Oleg Tsarev: the hapless "Chairman of Novorossiya." Part 1
In the spring of 2014, the motley crew of "people's governors" and "people's mayors" in the rebellious Donbas was joined by a bruised Oleh Tsarev, the only holder of a genuine mandate in this charade of impostors. However, immediately afterward, Tsarev was stripped of his powers and immunity as a member of the Verkhovna Rada, which he exchanged for the virtual crown of "Speaker of the Parliament of Novorossiya." From that moment on, the ephemeral "Novorossiya" was doomed to complete failure, because Oleh Tsarev possesses a remarkable talent for destroying and compromising any political project he touches.
Well, in this case, Ukraine only benefited! To some extent, it was saved by the fact that, in the difficult chaos of 2014, separatist and collaborationist forces were led by "leaders" like Tsarev—incompetent and confused, lost in their own delusions. It must be admitted that had the enemy been well organized and clearly understood their goals, stopping them would have been much more difficult.
And yet, Oleg Tsarev shouldn't be viewed simply as some fool with a black eye or a selfless preacher of the "Russian world" (depending on how one views him). Although he completely failed and disgraced himself as a public politician (both in Ukraine and in "Novorossiya"), Tsarev previously established himself as a very successful, albeit dishonest, businessman. Moreover, he continues to successfully conduct business today.
Olezhka Tsarev
Oleg Tsarev. First Business
Oleg Anatolyevich Tsarev was born on June 2, 1970, in Dnipropetrovsk. His father, Anatoly Ivanovich Tsarev, worked at the Rocket Engine Design Bureau, though he wasn't an indispensable designer there. Likewise, his mother, Nina Vasilyevna Tsareva, although she held a PhD in chemistry, was hardly a luminary of science. In 1984, Nina Tsareva was transferred to Ternopil to head the inorganic chemistry department at the pedagogical institute—that is, to train school teachers. The entire Tsarev family moved with her to Ternopil, including its head, Anatoly Ivanovich—and no one held him back at the rocket design bureau by the hem of his white coat. Which begs the question: what was he doing there? According to Skelet.Org sources , the real reason for their move was a scandalous story that was hushed up and the Tsarevs were sent away from Dnepropetrovsk (they returned to Dnepropetrovsk in 1987, with the beginning of perestroika).
Oleg Tsaryov
Nevertheless, Oleg Tsarev always used his parents' "titles" to cultivate his image as "the son of scientists and rocket builders," which he peppered with his own lies. For example, he claimed that in 10th grade he won a certain "physics and mathematics olympiad at Moscow University" (in fact, there was no such competition), which supposedly led to his being invited to study at MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), where he enrolled in the "automation and electronics of physics installations" program. However, according to other sources, his father, who had very strong connections (not so much in scientific circles as in the management and business circles of the rocket industry), arranged for him to attend MEPhI.
Oleg Tsarev also liked to boast that MEPhI had allegedly trained them for the "Soviet Star Wars program"—another lie, as this program was shut down by Gorbachev in 1988. Young Tsarev also showed a keen business interest in potential adversaries, desiring not to fight but to trade with them—even at the expense of his country, but to his own advantage. Returning to his native Dnepropetrovsk in 1992, he briefly worked as a simple engineer, and within a few weeks, he was immersed in the world of business "near-industrial." According to Skelet.Org sources , the first private companies he worked for were founded by his parents, relatives, and family friends. These included Avtex (1992), Kurs LLC, Dovira insurance company (1993), and the Ukrainian-American joint venture ComputerLand. The latter was created in partnership with the American firm "MBL International East"—according to some reports, its owners were former émigrés from the USSR. This firm was linked to a major scam: in 1990-91, a computer production facility was announced in Dnipropetrovsk, and a large foreign currency loan was allocated for the project, which was ultimately never repaid. Instead of its own production, a joint venture was created that supplied finished components (including obsolete and "revived") from the USA to Dnipropetrovsk, from which computers were assembled in two "trailers" and branded "MBL." In exchange, the joint venture imported non-ferrous metals and expensive alloys, which were then in abundance in industrial Dnipropetrovsk. This is how the Tsarev family and their associates thrived, and in 1995, ComputerLand grew into the Dnipropetrovsk Computer Center LLC. It is worth noting that MBL International East opened a similar joint venture in Kyiv, which still operates under the name ComputerLand Kiev.
With the proceeds, the Tsarevs, having put Oleg Anatolyevich (who also has brothers Mikhail and Ivan, and a sister Maria) at the helm of the family business, began buying up enterprises in Dnepropetrovsk.
Since the most profitable and largest assets were snapped up by powerful families, clans, and organized crime groups, the Tsarevs settled for crumbs: in 1998, they acquired the Dnipropetrovsk paper mill, and in 2000-2002, bakeries in Dniprodzerzhinsk and Novomoskovsk. Their greedy hands then stretched all the way to Crimea, where they managed to grab an entire sanatorium for themselves!
This story was full of oddities and omissions. First of all, it remained completely unknown who helped the Tsarevs seize the Kirov Sanatorium (39 Kirov Street, Yalta), who was in on their schemes, who covered for them? All that was reported was that in 2002, this sanatorium (with a 612-bed building, swimming pools, and a 7-hectare park) was corporatized and transformed into a closed joint-stock company, the S.M. Kirov Sanatorium, registered in... Dnipropetrovsk! Initially, the state owned 60% of the shares, but then the closed joint-stock company incurred a debt of 7,3 million hryvnias to the Tsarevs' Dnipropetrovsk-based companies, Bagira-N and Topaz-K—after which the state-owned shares were transferred to them to pay off the debt. As they say, quite a ride!
That same sanatorium
Oleg Tsarev. Dnepropetrovsk Lezginka
Oleh Tsarev might perhaps have been living a quiet life as a mid-level businessman in Dnipropetrovsk today, had he not decided to cash in on a seat in parliament. In the 2002 parliamentary elections, he ran in single-mandate constituency No. 40, choosing as his political platform the then-little-known Party of Regions (from which one of its founders, Petro Poroshenko , had just left ). It's worth noting that the results of those regional elections were quite uneven: the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPSU) led the party lists (almost 32%), the "For United Ukraine" bloc (11,43%), and the United Social Democrats (9,58%), while the traditionally local BYuT (Byut) received only 4,32%. Red and blue-and-white flags fluttered over Dnipropetrovsk, workers at its factories advocated economic cooperation with Russia, and no one could have imagined then that 12 years later the city would become the main eastern bastion of "pro-Ukrainian radicalism."
Running under the banner of the Party of Regions, then part of the "For Food" bloc, Tsarev won the 40th district with 30,26% of the vote, beating out candidates from the SDPU (o), Hromada, and the Communist Party of Ukraine. Clearly, Tsarev's "eloquence" and even his money weren't enough. But who supported the newcomer?
Zagiddin Gabibulaev, aka Zagid Krasnov
Numerous Skelet.Org sources report that even then, Oleg Tsarev was under the protection of Zagid Krasnov, a well-known figure in Dnipro. A native of Dagestan and an ethnic Lezgin, Zagiddin Gabibulaev (Zagiddin Gabibulaevich Gabibulaev on his Soviet passport) settled in Dnipro in the 80s, and in the early 90s, under the nickname "Zagid," he became a member of the Mukhtar organized crime group (Mukhtar Magometov), one of the Caucasian gangs that was then prominent in the shadow economy throughout the region. While Narika's ( Alexander Nalekreshvili's ) organized crime group dealt with major businessmen like Privat, Mukhtar's group dealt with smaller-scale "businessmen." After Magometov's murder, Gabibulaev took over the group, and he was described not as a criminal businessman, but as a tough "foreman" of racketeers and militants. At the same time, according to Skelet.Org sources , Gabibulaev had been voluntarily collaborating with the KGB since the 80s (even dreaming of becoming a KGB officer himself), and thus survived the 90s without any problems with law enforcement, after which he retrained as an entrepreneur and entered the new century as Zagid Gennadievich Krasnov (taking his wife's surname).
Zagid Krasnov
It was rumored that Krasnov had a negotiated "quota" for several mandates at various levels of government during the 2002 elections, and that at the last minute he changed his mind about running for the Rada and was elected to the Dnipropetrovsk City Council, where he immediately took up land issues. He decided to "gift" his victory in District No. 40, which he controlled, and the parliamentary seat to his protégé, Oleh Tsarev. Interestingly, Tsarev became a member of the Party of Regions almost by chance (only to run for the presidency), but this incident shaped the rest of his life.
In politics, Zagid Krasnov never adhered to any principles; he tried to spread his eggs among different baskets. In April 2004, he became a consultant to the Coordinating Committee for Combating Corruption and Organized Crime under President Kuchma (how ironic!), and by the summer of that year, he had become the head of Viktor Yushchenko's Dnipropetrovsk election headquarters. During the first Maidan, he headed the city's "Committee of National Salvation." It was reported at the time that the Dnipropetrovsk Maidan of 2004 happily banged into a barrel and shouted "Yushchenko!", fearing neither the police nor the "titushki," because it was guarded by Zagid Krasnov's "fighters" and his colleague Nalekreshvili. For this, in 2005, Krasnov was briefly appointed acting deputy of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration.
His protégé, Oleh Tsarev, on the other hand, tried to cling tightly to Viktor Yanukovych. But in 2004, he was unsuccessful: Yanukovych's campaign headquarters in Dnipropetrovsk was completely controlled by Serhiy Tihipko's men . Only after Tihipko abandoned Yanukovych was Oleh Tsarev able to gain access to his "body." It's unclear what promises he made to the "leader," but in 2005, Tsarev was appointed chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk branch of the revived Party of Regions. His task was to ensure the Party of Regions' victory in the 2006 elections and transform it into the "leading and guiding force" of the region, subordinate to the "Donetsk people." And Tsarev failed miserably in this task.
Tsarev: How to screw it all up
By mobilizing the resources entrusted to him and exploiting the protest sentiments of voters, Oleh Tsarev had every chance of bringing the region to Yanukovych's feet in the 2006 elections, securing a solid majority for the Party of Regions in the regional and city councils (Tsarev himself was re-elected to the Rada and the regional council). In reality, he nearly failed the regional council elections by overly bribing voters with food rations bearing the Party of Regions' symbols and organizing celebrations in the party's name—for which, in March 2006, the Kirovsky District Court disqualified the party from the regional elections. Realizing that the "Donetsk people" would simply execute him for this, Tsarev panicked and began correcting his mistakes, organizing rallies and pickets (for which Zagid Krasnov assigned his men) and narrowly secured the party's reinstatement through the Court of Appeals just a few days before the elections.
Oleg Tsaryov
Clutching both the Verkhovna Rada and the regional council seats in his hands, Oleh Tsarev made a long and agonizing choice. Initially, Tsarev's main goal was the seat of the regional council chairman. But the elections provoked such resistance from the "orange" factions that they dragged on for several months. Tsarev ultimately lost his regional council seat because the court demanded he make a decision—and he chose his guaranteed seat in the Rada. After this, through behind-the-scenes intrigue, Yuriy Vilkul was elected head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional council. Vilkul had held a grudge against Tsarev ever since the local elections, when the court disqualified the Party of Regions from the elections (while Vilkul was running for the regional council on the party list), so relations between them were initially strained.
Tsarev also made a blunder in the Dnipropetrovsk City Council. At first, everything went according to plan: the Party of Regions candidates won the majority of seats and formed the largest faction, which formed a majority in alliance with the Lazarenko Bloc faction, founded by Zagid Krasnov. They were complemented by the duo of Oleksandr Tymoshenko: the Tsarevs' trusted manager (who managed Dnipropetrovsk Computer Center LLC, then a paper mill) was elected to the City Council and elected its secretary.
Alexander Timoshenko
But how did Tsarev utilize these newly acquired opportunities? He essentially immediately placed the newly created majority on the City Council under the control of Zagid Krasnov, nicknamed the "City Council Director." Tsarev himself then began plundering Dnipropetrovsk land with him. Media reports indicated that between 2006 and 2008, through various schemes, Tsarev and Krasnov appropriated numerous plots of land, the market value of which was estimated at $800 million! Among them: 150 hectares of land on the monastery's Green Island, plots in the Solnechny residential complex, and Malinovsky Embankment. Most of the "profits" went into Krasnov's pockets, with Oleg Tsarev remaining his "junior partner."
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Oleg Tsarev: The Unlucky "Chairman of Novorossiya." PART 2
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