Vitaliy Klichko
In exactly two weeks, Kyiv residents will learn the name of the new mayor. Or rather... the old one? Reputable polling companies have conducted a series of closed polls assessing the ratings of the leading candidates for Kyiv mayor. And although these data have not been officially published, the overall standings are clear. Klitschko is the favorite. But there will be a runoff. The incumbent mayor, a boxer, will not be able to win in the first round. His main rivals are said to be former Kyiv mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko, Batkivshchyna representative Volodymyr Bondarenko, and MP Boryslav Bereza. There's also a fantastical theory that the "kinder surprise" of these elections, a certain Serhiy Dumchev, could make it to the runoff, a man whose campaign and that of his "Rukh za Reformy" (Movement for Reforms) have received considerable investment. But this poll was attributed to rather obscure entities and is being circulated on websites with little credibility.
According to Glavkom, just a couple of months ago, Klitschko's team was racking their brains over who would be a better sparring partner for the incumbent mayor in the next round. Both Omelchenko and the "decisive" Bereza were considered potential rivals. And it appears their predictions proved quite accurate. Internal ratings for Klitschko's campaign recently appeared in the media. As of the end of September, they are as follows: Vitali Klitschko - 32,4%, Oleksandr Omelchenko - 13,2%, Boryslav Bereza - 12%, Vladimir Bondarenko - 8,4%, Sergey Gusovsky - 4,2%, Sergey Dumchev - 4,1%, Gennady Korban - 1,8%, and Yuriy Yekhanurov - 0,8%.
Omelchenko's runoff is now considered part of Klitschko's team strategy. Voters, they say, favor "youth and progress." Omelchenko himself, who turned 77 this year, assured Glavkom that things aren't as simple as they seem. "I see my candidacy in the second round. But with whom—I don't know," he said.
Sociologists currently agree that Klitschko will likely emerge victorious against Omelchenko or Bereza. His potential has not yet been exhausted. "Klitschko will win, but he will no longer have a majority on the Kyiv City Council," Oleksandr Vishnyak noted in a conversation with Glavkom. Iryna Bekeshkina allowed for some "surprises" in the campaign results for the incumbent mayor's campaign. "In the runoff, Klitschko will face Omelchenko or Bereza. Klitschko will most likely win. But there could be surprises. Everything will depend on turnout. If turnout is high, Klitschko will win. If those who don't care don't show up, and those who oppose Klitschko do, anything is possible," the expert conceded.
A total of 28 candidates are running in the mayoral race. The Central Election Commission website lists 29, but Ihor Mosiychuk, the arrested candidate from the Radical Party, has withdrawn from the race. The list includes some surprising candidates: former allies of the current mayor, politicians who voted for "dictatorial laws," and representatives of "fake" parties.
Almost all candidates are building their campaigns on criticism of the current mayor, with capital development plans coming second. The standard candidate agenda includes increasing the city budget, addressing the problems with small architectural forms and parking, addressing tariffs, making Kyiv a tourist destination, improving the lives of city residents, and so on.
Vitaliy Klichko
BPP Solidarity
Sociologists are now predicting a victory for this candidate—but not in the first round. During his tenure as mayor, Klitschko has managed to lose some of the electorate's favor.
Let's recall that last May, Vitaly Vladimirovich abandoned the presidential race, supporting Petro Poroshenko, and announced his participation in the mayoral campaign. It was largely due to this that Klitschko's third attempt to become mayor was ultimately successful. Let's recall that in 2006, the politician-boxer lost to Leonid Chernovetsky (Read more about it in the article Leonid Chernovetsky: How "Lenya Kosmos" robbed Kyiv and moved to Georgia), in 2008 – to Chernovetsky and Alexander Turchinov.
The mayor's list of accomplishments over the past almost eighteen months includes perhaps only a not-so-successful campaign against small architectural forms. Now, Klitschko is promoting himself by suddenly launching new public transport routes purchased under Popov, personally inspecting the repair of the city's main sewer, which burst a couple of months before the election (although, as Glavkom has discovered, the authorities were warned of this "surprise" well in advance), and launching the "Troyeshchyna - European Square" bike path. But by and large, there have been no truly significant changes in the capital. One of the points in the current mayor's election platform was a moratorium on illegal construction and a ban on high-rise buildings in the historic center. And Klitschko's opponents in the election accuse him of currently owning 10 of the 14 illegal construction sites in the capital, owned by wealthy businessmen from his party. There's nothing surprising about this situation: the capital is effectively run not so much by Vitaly Vladimirovich as by his first deputy and the infamous millionaire developer Igor Nikonov.
As part of this election campaign, the mayor's team, which had previously relied on youth, has already handed out 100 hryvnias to Kyiv pensioners. "Outraged pensioners brought letters from Klitschko to my civic reception office, in which he, following Chernovetskyi's example, bribes older people a month before the election. The pensioners say, 'What do they think we are? First they drive us to impoverishment, and then they throw 100 hryvnias at the elections!'" Andriy Pavlovsky, leader of Kyiv's Batkivshchyna party, wrote on his Facebook page.
The Kyiv mayor presented the funds, sent to a card or by postal order, as aid for the International Day of Older Persons (October 1), which fit so well into the election campaign.
Alexander Omelchenko
"Unity"
San Sanych led the capital for 10 years, but in 2006, his "star" faded when Kyiv residents unexpectedly elected another mayor, Leonid Chernovetskyi. All subsequent attempts by Omelchenko to return to the capital's Olympus were futile, and he didn't even hide his resentment at the "ungrateful" Kyivans. Last year, Omelchenko and one of his allies managed to win a seat on the Kyiv City Council as part of his own party, "Unity."
Compared to the last three mayors of the capital, San Sanych looks far from the worst city manager. Even his opponents acknowledge this, despite their mixed feelings about Omelchenko. Under Omelchenko, construction began on major transportation hubs (some of which were later frozen) and three metro stations (Demiivska, Vasylkivska, and VDNKh), which opened under Yanukovych. Evil tongues are peddling the theory that 77-year-old Omelchenko is being deliberately dragged into the runoff as the most convenient opponent for the young Klitschko. And it is the current mayor's team that is allegedly funding Omelchenko and his political force's campaign, so they can enter the City Council in two columns and secure the coveted majority, which Solidarity alone will certainly not achieve. This version is supported by the fact that some of the "UDAR" members in the Kyiv City Council, who were not included in the "BPP-Solidarity" list for the upcoming elections, have migrated to "Unity" and are running for this force.
Overall, an analysis of the Unity list leaves a strange impression: alongside little-known school principals, pensioners, scientists, and volunteers, in some districts there are former Party of Regions members, former members of Chernovetskyi's team, members of the "Khmelnytskyi group," and a whole host of candidates with ties to real estate developers. The controversial former head of the Shevchenkivskyi district, Viktor Pylypyshyn, who effectively heads the Unity party headquarters, also managed to get his people onto the list.
Borislav Bereza
Party of Resolute Citizens
According to sociologists, Bereza has a chance of making it to the second round two weeks before the vote. This politician gained widespread popularity during the Maidan, where he met Dmytro Yarosh and became head of the Right Sector's information department.
Last October, as the press secretary of the Right Sector party, he won a seat in the Verkhovna Rada from a single-member constituency in Troyeshchyna, embracing the fight against illegal casinos and small architectural forms. He and his team are, in fact, still waging a campaign against them, essentially stealing voters from the incumbent mayor. His other campaign promises include combating illegal construction, downsizing the government, reducing tariffs, returning the capital's energy sector to city control, and creating municipal parking lots in residential areas.
Before the elections, Bereza announced his departure from the Right Sector. Kolomoisky's "right-hand man," Gennady Korban, made no secret of the fact that they initially envisioned a public figure like Bereza as the leader of the Ukrop party. As he recounted in an interview with Glavkom, Privatbank negotiated with Bereza and even began "slightly financing" him. But things didn't work out. Bereza accepted the money, but he refused to lead Ukrop. "Bereza is a fairly capable guy, but he has personal ambitions. He wants to be mayor, and that's it," Korban explained. Ultimately, the deputy was nominated for mayor by the Party of Resolute Citizens.
Vladimir Bondarenko
"Batkivshchyna"
According to preliminary estimates, Volodymyr Bondarenko, a member of the Batkivshchyna party, could also be a contender for a top spot in this race. He already has experience serving on the Kyiv City Council and in positions within the capital's government. Bondarenko was also elected to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine four times. At various times, he had ties to the Reforms and Order party (led by Viktor Pynzenyk), Yushchenko's Our Ukraine bloc, and Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna bloc. In March 2014, Bondarenko became head of the Kyiv City State Administration, replacing Volodymyr Makeyenko. At that time, the politician quickly succeeded in having an illegal fair near the Central Election Commission building on Lesi Ukrainka Square demolished.
However, Bohdarenko's tenure in this position was short-lived. That spring, Vitali Klitschko won the mayoral elections, and Bondarenko left the Kyiv State Administration. During the previous election campaign, Bondarenko promised to return the Gostiny Dvor, the Actor's House, the Heart Center, and the Start Stadium to the capital's ownership. However, all this only resulted in a third-place finish, with the Batkivshchyna member receiving 7,91% of the vote.
In these elections, the Kyiv branch of the Batkivshchyna party nominated Bondarenko again as a candidate, and he also topped the party's list for the Kyiv City Council elections. Bondarenko's current campaign platform, according to the politician, is aimed at regaining the public's trust. He positions himself as a business-minded mayor and promises to change the approach to utility tariffs. He is confident that the Kyiv City State Administration has every right to influence tariffs, and this can be done through the supervisory boards of Kyivgaz, Kyivenergo, Kyivvodokanal, and Kyivmiskbud. Bondarenko also intends to create a system that will eliminate direct contact between citizens and various officials.
Like the sacked Kyiv chief architect, Serhiy Tselovalnik, Bondarenko supports the controversial idea of demolishing the Friendship of Nations Arch, as there can be no talk of friendship in the midst of a war with Russia. He proposes "building the church that once stood there" in its place.
Sergey Gusovsky
Self-Reliance
Gusovsky, a restaurant chain owner and Kyiv City Council member, identified the lack of a quality development strategy as the city's main problem. He also highlighted reforming the housing and utilities sector through the mass creation of apartment building co-owners' associations, touched on public transportation and parking, and proposed equipping minibuses with GPS devices (to accurately assess their performance) and ticket readers (to better track passengers). Gusovsky promised to clean up the capital's kindergartens, make Kyiv a European-style tourist destination, improve the healthcare system, and address the waste disposal problem through waste sorting.
The candidate also proposed creating a deputy mayoral position for the candidate who comes in second in the election. "After our team wins, the second-place candidate in the mayoral elections will become the first deputy – deputy mayor. I will submit his candidacy to the President and the Cabinet of Ministers for approval. This will help balance the city's governance and take into account the interests of the two largest and most active groups of Kyiv residents," Gusovskyi believes. However, experts acknowledge that his personal rating is significantly lower than that of Samopomich, Sadovyi's political force, which has a chance of finishing in the top three in the capital.
Sergey Dumchev
Movement for Reforms
Two months ago, Kyiv residents hardly knew who Dumchev was. But now his bright billboards are ubiquitous across the capital, and newspapers featuring the "Kyiv Rhinoceros" are being distributed in every busy spot in the city. The "Rukh za za reformy!" advertising campaign is undoubtedly the most expensive yet.
Dumchev is the chairman of the supervisory board of PJSC Commercial Bank Premium. In the 2014 parliamentary elections, he was 20th on Serhiy Tihipko's Strong Ukraine list. However, he is now being linked not only to Tihipko, but also to Oleksandr Klymenko (who may allegedly be involved in the financing of the Rukh party), and to former Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema (who is considered Dumchev's godfather).
Dumchev's plans for mayor include: filling the budget (as his billboards show, bringing it out of the shadows and tripling it), creating new infrastructure and a new General Plan, ensuring the inviolability of "green zones," a network of bicycle lanes, paid parking, restoring youth sports schools in every district of the city, and, of course, insurance-based healthcare, the principles of which the most controversial candidate, as a student, explains on television.
Gennady Korban
"Dill"
This is the second campaign for this candidate in the past year. An associate of the flamboyant billionaire and former governor Ihor Kolomoisky, he entered the race for a mandate in a district in Chernihiv this summer. His main rival was the odious Serhiy Berezenko. To win, the candidates did not shy away from dishonest tactics. Several weeks before election day, Korban, on behalf of the Ukrop charitable foundation, began openly distributing food rations. But the buckwheat didn't help Korban. People took the food, but it didn't always translate into votes.
Korban joined the mayoral campaign relatively late, but at this stage his main task for the Privat group is to promote a new political force.
In terms of the number of billboards and city lights in the city, Korban is among the leaders in outdoor advertising. According to him, his and the party's ratings in the capital hover around 4,5%. The candidate's primary focus is on criticizing the current mayor (his campaign slogan is "Time to Change the Mayor!"). Korban is confident that stories about replaced pipes and plans to make the metro cheaper are beyond the mayor's capabilities. However, it seems he himself hasn't yet figured out Kyiv's problems.
Yuri Yekhanurov
"Revival"
Yuriy Yekhanurov is a professor at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. He recently held senior government positions, including prime minister and defense minister. He was a member of parliament for three convocations and also served as deputy head of the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine. He was a member of Viktor Yushchenko's "Our Ukraine." However, in recent years, Yekhanurov has remained on the sidelines of mainstream political processes. However, he decided to join the "Revival" movement, which is now associated with Kolomoisky and Khomutynnik.
Anastasia Belous
"Revival of Ukraine"
Information about both the candidate and the political party itself is scant online. According to the Wikipedia page, the party was only registered in March 2015. Perhaps it's not worth paying much attention to Bilous, a lawyer for Alent Plus LLC. But the name "Revival of Ukraine" sounds similar to "Revival"—Vitaly Khomutynnik's political party, which nominated the aforementioned Yekhanurov in the Kyiv mayoral election.
In Kyiv, the "doubles" are keeping a low profile for now. However, in Dnipropetrovsk, where Vozrozhdenie was not registered, a scandal has erupted. Stanislav Zholudev, chairman of the All-Ukrainian public organization "Committee of Voters of Ukraine," speaking about the local elections in Dnipropetrovsk, called the party a complete clone of Vozrozhdenie. According to him, the leadership of this political force includes people with the same names as those in Vozrozhdenie, but they represent different regions of the country. The leader of Vozrozhdenie in Dnipropetrovsk is Vladimir Semenovych Kutsin, the general director of the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant. Meanwhile, Vozrozhdenie of Ukraine is headed by Vladimir Leonidovych Kutsin, a native of the village of Liman in the Zmiiv district of the Kharkiv region. Kutsin, according to media reports, was recently found dead.
Evgeny Rybchinsky
self-nominated
The renowned poet, composer, producer, and now politician lived with his family in the United States in the years leading up to the Maidan. However, events in the country forced him to return. Since the summer of 2014, he has held weekly charity events in support of the Ukrainian army, raising funds for the large families of those killed in the war. Then, unexpectedly, he decided to enter politics and ran for the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv's 211th constituency (Holosiivskyi district) under the Poroshenko Bloc banner.
Despite the President's team "agreed" on the candidacy of the incumbent mayor, Klitschko, then-MP Yevhen Rybchynskyi from the BPP faction in the Verkhovna Rada decided to test his mettle in the race himself. After registering, he left the presidential party's faction. On campaign boards, the son of the legendary poet, songwriter, and playwright Yuriy Rybchynskyi, with a flourish—covering the entire side of the building—promises to "return Kyiv to the people of Kyiv."
Vladimir Ruban
Officer Corps
With the outbreak of the war in Donbas in May 2014, General Ruban began negotiating the release of prisoners. He served as an intermediary between the field commanders of the "DPR" and "LPR" and the Ukrainian government. In July 2014, he established the "Officer Corps" Prisoner Release Center in Dnipropetrovsk.
Ruban had previously expressed the idea of reaching an agreement with the self-proclaimed republics in Donbas and refused to recognize Russia as an aggressor. He recently praised the "DPR." "The 'Novorossiya' project envisioned not just two regions, but eight. It's not some saintly romantics trying to build some kind of new country here. They're building it here without oligarchs. The demands voiced on the Maidan are being met here. A huge number of Ukrainian 'hurrah-patriots' consider me a traitor if I say anything good about the Donetsk region. I've seen plenty of bad things here, but I see how they're coping and where they're heading. The freedoms they're proclaiming, demanding, and implementing will be welcomed by the Poltava region, the Kyiv region, and the Khmelnytskyi region," he told the Russian propaganda television channel "Red Line."
Alexander Mirny
"Freedom"
It was initially assumed that Svoboda would be represented in the mayoral elections in the capital by either the 2014 mayoral candidate or a people's deputy Andrey Ilyenko, or his party and parliamentary colleague, Yuriy Levchenko, who earned popularity, including in a heated contest with Pilipishin in the controversial 223rd constituency in the capital. However, the choice fell on the little-known Mirny.
"We didn't want to deceive the people—we're putting a current MP in the lead position on the Kyiv City Council, so what happens next?" Oleh Tyahnybok, the leader of the political force in the capital, explained his position in an interview with Glavkom.
Oleksandr Myrnyi was a member of parliament in the 7th convocation representing the Svoboda party. He is one of the party's sponsors and founded an agricultural enterprise. Myrnyi recently tried his hand at Kyiv, running in the January 2015 Kyiv City Council midterm elections in single-mandate constituency No. 8. However, he lost. Myrnyi now calls his main goal "to show Kyiv residents a city they want to return to." Among his priorities, he cites the introduction of genuine self-government in the capital, whereby the community of a street or district, rather than officials, would coordinate decisions on many issues. He is also confident that he will be able to significantly increase the capital's budget by forcing oligarchic groups that lease municipal property to pay a fair price for it.
Maxim Melnichuk
Agrarian Party of Ukraine
Maksym Melnychuk is Vice President of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine and a scientist specializing in virology, biotechnology, ecology, and bioenergy. He holds a Doctor of Biological Sciences and is a full member of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine. The newly minted politician is the son of the longtime rector of the National Agrarian University (NAU), Dmytro Melnychuk, who was recently dismissed amid scandal. Maksym served as the head of the Chemical Safety Department at the Ministry of Environmental Protection and was elected head of the State Chemical Commission. In December 2004, he founded the educational and scientific Institute of Nature Conservation and Biotechnology at NAU, which he headed until October 1, 2007.
Sergey Melnichuk
self-nominated
Founder and first commander of the Aidar Battalion. In the last parliamentary elections, he entered the Rada as number three on the list of Oleh Lyashko's Radical Party. He was later expelled from the faction "for actions that discredit the title of People's Deputy of Ukraine and for violating his oath." In March, Melnychuk joined the "People's Will" parliamentary group of the late Ihor Yeremeyev.
It is also known that the Prosecutor General's Office has opened a criminal investigation against Melnychuk and five other individuals, alleging they committed armed robberies, kidnapped people, seized a vehicle, and used violence against law enforcement officers. On October 1, the indictment was transferred to the Shevchenkivskyi District Court for trial.
Alexander Puzanov
Opposition Bloc
He founded his own law firm, Puzanov and Partners. In June 2010, he was appointed deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration to Leonid Chernovetskyi. In February 2012, he became chief of staff of the administration. He left in April 2014, when Volodymyr Bondarenko became acting head of the administration. Since then, he has served as an advisor to the chairman of the board of the Ukrainian Insurance Group. Since May of this year, he has also headed the Kyiv branch of the Opposition Bloc.
Puzanov is considered a close associate of Serhiy Lyovochkin. As deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration, he was responsible, among other things, for numerous lawsuits filed by the city administration against Maidan protesters. As a result, court decisions directed the deployment of Berkut and other special forces units to clear the Maidan.
Vasily Gatsko
Democratic Alliance
He worked as a junior research fellow in the Department of Social and Economic Strategy at the National Institute for Strategic Studies. In 2010, he was elected head of the Democratic Alliance political party, and has been a member since its inception. In 2012, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv's constituency #211, finishing sixth with 2,21%. In 2014, he led the Democratic Alliance list in the Kyiv City Council elections and became a member of parliament.
Vladimir Makeenko
Our Land
Makeenko served as a member of parliament for six terms. Throughout his long tenure in parliament, he maintained political ties to the Socialist Party, Petro Poroshenko's Solidarity, and Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine bloc. Since 2006, he has been a member of the Party of Regions, serving as deputy of the Party of Regions faction. For the last two terms, he chaired the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Rules of Procedure, Ethics, and Support of the Verkhovna Rada. He voted for the "dictatorial laws."
On January 25, 2013, during the Euromaidan uprising, Yanukovych appointed him head of the Kyiv City State Administration, replacing Oleksandr Popov. On February 20, he announced his resignation from the Party of Regions. And on March 4, he was dismissed from his post in the presidential administration by acting President Oleksandr Turchynov.
Victor Cherny
"Right of the People"
Viktor Cherny, a native of the Donetsk region, worked in the SDPU(o) office when Viktor Medvedchuk was its leader. The Central Election Commission's website lists him as the director of the detective security company "Svarog." He currently graces billboards with the overused slogan "Affordable Housing." Cherny spoke out against the city government's demolition of small architectural forms without providing jobs for entrepreneurs and their employees.
The candidate is a devout Slavophile and the frontman of the rock bands Svarozhichi and Senator Black Brothers. His party positions itself as a "brotherhood of people united by faith in the Almighty." The former Social Democrat remains loyal to Medvedchuk, having headed the "Ukrainian Choice" center for organizational and educational work, which is headed by Putin's godfather. Interestingly, the mayoral candidate's wife, Olga Arkanova-Chernaya, is running for the Kyiv City Council on the ticket of San Sanych Omelchenko's "Unity" political force.
Lyubov Bogachenko
Women of Ukraine
According to the Central Election Commission, she is the director of Otsenka Premium LLC. Bogachenko's Facebook page also indicates that she is an assistant consultant to the people's deputy.
In 2014, she ran for the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv's 221st single-member constituency from Serhiy Tihipko's Strong Ukraine party and took 11th place.
The political force represented by Bogachenko approached its election advertising, let's say, not without imagination.
Alexander Kondrashov
Local Self-Government Party
According to the Central Election Commission, Kondrashov is a professor in the Department of Public Administration and Local Self-Government at the Academy of Municipal Administration. He previously worked in the tax service. He served as deputy head of the Tax Police Department of the State Tax Administration in Kyiv, head of the State Tax Inspectorate in the Holosiivskyi district, first deputy head of the State Tax Service in Kyiv Oblast, head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Revenue and Duties in Crimea, and head of a department at the National Security and Defense Council.
Natalia Novak
"Civic position"
Novak served as a member of the Kyiv City Council in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth convocations, and as deputy head of the UDAR faction in the city council. She was elected to the seventh and eighth convocations of the Verkhovna Rada with UDAR (last time, after merging with Poroshenko's political force, she placed 16th on the BPP list). She is currently an MP from the BPP faction. She was considered personally loyal to Klitschko. However, she has now chosen the political force. Anatoly Gritsenko.
Tatyana Montian
«Спільна дія»
In the 2014 Verkhovna Rada elections in the 212th constituency in the Darnytskyi district, Montyan received approximately 20% of the vote, second only to People's Front candidate Vitaliy Stashuk. However, in the by-election to the Kyiv City Council in constituency No. 8 in January 2015, she did not make it into the top three. Tatyana is known as a fighter against the communal mafia and as a rather radical and outrageous personality. In early December 2014, Montyan visited the occupied territories of the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts and met with Mozgovoy and Shevchenko, leaders of the Prizrak terrorist group. She covered the trip on her Facebook page, which provoked a storm of criticism.
Gennady Balashov
«5.10»
Entrepreneur Balashov was a member of the Verkhovna Rada of the third convocation. He was a member of the Public Council of Experts on Domestic Policy under President Leonid Kuchma. He hosted the program "Stress Show: The Psychology of Money" on Business Radio and "The Balashov Show: The Psychology of Money" on the Business Channel. He advocates radical tax reform for Ukraine – the so-called 5.10 system (5% sales tax and 10% payroll tax). In the 2012 parliamentary elections, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada in the 221st constituency in Kyiv, but only finished sixth. Since March 2014, he has been the leader of the 5.10 political party. In the 2014 snap presidential elections, he supported Petro Poroshenko, hoping that Yulia Tymoshenko would not win.
Roman Mikhailov
The Power of People
According to the Central Election Commission, he is an economist in the research department and an associate professor at the Institute of International Relations at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. He worked as a department director at the Ukrainian insurance company Kniazha. At 20, he became the CEO and co-founder of First Insurance Partners LLC. Last year, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada and Kyiv City Council as a member of the Democratic Alliance party.
Dmitry Pavlichenko
Ukrainian Republican Party
A defendant in the infamous Pavlichenko case. In 2012, Dmytro was sentenced to death for allegedly murdering Serhiy Zubkov, a judge at Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi District Court who specialized in controversial developments in the city center. His son, Serhiy, was sentenced to 13 years. In 2014, both were rehabilitated by the Verkhovna Rada and recognized as political prisoners in accordance with the Verkhovna Rada's resolution on political prisoners. In the 2014 parliamentary by-election, Dmytro ran in a single-member constituency in Kyiv. He is currently involved in human rights activities.
Alexey Samokhin
Auto-Maidan
According to the Central Election Commission, he manages his own law firm. In 2006, he was elected to the Desnyansky District Council, where he led the Leonid Chernovetskyi Bloc faction. In 2008, he served as an advisor to Mayor Chernovetskyi and as head of the Department of Urban Development and City Improvement. He held the position of acting first deputy head of the Main Department of Urban Development, Architecture, and Urban Environment Design. In 2010-11, he served as deputy director for legal affairs at Alliance Capital LLC.
Despite the party's evocative name, the candidate has no connection to Automaidan. In early October, one of the movement's leaders, Oleksiy Hrytsenko, posted on Facebook that the Auto-Maidan party and its participation in the elections was a provocation and a fake. "Former Chernovetskyi Bloc MP Oleksiy Samokhin renamed his puppet party and is now speculating on the name of a social phenomenon that emerged during the Euromaidan. He had no personal connection to Automaidan... On the contrary, he sided with the enemies of the Maidan. Clearly, someone financed this 'project,'" Hrytsenko stated.
Nikolai Dulsky
self-nominated
Interestingly, Dulsky was the second candidate nominated by Oleksandr Omelchenko's Unity party, according to data published on the Central Election Commission website. This is, in principle, impossible. And Deputy Head of the Central Election Commission Andriy Magera, having investigated the issue, explained to Glavkom that it was a technical error. "The city commission explained that only Omelchenko was nominated by Unity. The other candidate was an independent candidate. The city commission registered him as an independent candidate. There was an error. Everything will be corrected," he promised.
Not much is known about Dulsky. He's 26 years old. He's the founder of "Fashion Sentence," a group whose members beat up anyone they consider to have an unconventional appearance. As Dulsky himself explained, the group initially advocated for morality, a healthy lifestyle, respect for elders, and fought drug trafficking, gambling, and government corruption. "Fashion Sentence" was created during the Maidan. We wanted to "sentence" the fashion for smoking and drinking, nightclubbing, and promiscuity. Then, clones of "Fashion Sentence" began appearing, engaging in outright lawlessness. We rounded up these "sentencers" and explained that it wasn't right to do so. But after I left, "Fashion Sentence" turned into a gathering of outlaws who now beat up guys just for their unconventional appearance, using my name as a cover," explained the movement's founder. Now he is the head of the radical movement "Emery", which grew out of "Fashion Sentence".
Social media users also note the candidate's sympathies for the "DPR." On his VKontakte page, Dulsky notes that "Nazdak" is neutral and does not support the "fratricidal civil war." He also posts "a separatist's reflections on why the East rose up against the 'oligarchic junta.'"
Darth Vader
(Darth Vader Block)
Dart Vader is a frequent participant in Ukrainian elections. All that is known about this particular Vader, Dart Leonidovych, is that he was born in 1990 and is currently temporarily unemployed. As a reminder, a certain Dart Vader Leonidovych represented the Internet Party of Ukraine in the 134th constituency during the 2014 parliamentary campaign and withdrew his candidacy on the eve of the elections.
In topic: Yuriy Yekhanurov: Dark Spots in the Biography of the Kyiv Mayoral Candidate
The Corrupt "Rhino" and Dumchev. Mafia-style populism is vying for power in Kyiv.
Vasily Gatsko, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, protects Levochkin's interests.
Katerina Peshko, Glavcom
Subscribe to our channels in Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, VC — Only new faces from the section CRYPT!