Following the announcement of the party list and the list of majoritarian candidates with whom the Petro Poroshenko Bloc is running in the snap parliamentary elections, a debate about "worthy and unworthy" has erupted online.
LigaBusinessInform then published a list of names of party list candidates and single-member constituency candidates who had previously discredited themselves either by joining the Party of Regions, switching to various parties (popularly known as "tushki"), or having direct ties to the so-called "Family," or all three. Unfortunately, one such individual has also appeared in the Mykolaiv district, writes Prestupnosti.net.
I previously asked knowledgeable people to send me information about Vladimir Opryshko, who will be running in single-mandate majoritarian district No. 128 (Leninsky and Korabelny districts of Mykolaiv), as his identity was unknown to Mykolaiv voters. And while we've become accustomed to "parachutists," Vladimir Nakonechny's biography was nonetheless more accessible online in 2012.
To be honest, I didn't receive much information, but what I read allowed me to piece together a "portrait" of this person. Moreover, it's important to note that completely different people sent me the same information in parts, which gives a certain chance of its veracity.
So, meet Vladimir Alekseevich Opryshko, born October 17, 1973, lives in Kyiv.
The only connection to Nikolaev is the Nikolaev grain processing plant, where Opryshko held a prominent position in the company’s governing body.
Currently, according to smida.gov.ua (the Agency for the Development of the Stock Market Infrastructure of Ukraine), the founders of PJSC NKHP include BANTA AGRICULTURAL INVESMENTS LIMITED, a company with a legal address in Cyprus (in other words, an offshore company) (87.5253% of the shares) and the state-owned enterprise Mykolaiv Sea Trade Port (11.9993%). The offshore company is linked to Yulia Levochkin, the sister of the head of the Presidential Administration under Yanukovych, Serhiy Levochkin. Moreover, in 2006-2007, Levochkina served as the chair of the supervisory board of OJSC Mykolaiv Bread Products Plant.
Opryshko himself is one of the top managers who runs companies associated with the Levochkin family. According to informed sources, our candidate currently holds a senior position in a company directly linked to Nikolaev's Nika-Tera specialized seaport. This port is known to be owned by Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, who has a friendly and business relationship with Serhiy Levochkin.
Initially, it was planned that Serhiy Lyovochkin himself would run in this constituency. One of the reasons for this decision could have been that, with the annexation of Crimea and the ATO in eastern Ukraine, the Party of Regions lost their core electoral regions. Their last hope of entering the Verkhovna Rada were the single-member constituencies of Mykolaiv, Kherson, Odesa, and Kirovohrad oblasts, where the Party of Regions' ratings had been quite high before the Maidan events.
Nevertheless, having the results of the latest opinion polls for this district, I can say that Levochkin's chances of getting into the Rada from this district are highly questionable. To say he has a high negative rating is an understatement. As the saying goes, "They don't take people like him to be cosmonauts."
Last week, Andriy Yermolayev, director of the New Ukraine Center for Strategic Studies, stated that Lyovochkin does not intend to run in any constituency in the Mykolaiv region. There's no point in disbelieving someone close to Lyovochkin. Moreover, Lyovochkin is one of those people who knows how to count both money and votes. And if he doesn't have enough of the latter, he won't waste the former.
In that case, the question remains: to whom did Poroshenko sell Lyovochkin the Mykolaiv district? And I have no doubt that the district was sold. Otherwise, how can one explain the Poroshenko Bloc's running in the district, a man about whom, even a month before the election, Mykolaiv residents know no more than they would a candidate running in, say, Western Ukraine? The presence of a weak candidate from the presidential party, which can boost even a "zero" candidate's vote by 7-8%, gives another candidate with the resources and the skills to run a campaign a high chance of winning.
We only have to wait a little longer to get a definitive answer to this question. September 25 marks the deadline for candidates running in the single-member constituency to submit documents. The Central Election Commission will issue a final decision on these documents on September 30.
Until then, any candidates will remain mere speculation. It seems Levochkin himself hasn't yet fully decided whom to send in this district—his sister, Yulia, or another candidate. However, I'm certain that this candidate hasn't yet been registered by the Central Election Commission. Since those already registered as candidates have either submitted documents or expressed their willingness to run in this district, few fit the profile of "Levochkin's man." Even Artem Ilyuk, who ran for the Party of Regions in 2010, according to my information, actually refused to cooperate with the Party of Regions leadership and ran as an independent candidate.
Former Governor Nikolai Kruglov, who enjoys a high level of recognition in any of the Mykolaiv districts, could also be a potential candidate. Moreover, Kruglov has had, and continues to have, a fairly good relationship with the Party of Regions leadership. And at this point, it's unclear whether he will run for office.
Just a week ago, I was absolutely certain Opryshko wouldn't even show up in Mykolaiv, and that we wouldn't hear anything more about him until the end of the election. However, billboards have started appearing around the city, and residents are getting calls asking about their opinions on the candidate. And Volodymyr Opryshko himself plans to visit Mykolaiv tomorrow.
As for voters, I don't think they're particularly interested in who will run for Lyovochkin, who will run for Poroshenko, or who won't. They (as is only natural) are interested in peace and prosperity. I hope that after all the events that have occurred since the end of 2013, and those that are happening now (and which we all still have to endure together), you will finally make a choice not based on a slogan, a face, or the amount of buckwheat and other food packages you've received. Instead, you will make a conscious and informed choice based on the candidate's actual achievements and a relatively clean biography. The future development of our country depends on you.
P.S. At the time of writing, Opryshko's billboards hadn't yet appeared in the city. Just yesterday, Mira Avenue and Pobedy Square were adorned with campaign posters for his candidate, who is positioning himself as the head of the Supervisory Board of the Mykolaiv Grain Processing Plant. It's worth noting that, according to the same website smida.gov.ua (the Agency for the Development of the Stock Market Infrastructure of Ukraine), the head of the Supervisory Board of PJSC "NKHP" is BANTA AGRICULTURAL INVESMENTS LIMITED, as are all other members of the Board.
Politrada
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