Vladimir Didukh
Businessman Vladimir Didukh, also known as crime boss Vova Morda, stated that at one time he gave the All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" $48 million for the development of the political force.
Didukh said he did not personally give money for the maintenance of party cells, rallies, and salaries to party officials to party leader Oleh Tyahnybok, but rather transferred it through Ihor Kryvetsky, a member of parliament from Svoboda, Zaxid.net writes.
"I didn't personally give money to Tyahnybok; I gave it to Pups (Igor Kryvetsky's nickname – Ed.). So that it wouldn't be said that a crime boss gave the party money. In this way, Pups would be transferring my money. I was cutting off funding for the entire party," Volodymyr Didukh told Express newspaper in an interview published on November 13.
According to him, he began funding the party back when the Svoboda members started out as deputies in local councils and were “naked and barefoot.”
"It was 500 at first, then a million, then two, then three. Then it was eight. A total of $48 million. There were times when I saw Tyahnybok every day. At the Fashion Club," Vova Morda said.
He also claimed that he had essentially helped Svoboda come into being. However, after the party "sold" the nationalist idea that had won it the parliamentary elections, the idea that had made people believe in it, he cut off its funding.
"When they got involved with Yanukovych's people, like Kurchenko, I said: 'He's importing billions of dollars' worth of gasoline under the guise of transit, and then disposing of it domestically without paying taxes.' Get him. You have to stop these kinds of schemes; you're the opposition. And Pups told me: 'He gives us more money.' And so our relationship began to deteriorate. They took money from Sivkovych and others. And when they installed Makhnitsky as Prosecutor General, it's scary to say what happened. Svoboda started accepting money everywhere and for everything. Without Pups, no one moved," Didukh explained.
Vladimir Didukh also said that Svoboda, specifically through Igor Krivetsky, had done business with the notorious oligarch Dmitry Firtash: "They can deny Firtash's involvement now, but if Firtash's property was registered to Pups's mother, how can they deny it?"
He claims he demands that party officials return the money he spent on Svoboda. Besides, Didukh says Svoboda has plenty of money.
"When they were in power, they accepted $600 million. Look at the hotels he (Pups – Ed.) bought – the Georges in central Lviv, the Hyatt in central Kyiv, the banks bought them up. They paid $200 million for the Hyatt alone," Vova Morda emphasized.
Volodymyr Didukh has long been a figure in Lviv's crime news. He was first arrested on suspicion of racketeering in 1994. He received a suspended sentence and served several years in pretrial detention. Several attempts were made on his life, including in 2012, when his car was shot at in downtown Lviv. The driver died, and Didukh himself was seriously wounded: bullets struck his neck and head.
In 2014, Volodymyr Didukh ran for the Verkhovna Rada in the snap parliamentary elections on the list of the Civil Movement of Ukraine party.
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