Igor Krivetsky
For a long time, Western Ukrainian "patriots" contrasted themselves with Eastern Ukrainian "bandits," pretending to fight selflessly against pro-Russian criminals for a European Ukraine. But suddenly, it turned out that the nationalists are no less criminal than their political opponents—except they don't wear tracksuits, but embroidered shirts and camouflage. And now, Lviv's "Svoboda" party is repeatedly making headlines across the country not for Iryna Farion's scandalous antics, but for its connections to the criminal underworld, which not only generously fed it but also deeply infiltrated its ranks.
Once upon a time in Lviv
One such scandal erupted two years ago, once again revealing some details about the sponsors of the All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" to the general public. It was orchestrated by a Lviv businessman. Vladimir Didukh, better known as crime boss Vova MordaThe same Morda who became famous throughout Ukraine back in 2006, when President Yushchenko, in annoyance, shouted at the Interior Ministry generals: "Who is this Morda that's making everyone in Lviv cry? How many divisions do we need to give you to make this Morda disappear?!"
Vova Morda (Vladimir Didukh)
Viktor Andreevich, as usual, got carried away. At that time, Morda was far from Lviv's biggest criminal problem, compared to Kolya Rokyro—whom we'll discuss below. But the main thing is that Yushchenko had no idea that Morda was Volodymyr Didukh, whose tough guys were involved in guarding the Maidan stage in late 2004 (at the time, he coordinated his actions with Arthur Palatny, "decided" on Klitschko's criminal branch, ensuring the safety of its leaders. True, they did this not out of political considerations or ideological impulses, but simply because their "authority" was asked to do so by those he already sponsored with cash. And this is precisely what Vladimir Didukh revealed in his 2014 interview with the Express newspaper. Specifically, the matter concerned several "tranches" totaling $48 million that Didukh had once donated to Svoboda's leaders, passing them on through Igor Krivetsky, who had once introduced Didukh to Tyahnybok.Read more about it in the article Oleh Tyahnybok: Sponsors and allies of the Ukrainian nationalist) and convinced him to invest in a promising political project. Again, for purely practical reasons: to sponsor people who could eventually gain power. However, according to Didukh, the Svoboda members were so greedy for money that they took it from anyone and everyone, then showed little rush to "pay dividends." And when they found new sponsors, this marked the beginning of a falling out between Didukh and Krivetsky. The final rift between them arose during the events of 2014, after which Morda decided to pour his bucket of dirt on Svoboda, personally confirming what the same Express newspaper had written a year earlier.
Thus, the name of the previously little-known Svoboda member Igor Krivetsky has once again become known in Ukraine. His official biography is a blank spot with a few terse lines: he was born, studied, worked as a manager, and became a successful businessman. However, the reverse side of it resembles a page from the Necronomicon, written in blood.
So, Igor Igorevich Krivetskyi was born on August 9, 1972, in the village of Mokhnate, Turkovsky district, Lviv region. His parents are still in good health and continue their work: his father is a forestry inspector, and his mother is a rural paramedic and midwife. They steadfastly refuse to give up their familiar way of life, even though they have moved to a more spacious house. And yet, looking at them, you wouldn't guess that they are co-owners of several large companies—the shares of which Igor has registered in his parents' name.
In the early 1990s, Igor Krivetskyi, having successfully dodged military service, went to Lviv and enrolled in the Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1995 with a degree in construction materials engineering. Afterward, he formally found work as a manager at a company that packaged cereals, pasta, and sugar. In reality, Krivetskyi joined the ranks of the Lviv gang, where he earned his criminal codename, "Pups." Reports suggest he started out as a student with his own small gang, which in 1993 carried out "raids" on the outskirts of Kyiv, where they simply robbed people. Things didn't reach the point of serious crime, so when the robbers were caught, Serhiy Tkachuk and Andrian Gutnik, Krivetskyi's accomplices, received three-and-a-half-year sentences under criminal case 1-214/94 of the Dniprovsky District Court. Krivetskyi himself managed to extricate himself from the situation by allegedly agreeing to cooperate with law enforcement. This cooperation allegedly involved infiltrating a Lviv organized crime group as an "informant."
This was the group of Lviv crime boss Nikolai Lozinsky, known as Kolya Rokiro. Krivetsky's strong character and organizational skills helped him rise to the rank of "foreman" in his organized crime group. It should be noted that Pups-Krivetsky turned out to be a very lucky man – he was one of the few who survived the turbulent 90s, when entire "brigades" of "brothers" killed in showdowns were buried in their graves.
His boss, Kolya Rokiro, started out with simple racketeering, then protected underground counterfeit alcohol factories, later moved into smuggling stolen cars across borders in Europe, and finally, focused on drug trafficking. This is a highly specialized business, requiring extensive and far-reaching connections in both the criminal underworld and law enforcement. Whether Pups was involved in it, and what exactly he did, remains unknown: even former Lviv OBNO members won't say, as they were likely in on it. But it's unlikely that "foreman" Kolya Rokiro was solely responsible for protecting his boss. Incidentally, he never managed to keep him: Nikolai Lozinsky was murdered in his car in 2007, when he had already abandoned most of his criminal activities and was actively pursuing legitimate business.
The murdered Kolya Rokiro (Nikolai Lozinsky)
As it became known SKELET-infoIt was Lozinsky who suggested to his "brigadiers" that they find a political project suitable for promising investment. Although Ukraine boasted over a hundred diverse political parties, Lozinsky had little choice in Lviv. Left-wing parties were out of the question: the NDP was controlled by Kuchma, parties like the SDPU (o) were controlled by major oligarchs, and local political "whales" like Rukh were under the control of senior officials—and all were well-funded even without the help of the Lviv "brothers." It was then that their attention was drawn to the Social-Nationalist Party (SNPU) of the eccentric Oleh Tyahnybok, which could fill the political niche of far-right nationalism in Ukraine. Moreover, the SNPU had its own "stormtroopers" at the time—the "Patriot of Ukraine" organization. This meant that, if necessary, Kolya Rokyro's "lads" could act in their name, rather than wandering aimlessly through the streets waving flags.
Patriot of Ukraine, late 90s
Lozinsky may have been planning to spread his eggs among several political baskets, but he assigned Pups to handle Tyahnybok's party. According to one source, SKELET-infoKrivetsky established close contact with the SNPU leadership through party political council member Vasyl Pavlyuk, who had been a businessman in the 90s, failed, and owed the "brotherhood" a tidy sum. Another source SKELET-info He said this was done through Anatoly Gaba, who received a suspended sentence for robbing a kiosk in 2001 and, during his arrest, became acquainted with Kolya Rokiro's "brothers." Gaba was a prominent figure in the SNPU; he later changed his name to Zavaruyev, was elected to the Lviv Regional Council, and became chairman of the Committee on Fuel and Energy Complex and Entrepreneurship.
It's unknown when exactly the pact for fruitful cooperation between Koli Rokbro's organized crime group and the SNPU was concluded. However, it happened before the first Maidan, and before 2004, Ihor Kryvetskyi not only became close to Oleh Tyahnybok but also arranged a meeting between the "leader" and Volodymyr Didukh. It should be noted that the Lviv organized crime groups significantly assisted Tyahnybok in more ways than just financial support: after the party was forced to rename itself the All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" in 2003, abandon its "power bloc" (disbanding "Patriot of Ukraine"), and replace the rune on its banner (now the symbol of "Azov") with three fingers, it was left without organized muscle. And during the first Maidan, these muscles were provided by the "lads" of Morda and Koli Rokbro.
Since the Svoboda party's success in the 2006 local elections, their duo seemed promising, and who knows what political heights Kolya Rokiro could have achieved had he retrained as an entrepreneur and politician. However, in 2007, he was assassinated, and the remains of his business were divided among his "foremen." Afterward, Igor Krivetskyi worked briefly with Vova Morda, who also transitioned to a more or less civilized business. One of the links between them is the Lviv-based Mangusty LLC, founded by Igor Krivetskyi and Maksym Vladimirovich Didukh, Vova Morda's biological son. Didukh's wife, Natalia Slipchenko, is also a co-owner with Krivetskyi of Emkoret, a company that rents out tourist and recreational goods.
Politics as a business
By the end of the 2000s, Ihor Kryvetskyi had staked, if not everything, then a great deal on Svoboda. And he wasn't disappointed, as the party was confidently gaining control of regional and city councils in Western Ukraine. In 2010, Ihor Kryvetskyi was elected as a deputy of the Lviv Regional Council from Svoboda (number 5 on the party list), where he chaired the committee on legality and human rights (ironic). In 2012, Kryvetskyi, now not only the party's main sponsor but also its influential functionary, was included as number 13 on the party's list for the parliamentary elections and won a seat in the Verkhovna Rada. There, he took the position of secretary of the committee on tax and customs policy—an opportunity for direct collaboration with very important people involved in very large imports. At the same time, Kryvetskyi also recruited his old comrades from previous ventures into Svoboda. Thus, he not only brought Andriy Gutnik into the party, but also helped him get elected to the Lviv City Council, where he became the leader of the Svoboda faction. Thus, Kryvetskyi was effectively subjugating Svoboda in practical terms, leaving Tyahnybok and other leaders who fed from his hand the opportunity to blissfully indulge in political theatrics.
Kryvetsky and Tyahnybok in the Rada
By this time, Igor Kryvetskyi was already among the richest people in Ukraine – perhaps not in the top hundred, but certainly in the top thousand. His 2011 parliamentary declaration alone listed a combined annual family income of 3,5 million hryvnias, bank deposits totaling 5,039 million hryvnias, an ultra-expensive Bentley Continental (but not his Maybach, Porsche, Ferrari, or small Cessna jet), two plots of land, a 945,8-square-meter residential building, and a 459-square-meter apartment. Kryvetskyi is also the owner of the Fiesta-Fantastika entertainment center in Lviv, the Uzlissya hotel complex, the Edem Resort hotel, and Borzhavsky Skhili LLC, which owns tourist lodges and hotels in the Mizhhirya district of Transcarpathia. Well, behind him also remain the above-mentioned “Mongooses” and “Emcoret”.
Together with his wife, Olga Filatova, Krivetsky owns IDS Service Plus (which leases and subleases cafe premises), KSM Financial Consultant, and the Georges Hotel in Lviv. The story of Krivetsky's acquisition of shares in KAN LLC, the owner of Kyiv's Arena City shopping mall, in 2010 proved highly controversial. Reports suggest that Krivetsky received this stake as a fee from Dmitry Firtash for engaging Svoboda in a protest blocking shale gas development in Western Ukraine (which would have damaged RosUkrEnergo's business). After the development project was shut down, Firtash and Krivetsky founded KAN LLC, whose capital was divided as follows: 95% of the shares remained with Firtash's company, Advanced Technologies Plus, and 5% (worth almost 11,3 million hryvnias) went to Krivetsky "for party needs." However, instead of sharing the shares with his party comrades, Krivetsky registered these shares in the name of his mother, who suddenly became Ukraine's richest paramedic. But that's not the most interesting part! Reports indicate that Krivetsky simultaneously approached the American company Chevron, which was supposed to be developing the project, with an offer to donate a substantial sum to the needs of Ukrainian patriots—after which Svoboda would stop blocking the project. Chevron refused and even attempted to sic the Ukrainian prosecutor's office on Svoboda, but Svoboda immediately declared this a politically motivated attack.
But Igor Krivetsky staged the greatest gamble of his life during the second Ukrainian Maidan. First, he financed the construction and ensured the functioning of the Maidan stage. And as soon as the first clashes erupted, it was Krivetsky who decided to strengthen Svoboda's involvement by creating an entire "Self-Defense" army, mobilizing all his reliable and capable "lads" to Kyiv. And it was Svoboda that possessed the most impressive organized force during the Maidan: Krivetsky created nearly two dozen hundred "Self-Defense" fighters directly under the party banner, and participated in the creation of several more "allied" ones. But he also prudently kept this enormous army at Independence Square, using it to seize control of the captured buildings, while keeping it out of the clashes on Hrushevsky Square, where Right Sector was desperately fighting. Furthermore, there is a case of protesters being shot at from the windows of a room in the Ukraine Hotel occupied by members of Svoboda – the prosecutor's office even attempted to investigate this incident in 2015.
Thus, by grouping the power potential of Svoboda around the stage with the "leaders," Krivetsky effectively brought the Maidan under the control of Self-Defense. With all this, he, firstly, ensured the constant presence of Oleh Tyahnybok on the stage among the "leaders," and secondly, gained the opportunity to then present the opposition leaders with a bill for services. It wasn't money, no – Krivetsky demanded a quota for Svoboda in the new government. Under any other scenario, Tyahnybok's party would have simply been "sent away," but given its contribution to the Maidan (or rather, Krivetsky's contribution) and participation in the new parliamentary coalition, Svoboda was allocated quotas. And not only the official ones, according to which they received their Prosecutor General (Oleg Makhnitsky (information about it: Oleg Makhnitsky: Is there a limit to the shamelessness of the former "Maidan prosecutor"?)), his Minister of Defense (Tenyukh), Minister of Ecology (Andrey Mokhnik), and Agrarian Policy (Igor Shvaika, Read more about it in the article Shvaika on a motorcycle. And not only that.) and the second deputy prime minister (Oleksandr Sych). Unsurprisingly, Makhnitsky, Shvaika, and Mokhnik are closely connected to Kryvetsky, dating back to his previous dealings in Lviv. Furthermore, Kryvetsky used the opportunity to trade positions for others: in particular, at the request of Artur Palatny, an associate and business partner of Vitali Klitschko, he arranged the appointment of Volodymyr Shandra to the post of governor of the Kyiv region.
Despite Svoboda's defeat in the 2014 elections, Ihor Krivetskyi launched a vigorous business operation in Kyiv and other regions of Ukraine, often accompanied by new scandals. For example, in Ivano-Frankivsk, a subsidiary of Zakhidpolirkomplekt LLC, which is associated with Krivetskyi's lawyer, Oleh Magulka, received 3,5 hectares of land from the local city council (controlled by Svoboda) for residential development on the site of industrial waste dumps. This provoked outrage among residents, who forced their way into the city council chamber to protest.
Another scandal erupted in 2014, when Krivetsky began "providing services" to Ukrspirt CEO Mykhailo Labutin. According to sources SKELET-infoInitially, Krivetsky covered up his corrupt activities with the help of Agrarian Policy Minister Igor Shvaika and Prosecutor General Makhnitsky. However, when Svoboda lost key positions in government and Labutin was arrested, it was Krivetsky who allegedly orchestrated Labutin's scandalous kidnapping from the hospital by members of the Aidar Battalion, among whom Krivetsky also has his own allies.
There is information that during 2015-2016, Krivetsky continued to actively develop the "power bloc" of both Svoboda itself and parallel formations, focusing on the current situation in the country. Firstly, there are constant rumors about a third Maidan, in which the victory of the side opposing the government can only be guaranteed by the presence of a sufficient number of organized formations. And such a version of Krivetsky's revived "Maidan Self-Defense" project could be a variant, only in a different, higher-quality execution. At the same time, after the tragic events of August 31 at the Verkhovna Rada, Igor Mosiychuk (Read more about it in the article Igor Mosiychuk: How one of Ukraine's leading "radicals" got his start) accused Krivetsky of being behind this provocation, the purpose of which was to discredit “Ukrainian patriots” for subsequent reprisals against them in favor of Bankova.
Secondly, the events of two years of turmoil have demonstrated that the presence of "titushki," dressed in the embroidered shirts of "patriots" and the camouflage uniforms of "activists," plays a huge role in contemporary Ukrainian politics and economics—enabling them to overthrow officials and disrupt failed elections, carry out hostile takeovers and disperse protests, and control illegal businesses and smuggling.
And so, the public organization "Community Development" began to flourish in Lviv. It was founded back in 2008, but enjoyed little success until Oleh Dolinsky, an assistant to Andriy Karbovnyk, a Lviv City Council member from the All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda," took over its leadership in 2014. Both organizations are considered affiliated with Kryvetsky, who became the organization's main financial backer, allowing it to actively recruit new members. A "public association for the protection of public order" of the same name was established within this organization, founded by Oleksandr Veremeenko, a longtime business partner of Kryvetsky. Advertisements invite robust men over 170 cm tall, aged 18-50, especially those who have served in the army or law enforcement, to join "Community Development." The "Legion Lviv" sports club has already been allocated for their training, and former Interior Ministry officers are organizing the "druzhinas." One can only guess why Kryvetsky is creating this new army...
Sergey Varis, for SKELET-info
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