The audit of the state-owned Ukrzaliznytsia railway and the resulting temporary suspension of its CEO, Borys Ostapyuk, is arguably the most high-profile event of the week in the transport industry and beyond. Journalists are guessing at the origins of Borys Ostapyuk's fall from grace, offering dozens of theories that are far from the truth. The story, however, is far more complicated on one hand and much simpler on the other.
No more, no less—the Ukrainian hardware industry ranks 21st among the 500 largest companies in Eastern Europe and first among Ukraine's giants. And today, it is one of the few remaining afloat, despite suffering massive losses due to the fighting in the east of the country.
Just recently, SBU "milkers" approached Boris Ostapyuk with an offer they believed he couldn't refuse. The "modest" SBU businessmen decided it would be very "nice" for Ukrzaliznytsia to "steal" a small monthly fee of 60 million hryvnias into their offices. But, as the poem goes, "that day my friends didn't get any ***, except for a treat, and they ran away, asking for forgiveness."
The unsafe Security Service of Ukraine is not accustomed to abandoning its ploy to make money. Having concocted a file marked "secret" containing allegedly corrupt contracts involving the "hardware company," SBU investigators went "to the people"—to Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Yatsenyuk's glasses popped when he leafed through the "secret materials." Reasonably and calmly, the prime minister suggested the extortionists seek the "truth" legally—and, for example, open a criminal case, since they saw a crime somewhere between the lines. The "team" didn't expect such a turn of events. And so they set off again—not to 33 Volodymyrska Street to open a case, but to Bankova Street to look for another "sucker." Having waved the "secret" folder in front of the head of the Presidential Administration, Boris Lozhkin, the SBU received another unexpected response: instead of the expected and well-worn "remove the undesirable" (in this case, Ostapyuk) under the previous government, they received the order to conduct an audit of Ukrzaliznytsia. And then it all began...
Hastily concocting a "secret for such a small company," SBU investigators stuffed a folder with contracts and agreements from the first companies they could lay their hands on. From what they managed to snoop on (contrary to the precepts of Vysotsky, who disliked "it when a stranger reads letters, looking over your shoulder"), three companies belonging to... Udar members, among others, fell into the hands of the "protégés" of the head of the SBU and "UDAR" Valentyn Nalyvaichenko. Specifically, the head of Ruslan Solvar and his transportation company, Fresh Line, was "shot." It's worth noting that Solvar had recently staged a vague picket near Ukrzaliznytsia, in connection with his company's removal from UZ. In other words, the company, which had been implicated in "criminal deals" with Boris Ostapyuk, was essentially exempted from any railway activity whatsoever under Ostapyuk. The second company they came across was Expositsiya LLC, owned by the Dubnevych brothers, the younger of whom is a member of parliament and a member of the Udar party. Having set the wheels in motion, the SBU even sent a request to the Prosecutor General's Office for information on the Dubnevychs' company, in connection with the criminal case being opened. A follow-up request from the Prosecutor General's Office revealed that the SBU had not opened any criminal case.
Business takes time, and fun takes time, as the saying goes. Extortion apparently leaves no time to initiate a case, but the racketeers in uniform have found time for a "joke." And the fun, unlike the case, turned out well. One of the charges, filed in a tattered document marked "secret," concerned Mr. Ishchenko's security company, Inkom LLC. You see, Ostapyuk, who allegedly entered into illegal contracts... terminated (!) contracts with private security guards signed under the previous management. It's no secret that Ukrzaliznytsia is a paramilitary organization and has its own security detail. The SBU (the guys have a sense of humor!) saw this as criminal: supposedly, they're now blowing up bridges because of it. It's worth recalling that neither the Ministry of Internal Affairs nor the Security Service of Ukraine (unlike Ukrzaliznytsia) deigned to remove the weapons from Donbas, handing them over to the first person "to find" them. Needless to say, it's not the Ukrainian army that's finding them.
Valentyn Nalyvaichenko himself remains silent: the "independent activity" of his "investigators" has left the "star in shock," so to speak. Who framed SBU chief Valentyn Nalyvaichenko? Behind the scenes, the "creativity" of his protégés is being assessed in two ways. The first (uncensored): "f***ing FSB guys." As is well known, the SBU today is still not quite a security service, let alone one of Ukraine. Personnel purges are not proceeding as quickly as the FSB-style personnel changes of the previous government. Incidentally, media reports have surfaced that even Ukrzaliznychpostach itself still retains FSB-like personnel. The second theory behind the emergence of the "uniformed brigade" is linked to the name of Alexey Krivopishin, director of the Southwestern Railway. Krivopishin, who has appeared on several television broadcasts over the past month and given a dozen media interviews, is not at all happy with the reforms being launched at Ukrzaliznytsia. In connection with the reforms, an inventory of the railway's structural divisions is being conducted. And this man, whose biography is spotless, apparently has something to hide. The audit, initiated now at the instigation of the SBU, will drag on until October 10th. Then there will be this, that, and a few drinks... Rumor has it that by that time, Krivopishin hopes to gain parliamentary immunity—the reform initiative comes from the Cabinet of Ministers, and there's no hope of reversing it even if Ostapyuk is fired.
However, the second version ultimately boils down to the first, and the foul-mouthed one. Armed and especially dangerous Security Service agents, instead of serving security and being on the front lines, are engaging in banal extortion, compared to which even the wild nineties would pale into insignificance. And it doesn't even matter whose initiative it is—their own or that of their political rivals.
Korrepondent
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