Igor Nasalik: The Criminal Face of Ukraine's Energy Sector

Igor Nasalik: The Criminal Face of Ukraine's Energy Sector

It's long been known that the current Verkhovna Rada is rife with criminal and controversial figures, and everyone has come to terms with it. But instead of addressing this situation by gradually purging its ranks, a completely different trend is being observed. In April of this year, Ukraine appointed a highly scandalous figure with a notorious reputation to the post of Minister of Energy and Coal Industry.

We're talking about Igor Nasalik, a businessman and former mayor of Kalush. It was he who, as a result of behind-the-scenes manipulation, was appointed head of the Ministry of Energy. In his three months at the helm, he's already managed to leave a significant mark and commit a serious offense against the Ukrainian people, but it appears that Groysman's prime minister This suits him just fine. He's unfazed by Nasalik's attempts to place people advantageous to his business in key positions within the department, nor even by the fact that he's arbitrarily negotiating with the leaders of the DPR/LPR regarding the purchase of coal from the occupied territories. A fearless individual, indeed... And that's hardly surprising, especially given his past "exploits."

Igor Nasalik. "Beyond the Law"

Born Nasalik Igor Stepanovich In November 1962, Igor Stepanovich was born in the Kirovohrad region. However, fate brought him to Western Ukraine, where he first received a higher education at the Ivan Franko Lviv State University (as an optoelectronic systems engineer) and then took his first significant career steps. After graduating, he worked for about two years as a leading specialist at the Microelectronics Center in Ulyanovsk. Igor Stepanovich wasn't keen on long, physically demanding work, so he set out to conquer "economic heights." From 1992 to 1995, he worked as an economic advisor at Korona (Lviv) and Sapphire (Rohatyn).

His business took off sharply after he founded and headed the industrial and production corporation Technoinvestcenter in 1995.

It was with this enterprise that Nasalik began his journey to big money, earned through legal and semi-legal means. In particular, Igor Stepanovich always made the most of his family and friendly connections in his business dealings. Incidentally, his connections were quite extensive – he had the right people in the criminal underworld, among the region's "important" law enforcement officials, and even in the Ivano-Frankivsk regional tax office. It's worth noting that Nasalik amassed his initial capital through VAT fraud related to energy exports. At the time, he worked with now-renowned partners – the Kalestinin brothers, Rybachok, Tretyak, and Melnyk.

By the time TechnoInvestCenter was founded, Igor Stepanovich had fallen under the tax authorities' purview, as he already owned a whole network of various commercial enterprises. This is where he ran into trouble with the law. His businesses, specifically TechnoCenter, Avtotekhpostach, and Galplast, were subjected to massive audits that would have led tax officials and law enforcement directly to arrest Nasalik. However, Nasalik, apparently sensing trouble, ran for the Verkhovna Rada and, having successfully won the election, easily resolved all his problems. Incidentally, he even sparked a small "war" between the tax authorities and the SBU. For Igor Stepanovich, this war was won by Gennady Shvydkov, head of Department "K" of the Ivano-Frankivsk SBU. He essentially fabricated a case against the head of the local tax police, Kruglyak, began wiretapping his phones and monitoring his every move. As a result, Kruglyak was forced to retreat from investigating Nasalik's affairs. By the time the tax authorities had their hands free, Nasalik had already become a member of parliament. A little later, his main office, containing all the documentation the tax authorities needed, "unexpectedly" burned down, and only ashes remained of the documents incriminating Igor Stepanovich in tax fraud.

While Nasalik was preoccupied with elections and tax disputes, his business was gaining momentum. By 1998, TechnoInvestCenter had been restructured as TechnoCenter, which in turn began creating a huge number of private enterprises, which, after operating for a year and successfully evading taxes, quickly closed. To discreetly launder money from these "temporary enterprises," Igor Stepanovich used Dnestr Bank (this bank, incidentally, was actually owned by affiliated entities, allowing him to use it for his schemes as he saw fit).

After Nasalik became a member of parliament, his companies began to prosper even more, and he, "feeling his strength," began to play at a more serious level. Beginning in 1999, his companies began to engage in the massive purchase of energy resources from domestic producers and sell them abroad at inflated prices. Furthermore, after the sales, virtually all the profits were transferred abroad through a series of fictitious companies. In this way, Nasalik amassed a fortune, which he successfully stashed in his offshore accounts.

"People's Deputy Defector"

Ihor Stepanovych's political career developed rapidly. In 1998, he became a member of parliament for the 85th electoral district, and in 2002, he was re-elected to the Verkhovna Rada, this time from the 86th district. Both are located in Nasalik's business fiefdom, in the Ivano-Frankivsk region.

Ihor Nasalik is a true "frog defector." After gaining some understanding of the Ukrainian political scene, he began his political migration. In 2002, he was in the then-opposition Our Ukraine party. Realizing he didn't want to fight for the cause, he defected to the Regions (Regions of Ukraine), but he didn't like it there either. By March 2005, he was already standing under the banner of the Ukrainian People's Party.

Amidst a wave of aggressive sentiments toward the "regional" deputies, he was forced to retreat. This time, he joined Yulia Tymoshenko's faction, but even there, he achieved little: just before the elections, he defected to "defend Ukraine's ecology" in the "Eco+25%" party, which, incidentally, included his Western Ukrainian mentor, a well-known oligarch. Peter DyminskyBy the way, the main sponsor of the party was Vitaliy Gaiduk (which at that time was creating the Evolution Media holding, which created the Kommentarii newspaper: headed by Gaiduk's shadow adviser Serhiy Skrypnyk and current BPP deputy Vadym Denisenko, the websites proua.com.ua, whose editor-in-chief was the current editor of Nashi Groshi Oleksiy Shalaysky, as well as the website ugmk.info, and the Kiev Weekly newspaper. All of this was headed by the former press secretary Petro Poroshenko Yulia Litvinova. It was probably she who brought Nasalik together with Gaiduk, who poured over $30 million into the election campaign. Unfortunately for him, he realized too late that the Dyminsky-Nasalik duo were trying to screw him over. Ultimately, the party collapsed, and Gaiduk received no dividends, harboring a grudge against his "colleagues." He didn't even know that Nasalik had prepared an escape route. DyminskyOur Igor Stepanovich, in parallel with the parliamentary elections, took part in the local mayoral elections in Kaluga. And he was quite successfully elected.

Igor Nasalik. «Mayoral period

After being elected mayor of Kalush, Igor Nasalik lived a fairytale life. It's worth noting that this city is rich in energy resources, which, remember, Igor Stepanovich successfully traded for many years. Local residents have mixed feelings about our hero: some adore him, while others despise him for what he did to the land that once belonged to the city.

And so it was: on the one hand, Nasalik never stole a single drop from the local budget, and, compared to other cities in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, Kalush developed quite extensively: salaries were always paid on time, roads were built, and social programs were successfully implemented. But there was another side to his activities, one that most local residents were unaware of because they simply hadn't encountered it. During Ihor Nasalik's tenure as mayor of Kalush, the city's land holdings were practically all gone. It was all sold off or appropriated by local shell companies, all somehow connected to—who would you guess?—Ihor Stepanovych, of course.Over time, he grew tired of his strictly mayoral activities, and he again ventured into politics. In 2006, he became head of the regional branch of the UNP party, and to become chairman, he ousted his own friend, then-Mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk Viktor Anushkevichus. After losing the election, Anushkevichus became quite angry and refused to cooperate with him even in the high-ranking position of his deputy. Incidentally, the leader and main sponsor of the UNP, Yuriy Kostenko, was quite angry with Nasalik for taking over his party. There was constant friction between them. For example, during Kostenko's visit to Ivano-Frankivsk, Nasalik's "fighters" pelted him with eggs and shouted loudly, like "Shame on the schismatic."

Igor Stepanovich always had a team of tough guys for such purposes. This was due to his close ties to the notorious crime boss "Mad" (Igor Layuk), as well as another criminal figure, "Ibrahim," who was well-regarded among Lviv's criminal underworld.

Until the end of his second term as Kalush mayor, Ihor Nasalik was actively preparing for his return to "big-time politics." And his reliance on the image of a "fervent nationalist" played a key role in his subsequent fate. The waves of Euromaidan brought him to the VIII convocation of the Verkhovna Rada, which he surely missed.

The "Third Coming" to the Rada and a "Sudden" Ministerial Post

During the post-revolutionary Verkhovna Rada elections, Ihor Nasalik won a seat in parliament from his old constituency, the 85th, but this time as a member of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc party. According to sources, he became one of the party's main sponsors, investing colossal sums of money he earned as a successful businessman and mayor. Political experts speculate that the post of Minister of Energy was given to him as a reward for all his numerous donations to the party's fund.

There's another perspective on his appointment. There was a fierce battle between political forces for this ministerial post, as it's crucial not only to establishing energy stability but also to resolving most of the business problems facing Ukrainian oligarchs in the energy sector. Despite his affiliation with the president's party, Ihor Nasalik is considered one of the notorious Ukrainian oligarch's protégés. Igor KolomoiskyIf the deputies under Igor Valerievich's control had not voted for the new government, it would have been approved (due to the "demarche" of the parties) Sadovoy, Lyashko и Tymoshenko). For this service, the oligarch received "his" man as head of the Ministry of Energy. His interest in energy is not unfounded, as much of his business is tied to the fuel and energy sector. It was Nasalik who became a powerful trump card in the fight against the energy group of companies owned by the now-deceased MP Yeremeyev. Evidence of Nasalik's connection to Kolomoisky is also provided by the fact that he retained Ihor Didenko, the First Deputy Minister of Energy, who had been publicly accused numerous times of openly lobbying for Kolomoisky's interests. Nevertheless, he remained in his position and, moreover, will continue to promote the ideas of his oligarch patron through the Ministry of Energy.

As Minister of Energy, Igor Nasalik isn't wasting any time either. For example, he appointed Yevgeny Shytilov, a notorious embezzler of public funds, as "commissioner" for anthracite supplies from the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. This fellow has long been assisting Igor Stepanovich in his shady projects and couldn't refuse this time either – he embarked on a tour of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, establishing contacts and negotiating kickback percentages for their services in selling coal to Ukraine. That's how it is. Incidentally, the minister himself recently distinguished himself, having been captured on camera negotiating with a DPR militant regarding the supply of this coal.

Ihor Nasalik has firmly grasped his new position and is successfully manipulating the government to achieve his goals. Specifically, he blackmailed Groysman to prevent an experienced coal industry professional appointed by the Cabinet of Ministers from taking up the job. Stanislav Tolchin (Although he's quite corrupt). This man could have prevented Nasalik and Shytilov from siphoning off revenue from coal purchases from territories not under Ukrainian control. What a fine man we have as the head of the Ministry of Energy, he knows how to protect interests. It's just a shame it's his own, not the entire state's.

While the minister travels around occupied Ukrainian territory, establishing business with representatives of the DPR and LPR, his own financial situation is improving. He owns a small house in Koncha-Zaspa (near the home of former Ukrainian President Yushchenko), an apartment on Khreshchatyk, and even a "modest" fleet of cars, including a Bentley, an Audi A8, and a BMW Z4. It will be interesting to see when the Prosecutor General's Office, the Security Service of Ukraine, or, at worst, the State Fiscal Service, will take notice of him.

Dmitry Samofalov, for Skelet.Org

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