The preliminary list has changed significantly in two weeks. Who will actually run for the Radical Party?
Two weeks ago, on September 14, delegates to the VI Congress of the Radical Party approved a list of candidates for people's deputies in the snap elections to the Verkhovna Rada.
The political force's official resources published brief information on only the top ten candidates, which included volunteer battalion fighters, a swimmer, a singer, several managers, and party leader Oleh Lyashko.
The names of another 60 potential candidates were circulated by journalists present at the congress, but without their patronymics, it was difficult to say anything about them with certainty.
The final list of the Radical Party, published on the Electoral Commission's website, differed from the one announced at the congress. Even the top ten candidates were changed, although by law, candidates can only be changed at the congress. This means there were clear violations.
As a result of the substitutions, Yuriy-Bohdan Shukhevych, son of Roman Shukhevych, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), now stands at number 5 in place of Artem Zapototsky, a lawyer wounded on the Maidan. Denis Silantyev, a swimmer, has been replaced in the eighth position by Valeriy Voshchevsky, the former head of Ukravtodor.
Further down the list, there were also changes. For example, Konstantin Kondakov disappeared from the 28th position. He is a well-known Ukrainian stock trader and the founder of the FOREX MMCIS group dealing center, which critics call a functioning financial pyramid. Kondakov himself has been dubbed "the second Mavrodi" in the press.
In addition, many candidates simply switched places on the list.
According to sociological research, the Radical Party currently has an approval rating of around 8-9%, with a 5% threshold. If these predictions come true, Lyashko will be able to bring about 50 people into the Verkhovna Rada under his name.
Lyashko's party has traditionally been referred to as the project of former Presidential Administration Chief Sergei Levochkin. The list includes people who have crossed paths with Levochkin repeatedly during their careers, such as Valery Voshchevsky, or are simply friends with him, such as Denis Silantyev.
When asked who Levochkin's people are on the list, Lyashko, one of the heads of the Inter channel, joked, "Everyone."
INSIDER analyzed potential MPs and figured out who they really are.
Lyashko's list
No. 1 Oleg Lyashko – People's Deputy of Ukraine of the 7th convocation, elected to parliament from single-mandate constituency No. 208 in the Chernihiv region. Head of the Radical Party.
Since 1990, he worked as a journalist and editor for the newspapers Young Guard, Pravda Ukrainy, and Svoboda.
In 2006, he became a people's deputy, running as the 26th candidate of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. In the 2007 snap parliamentary elections, he again ran on the BYuT list, this time as the 29th candidate.
In 2010, he was expelled from the faction after a video surfaced online, allegedly showing Lyashko being interrogated by a prosecutor's office investigator, where he was recorded on video talking about his connections with a high-ranking official named Boris.
After this, he began an independent political career. It was then that the story of Lyashko's fraudulent activities in his younger years came to light.
No. 2 Andrey Lozovoy – Lyashko's deputy and consultant. He was also the second-ranking candidate for the Radical Party in the 2012 parliamentary elections, but the party failed to clear the 5% threshold. In the December 2013 runoff elections, he ran for the united opposition in the 94th constituency (Obukhov), but finished second. Journalists remember him only for distributing leaflets in parliament.
Andrey Lozovoy
No. 3 Sergey Melnichuk – the initiator of the creation and commander of the Aidar volunteer battalion. However, the commander's reputation is far from clear, and behind his back, some Aidar battalion members blame the battalion commander for the battalion's numerous casualties.
No. 4 Inna Bordyug (Zlata Ognevich) – singer, soloist of the State Ensemble of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In 2013, she represented Ukraine at Eurovision, where she took third place.
No. 5 Yuri-Bogdan Shukhevych – son of the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) Roman Shukhevych.
No. 6 Igor Popov – President of the Politika Analytical Center. Former Chairman of the Board of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine. In 2009, by decree of Viktor Yushchenko, he was appointed Deputy Head of the Presidential Secretariat (under Viktor Baloha). He was a member of Baloha's United Center party. In 2010, he resigned following Yushchenko's departure.
In September 2011, by decree of Viktor Yanukovych, he was appointed First Deputy Head of the National Agency of Ukraine for Civil Service. He was dismissed in 2013.
A week before the Radical Party congress, he took part in a roundtable discussion of the future Opposition Bloc, representing a symbiosis of the Party of Regions, Medvedchuk's supporters, and Sergei Levochkin's people.
Popov at a round table of the yet-to-be-created Opposition Bloc
No. 7 Artem Vitko - commander of the Lugansk-1 battalion.
No. 8 Valery Voshchevsky – former head of Ukravtodor. He was appointed to the position by Mykola Azarov's government, but was dismissed after just two months. In 2005-2006 and 2008-2010, he was chairman of the board of the Automobile Roads of Ukraine. He also chaired the supervisory board and owned 88% of the Chernihiv confectionery factory Strela.
In 2000, he worked in the Presidential Administration under Leonid Kuchma. He also spent time with Volodymyr Lytvyn's Peasant Party, Valeriy Khoroshkovsky's "Winter Generation," and the controversial State Attestation Committee. He also served as Khoroshkovsky's deputy at the Ministry of Economy. Both in Kuchma's Administration and on Lytvyn's list, Voshchevsky's paths crossed with that same Lyovochkin on numerous occasions.
No. 9 Igor Mosiychuk – journalist, activist in the social-nationalist movement, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Vecherniy Vasylkiv," and a defendant in the "Vasylkiv terrorists" case. Since 2014, he has been a member of the Kyiv City Council from the Radical Party and chair of the committee on law enforcement, public order, and the fight against corruption. Former deputy commander of the Azov Battalion.
No. 10 Victor Galasyuk – economist, president of Kyiv's Bionic Hill technology park, the construction of which was frozen. Vasyl Khmelnytsky was the investor in this project. (read more about it in the article Vasyl Khmelnytsky: the planted oligarch) – co-owner of the Kyiv Investment Group and a member of parliament for four convocations: from the Green Party, then from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, and the last two times from the Party of Regions.
No. 11 Alexey Lensky - Lyashko's assistant, member of the Radical Party political committee.
In 2008-2009, together with Lyashko and other members of the "RP," he received a plot of land from the state in the city of Bucha, Kyiv region. According to Ukrainska Pravda, the former president's son, Oleksandr Yanukovych, later used this plot to build something similar to Mezhyhirya.
No. 12 Denis Silantyev – Ukrainian swimmer, Honored Master of Sports in swimming, world champion, European champion, and four-time winner of the Swimming World Cup. In 2012, he ran for parliament in the 217th district (Obolon in Kyiv) as an independent candidate. He lost by a wide margin to Oleksandr Bryhynets (Batkivshchyna). He served on the public council under the head of the Kyiv City State Administration, Oleksandr Popov.
No. 13 Elena Kosheleva – volunteer of the Kharkov military hospital.
No. 14 Ivan Zayats – Member of Parliament of the 5th convocation from the People's Movement of Ukraine, Our Ukraine, and Our Ukraine-NS. In 2000-2001, he was Minister of Ecology in the government of Viktor Yushchenko. He is currently an assistant to a people's deputy.
No. 15 Yuri Sukhin – In 2011, he was Lyashko's first deputy in the Radical Party. In 2014, he was elected to the Kyiv City Council as a member of the Committee on Housing and Utilities and Fuel and Energy.
Like Lensky, Sukhin figures in the scandal surrounding land in Bucha, where Yanukovych's son allegedly built a house.
No. 16 Andrey Artemenko – one of the leaders of the Right Sector. In 1999, he was appointed president of the CSKA football club, which was subordinate to the Ministry of Defense. The club became embroiled in a complex debt settlement scheme involving Gazprom and Naftogaz. Following the investigation, Artemenko spent two and a half years in custody.Read more about it in the article Mafioso Andrey Artemenko: Dossier and biography of the scandalous Radical Party deputy).
After his release, in 2006 he headed the BYuT in the Kyiv City Council, and later joined Chernovetsky’s majority.
No. 17 Oleg Kuprienko – lawyer, chairman of the Chernihiv territorial organization of the "Radical Party." Head of the "Council of Advocates of the Chernihiv Region."
No. 18 Alexey Kirichenko – Lyashko's deputy. A physician and orthopedic traumatologist. In 2012, he ran for parliament on the Radical Party list, number 6.
In 2014, he was elected to the Kyiv City Council from the RP party as deputy head of the committee on trade, entrepreneurship, and regulatory policy.
No. 19 Sergei Skuratovsky – Deputy of the Kyiv Regional Council, member of the Committee on Capital Construction and Architecture. He was elected on the list of the Front for Change, and after its unification, he became a member of the All-Ukrainian Union "Batkivshchyna."
Skuratovsky is the director of the construction company "Green-Grey," which is owned by his wife, Lyudmila, through the company "Ukrpoliskorm." He is also the founder of "Vector XXI" LLC, which specializes in electrical installation work.
№ 20 Dmitry Linkо – a police officer and former fighter in the Shakhtarsk volunteer battalion, founded by Oleh Lyashko. He currently leads the Christian battalion "Saint Mary," created by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
No. 21 Vasily Amelchenko – Lyashko's deputy, assistant to a people's deputy. In the 2012 parliamentary elections, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada as a candidate for the Radical Party in the 207th constituency (Chernihiv region), but finished fifth.
No. 22 Sergey Rybalka – Dnipropetrovsk businessman, co-owner of the SIGroup corporation, the largest snack producer in Ukraine (TM "Macho", "SEMKI", "Flint", "Kozatska rozvaga").
Former Deputy Minister of Ecology Mykola Zlochevsky in the government of Mykola Azarov.
According to journalists from the "Groshi" program, in early 2014, SBU officers uncovered a sabotage group of Russian spies. All of them were officially registered as part of the SIGroup structure, but in reality, they were spying on high-ranking officials.
Rybalka declined to comment to journalists, but his company issued a press release explaining the situation. According to the release, the SBU's actions were part of a black PR campaign against his corporation orchestrated by one of its major debtors, ATB Market.
The story of the program "Groshi" was removed from the website of the TV channel "1+1".
No. 23 Viktor Vovk – scientist, international relations expert, member of the World Academy of Sciences. In the 2012 parliamentary elections, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada as an independent candidate in the 197th constituency (Cherkasy Oblast). Later, re-elections were called in this and four other constituencies. He never became a member of parliament.
No. 24 Oksana Korchinskaya – public figure, head of the supervisory board of the children's hospital Okhmatdet.
The wife of Dmitry Korchinsky, the fugitive leader of the radical organization "Brotherhood." He fled the country after being accused of organizing riots on Bankova Street on December 1, 2013.
No. 25 Yuri Chizhmar – former deputy head of the Kyiv Regional State Administration, Anatoliy Prysyazhnyuk. From 2006 to 2007, he was the head of the service of the head of the Presidential Secretariat, Viktor Baloha. From 2007 to 2010, he was the chairman of the Ternopil Regional State Administration.
In 2006, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada as candidate No. 54 on the PORA-PRP Public Bloc list. In 2012, he ran as an independent candidate in single-mandate constituency No. 167 (Ternopil Oblast). He lost the election to Batkivshchyna's Ivan Stoyko.
Yuri Chizhmar
No. 26 Tatyana Yuzkova - Kyiv lawyer.
No. 27 Andrey Misik – head of the Lviv regional headquarters of the "Radical Party." From 2006 to 2010, he was a deputy of the Lviv City Council from the "PORA" faction. He is the head of the "People's Control" public movement association.
He was the founder and director of the Lviv firms "Galytska Spilka" and "Galytska Mebli Company." Both were involved in the production and sale of furniture.
No. 28 Valeria Zaruzhko – a refugee from Donetsk, managing partner of the real estate agency “007”.
No. 29 Evgenia Smolyanchuk – Chief Specialist of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission.
No. 30 Alexander Gulak – Advisor Lyashka. Unemployed, lives in Makarov, Kyiv Oblast.
No. 31 Andrey Filonenko – commander of the Shakhtarsk volunteer battalion, created by Oleg Lyashko.
No. 32 Elena Nevinchana – Advisor to the Chairman of the Board of Arkada Bank, Konstantin Palivoda. The bank belonged to Palivoda's friend and partner, Volodymyr Polyachenko, a member of parliament from Our Ukraine. Polyachenko died in 2012.
In the last parliamentary elections, she was nominated by the Radical Party as number 8, but the party did not overcome the 5% barrier.
No. 33 Igor Krivoruchko – speaker of the Right Sector and chairman of the Social-National Assembly (the largest nationalist association in Ukraine), which is a co-founder of the Right Sector. A fighter in the Azov volunteer battalion.
A sole proprietor, he acted as an intermediary in advertising placement in the media.
No. 34 Valentina Kovtun – Deputy leader of the Radical Party in the city of Pryluky (Chernihiv region). Deputy of the Pryluky District Council from Batkivshchyna, head of the committee on transport, construction, and gasification.
Director of the company "Priluki Stroyproekt." In 2012, she ran for the Verkhovna Rada under the No. 27 "RP" party.
No. 35 Lolita Fedotova – volunteer at the ATO Participant Assistance Center.
A sole proprietor, she provided consultations on commercial activities and management.
No. 36 Alexander Yurakov – businessman, former owner of the UBR television channel. He is close to Anton Prygodsky, a member of the Party of Regions and a friend of former President Viktor Yanukovych. He was previously the director of the Harmony Clinic, which belonged to the daughter of the deceased Transport Minister Grigory Kirpa.
In 2012, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada in the 95th district (Kyiv Oblast) as a member of the UDAR party, but lost to Batkivshchyna candidate Vyacheslav Kutovoy. The vote count was marked by a confrontation between Yurakov's thugs and the men of the notorious rector, Petro Melnyk.
No. 37 Mark Gres – director, artist, and television journalist. He worked for the Inter TV channel for many years. In one interview, he admitted that he voted against Ukrainian independence. He also created a controversial Inter TV video featuring actors portraying hungover Russians performing the Ukrainian anthem. At the time, President Yanukovych was pressured to ban the video.
No. 38 Inna Kostyrya – Vice-Rector of the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts. Right-hand man of the university's rector, Mykhailo Poplavsky.
Since April 2014, he has been the General Director and Artistic Director of the National Palace of Arts “Ukraine”.
No. 39 Vladimir Kucher – Project Manager. At various times, he served as the head and coordinator of the headquarters of the NU-NS, the Zmin Front, Inna Bogoslovskaya, and the Radical Party.
Since 2011, he has been the leader of the Radical Party in the Volyn region. In 2012, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada under the same organization's candidate number 21.
No. 40 Anatoly Khavilo – a member of the Boroznyansky District Council from the People's Party. He worked at the state-owned enterprise Krasnoselskoye Milk.
No. 41 Vladislav Mochernyuk – electrical engineer at the Pozhezhne Sposterezhennya company, Ivano-Frankivsk.
No. 42 Tatyana Grinchuk – deputy head of the Kyiv regional organization of the Radical Party, head of the board of the Kyiv company Nasha Khata, which is engaged in the sale of food products and cigarettes.
In the last parliamentary elections, she was nominated by the Radical Party as number 25, but the party did not overcome the 5% barrier.
No. 43 Nikolay Davidyuk – Director of the Politika Analytical Center, born in 1988. The center's president is Igor Popov, number 6 on the Radical Party list.
No. 44 Sergey Shakun – leader of the Radical Party in Luhansk. Director and owner of the companies "Taxi Lux" and "Taxi Lux-Luhansk." From 2005 to 2008, he was deputy chairman of the Luhansk regional organization of the People's Movement of Ukraine. In 2007, he was an assistant to Mykhailo Pozhyvanov, a member of parliament from the Batkivshchyna party. That same year, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada as a member of the "Our Ukraine – People's Self-Defense" bloc, but failed to gain a seat in the Rada.
No. 45 Denis Rusak – economist, former member of the political council of the Socialist Party of Ukraine. Associate Professor of the Department of World Economy and International Economic Relations, Institute of International Relations, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
Leader of the Radical Party in Odessa.
No. 46 Andrey Dimitriev – expert in the field of energy-saving technologies and ecology.
In the last parliamentary elections he was nominated by the Radical Party as number 11, but the party did not overcome the 5% barrier.
No. 47 Sergei Usik – activist of the Kyiv city organization of the Radical Party.
No. 48 Ilya Smychek – Lyashko's advisor, head of the Radical Party in the Zhytomyr region. In 2012, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada under the same organization's no. 30 candidate.
In 2010, he ran for the Berdichev City Council (Zhytomyr region) from Serhiy Tigipko’s Strong Ukraine.
No. 49 Roman Kalish – For a long time, he was the founder and director of the Zaporizhzhia company "Yurbiznes-Service," which was embroiled in a raid on the Zaporizhzhia Mechanical Plant and land grabbing. In 2011, "Yurbiznes" was liquidated.
Currently unemployed. A fighter in the Zaporizhzhia Volunteer Regiment "Khortytsia."
No. 50 Vladimir Kovalchuk – banker, advisor to Yuriy Saenko, vice president of Diamantbank, which belongs to David Zhvania.
From 2006 to 2009, he was an assistant to the People's Deputy of four convocations and the governor of the Rivne region, Vasyl Chervonii, who died from a lightning strike.
He worked as a branch manager at Pravex Bank, Ukrsibbank and Khreshchatyk Bank.
Dmytro Korol, Insider
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