He earned 300 rubles a month from Akhmetov. Who is Denys Shmyhal, the first Galician to become Ukraine's prime minister?
Ukraine has a new prime minister today: Denys Shmyhal. His candidacy was nominated by the president. Vladimir Zelensky At yesterday's meeting of the Servant of the People faction, it was approved by the Verkhovna Rada today, March 4.
This is the first Galician prime minister in the history of independent Ukraine.
On the one hand, Shmyhal, like Honcharuk, is not a particularly well-known figure. This, apparently, is what motivated their support for the president, who wants a prime minister who is more of an executive than a politician.
On the other hand, this manager has more management experience than Goncharuk, who hails from the grant-funded establishment. He worked in both the financial and real sectors of the economy: for example, he managed a power plant. Furthermore, he served for a long time as an official in the Lviv Regional Administration and as deputy head of the Lviv Regional Tax Service (although this could be seen as a disadvantage, as the latter position was highly corrupt).
True, his background in the energy sector is connected with the company Rinat Akhmetova DTEK. Which gave rise to talk about the entry of "Akhmetov's people" into the Cabinet of Ministers. Especially since among the candidates proposed by Zelenskyy (the full list here) there are several other people associated with the oligarch.
At the same time, Denis Shmyhal is being called a protégé of the head of the Presidential Office. Andrey Yermak, as well as the shadow curators of Western Ukrainian customs - Ilya Pavlyuk and Sergei Badyak.
"The country" I figured out what the soon-to-be prime minister is known for and how he got into politics.
Official biography of Denis Shmygal
Shmygal Denis Anatolyevich Born in Lviv in 1975. Graduated from Lviv Polytechnic with a degree in mechanical engineering management and engineering economics. He holds a PhD in economics.
After graduating, he worked as an accountant for over six years, from entry-level to chief accountant. In 2005, he landed his first major position: chief financial officer and director of economic development at the Lviv Bus Plant.
Next come director positions in a number of private companies, which were mainly involved in property management.
In 2009, Shmyhal began climbing the bureaucratic ladder. He became an aide to Lviv Governor Mykola Kmit, and then the head of the Main Economic Department of the entire regional state administration, where he remained until 2013.
Shmygal resigned from the Regional State Administration only in 2014. That is, he worked under both Yushchenko’s proteges and Yanukovych’s appointees in the governor’s post.
After leaving the regional administration, he briefly became an assistant to the Udar deputy Roman Chernega. But then he returned to power: he became deputy head of the regional department of the Ministry of Revenue. That is, the tax office, which is very “fat” by corruption standards.
But he only stayed there for a year. Then he went into business. First, as vice president of the Lvivkholod plant, then, in 2017, as deputy general director of the local branch of Akhmetov's DTEK. He worked there for two years, eventually becoming director of the Burshtyn Thermal Power Plant and holding senior positions in the management company.
In August 2019, Zelenskyy appointed Shmyhal as Governor of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. And in February 2020, he was appointed Minister of Communities and Territories, replacing Olena Babak, and also as Deputy Prime Minister.
That is, the springboard for the premiership was laid back then.
Denis Shmygal. Official declaration
The NAPC website currently only contains the declaration that Denys Shmyhal submitted when he was planning to become Ivano-Frankivsk governor.
Shmygal's wife, Kateryna, owns a 216-square-meter house in Lviv, as well as two plots of land and non-residential buildings. The couple also owns land in the village of Khorosnytsia near Lviv.
The wife also owns a 2016 Land Rover. The future premiere of the car does not have a car in the declaration for 2018. But at the same time the garage is registered to him.
Denys Shmygal's salary at DTEK totaled three and a half million hryvnias in 2018—meaning he was earning almost 300 hryvnias per month from Akhmetov.
The Shmygal family declared 115 thousand dollars in cash, while only 12 thousand hryvnia were kept in the bank.
The declaration also lists the future prime minister's two daughters, Anna and Sofia.
How Denys Shmyhal came to power
As we can see from his work biography, the future prime minister is quite apolitical and worked under all authorities, and under Yanukovych he was even included in the presidential personnel reserve.
By the way, it was precisely because of this that Shmygal had problems in Lviv with the local Maidan activists.
"My family experienced a certain amount of publicity back in 2014. That's when the Maidan ended, and I started working in the fiscal service. There was everything: public lustrations, video broadcasts, journalists visiting the house," he said in an interview with Ukrinform.
After Maidan, he tried to enter the Rada as a self-nominated candidate, but also lost the elections, taking the last place in his constituency.
And in 2014, Shmygal ran for the post of head of the Lviv region (and another Lviv resident in the Cabinet of Ministers actively supported him). Maxim Nemchinov).
Shmygal explained his appearance as governor in Ivano-Frankivsk, and not Lvov, by the fact that at that time he was already working for DTEK in this region, which is why he was appointed there.
It is interesting that another candidate for the post of the head of Lviv region was Maxim Kozitsky — the owner of solar power plants in the Lviv region and the son of a business partner of Shmygal's wife, Kateryna, the local "oil" king Zinovy Kozitsky, under which there are oil and gas fields in the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions.
Kozitsky nevertheless became the governor of Lvov, but not in the summer, but this winter.
One way or another, the very fact that Shmygal is tied to influential circles of businessmen in this region is interesting. And not only for energy workers, who can be traced not only along the line of Kozitsky, but also along the line of Akhmetov.
Shmyhal is also credited with connections to customs "kings"—Lviv resident Serhiy Badyak, nicknamed "Diplomat," and Chernivtsi resident Ilya Pavlyuk, a friend of President Zelenskyy. This information was published by local media.
True, Shmyhal himself said in an interview with Lviv media that he was not familiar with Pavlyuk. "I don't know such a person, and no one has ever introduced themselves to me as Pavlyuk's man. I've been asked this question before, that there was such an accusation somewhere, and I immediately said: I don't know such a person. And nothing has changed yet—I still haven't met Pavlyuk.".
But he didn't deny knowing Badyak. He said he'd known him since 2013. "the founder of the only successfully operating private industrial and logistics park in Horodyshche in the Lviv region«.
As for connections with Akhmetov, Shmygal said that he did not know him personally and had only seen the shareholder on TV.
"I don't know Rinat Leonidovich personally. I got into DTEK, and specifically the Burshtyn Thermal Power Plant, where I've been managing for the last two years, through an open competition. I've only seen DTEK's shareholder on television."“- the official said in one interview.
What Denys Shmyhal said before the Prime Minister's Office
Before voting for his candidacy, Denis Shmygal made a short speech.
He announced the “Great Construction” program, which will restart the economy. He promised to initiate a discussion “about the location of Ukraine on the economic map of the world.” He repeated several times about the decentralization that he would be engaged in.
"We need to strengthen the economic sector. We've heard about tax and customs reforms, but we haven't seen any impact on budget revenues.", Shmygal said.
He also stated that a comprehensive program to combat the coronavirus is needed. He also listed Ukraine's main problems: tariffs, energy, and declining production.
He proposed to revise the budget for 2020. Increase pensions and reduce salaries of ministers and members of supervisory boards. He said that he would pay off the debts of the miners.
In general, very vague and vague speech. Subsequently, no specifics were given in response to clarifying questions from deputies. Shmygal referred to the government program, which will soon be presented.
The only thing that was quite specific was the condemnation of the excessive strengthening of the hryvnia exchange rate, which had a negative impact on the country's economic indicators.
Judging by the prime minister's first words, he is an extremely cautious man who either doesn't want to reveal his cards or doesn't yet know his plan for the future.
That is, for now, Denys Shmygal is an even bigger “Mr. X” than he was when Honcharuk was appointed.
How people in Lviv react to the appointment of a fellow countryman as prime minister
The attitude towards Shmyhal in Galicia is contradictory.
Some are happy that the government could be headed by "one of our own," while others are skeptical about Shmygal's appointment, partly due to his work at Akhmetov's DTEK company—he briefly headed the Burshtyn Thermal Power Plant.
In a conversation with Strana, members of Lviv's elite were divided in their opinions: some describe him as a "decent professional," while others consider him an "opportunist and careerist" who has accosted himself under every government—Yushchenko, Yanukovych, and now Zelensky. Political analysts, incidentally, are calling the proposed new Cabinet a government of "technocrats and professional opportunists."
Shmyhal is also expected to lure his Lviv friends into power. One of them, Oleh Nemchinov, has already become a candidate for a Cabinet minister position.
"After becoming minister, Shmyhal already brought Vasyl Lozinskyi, then deputy governor of the Lviv region (then Markiyan Malskyi, a friend of Shmyhal), to Kyiv as his deputy. Now he's snagged Nemchinov, with whom he and Kostenko had both been associated in the Lviv branch of Yuriy Kostenko's Ukrainian People's Party in the 2000s. Back then, he became a UNP deputy for the Vynnyk City Council (a town within Lviv) and tried to run for the regional council with the UNP, but, unlike Nemchinov, failed. But they've maintained a relationship since then, and Nemchinov has constantly defended him on social media."“,” one of the local Lviv politicians, who is familiar with Shmygal, tells Strana.
Nemchinov did indeed "root" for Shmyhal on social media, republishing his posts and tagging him in publications, and once wrote that he "had the courage to leave before you were 'asked' and not in public." Shmyhal, who had long headed the economic department in the Lviv regional administration, submitted his resignation under the Yanukovych-era governors Mykhailo Tsymbalyuk and To Oleg Salo.
However, many have already forgotten his work at the regional state administration and stubbornly consider him "Akhmetov's man," whom he claims he doesn't even know personally, and justifies his position as a top manager at DTEK through an open competition. But for many Lviv residents, the very fact of working for Akhmetov is "compromising," and when rumors circulated that Shmyhal could become governor, activists even called for a boycott.
“Akhmetov can’t wait to seize Lviv together with Sadovym, but I think that we will not allow DTEK managers to take over the region together.”,” local activist Ivan Sprinsky spread the calls on Facebook.
But even Lviv residents who are loyal to Shmygal generally do not expect anything breakthrough from him if he is appointed prime minister.
"I think his candidacy is too weak in this situation."“- says Lviv politician, member of Batkivshchyna Vasyl Ilkiv.
"The Lviv people were already in power, but their 'let us put our souls in' wasn't very successful.",” Yuri Gubeniv is skeptical.
“Yes, Lvov already had Semerak, Grinevich, Kubiv And Omelyan is in the executive branch. Now Akhmetov will have his own prime minister."“- says Vasily Chorniy, close to the Poroshenko bots, ironically.
"What, Bohdan wasn't enough? He's also from Lviv, so what?""," adds renowned physician and former Lviv City Council deputy Zinoviy Huzar.
“Our Lviv residents were under Yushchenko, Yule, PoroshenkoAnd now under Zelensky, what's the result? Our Minister of Health, Skaletska, who's also from Lviv, a lawyer, not a doctor, is not enough. She's foolishly neglecting to organize prevention of infectious diseases for the population, to ensure the country's safety from the coronavirus threat, to organize the production and procurement of sufficient respiratory protective equipment, to test diagnostic systems, to prepare medical facilities for the proper care of such infectious patients, and instead went to sit with contacts of people from China without protective equipment, because she's not afraid of a virus that sometimes takes people's health and lives. "We have what we have"—our local government, Lviv residents, under every president and government. Only somehow the standard of living and access to services are getting worse.,” believes Lviv activist Alexander Yemelyanov.
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