Yuri Kosyuk
Maksym Melnychuk, Vice President of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences, is highly likely to become the new head of the Kyiv Regional Administration. His candidacy has already been approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, as announced by Ihor Kononenko, Deputy Head of the Poroshenko Bloc faction.
Former Governor Volodymyr Shandra submitted his resignation letter, briefly reporting on his achievements on Facebook and wishing his successor fruitful work, but gave no explanation as to why he was leaving. Shandra, who had previously been a member of Viktor Yushchenko's team, had served as governor since March 2014 – appointed by Turchynov and reappointed by Poroshenko after becoming president. Shandra, by nature of his work, was never particularly fond of PR, so the activities of the Kyiv Regional State Administration (unlike the Kyiv City Hall) were not particularly public. Only Shandra's first deputy, Lev Partskhaladze, sought publicity, but only to highlight his own achievements. Rumor had it that he was the one actually running the region, while Shandra could be held responsible for the formation of a non-presidential majority in the regional council as a result of local elections.
In a conversation with Glavkom, Shandra promised to disclose the reasons for his resignation once the official decree is issued, which only suggests that his departure was not entirely voluntary. The current head of the Kyiv Regional State Administration is not acquainted with Melnychuk, but is willing to brief him on the matter.
Almost already former governor Shandra
The governor's and the candidate's political experience are incomparable. While Shandra was elected as a member of parliament from Our Ukraine and served as Minister of Industrial Policy and Minister of Emergency Situations, Melnychuk's political career includes just over six months as Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy in the Azarov government in 2010–2011 and a run for Kyiv mayor in the last elections (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEk9YisohlU) as a candidate for the Agrarian Party, winning 0,18%. He is better known as a member of a prominent family in agricultural circles: his father, Dmytro Melnychuk, headed the country's key agricultural university for three decades—now the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences, formerly the National Agrarian University and Agricultural Academy.
New governor Maxim Melnichuk?
Like many long-serving rectors, Melnychuk Sr. was suspected of abuses and financial irregularities. He also came under fire for running the university as a virtual family business, employing his wife, sons, and numerous relatives.
Maksym Melnychuk served as the university's vice-rector for research, innovation, and international affairs. However, the future Kyiv governor's list of accolades is extensive enough to attribute his success solely to his father's patronage. Melnychuk Jr. is vice president and academician of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences, a doctor of biological sciences, and the author of hundreds of scientific papers. But all these accomplishments don't explain why a scientist with minimal experience as a civil servant suddenly caught the eye of the Presidential Administration when it decided to replace the governor of a key region.
Melnychuk leads the Kyiv branch of the Agrarian Party, which unexpectedly ranked among the top five in the local elections based on the number of city, town, and village mayors and local council deputies elected from its party across the country. The Agrarian Party is a perpetual satellite of the government and one of its "apolitical" columns, no matter who is at the helm.
The history of this political project dates back to 1996, when its leaders included such well-known figures as Ivan Kyrylenko and Volodymyr Lytvyn. Lytvyn later "privatized" the project for himself and created the People's Party on its basis. In 2006, the Agrarian Party was re-registered by its first leader, Mykhailo Zubets, president of the Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences. During Yanukovych's presidency, it was led by the then "agrarian" vice-premier (and after that position was eliminated, presidential adviser Viktor Slauta) and first deputy minister of agrarian policy Ivan Bisyuk. After the Maidan revolution in September 2014, the party underwent another leadership change, with Vitaliy Skotsyk, previously Bisyuk's deputy, becoming its chairman. Skotsyk has management experience in the West, and much of his career is associated with the international Amaco group of companies, which sells agricultural technology and equipment.
But it's not so much the figure of the party's nominal leader that's interesting, but those behind it. Yuriy Kosyuk, the former deputy head of the Presidential Administration and owner of the Myronivsky Hliboproduct holding company (its most famous trademark, "Nasha Ryaba"), is considered the Agrarian Party's main sponsor. Kosyuk joined the Administration as soon as Poroshenko became president, but has cooled off from direct involvement in politics, especially since he can defend his interests through traditional lobbying. Agrarians have indeed recently become a powerful force and one of the main sources of foreign exchange earnings, allowing them to assert their rights. Attempts to block budget adoption through lobbying in parliament and recent roadblocks in protest against the abolition of the special VAT refund regime are precisely examples of their muscle flexing.
Agricultural billionaire Kosyuk has cooled off from politics: he can defend his interests through his lobbyists in government.
The Poroshenko Bloc parliamentary faction includes both Kosyuk's outspoken supporters, like Mykola Kucher, former director of the Zernoprodukt MHP enterprise, and current members of the Agrarian Party, Oleksandr Bakumenko and Leonid Kozachenko, who are aligned with the chicken magnate and are in the presidential ranks. It was this trio of deputies that Skotsyk singled out as true "agrarian deputies" during the VAT protests.
Regarding the soon-to-be governor, Melnychuk Jr., it was once said that it was Kosyuk who got him into the Azarov government. The agro-baron is no stranger to planting his people in the relevant ministry – for example, one of the agrarian ministers during Yushchenko's presidency was Yuriy Melnyk, a close associate of Kosyuk, appointed to the position through the Communist Party's quota. After Kosyuk went into government, Melnyk was appointed chief executive officer of Myronivsky Hliboproduct. Melnyk is the son-in-law of Mykhailo Zubets, who was at the forefront of the creation and subsequent revival of the Agrarian Party.
Thus, Bankova is appointing a man whose ties to Kosyuk are quite transparent to the Kyiv region, with its valuable land. After a short stint in the presidential administration, the businessman received a record VAT refund, so he's no stranger to converting political influence into business gain. It's also possible that Melnychuk could be appointed by Klitschko's team, which is no stranger to the region. Even the leadership of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and the Kyiv Regional State Administration know little about the new governor, so it's too early to make any predictions before the biologist-virologist begins his tenure in the administration. Especially since the president is in no rush to either fire Shandra or appoint Melnychuk.
In topic: Yuriy Kosyuk – the "Chicken God" and friend of all Presidents
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