Inna Bogoslovskaya
Inna Bogoslovskaya's incessant talking head has been a fixture on Ukrainian television for a decade now, yet her audience has dwindled with each passing year. Is there any point in listening to the words of a politician who has switched parties and turned his back on his recent allies almost every year? While Bogoslovskaya the politician likely has no future now, Ukrainians are curious to learn about Bogoslovskaya the businesswoman's past to understand who really has been fooling them for so many years.
Daughters and mothers
German Sergeevich Bogoslovsky
Inna Germanovna Bogoslovskaya was born on August 5, 1960, in Kharkiv, to a typical Soviet middle-class family. Her father, German Sergeyevich Bogoslovsky (born June 14, 1936), was a renowned military technology specialist. He graduated from the Kharkiv Govorov Military Engineering Radiotechnical Academy of Air Defense (VIRTA) in 1958 and worked as a test engineer at military testing grounds. In 1970-71, he traveled to Vietnam to install air defense radars, for which he received several Soviet medals and a Vietnamese order. He then worked on developing new models of air defense and missile defense systems, and in the early 80s, he returned to VIRTA as a teacher.
All that remains of what was once the best academy for radar operators.
Unfortunately, in 1992, like a similar school in Kyiv, the Academy was disbanded. The remains were poured into Kharkiv Military University, which, in 2007, also closed its doors, and the building was transferred to Karamzin Kharkiv State University (now home to the Faculty of Programming and Sociology). But by this time (since 1989), German Bogoslovsky had already transferred as a teacher to the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute (now Kharkiv State Polytechnic University), where he became Dean of International Students in 1995. He was a role model for his daughter and had a profound influence on her upbringing, although he was only home occasionally: in between assignments to training grounds and "brotherly countries," he taught her swimming and shooting, card games and manners, and took her on hikes and trips.
Her mother, Lyudmila Alekseyevna Bogoslovskaya (born 1939, maiden name Gudyrya), graduated from the Kharkiv Law Institute (KHLI, now the Yaroslav the Wise National Law University), later becoming an associate professor. And as much as her daughter disliked her father, she followed in her mother's footsteps, also enrolling at KHLI in 1977. In 1978, Inna Bogoslovskaya hastily married Anatoly Surin, with whom she remained married for 13 years. Their daughter, Anastasia (who shares her father's surname), was born in 1980. Anastasia continued the family tradition and, following her grandmother and mother, graduated from the same law school—thankfully, Lyudmila Alekseyevna was able to make her granddaughter's studies easy and successful.
Inna Bogoslovskaya with her daughter Anastasia
Several years ago, the publication "Forpost" reported that Anatoly Surin was allegedly "the brother of Alexander Bandurka." More precisely, Alexander Bandurka Jr., the son of the well-known Kharkiv "patrician" General Alexander Bandurka Sr., who had made a career as the head of the regional police department during the Soviet era, built a "cop protection" for Kharkiv businesses in the 90s, became the owner of several of his own companies, and later placed his sons in positions as heads of the Kharkiv tax administration and tax police. However, Alexander Bandurka Jr.'s only full brother is named Sergei, and his surname is also Bandurka, so at best, Anatoly Surin could only be a distant relative. Most likely, this was just a rumor, arising in an attempt to explain Inna Germanovna's rapid career rise.
Interior Ministry General Alexander Bandurka, the father of Kharkiv's "police protection racket"
However, this rise to fame occurred much later. From 1982, when Inna Bogoslovskaya graduated with honors from the Kharkiv Law Institute, until the early 90s, she worked as a regular lawyer, handling civil and criminal cases in Kharkiv courts. However, some cases were not so simple: thus, Bogoslovskaya became acquainted with the world of Soviet "workshop tycoons," speculators, embezzlers, and racketeers, as well as the Soviet officials and law enforcement officers who protected them. These valuable connections proved useful later on.
In the 80s, Inna Bogoslovskaya became immersed in esotericism: an interest nurtured by her father, who would visit her from distant lands with stories of exotic cults. She began to become fascinated with Roerich and Buddhism, then Blavatsky and Osho. Twenty years later, Bogoslovskaya became fascinated with "ontopychology" and in 2002 met with the founder of this informal branch of psychiatry, Antonio Meneghetti. However, in Meneghetti's homeland, Italy, his teachings were criticized as "an antisocial psychological sect." Interestingly, people with deep depression and even mental illnesses that are incurable by conventional medicine typically turn to Meneghetti for "consolation": his reputation is that of a "psychological healer."
In 1989, Bogoslovskaya entered graduate school at the Moscow Institute of State and Law of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1990, she participated in a Soviet-American conference on human rights, after which she joined a group of undergraduate and graduate students from the Institute invited to an internship in the United States. However, at the last minute, she was expelled from the group—according to Bogoslovskaya herself, for disagreeing with "pro-Soviet ideology." Immediately afterward, she left the Institute of State and Law, allegedly in protest.
What actually happened there remains a mystery—after all, in 1990, criticizing Soviet ideology was no longer persecuted; in fact, it was considered a sign of "progressive views" and adherence to the "democratic platform." However, Inna Bogoslovskaya, who loves to talk about her past in detail, often embellishes it with tall tales, such as her father's noble origins. At the same time, she somehow avoids discussing the identity of her first husband, Anatoly Surin, whom she divorced in 1991. Virtually nothing is known about him, so it's no surprise that this gives rise to all sorts of rumors. However, after this breakup, Inna Bogoslovskaya, in her own words, became a staunch opponent of formal marriage as a "method of oppression." This, too, gives rise to various speculations, especially when one considers the connection between her graduate studies in Moscow, which ended with a scandalous departure home to Kharkov, and her subsequent divorce from her husband, after which she began advocating for open relationships.
The Laundress of the Shadow Business
Bogoslovskaya's divorce coincided (court-wise?) with her decision to pursue a career in "cooperation": in 1991, she opened her own firm with the grandiose name "OOO Legal International Service." Too grand for a lawyer who had defended those who plundered Kharkiv's trading depots. However, the name was not chosen by chance: Bogoslovskaya decided to abandon the unpromising nature of legal defense (especially since in the 90s, serious cases often never reached court) and focused on providing legal advice to joint ventures. Specifically, there was information that in 1992-93... Bogoslovskaya worked on the schemes of the Chernobyl-related enterprises Brig, Burtex, and Bizon, which were used to conduct the joint business of General Alexander Bandurka Sr. and Mark Moiseevich Dobkin ( read more in the article Mikhail Dobkin: Dopa on Gepa's Hook ), the father of the future Kharkiv governor. These schemes provided a triple benefit: as foreign-owned enterprises, they received a number of tax breaks; as registered in the Chernobyl zone, they were exempt from VAT; and they also managed to milk the state with fictitious VAT refunds through a cunning compensation system. Clearly, this all worked solely thanks to the connections of Dobkin and Bandurka, but putting together the scheme required a competent lawyer—one who would, at a minimum, work for a good fee. This may be where rumors originated that Bogoslovskaya's first husband was related to Bandurka. But, as we reiterate, they had long since divorced by that time.
In the early 90s, Inna Bogoslovskaya found a new partner: designer Yuriy Ryntovt (born 1966), with a bohemian air and long, tousled hair, who became her second husband (her common-law husband). However, at that time, he didn't yet have his own businesses or salons, and earned extra money by renovating apartments, designing interiors for the luxury homes of the first "new Ukrainians."
Yury Ryntovt
One of his clients was Vladimir Shepetin, a highly influential Kharkiv businessman with extensive connections, especially in the shadow economy. Back in the late 80s, Shepetin became vice-
Vladimir Shepetin
After serving as president of the Union of Cooperators and its authorized representative to the USSR Council of Ministers, he returned to his homeland in the early 90s and received a seat on the Council of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs under the President of Ukraine. Since 1994, he has served as a scientific consultant to the Verkhovna Rada Commission on Law and Order. In Kharkiv, Shepetin was then known as the founder and director of the Vybor-89 cooperative, Puls CJSC, Yedinstvo CJSC, the Pravoporyadok Foundation (associated with General Bandurka), Stoik LLC, Kharkiv Registrar CJSC, and the controversial insurance company Salus. It was to Salus that Shepetin recruited Bogoslovskaya, whom he met through Yuriy Ryntovt—at least, that's the widely known version of their meeting. However, there are other versions: that Bogoslovskaya met Shepetin through her previous business clients (the same Bandurka), and only then sent Ryntovt to him "to earn money" - so that the design master would not daydream on the couch, but get down to business.
A number of subsidiaries emerged under Salus Insurance Company, initially founded by Shepetin himself and later with the participation of Inna Bogoslovskaya, who became involved in the case: Salus KH Insurance Company CJSC, Dobrobut Ukrainian Non-State Pension Fund LLC, Salus-Medicine CJSC, Salus-MX Sports Facilities Joint Venture Company, and First International Pension Fund CJSC. These companies have repeatedly surfaced in various scandals—for example, Salus-Medicine was accused of selling narcotic drugs and dietary supplements. They were also involved in purchasing privatization certificates from individuals and then using them to purchase promising real estate from the state. But the main focus of Shepetin's companies was the provision of "shadow financial services." Simply put, he streamlined operations such as refunding fictitious VAT, laundering criminal money, legalizing capital for participation in privatizations, and funneling funds abroad. Interestingly, law enforcement in Kharkiv would occasionally bust "conversion centers"—and those in the know said it was General Bandurka squeezing Shepetin's competitors. Moreover, the scale of these centers' operations was negligible compared to the volume of money flowing through Shepetin's structures—it's like comparing a currency exchange office to a bank.
In 1994, Inna Bogoslovskaya, with Shepetin's participation, founded the International Audit Service, then created the consulting service Prudence and the very cunning Kursstenmash LLC, which owned the buildings housing Bogoslovskaya's firms and leased them to them. Thus, hundreds of thousands of hryvnias were siphoned off annually from the accounts of one of Bogoslovskaya's firms to the accounts of another!
Bogoslovskaya's role as a highly skilled lawyer in Shepetin's schemes consisted of drafting and servicing the legal side of things—in effect, she acted as a "laundress" laundering the money of the shadow economy. And in this field, she soon rose to even greater heights when Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk ( read more about him in the article " Viktor Pinchuk: Ukraine's Richest Son -in-Law ") turned to Shepelin and Bogoslovskaya for help in siphoning money abroad. As a very wealthy man, he had his eggs in many baskets, but in Kharkiv, he collaborated with Shepetin and Bogoslovskaya through the insurance company "Lemma." It was founded back in 1994 by retired SBU officer Sergei Chernyshev, who divided its shares among those registered abroad.
Lyudmila Vremenko
Lemma Cosmos (UK) and Lemma Victor (offshore Manx). Its subsidiary, Lemma-Vite Insurance Company, was headed by Lyudmila Vremenko, a colleague and friend of Inna Bogoslovskaya, who also served as chair of the Kharkiv Union of Insurers, of which Bogoslovskaya and Shepetin were members. The system worked as follows: Pinchuk's companies (Interpipe and others) took out loans from his bank, Credit-Dnepr, paid colossal insurance premiums to Lemma, and then these funds were transferred via reinsurance to foreign insurance companies, which then transferred them through another scheme to Pinchuk's foreign accounts.
However, Bogoslovskaya's connection to Lemma wasn't limited to Pinchuk's insurance scams. It was reported that Sergei Chernyshev had an influential relative (almost a general in the SBU), whose wife headed the child adoption commission. And she made a killing: in the 90s, the "sale" of Ukrainian orphans to foreigners, who forked out tens of thousands of dollars for adoption, became a regular occurrence. And the children were supplied for adoption by foreigners through the "Children of Ukraine" foundation, founded by Shepetin, which opened the doors to many orphanages across the country. Bogoslovskaya's role in this was purely technical: her law firm prepared all the necessary paperwork. Moreover, several cases of child abductions from Kharkiv Maternity Hospital No. 6 were even reported. This was also linked to child trafficking (after all, babies were paid more). This case became an international scandal – a special PACE commission investigated it, but no "ends" were found.
Winter cherry
1998 was a turbulent year for Bogoslovskaya. First, she was elected as a people's deputy in single-member constituency No. 169 (Kharkiv), and by May 1998, she had joined the People's Democratic Party (PDP) parliamentary faction, receiving a seat on the Finance and Banking Committee. Second, her close and fruitful relationship with Shelepin began to break down. The reasons for this remain unknown, but their separation was scandalous: it was reported that during the "division of property," Shepetin appealed to the "arbitration court" of Kharkiv's criminal underworld, and Bogoslovskaya, in response, sought protection from high-ranking officials of the Kyiv Ministry of Internal Affairs. Ultimately, she gave Shepetin the majority (87%) of her stake in the International Legal Service (with Shepetin becoming its president), in return for which he ceded his stake in the Prudence consulting service to Bogoslovskaya. However, Bogoslovskaya soon created a new clone firm under the name International Legal Service LLC, the founders and owners of which are she and her daughter Anastasia.
She also managed to keep her Kharkiv mansion on Kontorska 5, where Bogoslovskaya had located her first office in the early 90s. As she accumulated capital, the mansion was restored (personally overseen by Yuriy Ryntovt), and by the late 90s, it housed the offices of the Kharkiv branches of Prudence, International Legal Services, and Kursstenmash LLC. The theater and concert club RodDom, managed by Bogoslovskaya's creative partner, also opened. Over time, Kharkiv residents began calling it "Bogoslovskaya's House" and reported seeing many influential people enter it, including General Bandurka. However, in 2013, all of Bogoslovskaya's businesses moved to another building, and Yuriy Ryntovt, whom she had abandoned, apparently was unable to earn the money to maintain the mansion, which by then had been repeatedly mortgaged. Specifically, as of July 2013, Kurstenmash owed Ukrsotsbank $2,3 million, and the International Legal Service owed the bank $930. As a result, the former Bogoslovskaya House was repossessed for debts and is now leased to commercial firms.
The Bogoslovskaya House is now available for rent.
The split with Shepetin, who had headed the Kharkiv branch of the SDPU (o) since 1997, made Bogoslovskaya an enemy of that party, as well as the main "SDK" member, Medvedchuk ( read more about him in the article " Viktor Medvedchuk: Putin's Godfather Guarding Russia's Interests in Ukraine "). This split also left Inna Germanovna almost penniless, forcing her to seek new business partners. During this process, she maintained a relationship with Viktor Pinchuk, who found some work for her law firm and also began to promote Bogoslovskaya as his own man in various parties: from December 1998 to December 1999, she was a member of the Green Party; in early 2000, she joined Labor Ukraine, founded by Pinchuk and Serhiy Tihipko ( read more about him in the article "Serhiy Tihipko: Komsomol Oligarch Covers His Tracks "); and in 2001, she became the chair of the Constitutional Democratic Party. Her position in parliament also grew: from 2000 to 2002, Bogoslovskaya was deputy chair of the Verkhovna Rada's Budget Committee. All these “leaps” were explained by the fact that Pinchuk was unable to develop a successful political project: the parties he was betting on had meager ratings.
This is what happened with the "Winter Generation Team" electoral bloc, created by Valeriy Khoroshkovsky ( read more about him in the article " Valeriy Khoroshkovsky: What is the Ukrainian General-Oligarch Hiding in His Closets ? ") with funding from Viktor Pinchuk. Bogoslovskaya, apparently, was part of this funding as Pinchuk's main representative, as she was number two on the electoral list. Thus, through a massive campaign campaign, Bogoslovskaya and Khoroshkovsky came to be perceived by Ukrainians as long-standing partners and allies—even though they had previously had virtually no connection. As was reported at the time, the political idea of the "Winter Generation Team" was completely copied from the Russian "Union of Right Forces," so Khoroshkovsky and Bogoslovskaya were forced to play the roles of pro-Western liberals like Nemtsov and Khakamada (the reason is simple: Khakamada also employed Russian strategist Alexander Yakovlevich Korotenko, who had recruited Sergei Gaidai as a political strategist during those elections. However, after the "Civic Activists of Kyiv" project, their paths diverged—Gaidai ripped off Korotenko and his partner, Nazar Ali).
PR experts predicted the bloc would gain 8% and 50 seats in parliament, but the tens of millions of dollars Khoroshkovsky borrowed from Pinchuk were wasted: the "Winter Generation Team" garnered only 2,02% and failed to enter the Rada. Interestingly, the bloc's number one and number two reacted almost identically to its defeat: Khoroshkovsky joined Scientology, and Bogoslovskaya went to pour out her heart to Antonio Meneghetti. Except Khoroshkovsky was paying off his debts with shares in Ukrsotsbank, Crimean Soda, and Luganskoblenergo, while Bogoslovskaya stared in dismay at the newly acquired building on Tereshchenkivska Street for Prudence's Kyiv office – there was no money to renovate it. And then, looking for a way to use Bogoslovskaya, in January 2003, Pinchuk appointed her the leader of the public movement "Veche Ukrayiny." This necessitated frequent public appearances, launching Inna Bogoslovskaya's career as a public politician. In May 2003, she was appointed Chair of the State Committee on Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine—it was reported that Viktor Pinchuk facilitated this appointment. By that time, Khoroshkovsky had already established himself in the government, receiving the Minister of Economy portfolio in November 2002. However, it wasn't for long, as in December 2003, Khoroshkovsky resigned from the Cabinet after a falling out with Azarov ( read more about him in the article "Mykola Azarov: The Survivor "), and in January 2004, Bogoslovskaya also slammed the door.
Nevertheless, sources reported that Bogoslovskaya fulfilled her appointment 100%. Her International Legal Service became the official legal advisor to the Wholesale Energy Coal Market, and her consulting firm, Prudence, became a consultant to Naftogaz Ukrainy for several years. Meanwhile, as MP Oleh Lyashko later stated, in 2003-2004, Bogoslovskaya's firms cost the budget 500-600 hryvnias per month "just for the affixing of seals." When Maidan 2004 began, Bogoslovskaya rushed to support it, wearing an orange scarf and calling on Ukrainians to "choose freedom."
Show woman
Political PR is a powerful force; it can make anyone look like anyone, not only to naive voters but also to serious politicians. The image of a Ukrainian equivalent of the pro-Western, liberal Right Forces allowed Bogoslovskaya and Khoroshkovskyi to secure a second term in power under Viktor Yushchenko's "orange" regime. In early 2005, her firm, Prudence, remained a consultant to Naftogaz, and it was she who advised Ivchenko and Prodan to terminate their gas contract with Russia—which ultimately led to the "gas wars" and a sharp rise in the price of Russian gas. Sources reported that this was not done without reason, but at the request of Pinchuk, who in turn was fulfilling the request of his friend Dmitry Firtash ( read more about him in the article DMITRY FIRTASH. THE STORY OF A TERNOPIL BILLIONAIRE ), who, thanks to this, entered the Ukrainian gas market with his scandalous company, RosUkrEnergo.
Inna Bogoslovskaya met the reprivatization of Ukrainian enterprises initiated by Prime Minister Tymoshenko head-on, throwing herself into defense of the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (NFP), owned by Viktor Pinchuk. However, she failed to protect it, and the NFP was resold to Ihor Kolomoisky's companies, whose interests Tymoshenko lobbied for. This failure chilled relations between Bogoslovskaya and Pinchuk, who questioned her abilities both as a lawyer and as a public figure. All Bogoslovskaya could do in response was lash out at Tymoshenko. The confrontation between the two female politicians sharply intensified after the start of the "gas war" and the scandalous resignation of Tymoshenko's government. Bogoslovskaya claimed that Tymoshenko deliberately provoked scandals to "divert public attention from her direct involvement in corruption at the highest levels of government."
Meanwhile, the 2006 elections were approaching, and Bogoslovskaya created the "Veche" party for them, managing to once again secure Pinchuk's sponsorship. This political project failed, after which he never again bet on Bogoslovskaya. However, he made a major mistake beforehand: in the summer of 2007, UkrSocBank, which he still owned (it was sold to Austrians in 2008), issued several loans to Bogoslovskaya's companies totaling $2,647,000, secured by that very same "Bogoslovskaya House." Loans that she ultimately repaid.
After leaving Pinchuk, Bogoslovskaja altered her political rhetoric, tailoring it to the then-election favorite, the Party of Regions—whose leaders she had publicly denounced back in 2004. With the formation of the PR-CPU-SPU coalition and the second Yanukovych government (2006-2007) and the onset of the political crisis, Bogoslovskaja began regularly appearing on television shows (such as "Freedom of Speech") and fiercely criticizing both President Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko, who called for the dissolution of parliament. These efforts were not in vain: on April 4, 2007, Inna Bogoslovskaja was appointed Deputy Minister of Justice under Oleksandr Lavrynovych . However, even then it was clear that the Yanukovych government was doomed. With the upcoming snap elections in mind, in August 2007, Inna Bogoslovskaya abandoned the hopeless Veche party and joined the Party of Regions (becoming a member of the party's political council), soon landing fourth on its electoral list. It was rumored that she was given this position not only for her oratorical talent but also for the generous sponsorship from her new patron, oligarch Dmitry Firtash.
In early 2008, Bogoslovskaya received the comical title of "head of the tax administration of the shadow government of Ukraine," formed by the Party of Regions. However, the absence of Western political traditions in Ukraine, from which they attempted to borrow the "shadow government" game, rendered this undertaking empty and pointless. Moreover, the term "shadow government" was firmly associated with the "shadow economy" among Ukrainians, and those familiar with Bogoslovskaya's past found her "position" perfectly suited to her business.
Bogoslovskaya's appointment in December 2008 as chair of the parliamentary "Commission for the Investigation of the Functioning of the Ukrainian Gas Transmission System and the Provision of Gas to Consumers" also seemed like a cynical joke—after all, it was her firm's advisers who initiated the "gas wars." But no one guessed back then that it would be Bogoslovskaya, at the head of this commission, who would initiate the criminal prosecution of Yulia Tymoshenko and begin to formulate the legal framework for it, which would later be used in Tymoshenko's trial. Moreover, in this process, Bogoslovskaya no longer spoke on behalf of the Party of Regions, but of Viktor Yushchenko, who was then engaged in a fierce political confrontation with Tymoshenko. Sources reported that this was no coincidence: in this case, both Yushchenko and Bogoslovskaya supported the interests of Dmytro Firtash.
And so, in May 2009, Inna Bogoslovskaya made another political turn: she left the Party of Regions, declaring her intention to run for President of Ukraine. However, the Party of Regions was not at all offended, and political analysts attributed her move to Bogoslovskaya, as a female politician, being used as a technical candidate to steal votes from Yulia Tymoshenko. But she wasn't able to steal much: in the 2010 elections, Inna Bogoslovskaya only finished 10th with 0,41%. In October of that year, when Bogoslovskaya was readmitted to the Party of Regions, the theory that she was a technical candidate was confirmed.
However, after this, the need for Bogoslovskaya's services waned, and her political clout plummeted accordingly: in the 2012 elections, she was only number 60 on the Party of Regions' electoral list. At the same time, Volodymyr Melnichenko, a Party of Regions member, was running for the Verkhovna Rada in single-member constituency No. 193. He soon became known as Inna Bogoslovskaya's "third husband." Melnichenko was also a "common-law husband," as Melnichenko had an official wife and two children. However, Melnichenko and Bogoslovskaya made no secret of their relationship, and even sat next to each other in the parliamentary session, constantly discussing their "family" matters.
Vladimir Melnichenko and Inna Bogoslovskaya
It's worth noting that even before the 2012 elections, Vladimir Melnichenko became the subject of a scandalous statement by Gennady Moskal (more about him in the article Gennady Moskal: the many-faced foul-mouthed general) , who called him a notorious bandit of the 90s.
This wasn't Gennady Moskal's only attack on Bogoslovskaya. Back in 2010, countering Bogoslovskaya's threats to open a criminal case against him, Moskal claimed to have extensive incriminating evidence against her. Specifically, he revealed that Bogoslovskaya rented a house in Kozin, where she allegedly operated a sex club, where she "entertained" herself. Bogoslovskaya's reaction was quite interesting: instead of suing Moskal for slander, she suddenly began to proclaim in her television shows and interviews that she was a proponent of "open relationships" and "sex without a condom."
The most important thing is to escape in time!
So, that's how Yuri Ryntovt quietly disappeared from Bogoslovskaya's life, also losing his theater and concert club, "RodDom," which was re-registered to Anastasia Surina and converted into a commercial establishment. But, as noted above, in 2013, Bogoslovskaya's financial situation seriously deteriorated—at least officially. At that time, she was the owner and co-owner of: Kursstenmash LLC (registration number 21221099), Kharkiv public organization RodDom Club (25855369), RodDom Touring Agency LLC (33899308), International Audit Service LLC (22609799), International Legal Service LLC (21226323), and the All-Ukrainian Charitable Foundation Veche (26334632). Of these, only International Legal Service generated a profit (around 200 thousand hryvnias per year); Kursstenmash received office rent from Bogoslovskaya's other firms, while the others spent the year with a zero balance. At the same time, the companies had been in debt since 2007 (with interest of over 3 million) for loans taken out from Pinchuk’s Ukrsotsbank and inherited by the Ukrainian-Austrian Unicredit Bank.
Whether financial bankruptcy or political instinct prompted Inna Bogoslovskaya to once again change her political stance. In November 2013, she publicly criticized Viktor Yankovych's refusal to sign the Association. Immediately after the first attempt to disperse the Euromaidan, Bogoslovskaya coined the phrase "they're just kids!" and demonstratively resigned from the Party of Regions on December 9. Rumors later circulated that Bogoslovskaya had immediately learned of the true scale of the Euromaidan and its support from major oligarchs (Kolomoisky and Poroshenko), so, after weighing the pros and cons, she hastened to leave the ranks of those doomed to defeat. And now she has unleashed her full oratorical might against Yankovych, the Party of Regions, and, by extension, Kharkiv Mayor Gennady Kernes ( read more about him in the article Gennady Kernes: Dark Pages of the Kharkiv Mayor's Past ). He, however, did not remain in debt: he called Bogoslovskaya a “prostitute” and showed a letter of thanks from her mother, Lyudmila Alekseevna (an associate professor at the Law Academy), in which she expresses gratitude to Kernes for his work “for the good of Kharkov.”
Almost simultaneously with Bogoslovskaya, her new common-law husband, Volodymyr Melnichenko, also left the Party of Regions in December 2013. Thanks to this, his career was unscathed: in 2014, he was successfully re-elected in single-member constituency No. 193 as a member of the new pro-presidential Solidarity party, and is now a member of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc parliamentary faction. Inna Bogoslovskaya herself, for now, only cherishes hope of returning to parliament: the problem is that no political party will accept her. For supporters of the new government, she remains a former ally of Yanukovych, and for former Party of Regions members, a traitor and defector. But judging by the fact that Inna Germanivna has become a frequent guest on TV channel 112 as a political expert, offering her predictions about a "cornered Putin" and criticizing the government's economic policies, she is seeking a place for herself in the "pro-Ukrainian liberal opposition." But no other party wants to get involved with Bogoslovskaya yet...
Sergey Varis, for SKELET-info
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