Olesya Ostrovskaya-Lyutaya: Who will split up Mystetskyi Arsenal?
A Ukrainian folk saying holds that if members of the presidential "family" appoint one of their own as the manager of a large property, it means they may soon begin to seize control of that property. And although the country's largest museum is now headed by a man with a seemingly impeccable reputation in the arts, this impression can be deceiving. Olesya Ostrovskaya-Lyuta, who has made a career as a professional grant manager, has a few "sins" that raise doubts about the sincerity of her loud public statements.
Olesya Ostrovskaya-Lyutaya. Mysterious Stranger
Olesya (Lesya) Bohdanovna Ostrovskaya was born on August 5, 1978, in Lviv. For some reason, she doesn't talk about her parents, her school years, or her current family. Another oddity about Olesya Bohdanovna is the lack of childhood and teenage friends, classmates, neighbors, and so on. Sure, they exist somewhere (they should), but for some reason, Skelet.Org hasn't been able to find a single one of them to ask: what was she like before, the former Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine and director of the Mystetskyi Arsenal? After all, this isn't about prying into the private life of an ordinary citizen, but about the biography of a public politician, a social and cultural figure, an elected official responsible for the distribution of state funds and property. People would like to know who Olesya Ostrovskaya-Liutaya is and how she suddenly materialized in post-Maidan Ukraine.
Unfortunately, her biography is incredibly scant. She has spoken Polish well since childhood, a rarity even among Lviv residents, so it's safe to assume that one of Olesya Ostrovska's parents is of Polish descent.
In 1994, sixteen-year-old Olesya arrived in Kyiv and enrolled at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (KMA), earning a bachelor's degree in cultural studies in 1998. At the time, most graduates with such a degree could, at best, find work as tour guides (without pay), but Olesya found a position as an office manager (and Polish translator) at the Renaissance Foundation, the main branch of the Soros Foundation in Ukraine. Since Soros doesn't hire people "off the street" through an ad (especially in the harsh 90s), it can be concluded that Olesya Ostrovskaya had made the necessary connections there. She simultaneously continued her distance learning at the Academy, earning a master's degree in 2000. After that, a three-year gap appeared in her biography.
Perhaps this was connected to Olesya Bohdanovna's marriage: after all, it was in the late 90s that she met Taras Vladimirovich Lyutyi (born November 23, 1972) at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In 1996, this graduate of the Kyiv Polytechnic (Electroacoustics Department) immediately abandoned science and technology and became a writer-philosopher, enrolling in the philosophy department of the Kyiv Medical Academy. He defended his theses, one might say, at the same time as Olesya: his bachelor's degree in 1998 and his master's degree in 2000, while simultaneously pursuing graduate work at the Hryhoriy Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy. This highly original man is known for his passion for two things: philosophical anthropology and the philosophy of Nietzsche, to whom he dedicated one of his books.
Olesya Ostrovskaya and Taras Lyuty
Olesya Ostrovskaya and Taras Lyuty
Their biographies remain silent on exactly when they married and when their daughter, Solomiya (Salomeya), was born. But after that, Olesya Bogdanovna adopted the double surname Ostrovskaya-Lyuta. She also began frequently appearing with her husband at various exhibitions and presentations. For Taras Lyuty, with his image as a writer-philosopher and his social status as a "bohemian party animal," these events were his life. But the curious thing was that it wasn't Olesya who accompanied her husband, but quite the opposite. In 2003, Olesya was appointed Deputy Director of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art Charitable Foundation at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Quite a career boost for a young graduate! But it wasn't just a career move: Olesya Bogdanovna, as part of her position, began distributing grants and funds for events—precisely for cultural figures like her husband. And this isn't just about publishing books or organizing exhibitions; it also includes tickets and receptions for the perpetually cash-strapped creative elite and journalists accustomed to freebies. And, as the saying goes, "the one who feeds the family" is the boss!
His wife's position dramatically elevated Taras Lyutyi's status in his circle: people tried to befriend him in order to gain access to Olesya Bohdanovna through him. His own career also took off: he found a job teaching philosophy at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, which provided him with a steady salary. During his wife's tenure at the foundation (2003-2007), he published most of his books. It's not certain that the foundation financed them, but among grant-hungry individuals, there's a practice of exchanging grants: we help you get funding for a publication at our foundation, and you help us get funding for an exhibition at your foundation!
Olesya Ostrovskaya-Lyutaya
Olesya Ostrovskaya-Lyutaya: "I cooked grates and fed the children!"
It appears that in 2007, Olesya Bogdanovna, for some reason, fell out of favor with the foundation's owners—perhaps due to the publication of three of her husband's books at once. She was forced to leave her position and move to Pillar PR (PR and advertising services), where she worked as a manager for about a year. It should be noted that this work taught her a thing or two: Olesya Bogdanovna knows how to direct herself in the right direction. For example, many consider her an honest, selfless, and deeply patriotic patron of Ukrainian art.
Then she was aided by either old connections at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Vyacheslav Bryukhovetsky), her husband's connections at the Institute of Philosophy (Miroslav Popovych), or her new business contacts with Pillar PR clients—among them, Rinat Akhmetov's "Development of Ukraine" Foundation. In 2008, Olesya Ostrovska-Lyuta received a stunningly promising position as project and program manager. This wasn't just about distributing money to projects; it was about creating them—meaning she was given the power to decide who would receive grants and for what purposes. What is a "hands-on" person in Ukraine? They're practically Christ feeding the needy with sprat sandwiches.
Olesya Ostrovskaya-Lyutaya: Who will split up Mystetskyi Arsenal?
It's worth noting that the "Development of Ukraine" Foundation was created in the summer of 2005 in response to minor tensions that arose during a visit by representatives of the Soros foundations to Donetsk. Akhmetov's associates then began accusing Soros's managers of allocating five times less money to projects in the Donetsk region than to projects in the Lviv region. In response, they claimed that the Soros Foundation only funded "democratic projects." Ultimately, the "Donetsk" representatives, who had set themselves the goal of political rehabilitation and a new power struggle, decided to create their own "Development of Ukraine" Foundation—one that was explicitly focused not on "democratic" projects but on "cultural and humanitarian" ones.
Since 2008, the foundation has undergone a slight restructuring: it began to bear Rinat Akhmetov's name and more actively promote the name of Donetsk's unofficial ruler, in an effort to whitewash him in the eyes of his fellow citizens after the political euphoria of 2003-2004 and 2006-207. Vyacheslav Bryukhovetsky and Miroslav Popovich joined its board. It was precisely during this restructuring that Olesya Ostrovskaya-Lyutaya was invited to join the foundation. Perhaps her mysterious break with Soros's Center for Contemporary Art Foundation also played a role in this—meaning Akhmetov accepted the enemy of his enemy.
Olesya Bohdanovna's tenure at the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation was long and fruitful. She created a number of grant programs for Ukrainian artists, as well as a significant museum development grant program, with grants reaching 160,000 hryvnias ($20,000). Her biography also includes this interesting fact: from 2010 to 2014, Olesya Ostrovska-Lutaya chaired the board of the Center for Contemporary Art. However, it is not clear whether this was the old Center for Contemporary Art, abandoned by Soros in 2008 and "bought out" by Akhmetov, or one of the other "Centers for Contemporary Art" that opened several in Kyiv between 2007 and 2010. In 2011, Olesya Bohdanovna also chaired the jury of the Molodist All-Ukrainian Film Festival. Her husband's affairs also took off: in 2009, Taras Lyuty defended his doctoral dissertation, and in 2011 he received the position of dean of the philosophy department at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
But then Euromaidan erupted. It seemed there would be no more cushy jobs in Ukraine for one of Akhmetov's "favorites," who had been doling out his money for six years. However, this was only the view of those who underestimated the importance of this money for the eternally thirsty "mists" and figures of the cultural and philosophical "bohemian" world. The money may have been Akhmetova's, but "Mama Lesya" had been spoon-feeding it for six years! And so, just a few days after the victory of the "Revolution of Dignity," a mini-Maidan took place at the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, a cultural one and without burning tires. During this mini-Maidan, these same "mists" decided to independently elect a new Minister of Culture.
Was it any wonder that most of those gathered were shouting for Olesya Bogdanovna's candidacy? Perhaps someone had promised the overexcited artists that if she were elected, they would receive a generous flow of not only foundation grants, but also abundant budget funding.
However, a force majeure occurred: more nimble individuals in the Verkhovna Rada got busy, appointing the theater actor Yevhen Nyshchuk as the new Minister of Culture. He was the same actor who, during the Maidan protests, never left the stage, shouting "Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes!" The same actor who, in 2016, would claim that the population of southeastern Ukraine had genetic problems.
Surprisingly, Olesya Ostrovskaya-Lyuta even welcomed the new head of the Ministry of Culture. And less than a month later, on March 23, Nyshchuk personally invited Olesya Bohdanovna to the post of his first deputy. The situation was very reminiscent of 2000, when Bohdan Stupka was appointed Minister of Culture – a brilliant actor but a poor manager who allowed his deputies to spend the ministry's budget as they saw fit (they embezzled everything during the filming of "The Legend of Hetman Mazepa"). It seems that in this situation, the actor-cum-politician Nyshchuk has been assigned Olesya Ostrovskaya-Lyuta, a very experienced project organizer and financial manager.
But in this position, Olesya Bohdanovna mastered not only the ministry's budget allocation but also the management of Ukraine's cultural property. During her short career at the Ministry of Culture, she became embroiled in several scandals linked by a common theme: the issuance of construction permits in cultural zones and the deregistration of architectural monuments.
On April 28, 2014, the deputy minister signed a document authorizing construction in Kyiv's historic center at 15 Andriyivskyy Descent (Richard's Castle) and 17 Andriyivskyy Descent. The battle over this land had been raging for years: rumors swirled that a construction company linked to Akhmetov was planning to build an elite cottage community in the area, and there were also rumors of one of Pinchuk's companies building a shopping and entertainment center there. But time and again, concerned Kyiv residents and the law prohibiting construction in such areas stood in the way of the builders. And now, it seems, Olesya Bohdanovna has attempted to quickly resolve the issue. During the ensuing scandal, she responded to journalists' questions by claiming she had acted within the law, as the project had allegedly passed the appropriate review by a Ministry of Culture commission.
In Odessa, Olesya Ostrovska-Lyuta caused a scandal by issuing a permit to the Tiras Construction Company for construction work in the historic part of the city at 23 Velyka Arnautska Street. Subsequently, a 16-story "tower" with a parking garage began to rise there, unsightly and threatening the integrity of neighboring buildings. When this story reached the Prosecutor General's Office, Olesya Bohdanovna stated that her signature had been forged by Tiras Construction Company employees, and she would file a complaint against them.
And in Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi, the deputy minister facilitated the appointment of the controversial Oleksiy Lukashevich (former chairman of the local Party of Regions branch) as director of the Pereyaslav National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve. He was said to be a close associate of former Agrarian Policy Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk (wanted) and former Culture Minister Leonid Novokhatko. Considering that this reserve controls almost the entire center of Pereyaslav, one can only guess what prospects awaited its new director.
What does Kononenko need?
Olesya Bohdanovna's career rise was abruptly interrupted in November 2014 with the resignation of Yevhen Nishchuk. She immediately submitted her resignation letter and slammed the door, muttering something about the Augean stables never being cleaned. Just as she had after losing her position in 2007, Ostrovskaya-Lyutaya again found temporary work at a private PR firm. This time, it was the "consulting company Pro.Mova," where Olesya Bohdanovna headed the analytics department for a year and a half. Her connections at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy helped her secure the job: Pro.Mova's CEO, Yevhen Glibovitsky, teaches at the academy's business school.
But in Kyiv, the Yatsenyuk government was replaced by the Groysman government ( read more about it in the article Volodymyr Groysman: Dark Spots in the Biography of the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada ), and on April 16, 2016, Yevhen Nyshchuk returned to the post of Minister of Culture. It would seem that Olesya Ostrovska-Lyutaya should have also returned to the position of his deputy, but it seems that the post was currently occupied by someone's protégé—and this is not surprising, given the deputy minister's considerable reach in the construction business! But Olesya Bohdanovna was not left to languish in her "consulting firm." In July 2016, when the contract of the former director of the Mystetskyi Arsenal (or Creative Arsenal, if correctly translated into Russian), Natalia Zabolotnaya, expired, a competition was held in which five candidates participated: Zabolotnaya, Ostrovskaya-Lyutaya, Western-educated architect Oksana Chapelyk, production designer Fyodor Aleksandrovich, and the deputy director for economics at the National Academy of Arts, Vladislav Tuzov (he later withdrew from the election).
The elections took place on July 7, 2016, and erupted into yet another scandal. At least the losing side (Zabolotnaya) and some Arsenal employees who supported her later told journalists it was a "farce" involving "pressure on the commission." Certain "titushki" (bourgeois thugs) attended the meeting, one of whom claimed to be an "ATO veteran." Zabolotnaya was accused of supporting "Yanukovych's criminal regime," and five of the nine commission members immediately voted in favor of Ostrovskaya-Lyuta. Some of those present claimed that the "titushki," like the "bought commission members," were the men of Serhiy Berezenko ( read more about him in the article "Two Biographies of Serhiy Berezenko: How a 'New Generation' Politician Promotes Himself in the US" ). Berezenko, the former head of the State Administration of Affairs (DUS) in 2014-2015, is now a member of parliament in the BPP faction, and a part-time adviser to President Poroshenko. Berezenko is also said to be a close friend of the "grey cardinal" Ihor Kononenko ( read more about him in " Ihor Kononenko: The President's Army Friend" ).
Thus, it turned out that Olesya Bohdanovna had acquired very high-ranking patrons – after all, members of the "presidential family" now decide practically everything in Ukraine (in their own interests, of course). At the same time, these people never do anything without reason, and if they appointed Olesya Bohdanovna to "oversee" Arsenal, it means they have some kind of interest in it. Unsurprisingly, the election of Olesya Ostovska-Liuta seriously alarmed some Ukrainians, who began to look with concern at the former deputy minister, who already has several scandals under her belt involving the embezzlement of cultural and historical property. What would it cost her to use an excavator on Arsenal? After all, the complex occupies 10 hectares (with an additional 10 hectares of land surrounding it) in the very center of Kyiv – and it has long been the subject of interest from Kyiv developers. According to conservative estimates obtained by Skelet.Org from experts, the price of this property starts at $10 million—and that's just the price of the "empty" land. Its development could bring in several hundred million dollars for the businessmen.
“Mystetskyi Arsenal” 20 hectares in the very center of Kyiv
“Mystetskyi Arsenal” 20 hectares in the very center of Kyiv
It seems incredible that someone would encroach on Ukraine's most famous museum. However, these fears are not unfounded, given the ingenuity and arrogance of Ukraine's oligarchs. Firstly, the Mystetskyi Arsenal is merely a cultural project, housed by its founder, Viktor Yushchenko, in the Kyiv Arsenal building. And, under certain circumstances, it could be moved to another location. Secondly, the building itself, which is only partially used (the ground floor), and the area around and within it resembles a wasteland, although it is an architectural and historical monument, could be stripped of that status.
A similar incident occurred in Moscow in 2004, when the Manege, set on fire from several sides, "suddenly" caught fire. Only the widespread outrage of Muscovites and the president's intervention forced Moscow authorities to abandon the plan to demolish the ruins and begin a full restoration. It's not a given that the same thing will happen to the Arsenal, but many Ukrainians believe it's now as doomed as Voronya Slobodka. And all the plans of its new director, Olesya Ostrovskaya-Lyuta, to develop the museum into a "European-level center" may be nothing more than empty talk to cover their eyes. They say they'll then wring their hands in tears, crying about "how many creative plans we had."
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
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