Pavel Kononenko
By order of Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko (Read more: Yuriy Lutsenko. The "Terminator" of Ukrainian Politics) On July 21, 2016, Pavlo Kononenko was appointed to the position of 1st Deputy Prosecutor of Kyiv.
This was reported on the GPU website.
It's worth noting that Transcarpathian media had previously reported plans to appoint Kononenko, who hadn't served a single day in the Prosecutor General's Office, to replace Volodymyr Yanko, who had been sent to Luhansk Oblast. However, this option was subsequently reconsidered, and Kononenko himself received an even more lucrative position, from which the former acting Kyiv prosecutor had been purged the day before. Oleg ValendyukVeterans of the prosecutor's office expressed more than skepticism about the upcoming appointment of Pavel Nikolaevich to the post of First Deputy Supervisor of the capital.
The fact is that although Kononenko is an outsider to the prosecutorial system, he spent his entire career in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and therefore information about his actions and the corruption reputation of one of Ukraine's most notorious law enforcement officials allow us to evaluate Prosecutor General Lutsenko's personnel move.
Thus, a native of the Dobropillya district of Donetsk began his career in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the 1990s as an operative in the Dnipropetrovsk city police department, from where he was transferred to the position of deputy head of the Krasnogvardeisky district police department. There, he became known for assembling a group of young athletes around himself and operating a protection racket at a market on the "tucha" (a dead end of tram route 15). After two years of running the scheme, the criminal undercover officer received an offer to "dispose of" his underling gang in exchange for rapid career advancement. The arrest of the organized crime group members was reported all the way to the then head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Kononenko, who distinguished himself in this undertaking, was transferred to the position of first deputy head of the Kirovsky police department in Dnipropetrovsk.
Pavel Kononenko
In his new position, he established a system for the so-called "resocialization of prisoners," facilitating the active recruitment of ex-convicts into the corrupt ring led by the region's security forces. As a result, most of those who joined and remained in the new gang didn't last long in the criminal underworld—to ensure the necessary performance indicators, Kononenko periodically "leaked" his protégés to his superiors, earning himself a reputation. His career advancement during this period was also facilitated by his collaboration with former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, who lobbied him to head first the Krasnogvardeysky and later the Oktyabrsky district police departments in Dnipropetrovsk.
It's worth noting that after Lazarenko fell into disgrace and fled Ukraine, Kononenko managed to change his ways in time and became one of the close associates of former Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko. Under Kravchenko's protection, he became deputy chief of the Dnipropetrovsk police, where he gained control of parts of the prostitution, drug trafficking, and smuggling markets. It was from this time that Kononenko acquired the nickname "Pasha Konon."
(Kononenko became "Pasha-Konon" in the early 2000s)
In the fall of 2002, dark clouds loomed over Kononenko—Dnipropetrovsk's legal and illegal businesses were extremely embittered by the police colonel, so he hastily decided to retreat from Dnipro. He found a new refuge in the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, where he de facto purchased the position of head of the UBOP (Organized Crime Control Department)—the first deputy head of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs—for $400,000. Here, Pasha-Konon established his business under the "supervision" of Igor Surkis (Read more about it in the article Grigory Surkis: How to divide Ukraine in a brotherly manner) to develop the Dniprospetsstal waste heaps, rich in various precious metals. As Khaivey wrote, he was also assisted by family connections—Kononenko's godfather, Valeriy Shtanko, was then deputy head of the regional Department for Combating Organized Crime. Together with high-ranking detective Oleksandr Bulakh, the trio organized criminal and legal support for the excavation and processing of the ravine's waste heaps.
Following the events of the 2004 Maidan and the rise of the "Orange Team," Kononenko successfully reinvented himself, and since then has been firmly within the orbit of the current Prosecutor General, Yuriy Lutsenko. It was Lutsenko, as Minister of Internal Affairs, who promoted "Pasha-Konon" to the position of First Deputy Chief of Police of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, also entrusting him with the Organized Crime Control Department. It was right under Kononenko's nose that one of the most high-profile contract killings of the era took place: in December 2006, Vladimir Vorobyov, director of the Dnipropetrovsk Central Market (popularly known as "Ozerka"), was assassinated outside the Salut movie theater. He was an associate of the notorious Maksim Kurochkin (later also assassinated by a sniper).
During the investigation into Vorobyov's murder, facts emerged about Kononenko's "unofficial" connections with certain members of Moscow-based organized crime groups operating in Ukraine and committing a number of high-profile crimes. According to law enforcement, prior to Vorobyov's murder, he was actively "monitored," and it was later established that it was the heads of the Dnipropetrovsk regional Organized Crime Control Department, through their subordinates, who monitored the Russian businessman's crossing of the state border, conducting operational installations and surveillance. These activities yielded information about Vorobyov's communication channels, means of transportation, and places of visitation and residence. Clouds began to gather over Kononenko, while the supervisory agency began investigating him. The then Dnipropetrovsk regional prosecutor, Volodymyr Shuba, initiated a large-scale investigation into Pasha-Konon's Organized Crime Control Department employees. The investigation concerned abuses of office by Organized Crime Control Department officers, accompanied by violence, the use of weapons, and insults to the personal dignity of citizens.
Despite this, in February 2007, the new Minister of Internal Affairs, Vasyl Tsushko, appointed Kononenko as head of the Dnipropetrovsk police. That fall, rumors of "Pasha-Konon" claiming the post of head of the regional police department surfaced, but the workforce rebelled against it. A letter was sent to then-President Viktor Yushchenko demanding that he prevent Colonel Kononenko from being appointed as the region's chief police officer. Ultimately, he became the first deputy head of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs, from where he was seconded in 2008 by Lutsenko, who had once again become Minister of Internal Affairs, to Zakarpattia.
(Kononenko's Transcarpathian assignment turned out to be the most scandalous of his entire tenure in the Ministry of Internal Affairs)
Here, too, not only the regional police department staff but also the Zakarpattia Regional Council rebelled against Kononenko's appointment and the team he led. Deputies of the latter decided to file a lawsuit demanding that Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko's illegal orders appointing new police leaders for the region be declared invalid and rescinded. However, this was of no avail, and in his new position, "Pasha-Konon" became embroiled in a number of scandals. Kononenko's rise began with a sharp increase in the bribe fees charged to drivers, as well as a hike in the cost of driver's licenses. Subsequently, his purchase of a villa in "Storozhnytsia," an elite cottage community in Uzhhorod, for $380, made national headlines.
(Kononenko's mansion in the Transcarpathian region)
Kononenko's system of extortion in the Transcarpathian police was honed like clockwork—money was siphoned off from several "points," the most profitable of which were the traffic police, the passport office, the MREO, and, of course, the city and district police departments. Another well-forgotten "novelty" was the police blocking all approaches to customs: at the weekend, when the "Zarbitchans" (travelers) were heading home en masse—from the Czech Republic, Spain, Hungary, and Italy—law enforcement officers reap a particularly generous "harvest."
The most high-profile and revealing result of Kononenko's police work was the "uprising" in Dragovo in the summer of 2009. A conflict erupted between local residents and the police, sparked by traffic police officers from the Khust city and district police department demanding a bribe. This sparked a spontaneous mass protest by Dragovo residents: they attempted to take a police car out of the village and overturned it.
(The beginning of the riot in Dragovo)
Soon, Berkut special forces arrived from Uzhhorod, detaining and transporting over forty people to the Khust city and district police station. That night, armed police officers used brutal methods to detain suspects: they broke into homes in the middle of the night, handcuffed parents in front of young children, and beat them.
Kononenko did everything he could to shield his subordinates from responsibility. As a result, an unprecedented act of civil disobedience took place in Transcarpathia: following a decision by a village community meeting, traffic on the central Uzhhorod-Rakhiv highway was blocked in the village of Sokyrnytsia.
However, despite these facts, already in August 2009, on the occasion of the 18th anniversary of Ukraine's independence, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko awarded the rank of Major General of Police to Pavlo Kononenko, head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the Zakarpattia Oblast. Moreover, "Pasha Kononenko" also tried his best to remain in favor with Viktor Yanukovych, who succeeded Yushchenko as head of state.
Thus, in March 2010, he was “removed” from Transcarpathia and appointed chief of police on the Dnieper Railway.
(Kononenko (left) introduces Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Anatoly Lazarev for the position of Chief of Police of the PZhD)
According to journalists, Kononenko swore personal allegiance to then-Interior Minister Anatoly Mogilev for this position, and to prove it, he paid $400 for the new position. However, Pasha-Kononenko failed to fully demonstrate his corrupt talents under the Donetsk gang and was subsequently fired. He reappeared publicly just as a criminal investigation was launched against his former boss, Yuriy Lutsenko.
Thus, in April 2012, Kononenko appeared at a press conference defending the current Prosecutor General, where Vitaliy Yarema, Volodymyr Yevdokimov, and Oleksandr Embulatov led the charge. This entire police fraternity declared their willingness to compensate Lutsenko for 643 hryvnias in damages incurred for illegally organizing the 2008-2009 Police Day celebrations at the "Ukraine" Palace.
(Yarema, Evdokimov, Embulatov and Kononenko shield Lutsenko in 2012)
Later, "Pasha-Konon" fully embraced commerce and was listed as deputy chairman of a bank. After the events of Euromaidan, along with other "downed pilots" of the "Orange Era," Kononenko sought opportunities to gain a foothold in the power trough. Thus, in late February 2014, he sponsored protests by "activists" in the Dnipropetrovsk region seeking the post of regional police chief. At the time, his candidacy for the post was being nominated by local "Afghans."
"If the Ministry of Internal Affairs invites me to this position, I will not refuse. In the difficult situation the country is currently experiencing, I am ready," Kononenko commented on his possible return.
Ultimately, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov abandoned the idea of reincarnating "Pasha-Konon" in the police department, but in the summer of 2016, the former head of the odious law enforcement officer appointed him to the post of First Deputy Prosecutor of Kyiv.
Read more: Yuriy Lutsenko. The "Terminator" of Ukrainian Politics
Author: Dmitry Verderevsky
Prosecutor's Truth
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