his office—purely for show!
Igor Abramovich's first official place of employment was a "construction holding company," where he held management positions from 2007 to 2012, but whose name he chose not to mention in his biography. Why? Perhaps because it was Granat LLC (31634402), founded by his father, Alexander Abramovich, in 2001, which then went bankrupt and closed in 2013?
After all, it was engaged in construction and produced finishing materials - and, according to sources, Skelet.Org, was related to the massive embezzlement of budget funds during preparations for Euro 2012.
However, it could also have been from the construction companies of the Kharkiv oligarch Alexander Feldman, with whom the Abramovichs had close ties since at least the late 90s.
Abramovich, Feldman and Chernyshev
Some Kharkiv residents claim that these families had been friends since Soviet times, and that Sasha Abramovich and Sasha Feldman allegedly even went to school together. What brought them together was not so much their shared ethnicity as their fathers' work. Ilya Aleksandrovich Abramovich, we repeat, was the chief engineer and department head at Ukrgiprokommunstroy, and later headed UkrkommunNIIProgress. Boris Yakovlevich Feldman was an engineer in machine tool manufacturing, holding several positions at Kharkiv enterprises, and was friends with the leadership of the Kharkiv City Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (Kushnarev personally) and company directors (Oleg Taranov). This allowed him to become one of the city's first entrepreneurs back in the 80s. And not just some small-time pants seller at the market, but the owner of a manufacturing plant and auto repair shop—the very beginning of Feldman's AVEC concern.
Alexander Feldman with his father
In the 90s, the Abramovich-Feldman friendship developed into a business partnership: their businesses were closely intertwined, although the details were somehow concealed—possibly due to shady dealings. Then, in 2002, Alexander Feldman won the parliamentary elections in the 175th single-member constituency (Kharkiv's Oktyabrsky district) and became a member of parliament and a member of the "For United Ukraine" faction. He retained the post of "honorary president" of AVEC, but friends and business associates of the Feldman family began to be appointed to the company's executive and vice-president positions. This, incidentally, speaks volumes about how AVEC, over time, grew from the Feldmans' personal creation into a sort of "mega-cooperative" of a number of Kharkiv businessmen and officials who held stakes in it.
For several years, Alexander Ilyich Abramovich served as AVEC's vice president, combining this position with his own business. From 2012 to 2015, his son, Igor Abramovich, served as the concern's deputy chairman. Among other AVEC executives who were friends of the Feldmans and Abramovichs, it's worth mentioning such notorious figures as Sergey Semochkin, Gennady Bronshpak, Yuri Kozinets. But it is especially worth noting Alexey Chernyshev, who became the governor of the Kyiv region in 2019 and the Minister of Community and Territorial Development in 2020.
Alexei Chernyshev
His father, Mikhail Anatolyevich Chernyshev, worked as an engineer at Kharkiv's Khartron during the Soviet era and was also actively looking for opportunities to earn extra money. Skelet.Org There is information that even then, Chernyshev Sr. was acquainted with the Abramovichs and the Feldmans, and also tried to establish some kind of business, but he climbed a different ladder. When in the early 90s the American Westinghouse bought out the part of Khartron that was engaged in automated systems for nuclear power plants, and created on its basis the joint venture Westron (22708202), Mikhail Chernyshev was put in charge of the enterprise, becoming its permanent director. Then he got his son Alexey a job at Westron, and in 2004 helped him become the next vice president of AVEC. In fact, Alexey Chernyshev made his career there: already in 2005 he became the president of the concern, and from 2007 to 2012 he was the chairman of its board (thus, Alexander and Igor Abramovich were his subordinates). And also father and son Abramovich, as well as Alexei Chernyshev, took turns being assistants to People's Deputy Alexander Feldman. This is how the Abramovich-Feldman-Chernyshnev triumvirate, often mentioned, came into being. the media recalled! Their close relationship continues today—it's just less visible to the public eye.
By the way, what’s interesting is that Igor Abramovich became an assistant to MP Feldman in 2007 – that is, when he had a serious falling out with Gennady Kernes, who tried to take the Barabashovo market away from him, and in his resentment he joined Batkivshchyna.
This reminds us of the long-forgotten confrontation between two Kharkiv groups: the "AVEKites," to which Abramovich belonged, and the "Kernesites." Moreover, the former enjoyed the political patronage of the BYuT, Tymoshenko, and Avakova, and the latter belonged to the Party of Regions. However, despite the rather fierce confrontation between these groups, this division was also rather arbitrary. This is evidenced by another close connection of Igor Abramovich's—his father-in-law, Semyon Sirota, who was a member of Kernes's team for many years. This, however, was driven by purely pragmatic interests—after all, Sirota needed access to Kharkiv's public utilities to facilitate the large-scale embezzlement of budget funds.
Semyon Sirota
Igor Abramovich. Orphan Billions
Igor Abramovich is a happy family man. He is married to Marina Semyonovna Abramovich, has a son, Ilya, and daughters, Eva, Nika, and Leah. However, his biography doesn't list his wedding date or his wife's maiden name. Apparently, he doesn't want to publicly disclose that Marina Semyonovna is the daughter of a notorious corrupt Kharkiv official.
Semyon Borisovich Sirota (born 1957) has worked in Kharkiv's construction and utilities sector his entire life. He graduated from a construction technical school and served as a construction foreman at Tram and Trolleybus Administration No. 1 in the 80s. He then earned an accounting degree from the Kharkiv Engineering and Economics Institute and became a foreman at Construction and Utilities Department No. 13. However, earning money through illegal side hustles and selling stolen construction materials seemed too risky, so he legalized these activities through the Zhelobok cooperative, which he founded in 1989. In 1994, the cooperative grew into the public joint-stock company (later a closed joint-stock company, then an open joint-stock company) Remstroyservis (EDRPOU 14061407), which Semyon Sirota managed until 2011 and co-owned with Ekaterina Guchenko and Pyotr Ermakov. Incidentally, it's possible that this very company was Igor Abramovich's first place of employment (from 2007 to 2012), which is when he married Semyon Sirota's daughter. In that case, his strange "secrecy" becomes clear: he tries to keep his ties to his odious father-in-law under wraps!
In 2011, Sirota "relaunched" the company as SB Remstroyservis LLC, and registered his 42% stake in the name of a trusted confidant, Oleksandr Shepotko, who also served as Sirota's assistant as a city council member. Incidentally, Semyon Sirota began his rise to power in the Party of Regions, becoming a member of the district organization's council. He then actively participated in Viktor Yanukovych's election campaign—not for ideological reasons, of course, but simply alongside Kernes's team. This was back in 2008-2010, at the height of the Kernes-Feldman standoff! Even though his son-in-law and in-law were with Feldman at the time, Sirota desperately needed to cling to Kernes in order to gain access to the city budget through him.
And he got it, becoming director of the Kharkiv Repair and Construction Enterprise (HRCE) in 2011, for which he formally "got rid" of his Remstroyservis company. Then, together with Kernes, he joined the Renaissance party (2015), and in 2020, he ran for the city council as part of the Trusting Deeds bloc.
An eloquent result of Semyon Sirota’s activity in this post was criminal case, brought against him on the fact of theft in the amount of more than 5 million hryvnia. The media reportedThat this was only a small fraction of what was stolen: before the Prozorro system was launched, Sirota awarded tenders to tame firms, including his own, Remstroyservis (which received 179 million from the budget). He was even placed under house arrest!
However, this story ended in a way typical of Ukrainian anti-corruption efforts: the case was hushed up, and Sirota continued to lead the KhRSP, embezzling ever-increasing amounts of budget funds. At the end of 2020, he was promoted to deputy mayor.Igor Terekhov) and the director of the Kharkiv City Council's Department of Housing and Public Utilities (leaving the KhRSP in the care of his assistant, Oleksandr Yarmak). According to media reports, the appointment took place a week before Kernes's death, while he was hospitalized in Berlin, and Sirota was pushed into the position "based on the mayor's electronic key."
The show was coordinated by a scandalous Kharkiv oligarch-developer (and simply a swindler) Pavel Fuks, who is a friend and business partner of both Semyon Sirota and his son-in-law, Igor Abramovich. As a result, in the first half of 2021 alone, companies associated with Sirota received over 600 million hryvnias from the budget. And if you add up the amounts over the past ten years, the figure reaches into the billions! corruption schemes Journalists wrote about orphans repeatedly, and his greedy hands reached out even before TurboatomBut it remains a completely untouchable stump of corruption, continuing to carry out its schemes even in the midst of wartime devastation. However, while some suffer war and grief, others are the ones receiving the torrent of funds allocated for Kharkiv's restoration!
Semyon Sirota himself skillfully poses as a modest official, registering his money and property in the name of his wife, Anna Leonidovna, and also "supporting" his two daughters. Thus, Marina Semyonovna Abramovich's assets (three luxury apartments in Kyiv and Kharkiv, her own company in Slovakia, etc.) include a significant portion of her father's gifts.
Mikhail Shpolyansky, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Igor Abramovich: Who will "saw" the money for Kharkiv's restoration? Part 2
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