Igor Shkirya: How to steal from your own country and negotiate with Russia. PART 1
Why do Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, who arrest "anti-Ukrainian bloggers" almost daily, turn a blind eye to the real accomplices of the separatists and sponsors of the Russian occupiers? These same people, who spent years plundering the Ukrainian budget and state property, but instead of prison terms, received parliamentary seats and the accolades of "successful businessmen." Could it be because they continue to share their wealth with the right people? Skelet.Org investigates.
On December 23, 2016, a brawl erupted at a meeting of the Toretsk City Council attended by MP Ihor Shkirya, which received widespread media attention. Irina Kirikova, the chair of the Public Council of the Donetsk Regional State Administration and a "pro-Ukrainian activist," arrived at the meeting and jumped onto the stage before the presidium and attempted to throw red paint at Shkirya, who was there, while simultaneously accusing him of aiding separatists and unleashing war in the region. What followed was complete chaos: City Council members and "titushki" (illegal thugs) who appeared out of nowhere sided with Shkirya, while her fellow "activists" sided with Kirikova, and the two sides practically went toe-to-toe.
Of course, one could dismiss all of this: just another clash between national patriots and the Party of Regions, eternal political adversaries—and, unfortunately, far from the last! It would be possible, if not for two big "buts." First, during this conflict, one of Shkiri's supporters, Irina Zavgorodnyaya, a local businesswoman (a business lawyer), forgot about self-censorship and began shouting what was clearly always on the tip of her tongue. Some of the epithets she used were downright obscene, and phrases like "Ukraine is not a country, Russia is a country" were completely tantamount to enemy propaganda. However, there is no information that the relevant authorities even asked Zavgorodnyaya any follow-up questions—it seems she simply got away with it again. Again, because, according to witnesses, in 2014, Zavgorodnyaya participated in organizing a separatist referendum—and was not punished for it. One source even hinted that Zavgorodnyaya has “old acquaintances” in the SBU and the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Secondly, despite Irina Kirikova's outrageous behavior (which openly tarnished the image of a "pro-Ukrainian activist"), her accusations were not entirely unfounded. Moreover, Kirikova didn't even mention a tenth of the "exploits" that have been the subject of a long trail of scandals surrounding Igor Shkirya.
The Dark 90s: Shadows of the Donetsk Massacre
Igor Nikolaevich Shkirya was born on August 20, 1951, in the village of Novgorodskoye in the Donetsk region (known as New York until 1951). Since the 1970s, it has been administratively part of the city council of Dzerzhinsk (now Toretsk), serving as its suburb. However, the village is equidistant from nearby Horlivka, and Igor Shkirya's life and work are closely linked to these two cities.
After completing eight grades, Shkirya studied at the Dzerzhinsky Mining Technical School from 1980 to 84, then served in the army (GSV in East Germany), after which he enrolled in the Donetsk Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1989 with a mining engineering degree. However, even the high wages of a miner didn't tempt Shkirya to pursue his profession—he wanted much more, and right away. And so, in 1990, the Ilitash software company was founded, which Shkirya allegedly founded with his fellow students (today he owns 99,52% of the company). Then, according to Igor Shkirya's official biography, he allegedly earned his first fortune by selling Citizen calculators, bringing them to Donetsk from Moscow. In this beautiful story (almost like "buy an apple, wash it, sell it"), Shkirya was hiding much. For example, he talked about who and how helped him establish sales of office equipment to government agencies and businesses in Donetsk and Horlivka, who purchased them using cashless payments at government expense. And when Shkirya sighed as he recalled how his first foray into business resulted in a government bill for 80% profit tax, after which he decided to "optimize taxes" from now on, he also remained silent about how exactly he did so. However, it's well known that Igor Shkirya's businesses are as reluctant to pay taxes to the state as they are to pay their employees' salaries.
With the exception of a few fragmentary lines, the wild 90s are a gaping, black void in Igor Shkirya's biography. One moment, he's selling calculators; another, in 1997, he's become a member of the Donetsk City Council and simultaneously vice president of the Shakhtar basketball club—and nothing more! Remarkable modesty for a man who loves to boast about his achievements. Or does he have something to hide? It seems so, but despite his carefully sanitised past, Shkirya still left enough traces, which still fuels numerous rumors. For example, those related to the Shakhtar basketball club.
This club was famous Skelet.Org Since Soviet times, and in the early 90s, he was taken under the wing of businessman Alexander Shvedchenko (nicknamed "Shved"), who became president of BC Shakhtar. Already forgotten today, in the mid-90s, Shvedchenko was a very prominent figure in Donetsk's "shadow economy," distinguished by his business ties to a variety of, sometimes feuding, groups (which proved his undoing). According to media reports, Shvedchenko was part of the Bragin-Akhmetov group and had joint business with them in enterprises of the Donetsk Central Market—in particular, in ZAO Scandin-Yug, a division of OOO Yug, which was owned by Akhmetov's close associate, Sergei Roman, and managed by Boris KolesnikovBut on the other hand, the independent Shvedchenko (he was the only member of Bragin's organized crime group who allowed himself to openly love basketball, not football) was very close to Yevgeny Shcherban; they even had a joint business. Considering that Shcherban and Bragin had also had some joint business since 1989, this wasn't surprising. But in 1995, Bragin was murdered, and Akhmetov and Shcherban's relationship began to deteriorate. And Skelet.Org There is information that it was Shcherban who persuaded Shvedchenko to head the Ukrainian branch of the Russian company Itera, which supplied gas to Ukraine. However, this ran counter to the interests of competitors: both Lazarenko and Tymoshenko's UESU and the Industrial Union of Donbass. Sergei Taruta и Vitaliy Gaiduk, who had become Akhmetov's business partners at that point. And then, on March 25, 1996, just three weeks after Shvedchenko took over Itera-Ukraine and began signing contracts, he was assassinated. Six months later, Yevhen Shcherban was also killed. Although these contract killings were later pinned on Pavlo Lazarenko, many said that the horrific massacre of 1995-97 in the Donetsk region also benefited Akhmetov, who subsequently seized considerable capital and schemes from the deceased.
Akhmetov's inner circle also profited from this, with many receiving their shares—even those who didn't have any before (like Boris Kolesnikov, who became a co-owner of Yug LLC in 1996). And now a logical question arises: if the property of the murdered Shvedchenko was divided among Akhmetov's men, and the Shakhtar basketball club was part of this inheritance, then what connection did Igor Shkirya have to all this? Certainly he did, otherwise he would have inherited the ears of a donkey, not Shakhtar, according to sources. Skelet.OrgWhile listed as the club's vice president, Shkirya served as its financial manager. Curiously, all information about the club's activities since 1997 has seemingly been erased (although publications about it dating back to the 80s remain), and even the name of its next president—if there even was one—has disappeared from all sources. After all, even its vice president handled BC Shakhtar's financial affairs admirably! And, starting in 1997, Shakhtar began to decline: the new owners stopped developing it as a sports club (players began leaving, it stopped winning championships), and instead began exploiting its privileged status as a sports institution in tax evasion and VAT refund schemes. This continued for three years, after which BC Shakhtar practically died, and in 2002 it officially ceased to exist. It was only in 2006 that several of its former players formed a new basketball club under the new name, FC Donetsk.
But by this time, Igor Shkirya had already become a respectable businessman and was elected to the Verkhovna Rada for the first time (from the For United Ukraine bloc), where he then moved to the Regions of Ukraine faction.
Igor Shkirya: Raider-Savior
Gaining a parliamentary seat brought Igor Shkirya out of the shadow economy: as early as 2002, he was already claiming to be the owner of PO Ilitash LLC and its subsidiary travel company, Ilitash-Tour. However, he never clarified whether he actually earned his first million (and subsequent ones) selling travel packages, or what he actually did in the 90s. Igor Shkirya was always known for his reluctance to answer journalists' tough questions: he would immediately cut interviews short, either running away or becoming rude.
A year passed, and the name of Igor Shkiri, who lived on who knows what money, took on a new meaning: he had now joined the ranks of Ukraine's industrial oligarchs, albeit only of the "second guild." It was then that he took over his first major asset—the Myronivskyi Reinforced Concrete Plant (RCP). This enterprise, located in the village of Myronivskyi (near Debaltseve), specialized in the production of reinforced concrete supports for power lines—a very specific product. According to available information, Skelet.Org According to information, Shkirya negotiated its sale long after acquiring the plant: here, his friendship with Rinat Akhmetov, who was actively privatizing regional power companies, and his parliamentary connections with government officials from the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Transport came in handy. Subsequently, the Mironovsky Reinforced Concrete Plant (the joint-stock company of the labor collective) was seized using the standard Donetsk "privatization" scheme: first, the company "Ilitash" began supplying the enterprise with "customer-supplied" raw materials and simultaneously seized control over product sales, thereby driving the plant to ruin. Then, shares were purchased and Shkirya's people became shareholders. In 2003, they created ZAO "Beton Nova" at the plant, which acquired all the main production facilities. Ultimately, Ilitash became the owner of Beton Nova. In 2006, using a similar scheme, the Donetsk Reinforced Concrete Plant came under Shkirya's ownership, seized through the creation of OOO "Tsentral Stroy." These two enterprises became the foundation of Shkiri's new, now publicly traded business—though still tainted by corruption, it was no longer hidden from everyone, like his shady dealings of the 90s. Moreover, by 2005, the Ukrainian "king of reinforced concrete pillars" had entered the Russian market, opening branches: first, Beton Nova OJSC, then Beton Nova Trading House.
Interestingly, Igor Shkirya not only justified his corporate raids on businesses and assets as completely legal and transparent acquisitions, but also claimed that he was thereby "saving them from destruction and plunder." Apparently, Shkirya had so immersed himself in the image of an "effective owner" that he began to sing his own praises.
Igor Shkirya diligently seized everything that was "unattended," meaning it didn't have a significant enough "protection" to deter raiders. For example, in 2007, his company, "Ilitash," seized a five-story office building (a typical Soviet-era building) at 7 Pal'shikh Kommunarov Avenue in Donetsk. At the time, the building was owned by Don-InformCenter (a company founded by former employees of the former institution that once operated in the building), which leased most of the space to various companies. Shkirya decided it would be a good idea to collect this rent himself, and so he launched a classic corporate raid, first by adding his own people to Don-InformCenter's shareholder base, then by issuing additional shares (25 times the original amount!), diluting the controlling stake of the company's main owners and taking the company into his own hands.
The Don-InformCenter building seized by Shkirey
But the most publicized scandal has been the ongoing, years-long scandal surrounding the Marat Sanatorium (Gaspra, Yalta). This medical facility has been operating in Crimea since the time of the Russian Empire (it was nationalized in 1922 and named after a French revolutionary). It has been rebuilt several times throughout its history, and in 1970, multi-story residential buildings, a large swimming pool, and a club-dining room were built there. The sanatorium occupied 15 hectares, including the beach and the famous Chair Park. Naturally, such a lucrative piece of resort real estate couldn't remain "nobody's" for long. The first to attempt to privatize the sanatorium was Gennady Petrenko, a businessman from Dnepropetrovsk, appointed director in 2001. To this end, he created the Marat Medical Complex LLC, to which he gradually transferred ownership of the facilities and territory. However, in 2004, Igor Shkirya joined the Marat. Numerous sources Skelet.Org They claim that Vasyl Khara, then head of the Donetsk Regional Council of Trade Unions and a people's deputy who defected from the Communist Party of Ukraine to Regions of Ukraine and befriended Igor Shkira, showed him the way to the sanatorium. Khara also explained to Shkira what to do.
Vasily Khara
Petrenko's mistake was to first privatize the sanatorium as an institution and then attempt to seize its land—a move that was challenged in court, not without the involvement of Shkirya's associates. At the same time, Shkirya created his own company, Park-Hotel Marat LLC (owned by Ilitash-Tour), which initially acquired the sanatorium by leasing facilities from Petrenko's company. However, in 2006, when an "anti-crisis location" was established in the Rada and Yanukovych became head of government, thanks to Shkirya's efforts and connections, Petrenko's actions were deemed illegal. He went on the run, and the sanatorium fell into the hands of Shkirya's company. The company's first act was to eliminate competitors—those who had privatized or leased parts of the sanatorium during Petrenko's tenure. Among them were some well-known and influential people (such as Anatoly Kashpirovsky), who wouldn't give up their property without a fight, so the war dragged on until 2010. Shkirya called this process "the return of stolen property to the sanatorium" (again portraying himself as a benefactor and savior), but he kept silent about the fact that his company, Park-Hotel Marat LLC, was now the owner of the sanatorium. Curiously, during the seizure of the sanatorium, Shkirya wielded decisions of the district and city courts of Donetsk! It turned out that Park-Hotel Marat was registered in Donetsk, meaning it didn't even pay local taxes! Moreover, in 2011, employees of sanatoriums in Yalta and surrounding villages wrote a letter to President Yanukovych, urging him to stop the corrupt activities of Shkirya and Khara, who had created "questionable schemes for selling vouchers." A criminal case was even opened based on this appeal, and Vasily Khara got into trouble – but Shkirya got out of it!
At the same time, Shkirya waged war against local residents of the village of Gaspra: first, literally snatching land plots from municipal property, and then, setting up a veritable blockade of the village! Shkirya demanded 150 hryvnias per person per month from Gaspra residents for passage through the sanatorium grounds, then he began billing them for the utilities (water and electricity) running through the sanatorium grounds to the village. In response, the Gaspra residents even tried to bill Shkirya back for the sanatorium's sewage system running through their village! This conflict was a long-running topic for journalists, and they also learned many interesting details about Shkirya and his business methods from local residents.
Igor Shkirya: How to steal from your own country and negotiate with Russia. PART 1
Igor Shkirya: How to steal from your own country and negotiate with Russia. PART 1
This war continues to this day, now in Russian Crimea. It's worth noting that in 2014, Igor Shkirya re-registered Marat Park Hotel LLC under Russian law, now with a Crimean residence permit, and his company pays taxes to the Russian budget. At the same time, Shkirya feels as confident in Crimea as he did before 2014, and even threatens the residents of Gaspra that he will soon "be the boss everywhere." It's also interesting that Shkirya successfully avoided the wave of "great Crimean nationalization" that swept the peninsula in 2015-2016, although his neighbors (for example, the Dnepr sanatorium) were expropriated.
Igor Shkiri's car at the Marat site
Moreover, Shkirya has been regularly visiting Crimea for the past two years, either overseeing his business or relaxing at his own sanatorium. His Audi (license plate AA 3344 OA) is often seen at the Marat site, and local residents sometimes even catch a glimpse of Shkirya himself, threatening them with heavenly punishment.
However, Shkirya is unwilling to tell journalists why the Ukrainian MP regularly visits occupied Crimea, and how he managed to negotiate the inviolability of his business with the Crimean authorities.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Igor Shkirya: How to steal from your own country and negotiate with Russia. PART 2
Subscribe to our channels in Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, VC — Only new faces from the section CRYPT!