Tens of millions of dollars spent on politics.
Documents published by Ukrainska Pravda reveal the inner workings of the clan-oligarchic system built in Ukraine over the past twenty years.
This is the Party of Regions's expense ledger, which almost simultaneously ended up in the hands of former journalist and now MP Serhiy Leshchenko and former Deputy Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Viktor Trepak.
Political expenses are detailed down to the last penny, totaling over $66 million. The Party of Regions spent this money "on party needs" in less than six months of 2012.
We have analyzed and published only those individual pages available to the editorial staff. Some information is missing from the documents. For example, we do not have data on the Party of Regions' spending from early October to November 23, 2012—that is, for the main period of the parliamentary campaign.
The kaleidoscope of names is staggering: both former and current deputies, ex-ministers, members of the Central Electoral Commission, top managers of television channels, heads of sociological services, and political strategists.
Here you can find surnames and initials that completely match those of former minister and MP Sivkovich, former Justice Minister Lukash, former Foreign Minister Kozhara, head of the Central Election Commission Okhendovsky, former and current MPs Geller , Mirimsky, Kalyuzhny, Kostenko, Skubashevsky, Demidko, Kovalevskaya, Yanukovych's bodyguard with a Russian passport Zanevsky, and political strategists Bondarenko, Mustafin, and Granovsky.
The documents reveal who channeled millions of dollars for PR support for the Party of Regions on Inter and ICTV channels, in regional press, and on FM radio stations. Furthermore, the documents show that the Party of Regions financed Our Ukraine and the Communists during the 2012 elections.
Enormous sums were allocated not only to building the political corporation of the Party of Regions but also for the leaders' petty pleasures. For example, among the payments, there is a "prepayment for watches" of $67.
An analysis of the documents suggests that Party of Regions deputies Yevgeny Geller and Vitaly Kalyuzhny were the primary overseers of the Party of Regions. Their assistants received funds for party expenses, and they themselves appear on the party lists more frequently than others.
As noted above, the data covers a short period, while former high-ranking SBU official Trepak submitted documents to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau covering all years of Yanukovych's rule.
According to Trepak, the total expenditures of the Party of Regions on political corruption amounted to approximately $2 billion.
We believe we have no right to conceal the facts revealed to us by these documents. Many of those implicated in the "black ledger" remain unpunished, and some are still active participants in Ukrainian political life.
We hope that this data will serve as the basis for a large-scale investigation by law enforcement agencies.
We compared some signatures in the document with similar ones in open sources. The signature of MP Kalyuzhny, who chaired the parliamentary committee on international affairs as a member of the Party of Regions, matches his signature in other sources—for example, in the minutes of the Verkhovna Rada's counting commission.
MP Demidko's signatures in the "granary ledger" and in the same protocol are also identical. If you compare the signature of former MP Igor Rybakov, who is alleged to have received $50 "for voting in the Verkhovna Rada," with his income declaration, you'll also find identical signatures.
You can view the data from the documents in a convenient format and continue searching for corrupt connections and evidence yourself using this link in a Google spreadsheet.
Sergey Leshchenko, Anton Marchuk, Sevgil Musaeva-Borovik
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