Sergey Sobolev
There are politicians who prefer to appear in the media every day, with perfect speeches crafted by political strategists and a striking, memorable image. Our hero, Sergei Vladislavovich Sobolev, is far from all that. At first glance, it seems like a provincial schoolteacher is speaking at the Rada podium. However, in private circles, his nickname is "Barguzin"—a rare and highly prized variety of the predatory sable. Rumor has it that Yulia Tymoshenko herself named him that.
We'll tell you about the meteoric career of a teacher at a pedagogical college who became one of the leading figures in the BYuT party.
From historian to politician
Sergei Vladislavovich Sobolev was born in Zaporizhzhia to a working-class family: his father worked at the Zaporizhzhia Aluminum Plant, and his mother was a pediatrician. At school, he sat at the same desk as Sergei Glazyev, who became an advisor to the current President of the Russian Federation. Incidentally, it was Glazyev who pushed for a strike on the Ukrainian army during the peak of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
After finishing school, Sobolev went to work as a laborer at the Gamma defense plant in Zaporizhzhia. He lasted only a year there, deciding to pursue higher education. In 1983, he graduated from the Zaporizhzhia State Pedagogical Institute (now Zaporizhzhia National University) with a degree in history. Upon completion of his studies, Sergei Vladislavovich enlisted in the army. After demobilization, he found work at the Dnieper Electrode Plant (now Ukrgrafit). Sobolev worked there for only a year. Apparently, the heavy shifts at the plant weren't for him, so the future politician took a job at Zaporizhzhia Pedagogical College No. 1. There he taught history until 1990.
It was the time of perestroika and the creation of new political parties. Back then, anyone could try their hand at being a changemaker. But only if they had patrons. Sobolev had such a person—Petr Vanat, the first secretary of the Zaporizhzhia city party committee. Incidentally, Sobolev had been a member of the CPSU all those years.
In the 90s, Petr Vanat became the owner of the largest and most expensive hotel in Zaporizhzhia, the Intourist, and an inconspicuous teacher, Sergei Vladislavovich Sobolev, helped privatize it.
So, having pulled off such a major undertaking and secured the support of the world's greats, Sobolev decides it's time to enter politics. He runs for parliament in the single-member Khortytsia electoral district No. 184 and wins his first seat in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Parties and groups
In parliament, Serhiy Vladislavovych is a member of the People's Rada, heads the "Democratic Revival of Ukraine" parliamentary group, and is a member of the party of the same name. This political force, led by Volodymyr Filenko, was the result of a unification of democratically minded communists. And, as we recall, Sobolev was a member of the Communist Party.
In 1992, the Democratic Party initiated the creation of the "New Ukraine" faction. Filenko became its leader, while Sobolev faded into the background. However, an internal party crisis allowed Serhiy Vladislavovich to emerge as the leading figure. In 1993, a split occurred among the party members: half wanted rapprochement with Russia, while the other half wanted to move toward the West. This discord affected the party's standing in society, and so only three of its representatives made it into the Verkhovna Rada in the 1994 parliamentary elections. One of them was Sobolev.
During the second parliamentary convocation, Sergei Vladislavovich headed the "Reforms" parliamentary group. Incidentally, it was entirely male—31 deputies, all men. The group included politicians such as Sergei Golovaty, Oleksandr Yemets, Grigory Omelchenko, Viktor Pynzenyk , and Viktor Shishkin. The purpose of "Reforms" is unclear. It was conceived as an opposition structure, but most likely, the intention was to transform it into a party for the elections.
Sobolev was soon appointed Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine's Control Commission on Privatization. In this position, he distinguished himself in two high-profile cases.
Black Sea Shipping Company "Blasko." After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the concept of offshore zones emerged. Ukrainian politicians developed a taste for foreign money and tax evasion. The government's first step toward "carve-up" was the fashionable and not yet discredited privatization. In August 1993, by decree of President Leonid Kravchuk, the joint-stock shipping concern "Blasko" was created on the basis of the Black Sea Shipping Company. The creation of the concern was contrary to the Constitution and the privatization laws of 1992-1993, so the Rada vetoed the proposal. However, Kravchuk went all-in and simply issued a new decree allowing the concern to continue its operations. The consequences are clear: 42 vessels owned by the Black Sea Shipping Company ended up in offshore zones, and the state lost control of its own fleet. The whole thing was a scam designed to line the pockets of politicians.
Sergey Sobolev, who had been promoted to a new position, took over the investigation. He initiated the creation of a special parliamentary commission to investigate the activities of the Black Sea Shipping Company's management. The investigation revealed that Blasko's foreign currency accounts in Ukrainian banks were empty. All the company's funds had ended up in British and German banks. The commission even found the culprit: Pavlo Kudyukin, Blasko's president. He was sentenced to 10 years. He served less than half of his sentence and was released due to poor health. Kuchma granted him amnesty and closed his case.
Decree on government bonds. President Leonid Kravchuk initiated the decree "On Government Bonds." Its purpose was to allow the use of national assets as collateral for debt obligations to foreign states. Sobolev succeeded in suspending the decree.
Reforms, order and Viktor Yushchenko
It's worth noting that it was the Reforms and Order Party (ROP) that brought Serhiy Vladislavovich onto the Ukrainian political scene. It was created on the basis of the New Ukraine Party in 1997. Viktor Pynzenyk became the official leader, and Sobolev became his deputy.
A year later, the PRP was weak and failed to overcome the 4% threshold in the parliamentary elections. Only five representatives entered the Verkhovna Rada, and those were from single-member constituencies. Incidentally, Sobolev was also a single-member constituency candidate. His main opponent was Oleksandra Kuzhel ( read more about Oleksandra Kuzhel in the article "Oleksandra Kuzhel. A Dossier on a Scandalous Woman" ). The politicians became so caught up in the rivalry that they allowed Pavlo Baulin of the Communist Party to take first place. The gap between Sobolev and Baulin was 600 votes. Incidentally, after her defeat, Kuzhel was appointed Chairman of the State Committee of Ukraine for Entrepreneurship Development by Leonid Kuchma.
To strengthen their influence, Reforms and Order and the People's Movement of Ukraine, represented by Viktor Pynzenyk and Vyacheslav Chornovil, signed a statement establishing a joint bloc. This allowed the politicians to dictate their terms in the Rada.
In 1999, the PRP supported the appointment of Viktor Yushchenko as Prime Minister of Ukraine. In Yushchenko's government, Sergei Sobolev was responsible for establishing the prime minister's ties with the Verkhovna Rada.
In 2002, the PRP joined Viktor Yushchenko's newly formed electoral bloc, "Our Ukraine." That same year, he won first place in the parliamentary elections, forming the largest faction in the fourth convocation of the Verkhovna Rada. When the presidential elections came two years later, the party supported Viktor Yushchenko's candidacy. After his victory, it was time to collect the "gifts": Viktor Pynzenyk was appointed Minister of Finance of Ukraine, and Serhiy Sobolev was appointed Presidential Representative to the Verkhovna Rada. Serhiy Vladislavovich held this position for six months. He resigned in protest against the dismissal of the Tymoshenko government.
After this, Sobolev returned to his beloved PRP. Since Pinzenik was the country's chief financier, Sergei Vladislavovich seized the opportunity to become the party's leader. Thus, he freed himself from Pinzenik's shadow, which he had lived in for 13 years.
And then came a political blunder: in the 2006 parliamentary elections, the PRP ran in a bloc with the civic party "PORA" (No. 1 on the list was the famous boxer Vitali Klitschko – read more about Vitali Klitschko in the article "Vitali Klitschko: The Dark Past of the One "Looking to Tomorrow" ). But the bloc failed to clear the electoral threshold. It did, however, win a few mandates in the local elections.
Sergei Sobolev and Yulia Tymoshenko
Tymoshenko and Sobolev's alliance began with conflict. In 2001, Sergei Vladislavovich accused Yulia Volodymyrivna of attributing debts to Ukraine from private companies. Specifically, the issue concerned a sum of 2,8 billion hryvnias that the country allegedly owed to Russia's Gazprom. In fact, this debt belonged to gas traders owned by Dmytro Firtash (For more information about Dmytro Firtash, see the article: DMYTRO FIRTASH: THE STORY OF THE TERNOPIL BILLIONAIRE ).
Sobolev even insisted on opening a criminal case against Tymoshenko. But one phone call changed everything. Yulia Volodymyrivna herself called the politician and asked to meet with her. At the meeting, she outlined her future plans and how they would be implemented. After this, Serhiy Vladislavovich realized that Tymoshenko, like him, was "directing all her efforts to the good of Ukraine." Moreover, the politician also discovered his boss, Viktor Yushchenko. It turned out that Firtash was a frequent visitor to Viktor Yushchenko's office. There, corrupt schemes for Firtash's entry into the Ukrainian energy market were devised and coordinated. Yushchenko personally made the decision: choose an intermediary arrangement or enter into direct contracts with RAO Gazprom. But he chose the route through Firtash. Of course, compared to the corrupt Yushchenko, Yulia Volodymyrivna looked like a saint.
It was a blow to Sobolev when Yushchenko signed Tymoshenko's dismissal in 2005. He immediately resigned. Realizing that Viktor Andreevich's approval ratings were falling, Sobolev successfully jumped from one boat to another.
In 2007, Sobolev was already in tandem with a strong and reliable ally for his political career – Yulia Tymoshenko and the BYuT party. Thanks to her, he won a seat in the Rada in the snap elections. Why would Yulia Tymoshenko need such an unreliable ally as Serhiy Sobolev? It's simple – Serhiy Vladislavovich is an excellent and unassuming candidate for the Gray Cardinals. He understands politics well and orchestrates vote-draining campaigns. He's also an excellent strategist. Yulia Tymoshenko holds Sobolev in high regard, having nicknamed him "Barguzin" – a highly prized fur-bearing animal for which fur connoisseurs pay millions.
In 2010, during the presidential campaign, Yulia Tymoshenko tasked Sobolev with overseeing her strategists' project, "People's Gatherings." He united a good half of Ukraine's civic organizations into a single structure supporting Tymoshenko. But this failed to help Yulia Tymoshenko assume the presidency. After the election, she created an opposition government and appointed her loyal Cardinal as head of the shadow Cabinet of Ministers, effectively leading it herself.
After BYuT became Batkivshchyna, Sobolev first became the first deputy of the main faction, and then Tymoshenko’s personal deputy.
Land deriban
It's becoming clear that Sobolev is constantly under someone's thumb—whether it's Vanat, Pynzenyk, or Tymoshenko. However, for a long time, he had his own sweet spot, which he controlled. It was a sort of "land interests club" in Zaporizhzhia. The official managed to form a network of his protégés in the city who were buying up lucrative plots of land. His activity peaked in 2009-2011.
At the local level, Serhiy Vladislavovych "worked" with the former governor of Zaporizhzhia, Oleksandr Starukh. The two politicians had known each other since the 90s, thanks to the PRP (Starukh was listed on the party's parliamentary lists at the "distant" number 172). During the Orange Revolution, Oleksandr Starukh was active in the Zaporizhzhia headquarters of presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, which was headed by Sobolev. After Yushchenko's victory, Serhiy Vladislavovych recommended his colleague for a job in the Presidential Secretariat, and some time later sent him to Zaporizhzhia as governor. Incidentally, a joke circulated in Zaporizhzhia's elite at the time: "When we say 'Starukh,' we mean 'Sobolev.'" Besides Starukh, the Zaporizhzhia "land club" included: his assistant, the former head of the Zaporizhzhia district administration, Igor Lisogor, Zaporizhzhia district council deputies Vladislav Kutsenko and Vyacheslav Kolesnikov, as well as members of the Zaporizhzhia PRP, in particular Alexander Kotelyuk and Nikolai Luts.
Sergey Sobolev with Vladislav Kutsenko and Nikolay Luts
While Governor Oleksandr Starukh was in power, politicians managed to seize the best commercial lands of the Solnechnoye State District State Institution along the Zaporizhzhia-Dnipropetrovsk highway, as well as the suburban lands of the Balabyne settlement.
The land appropriation scheme is insanely simple: plots of land were simply allocated by order of the district administration to the deputies themselves, their aides, family, and friends. This distribution was not hampered even by the fact that the lucky owners of the plots lived hundreds of kilometers away or that the lands already belonged to people who had not received the state deeds in a timely manner. For example, Nina Vasilenko, the sister of Vyacheslav Kolesnikov's wife and a resident of Tokmak, allegedly received three plots: 38 hundred square meters in the urban-type settlement of Balabino, 10 hundred square meters of "golden" land in Razumovka, and 12 hundred square meters near Dolinnoye. Kolesnikov himself, however, delighted himself with one hectare of land near Razumovka (albeit registered to his wife) and three hectares near the urban-type settlements of Lysogorka and Balabino (registered to his brother Igor). Vladimir Sosunovsky, the village head of Balabino, decided to speak out about this atrocity. He provided the documents.
True, there was another land appropriation scheme, not so harmless. A "private firm" providing legal services would visit villagers who wanted to register their land plots or shares. They would sign contracts designed to expropriate their plots. In legal parlance, Sobolev could be called a "trust thief."
After Oleksandr Starukha was removed from office in 2010, Sobolev was forced to seek new allies. He found them in the Communist Party of Ukraine. The "Reds" pushed Sergei Vladislavovich's people into prestigious positions on local councils. The "Sobolevites" paid for their support with land shares. After the "regions" came to power, Sobolev was forced to dismantle the "land club."
According to unofficial information, over the course of several years, the criminals appropriated approximately 360 hectares. That's about 500 football fields.
Fraudulent scams
Serhiy Sobolev's name is linked to another major scandal in Ukraine. In 2009, he and two other BYuT members, Serhiy Terekhin and Viktor Ukolov, were accused by fellow party member Anton Yatsenko of involvement in shady lottery schemes.
According to Yatsenko, the Ukrainian National Lottery (UNL) was involved in tax fraud, failed to meet license conditions regarding capitalization, and had problems forming its prize fund. Yatsenko even provided documents proving that Sobolev, Terekhin, and Ukolov were business partners of UNL until 2004, which was owned by an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands. He estimated the lottery's monthly revenue at 18-22 million rubles and emphasized that 15% of this amount was siphoned off from the state abroad as monetary compensation.
All defendants in the case skillfully disavowed UNL. They said they had never heard of such a lottery and accused Yatsenko of engaging in smear campaigns to push his public procurement bill through the Verkhovna Rada.
However, one person involved in the case did reveal himself and his relationship with UNL. This was Sergey Terekhin. In 2008, UNL experienced problems with the formation and distribution of the jackpot. The company was scheduled to award a record-breaking jackpot of 26 million hryvnias. However, the organizers made a strange decision: without waiting for the jackpot to be won, they distributed the money at their own discretion. Ten million hryvnias were transferred to the account of an unknown insurance company. The Ministry of Finance, the State Treasury, and the Main Control and Audit Office conducted investigations into the incident but failed to provide any coherent answers. Only Sergey Terekhin spoke out regarding the situation. He defended UNL, arguing that the lottery itself has the right to regulate the jackpot amount.
According to unofficial information, the initiative to transfer the money to the insurance company belongs to Terekhin, and Sergei Sobolev covered the transfer.
Involvement in the bankruptcy of the plant
Sergei Sobolev was directly involved in the bankruptcy of the Berdyansk State Glass Fiber Plant (BSGF). Of course, he didn't personally carry out the corporate raid; everything was carried out under his auspices. The incident took place in 2011. However, to understand the situation, let's go back a bit.
BGZS had been experiencing financial problems since the late 90s, and in 2001, the plant was declared bankrupt. This led to a series of high-profile scandals. The first erupted in 2006. Following an investigation by the prosecutor's office, a criminal case was opened for allegedly driving the company into bankruptcy. Naturally, protracted litigation was unsuccessful. In 2009, the plant was included in the list of enterprises slated for privatization. However, finding investors proved difficult, especially since in recent years, some of the property had been stripped and sold for scrap. A particularly large theft involved the removal of 17 platinum heaters. A car simply pulled up to the plant and carted the platinum equipment off, ostensibly to Kirovohrad for storage. It was never seen again. Experts estimate the value of the stolen property at 40 million hryvnias. The black market value is around a billion.
Sobolev's house
Who could be behind the targeted bankruptcy of BGZS?
In Ukraine, all matters related to corporate bankruptcy proceedings were overseen by the State Department for Bankruptcy Issues under the Ministry of Economy. The State Department had offices in all regional capitals. In Zaporizhzhia, the office was headed by Yulia Olegovna Chirkova, acting as head of the department. She replaced Dmytro Velychko, who owed his appointment to the position of chief bankruptcy officer to lawyer Zubov, an assistant to MP Serhiy Sobolev. Incidentally, an interesting detail: the person who oversaw bankruptcy matters in the Zaporizhzhia region before Velychko, Mr. Khorunzhiy, was also a protégé of Serhiy Sobolev. This unbroken chain of command is not at all surprising. So, it's highly likely that Sobolev oversaw corporate bankruptcy proceedings in Zaporizhzhia. Of course, Yulia Chirkova also danced to the politician's tune. Only Sobolev kept a low profile. Chirkova was controlled by Serhiy Vasiltsov, the head of the Bankruptcy Agency in the Zaporizhzhia region. He is, incidentally, widely known as a participant in bankruptcies and an implementer of shady schemes. He's a sort of Kyiv stooge, tasked with collecting tribute from businesses and passing the money on to the higher-ups.
The team worked brilliantly. According to statistics, 90 out of 100 bankruptcy proceedings in the Zaporizhzhia region resulted in the liquidation of the company.
Sobolev's Bulletproof Vests
Earlier this year, Sergei Sobolev claimed that low-quality bulletproof vests from the NPP TEMP-3000 brand had been purchased for ATO soldiers. Allegedly, the armor plates in the uniforms could be penetrated by a regular bullet.
The Ministry of Defense was outraged by Sobolev's statements and immediately decided to check all bulletproof vests for quality, even the one Sergei Vladislavovich demonstrated in the Rada.
Organizers from the Ministry of Defense staged a performance and publicly tested the equipment. As expected, the armor plate withstood all the shelling.
About income
And finally, of course, about the honest politician's income. Last year, Sergei Sobolev declared an income of 80 hryvnias. As it turns out, he owns no house, no apartment, no car, no bank account. The only exception is a 0,32-hectare plot of land.
But the Sobolev family was luckier: a house with an area of 399 square meters, a summer house of 103,9 square meters, two garages of 51 square meters and 21,9 square meters, and a 2007 Land Rover are registered in their name.
Incidentally, Sergei Vladislavovich's relatives purchased a 411-square-meter house. It is presumably located in Western Ukraine. The estimated price of real estate in this region starts at 500 hryvnias.
Today, Sobolev lives in the village of Novi Bezradichi, 45 km from Kyiv, where the estate of former President Viktor Yushchenko is located.
The sable is a polyphagous predator that leads an aloof and reclusive lifestyle. Perhaps the sable's surname is not a coincidence.
Arina Dmitrieva, for SKELET-info
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