Evgeniy Rezvushkin
It's no secret that so-called "civic activists" in Ukraine often work on anything but the "civic" principles they claim. At least for those who have encountered these "activists," writes Ruslan Yakushev for site Antikor.
Behind all these fine phrases about "fighting for justice" are often the most banal racketeers, gangsters, and thugs. But, unlike in the 1990s, when all these people at least called things by their proper names, now they prefer to call themselves "activists." It doesn't matter what kind, as long as they're "activists."
While sports clubs used to be the official guises for organized crime groups, today's "activists" have adopted a variety of public organizations as their legal guises. Today, these people dress up as "nationalists" because that's the prevailing trend. But rest assured, aside from flags and various symbols, they have nothing in common with nationalism. And if they did, all this ideological riffraff has dissolved into the international green. Not because they advocate for ecology, but because that's the color of the dollar, which they faithfully serve and which is their true ideology.
Think back to any scandal of recent years. Whatever the case—the construction of some project, the appointment of an undesirable official, a procurement paid for by the state budget—in all these cases, like jack-in-the-box, some incomprehensible "social activists" emerge and demand their share of the pie. And often, they get what they deserve, just as their racketeering spiritual leaders did in the 1990s.
The wave of the Revolution of Dignity gave these people, who had nothing in common with the genuine civil activists who took to the streets and squares to defend their beliefs, a chance. A chance to make a quick buck. Hiding behind fine phrases. And they took advantage of this opportunity. For every social upheaval carries scum along with it.
One of these is the Odessa "civic activist," Yevhen Rezvushkin, leader of the local Automaidan movement. Or maybe he's not the leader—there are several such Automaidans, each claiming to be the true one. In any case, the All-Ukrainian public organization Automaidan once claimed that Automaidan Odessa and Yevhen Rezvushkin had nothing to do with them. Perhaps. In fact, it very well could be, since the All-Ukrainian Public Organization Automaidan is a popular organization, and in such cases, all these pseudo-activists like to use such names.
"We have a branch of the All-Ukrainian Public Organization (VPO) 'Automaidan' in Odesa. It's headed by Vitaliy Ustimenko. The guy who was shot at is connected to Yevhen Rezvushkin, who's on our blacklist. At a certain point, they simply started making money from corporate raids, protecting Trukhanov, and so on." At least, that's what Oleksiy Gritsenko, an activist with the NGO Automaidan, claimed in a 2018 comment to BBC News Ukraine. He added that Rezvushkin, after the Euromaidan, created a local NGO and called it "Automaidan Odesa." He had to comment on the shooting on the streets of Odesa, when the car of an Automaidan "activist" was fired upon. Rezvushkin, naturally, claimed that all of this was "the result of the public activity" of Automaidan.
But journalists discovered that it was actually a simple showdown. The cause was a dispute over who would protect the local gambling industry, which had always attracted a keen interest from various "activists." Gritsenko confirmed this theory: "According to our information, the attack was related to a dispute over the slot machine (lottery) market," he wrote on Facebook.
As it turns out, Rezvushkin is involved in more than just the redistribution of the gaming market. The interests of Rezvushkin's organizations span a wide range: from scrap metal collection points and fish farms to construction, the seizure of dormitories, and "black archeology."
Yevgeny Rezvushkin is a close associate of Mark Gordiyenko, the head of an organized crime group infiltrated into the patriotic milieu of Odessa to lobby for the financial and political interests of the mayor of Odessa. Gennady Trukhanov.
Rezvushkin receives monthly income from joint activities with Dmytro Gumenyuk, the commander of the Odesa Self-Defense Force, who has a criminal past, making him a more shadowy figure. Rezvushkin also played a role in the dispersal of the "Anti-Trukhanov Maidan" in 2016, when a group of "titushki" (illegal thugs) he led beat protesters and destroyed their tent camp near the Odesa City Council building.
Rezvushkin's criminal record includes beating a security guard at a construction site in Odessa, blocking a factory in Belyaevka, Odessa Oblast, and attacking a developer in the village of Molodezhnoye. Rezvushkin then declared that if he wasn't paid $20, he would block the construction site.
Evgeny Rezvushkin explains the involvement of business structures in some conflicts by the fact that he is not only the head of a public organization, but also the director of a security company.
In this regard, it should be noted that Rezvushkin's security firm, "Varta Mista," took on a somewhat new role last year – from involvement in corporate raids, slot machine protection, and simple racketeering, he moved on to smuggling and black archeology.
The fact is that in 2020, in the village of Skobelevo, Kazankovsky District, Mykolaiv Oblast, a royal Scythian burial mound was looted. And it was Rezvushkin who was guarding these "archaeologists." Or rather, the security firm "Varta Mista," registered to his partner, Elena Semenenko. However, Rezvushkin himself managed to disavow the company—and it's no surprise, since as part of a criminal investigation opened under Part 5 of Article 298 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, "Illegal search operations at an archaeological heritage site, destruction, deterioration, or damage to cultural heritage sites," the firm's office on Bolshaya Arnautskaya Street was raided.
A search of Rezvushkin's company took place back in November of last year. What law enforcement seized is unknown, but the case of the burial mound's looting is far from closed—in February of this year, police conducted 11 more searches of people directly involved in work on the mound. So, how all this will end for Yevgeny Rezvushkin remains to be seen.
However, he's no stranger to law enforcement attention. He's even been detained several times, but each time he's received a minor harassment. Even for beating a prosecutor in 2015 and attacking Igor Khotin, head of the Krug TV channel, as well as the head of a district office of the Odesa Regional Road Administration in 2017, Rezvushkin faced no punishment. He got away with all of this, as did a shooting in the spring of 2019 near the village of Dachne in the Odesa region. Then, Rezvushkin's "activists" engaged in a shootout with "activists" belonging to two other activists – Kozhukhar and Golodok. The dispute stemmed from a conflict between two officials from the State Transport Safety Agency, each claiming control over weighing, and therefore the "ticketing" of trucks.
So, most likely, they will get away with plundering the mound.
In Odessa, all of this is explained by the fact that Yevgeny Rezvushkin works for the city's mayor, Gennady Trukhanov, who shields his tame "activist" from law enforcement and generously pays him for his services.
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