Alexander Yanukovych
Viktor Fedorovich, of ill-famed memory, once innocuously admitted that while in office, he loved "supporting ostriches." But not only them. Everyone knows that Yanukovych supported "featherless bipeds"—a whole herd of parasites with Party of Regions membership cards, who sat in lucrative positions and simply stole the people's money.
And then the Revolution of Dignity broke out, Viktor Yanukovych and his family (in every sense of the word) went on the run, the Russian-Ukrainian war has been going on for two years, and many have developed the dangerous illusion that the Party of Regions has lost power forever, irrevocably consigned to the past along with its grasping reflex.
Alas, as it turns out, it wasn't quite so. They simply disguised themselves, creating the "Opposition Bloc" for show; some even verbally disowned their spiritual father, Viktor Yanukovych. But we mustn't forget that the "Opposition Bloc," entrenched in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is only the tip of the iceberg concealing an old gang of embezzlers and thieves. The entire system of power is still entangled, like the tentacles of an octopus, with Yanukovych's men. They've quieted down for a while, less boastful of their regional primacy, but they continue to hold positions of power personally or control them through trusted cronies and trusted figureheads, clinging tightly to power and draining the last vestiges of the Ukrainian economy.
Here's an example: at the State Property Fund of Ukraine (and the importance of this structure for the country is difficult to overestimate), former "bellyheads" remain quietly at the trough, untouched by revolutions and lustrations. To identify these guests from the past, you don't have to be a counterintelligence officer; a little internet digging is enough. First, let's visit the official website of the State Property Fund of Ukraine. There we learn that a certain Lina Vladimirovna Veleva toils tirelessly in the important position of Director of the SPF's Internal Audit and Control Department, while Anton Aleksandrovich Lapika has firmly entrenched himself in the equally important position of Head of the Internal Security Department. See: https://www.spfu.gov.ua/ru/content/Structural-units.html
What do these two officials of an organization created to protect the property interests of the state have in common?
On the website posipaky.info (see: https://posipaky.info/mp/10500) we learn that both Lina Veleva and Anton Lapika, by a strange coincidence, were paid assistants to Andrei Nikolaevich Kiselev, a member of parliament of the 8th convocation from the Opposition Bloc (the "trump" 17th place on the list). So, the two leaders themselves, who are responsible for the internal financial discipline and internal security of the State Property Fund, most likely need to be closely monitored – poor party lineage and, quite possibly, thieving succession.
Well, as for their boss, their father and breadwinner, a former Party of Regions member and now a staunch Opposition Bloc member, we could talk for hours. According to media reports, Andrei Kiselev rose to the heights of the regional criminal pyramid thanks to his close ties to Oleksandr Viktorovich Yanukovych, dating back to their school days. See: https://nashigroshi.org/2014/02/12/milyardnyj-rynok-bruhtu-zahopyv-odnokursnyk-vitky-yanukovycha/
Andrey Kiselev
That's why, in 2010, Kiselev became the head of the Donetsk regional organization "Young Regions," and when he grew up, he became the head of the Party of Regions faction in the Donetsk City Council. From then on, life went swimmingly for Yanukovych Jr.'s buddy – he became the director of UkMet, a Donetsk metallurgical products sales company that was among the leaders in scrap metal procurement and export. The company operated so efficiently that not a single screw remained in the Donbas cemeteries – everything was stripped, sold, and donated to the Yanukovych family.
In August 2012, UkMet won tenders worth over 13 million hryvnias from the Lutuhinsky Rolling Mill, a state-owned enterprise controlled by another prominent figure in Yanukovych's ranks—former Party of Regions MP Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, better known as Yura Yenakievsky. So, even back then, Andriy Kiselyov was already interested in state-owned enterprises and was using the services of "specialists" in this field.
It's clear that Kiselev (read: Alexander Yanukovych) and many other former Party of Regions members are now hoping that their crimes will be forgotten and that the fledglings of Viktorov's nest (but not the ostriches) will soon be able to revive the old schemes for embezzling state property. It is for this purpose that proven corrupt personnel have been infiltrated into the relevant structures and, with the connivance of the security services, continue to be infiltrated. How else can one explain the unexpected emergence of two of Kiselev's closest aides, Lina Veleva and Anton Lapika, in key positions in the State Property Fund, especially on the eve of the upcoming "big privatization."
While, as they say, one of Yanukovych's sons drowned in Lake Baikal, another is surfacing in the State Property Fund?
It's also very interesting to know whether Igor Bilous, Chairman of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, oversees personnel processes in his department, and whether he's deliberately protecting his "overseers" from Sasha "the Dentist" as a result of some cynical deal.
Sergey Dmitriev, for ORD
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