Oleg Makhnitsky: Is there a limit to the shamelessness of the former "Maidan prosecutor"?
Journalists who inquired about the details of Makhnitsky's life from his acquaintances and neighbors were convinced every time that when, many, many years from now, Oleg Igorevich passes away (after all, we'll all be there), silence will reign at his wake. Yes, precisely because the dead are spoken of either well or not at all! There probably won't be many people at the funeral table either, because, according to those who knew him for a long time, Oleg Makhnitsky was distinguished from childhood by a unique, shitty... excuse me, negativity, which invariably turned everyone who encountered him into his ill-wishers. He has long since lost all his friends—because he betrayed them, cheated them, and sent them packing. He only has useful acquaintances and business partners left, and even then, few of them agree to join him at a party. However, Skelet.Org will tell you about the former Prosecutor General of Ukraine's leisure activities a little further down.
Disrespectful people
Neighbors once told journalists that when he married his son Vadim, only Makhnitsky's relatives and the groom's friends attended the wedding. Neither his colleagues nor Svoboda's management, to whom Makhnitsky had repeatedly provided valuable services, honored this important event with a visit.
It's therefore not surprising that Makhnitsky's early biography is rather sparse in details, and those that do exist consist largely of scandalous gossip, whispered and anonymously told. Oleg Igorevich Makhnitsky was born on March 15, 1970, in Lviv, to a family of middle-income Soviet employees. From 1977 to 85, he attended Secondary School No. 87, and completed 9th and 10th grades at School No. 22. It appears that the future guardian of the law, who today boasts excellent health, dodged military service back then: his biography indicates that from 1988 he worked at the Lviv sewing factory "Mayak" (rumor has it, in a cooperative), and in 1990, he found work at the "Kraeved" production and creative association as a tour organizer. But apparently, the "tourism business" didn't work out for him, because in 1991, Makhnitsky entered the law faculty of Lviv State University named after Franko, specializing in "law."
Makhnitsky himself did not reveal details about his parents, and from the words of their neighbors, it is only known that his mother died long ago, and his father remained living in their Lviv apartment practically alone, avoiding communication.
In the 90s, Oleh Makhnitsky and his wife, Nelya, settled in the village of Vynnyky, a suburb of Lviv now filled with the cottages of the local elite. According to his neighbors, the spacious mansion, built on the site of a modest old farmhouse, began to rise in the late 90s, when Makhnitsky worked as an investigator for the Lviv Prosecutor's Office, and was completed after his election to the Lviv City Council in 2006.
Makhnitsky House in Vinniki
Two prominent details of this house's interior reveal much about its owners: the "M" monogram on the wrought-iron gates and Oleg Makhnitsky's personal coat of arms above the wrought-iron wicket. Clearly, these people love to distinguish themselves and elevate themselves above others. At the same time, the coat of arms, designed with flagrant violations of heraldic rules, raises doubts about both the professionalism of legal scholar Makhnitsky and his intelligence (how difficult was it to skim through the relevant reference book). For example, a stone crown only appears in city coats of arms or the ancient coats of arms of aristocratic descendants of princes, voivodes, and castellans—and, as is well known, Oleg Makhnitsky is neither a descendant of aristocrats, nor is he a member of a city.
Personal coat of arms of Oleg Makhnitsky
The prosecutor's neighbors don't know how the investigator earned his living selling concrete and bricks, but they're eager to share details of the Makhnitsky family's life with journalists. They speak in hushed tones, glancing at the fence with its wrought-iron gates, admitting that the Makhnitskys are a very vindictive bunch.
However, according to them, after 2012, when Oleh Makhnitsky ran for the Verkhovna Rada and moved to Kyiv, he practically abandoned both his wife and his home in Vynnyky. This is unsurprising, given the stories about his mistresses and his scandalous purchases of ultra-expensive real estate in Kyiv and abroad.
Another character in the regular scandals surrounding Oleg Makhnitsky is his daughter, Maryana, who grew up spoiled, tasteless, and arrogant, a rich girl, with somewhat distorted views of the social structure and her place in it (like many rich kids). Maryana raves about expensive cars, European vacations, and Dior cosmetics, and she also bombards visitors to her blog with phrases like "morons," "shut up," and "think about who you're writing about." She shocked her classmates and neighbors with her antics even when she lived with her mother in Vynnyky.
After her first year at Lviv University, Marianna wanted to transfer to the prestigious City University London. She said she wanted to earn a degree in international commercial law and then return to Ukraine (perhaps by becoming a deputy minister, a trend that's becoming more common). However, her choice of university was largely determined by the fact that her sugar daddy, Oleh Makhnitsky, had decided to flee to London in 2014. Having earned handsome "fees" during his tenure as the "Prosecutor General of the Maidan" (and that was all that was "revealed" on the Maidan), he was able to not only pay for Marianna's education (up to £19,500 per year) but also buy her a separate apartment in London's Imperial Wharf district for €1.5 million (two bedrooms, with a view of the Thames from the third-floor balcony), where she could host student parties with her fellow students.
In Maryana Makhnitskaya's student apartment
Maryana Makhnitskaya's selfie
Since high school, Maryana's favorite pastime has been photoshoots, most of which she takes herself (selfies). It would be a good thing, if only not for the overtly erotic nature of these photos, which Martiana then posts on her blog. It's hard to say why the daughter of far-from-poor parents would advertise herself in such a way: perhaps she's already searching for her future minister, or perhaps it's simply the typical "foolishness" of Ukrainian youth. However, Maryana Makhnitskaya's passion doesn't fit with the political image of her father, who positioned himself as a devout conservative and even submitted a bill banning abortions as not only "harmful to the nation" but also downright immoral.
We won't even mention the bad taste - it's a purely Ragul habit to dress in synthetic "leopard print".
Oleg Makhnitsky: The Makhnovist Methods of Lviv's Judas
In 1999, after three years of working in his field, Oleg Makhnitsky left the prosecutor's office, where he had risen to the rank of senior investigator in the regional department for overseeing law enforcement by agencies engaged in operational-search activities, inquiry, and pre-trial investigation. He subsequently stayed out of the prosecutor's office until his stellar appointment in 2014, becoming the first prosecutor general of Ukraine with such a meager track record. But, as we know, that distinction now belongs to Yuriy Lutsenko.Read more about it in the article Yuriy Lutsenko. The "Terminator" of Ukrainian Politics), who has no legal education at all, but has a criminal record for abuse of office (and a reputation for abusing alcohol).
Ruslan Valko
The reason for Makhnitsky's departure from the police remained unknown even to his "all-knowing" neighbors; it may have been related to some scandal. It is only known that he didn't leave alone, but with his colleague Ruslan Valko—one of the very few people with whom Makhnitsky still maintains a trusting relationship. From 1999 to 2001, Makhnitsky worked as a lawyer at the Scorpion Security Agency, and then, together with Valko, became lawyers: first, they opened a "private office," then joined the Osadchiy and Partners Law Firm (Valko was vice president there). A few months later, in November 2003, they founded their own law firm, "Valko and Makhnitsky."
In one of his first cases as a lawyer, Makhnitsky did not hesitate to sue the son of his neighbor, Miroslava Ivanovna Krupa (their houses are adjacent). According to her, on the night of November 23, 2001, her daughter was allegedly assaulted by a "suitor," who then drove to Krupa's house and began demanding his "beloved." Her 22-year-old brother, Andrei, came to his sister's defense, a scuffle ensued, and Andrei grabbed a stick and hit the attacker in the legs. A few days later, the police arrived and arrested Andrei Krupa for assault. Imagine the Krupa family's surprise and outrage when they learned that their neighbor, Oleg Makhnitsky, was acting as the victim's lawyer, and that his wife, Nelya, who worked in forensic medicine, had documented the assault. The Makhnitskys deftly pursued this case, resulting in Andriy Krupa receiving a six-year prison sentence (!) for disqualifying the victim. However, no disability certificate was included in the case file, and it didn't even exist. This didn't bother the judge in the least, who also upheld the claim against Andriy Krupa for 12,864 hryvnias in material and moral damages. After this incident, the Makhnitskys ceased all contact with their neighbors, and Oleg Igorevich was nicknamed "Makhno" by them, a derogatory term.
Oleg Makhnitsky owed his successful rise in the early 2000s largely to the then-mayor of Vynnyky, Sergei Uvarov. He had known Makhnitsky from his time in law enforcement, and later became the mayor of Vynnyky, helping Makhnitsky purchase and register the land on which his house was later built. And he also helped build it: the Makhnitskys' house in Vynnyky acquired its final appearance thanks to the labor of workers from the construction firm "Kvartal-Plus," whose owner and director, Sergei Gorobets, is Uvarov's godfather. Moreover, at Uvarov's request, Gorobets granted the always-impoverished Makhnitsky a deferment for his firm's services, which Makhnitsky never paid. Instead, several years later, he nearly had Gorobets jailed.
This story took place in 2012, but according to Uvarov, Makhnitsky "became a Judas" much earlier, back when he was providing Uvarov with legal services, gathering confidential information about him, his family, and his business and selling it to Uvarov's competitors. He did the same with Uvarov's friends and business partners, into whose circle Uvarov had inadvertently introduced Makhnitsky. According to Uvarov, they trusted Makhnitsky so much that they even became friends: they invited him to picnics and family celebrations, and went to football games and fishing together. And even the mole (or rat) wasn't immediately recognized.
So, in February 2012, Igor Moiseenko, secretary of the Vynnytskyi City Council and a trusted confidant of Makhnitsky (who was already a member of the Lviv City Council), was arrested while accepting a $15 bribe. The bribe was sent to Moiseenko through a mutual acquaintance, Sergei Gorobets. According to Uvarov, Makhnitsky then approached him with a proposal: bail out Moiseenko by shifting the blame onto Gorobets—let him stay in jail! Uvarov refused to sacrifice his godfather—and soon learned that Makhnitsky's reputation for vindictiveness was well deserved. When Makhnitsky became a member of parliament a month later and left for Kyiv, he began submitting inquiries against Uvarov to all the regulatory and law enforcement agencies, fully aware of all the corruption secrets of the Vynnytskyi mayor. "It got to the point where they even sued my mother – and she's 77 years old, she's an honored agronomist of Ukraine," Uvarov told reporters.
Uvarov is also certain that Makhnitsky was also behind the arson of his car in 2013. Another victim of Makhnitsky's revenge was another of his Vinniki neighbors, the former owner of the Kaiserwald restaurant, Boris Shunevich. He and Makhnitsky were once friends, but then had a falling out, leading to Shunevich losing his restaurant.
And when Makhnitsky became Prosecutor General after the Maidan, he also took a close look at Serhiy Gorobets, whom he simply sent into hiding within a couple of months—leading him to hide in a monastery. Where, according to Uvarov, he "prayed for God to protect him from the devil Makhnitsky." Naturally, Makhnitsky himself listed these episodes in his public "resume" as episodes of his heroic fight against Ukrainian corruption. However, Makhnitsky's short tenure as Prosecutor General of Ukraine demonstrated the opposite.
Oleg Makhnitsky: How "Makhno" Came to Svoboda
Makhnitsky had long been indifferent to politics, although he dreamed of securing some kind of mandate. It is reported that Igor Krivetsky brought him to the Svoboda All-Ukrainian Union (VO Svoboda).Read more about it in the article Igor Krivetsky: Svoboda's criminal sponsors), whom Makhnitsky knew from his work as a prosecutor by the nickname "Pups" as a member of the organized crime group of Lviv crime boss Kolya Rokyro. This information is confirmed by the fact that in Svoboda, Makhnitsky was considered Krivetsky's man, not Tyahnybok's or anyone else's. Their initial cooperation was purely business: Krivetsky used Makhnitsky's legal services and connections in law enforcement to resolve his affairs. But then, in 2004, Oleh Tyahnybok delivered a scandalous speech from Hoverla (Read more about it in the article Oleh Tyahnybok: Sponsors and allies of the Ukrainian nationalist), after which he urgently needed a lawyer. Krivetsky recommended Makhnitsky, who had spent three years defending the leader of Svoboda from charges of anti-Semitism and inciting ethnic hatred, ultimately securing an acquittal. Thus, Makhnitsky became imbued with the national spirit, joined the party, and began appearing in public wearing an embroidered shirt.
Tyahnybok's gratitude was enormous: in 2006 and 2010, Oleh Makhnitsky was elected to the Lviv City Council on the Svoboda list, where he received the committee on land issues.
Sources of Skelet.Org It was reported that this was no coincidence: at that very time, Igor Krivetskyi was actively investing in land-related businesses—construction, tourism, and gas production. But Makhnitskyi was working on several fronts: in the city council, he became friends with Party of Regions deputy Andriy Mocharskyi (known as the "Donetsk" party's overseer of the region) and Lychakiv district prosecutor Stepanchuk.
Andrey Mocharsky
In turn, Makhnitsky dragged his partner Valko (who also became an ally of Tyahnybok) into the Lviv City Council, handing over the land committee to him after his departure for the Verkhovna Rada in 2012, where he was also elected on the Svoboda list under No. 21. He also received the position of deputy chairman of the committee on rule of law and justice—a position he exploited to settle scores with his former comrades and partners from Vynnyky.
Just a year into his parliamentary term, Makhnitsky found himself embroiled in yet another scandal, once again due to his greed and penchant for playing the poor. Specifically, in his 2012 income declaration, he reported only 13,604 hryvnias, despite receiving almost 16,000 hryvnias a month as a parliamentary salary (plus financial assistance). Makhnitsky hadn't reported any multiple sclerosis, so why did he deliberately lie in his declaration? This is the kind of man who handled justice matters in parliament!
Saving the Thief
During the second Maidan, Oleh Makhnitsky preferred to support the struggle for democracy and European choices within the walls of the Verkhovna Rada. He only emerged into the square during national assemblies, posing as the "Maidan prosecutor" (as you can imagine, that was the only thing that could "surface" on the Maidan), while cautiously hiding behind the political leaders—as if he had known in advance about the mysterious snipers. And this man, who made virtually no appearance during those events, would later claim that he had been "delegated" to the post of acting prosecutor general by the Maidan.
However, Makhnitsky habitually lied. The reason he was appointed to replace the escaped Viktor Pshonka (Read more about it in the article Viktor Pshonka: The Rise and Fall of the Prosecutor's Caesar), there was another, and it even had a name: Igor Krivetsky. In fact, during the Euromaidan, he was the real head of Svoboda, because while Tyahnybok, Klitschko, and Yatsenyuk wandered aimlessly through the center of Kyiv, Krivetsky (at the instigation and under duress of various structures associated with the EU and the US) organized the scene with his own money and formed hundreds of Self-Defense members, directing them to seize buildings and block streets. Other "real people" of the Maidan were the Klitschko brothers' longtime friend and companion, Artur Palatny, and the Konstantinovsky brothers (Read more about it in the article Vyacheslav and Alexander Konstantinovsky: How the "Russian mafia" became "Ukrainian patriots"), whose "titushki" "held" the center of Kyiv in those days.
Krivetsky, who controlled Samooborona, could have had the Maidan vote for a new government based on his proposed list of people. But he didn't try to abuse his power, since the structures that controlled it didn't allow him to do so. And the new government was the result of negotiations, supposedly among all the political forces and "businessmen" who participated in and supported the Euromaidan (the State Department applauded!). Svoboda had its own quotas, and Krivetsky used them to push Makhnitsky into the position of acting Prosecutor General of Ukraine. At the same time, Skelet.Org I discovered that Makhnitsky's candidacy was supported by several other Maidan "leaders," and that it even received the approval of representatives of the crumbling parliamentary faction of the Party of Regions. And it soon became clear why.
Formally, on camera, Makhnitsky promised to bring representatives of the ousted regime to justice as soon as possible and investigate "crimes against the Maidan." Meanwhile, the euphoric public seemed oblivious to the fact that, by labeling one former minister or member of the Administration after another as "crimes against the Maidan," Makhnitsky was deliberately ignoring the actual charges brought against them for economic and official crimes. The result was the false impression that these "respected, honorable people" had committed nothing wrong before December 2013 (and why did they even raise the Maidan?), that they were being persecuted solely for political reasons. Some of them (except for Viktor Yanukovych) were even removed from Interpol's wanted list.
Meanwhile, Makhnitsky, who was deceiving Ukrainians, was quietly busy with real affairs. Makhnitsky's first act in the Prosecutor General's Office was the banal sale of regional prosecutor's positions: those eager to occupy or retain them flocked to the new general with generous gifts and offerings—grudgingly sharing what they had "grabbed" under Pshonka. Rumor has it that the contents of the "envelopes" brought to Makhnitsky ranged from $1 million to $5 million, depending on the lucrativeness of the region. This is how, for example, the scandalous Mykola Stoyanov, known, among other things, as the "protector" of pro-Russian politician Igor Markov, who was implicated in a number of criminal and corruption cases, took over the prosecutor's position in the Odessa region. And the Dnipropetrovsk regional prosecutor's office was taken over by Roman Fedyk, who, according to Svyatoslav Oleynik (Kolomosky's ally), "makes money from drug dealers, and the depth of his cynicism lies in the fact that he remembers the Heavenly Hundred at every opportunity and goes to church every Sunday."
Then there was the deliberate collapse of the high-profile case of the "Boyko towers", which cost the state about 300 million dollars.
In fact, Makhnitsky tried very hard to ensure that no criminal case would ever be filed, and to achieve this, he demonstrated true miracles of jurisprudence and a talent for acting (or hypocrisy)! In response to inquiries from deputies and activists, he pretended to be deaf, blind, and mute, while at the same time exonerating the main defendants: Dmitry Firtash (information about it: DMITRIY FIRTASH. THE STORY OF A TERNOPIL BILLIONAIRE), Sergey Levochkin (more about him Levochkin. "The Gray Cardinal" and his sistersа), Yuriy Boyko (reference: Yuriy Boyko – "The Untouchable") and Valeriy Yasyuk. Makhnitsky, in fact, practically acquitted the latter, finding no criminal offense in his actions—so Yasyuk was almost appointed head of Ukrtransgaz.
Makhnitsky's planned collapse of the international case against the former Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council was quite cynical. Andrey KlyuevIn Ukraine, Maidan supporters held Klyuev responsible, first and foremost, for the dispersal of the protests on November 30, 2013 (the so-called "bloody Christmas tree"), as well as for organizing the "Maidan shooting" of February 18-22, 2014. Makhnitsky, who had won the Maidan's support with promises to investigate these crimes and punish the perpetrators, found this to be highly advantageous.
The thing is, in early 2014, Austrian law enforcement opened a criminal case against Klyuev on charges of money laundering and seized his accounts. And then, for some reason, Makhnitsky opened a case against Klyuev solely for "crimes against the Maidan" (Makhnitsky's favorite accusation). He appeared before journalists and confidently declared that he had unearthed 74 pieces of evidence against Klyuev. But it wasn't until April 10 that the Prosecutor General's Office quietly added the case against Andriy Klyuev for embezzlement on an especially large scale to its registry. Ukrainians, eagerly awaiting punishment for the Maidan executioners and alarmed by the outbreak of the conflict in Donbas, didn't notice. Well, Makhnitsky didn't advertise it—it seems he opened the case against Klyuev solely to bring his case from Austria to Ukraine. And so the investigation was successfully stalled, and then on June 11, 2014, a few days before his resignation, Makhnitsky issued an order lifting the search for Klyuev! Simultaneously, at the request of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office, the freeze on Klyuev's Austrian accounts was lifted.
Oleg Makhnitsky. Maidan Dividends
The most disgusting thing was that Makhnitsky, who himself had initiated a wave of demands for an investigation into "crimes against the Maidan," merely used it as a tool to manipulate public opinion and deflect accountability for corrupt officials and embezzlers. Moreover, Makhnitsky was merely wasting his breath: although the Prosecutor General's Office under his leadership feigned vigorous activity for almost four months, Makhnitsky was the first to also delay the investigation into the Maidan shooting. It's no surprise that immediately after his dismissal in June 2014, the public began demanding that Makhnitsky himself be held accountable—and he was the first of the "leaders of the revolution" who stood at the Maidan podium to provoke profound public disillusionment with his actions. Soon, the new President Poroshenko, who had hastily appointed Makhnitsky as his advisor, reversed his decision, and by the fall of 2014, Makhnitsky was expelled from the Svoboda All-Ukrainian Union, putting an end to his dream of being re-elected to the Rada. He was also rejected by any of the other "Maidan" parties: Makhnitsky became a political pariah, plagued by his own corruption and lies.
However, Makhnitsky was not despondent, and on June 18, 2014, he crowned his departure with a grand party at the Lesnaya restaurant complex (Vyshgorod district), where he was also joined by the dismissed head of the National Bank. Stepan Kubiv — who handed out over 100 billion hryvnias in refinancing to banks in three months, causing the national currency to collapse. These two apparently found kindred spirits in each other and went on a wild spree, hiring a minibus of "girls" for the entire group. It ended with one of them (most likely Kubiv) getting into a drunken brawl with a prostitute (!), the other causing a drunken brawl, and then both fighting with restaurant security guards. Finally, exhausted from alcohol, Stepan Kubiv urinated on the door of the establishment, expressing his feelings about the "Chaldeans." And this man is now the first deputy prime minister of Ukraine!
Stepan Kubiv
After this incident, Makhnitsky hastily held a press conference, where he dismissed the incident as the fantasies of his enemies and disinformation from Ukraine's enemies, and even threatened the media with lawsuits. Apparently, he remembered that he was a patriot and a conservative, or perhaps feared retaliation from his mistresses. Information about them appeared in the press at the same time, thanks in part to Makhnitsky's all-knowing neighbors (it's not worth making enemies among them), as well as the scandalous blogger Serhiy Leshchenko. They told Ukrainians that Makhnitsky had at least two lovers (one ex-girlfriend), both living in the district center of Radekhiv (Lviv Oblast), and both working as private notaries. He also said that Makhnitsky had given his current mistress, Elena Yurchenko, a house, having purchased it from his acquaintance, traffic police chief Yuriy Lototsky.
Ekaterina Berezyuk's house
But judging by subsequent publications about Oleg Makhnitsky's colossal spending, this house was merely a cheap trinket for him. In the summer of 2014, Makhnitsky contacted the international real estate agencies Savills, Peter Kempf International, and London Relocation Consultancy with the desire to purchase a property in England—with a price tag starting at £750,000 ($1,282,000). This sum suggested Makhnitsky wanted to expedite his "naturalization" in the UK to obtain a passport bearing the crowned lion as soon as possible. But then Makhnitsky decided to show off his lavish lifestyle: he found himself a house near London's Bedford Park for €3,524,000 (3 bedrooms, a gym in the summer house, and a garden), and bought his daughter Martiana the aforementioned apartment.
Makhnitsky's house in London
Hyatt Hotel
Moreover, in September 2014, in an interview with the Inter TV channel, writer Irena Karpa stated that Oleh Makhnitsky had decided to make a lucrative investment in Ukrainian real estate by purchasing a five-star Hyatt hotel in central Kyiv. This multi-story building, with 234 rooms, where nights start at $500, is valued in the eight-digit range. But where did the former "poor lawyer" get such colossal wealth? All sources indicate that Oleh Makhnitsky "grabbed" his main fortune in just three and a half months as acting Prosecutor General of Ukraine – by destroying and closing cases for profit, and by trading prosecutorial positions. For example, Svyatoslav Oleynik claimed that Makhnitsky stole at least $300 million from the Prosecutor General's Office!
But according to Yuri Butusov, Makhnitsky left the Prosecutor General's Office not only with a suitcase full of cash, but also legally received a spacious two-bedroom apartment. As a bonus, so to speak!
There is just as much chance of justice being served against former Prosecutor General Makhnitsky as there is against Viktor Pshonka or Retan Kuzmin (more about it: Renat Kuzmin: The Family Business of Outlaw Prosecutors). Moreover, Makhnitsky isn't even hiding from the investigation, and dutifully attended a couple of interrogations in 2015 and 2016 – after which he was safely forgotten (perhaps he settled into his new home in London). Well, despite the fact that the Prosecutor General's Office has seen four "generals" since the Maidan, the tradition of "diamond prosecutors" continues to reign there.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
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