Sergey Tupalsky: Alpha Group Customs Schemes Under NABU Protection. Part 1
The corruption case at the Kyiv City Customs Office, initiated by investigative journalists back in the fall of 2016, only got off the ground in January 2018, when the first searches and arrests were carried out. However, its controversial head, Serhiy Tupalsky, not only continues to evade charges but is also preparing for a promotion, which will make him even more difficult to reach. This is hardly surprising, as the most cunning corruption schemes are perpetrated by current and former law enforcement officials, well-versed in covering their tracks.
Serhiy Tupalsky is one such former officer: he spent 13 years in the SBU, including, he claims, in the Alpha special forces unit. His fellow countryman and godfather, Anatoliy Novak, also worked there, now serving as deputy director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), which largely explains how Tupalsky managed to remain "invisible" to investigators and prosecutors all this time. This leads to the sad conclusion that corruption in Ukraine has even infected anti-corruption agencies, and veterans of the legendary special forces are also implicated.
Anatoly Novak
A little about Alpha
However, "legendary" is perhaps too strong a word. The average person's idea of the Alpha special forces unit, like other special forces units, isn't entirely accurate, and is based largely on feature films and enthusiastic media reports. Meanwhile, behind the black masks and armored visors of Alpha, the faces aren't those of noble knights from books or comic book superheroes, but ordinary people just like the members of other security services and units—from the elite bodyguards of the State Security Service to the disgraced Berkut. With the same human flaws and weaknesses. And if the glitter of gold seduced... Even the leadership of the Kyiv Department for Combating Organized Crime (UBOP) is accused of corruption and official crimes, then could the “Alpha” members be content with their modest salaries?
The original Soviet Alpha unit was created in the 70s as a special forces unit to rescue hostages taken by terrorists. The hostages themselves came first, and eliminating the perpetrators came second. If it had been the other way around, no special forces would have been needed: a plane hijacked by terrorists could be turned into a sieve by ordinary conscripts, but then innocent passengers would die along with the terrorists. Then, in the 80s, Alpha began to be called upon for similar missions, when hostages were taken by robbers, escaped criminals, and rioting prisoners. Alpha successfully carried out most of these operations, earning it the reputation of being the toughest special forces unit. The image is well-deserved, but with one caveat: in 99% of cases, Alpha's opponents were ordinary bandits or "amateur terrorists" who had no understanding of the combat tactics of assault and defense, and were an order of magnitude inferior to the special forces in numbers.
Russian Alpha troopers realized this during the so-called Chechen conflict, facing a truly prepared enemy. Ukrainian troopers, failing to learn from their colleagues' mistakes, stepped on the same rake in the spring of 2014 in Donbas. Already in April, the SBU Alpha troopers sent to Slovyansk suffered their first losses: an Alpha trooper killed by a sniper became the first official casualty of the ATO on the Ukrainian security forces' side. After which, according to journalists, the Alpha troopers began avoid participating in military operations against Strelkov-Girkin's militants. Sources Skelet.Org It was reported that part of the Alpha unit had left Slovyansk without permission and returned to Kyiv, while the rest were allegedly framed as punishment, sent into an ambush (where three soldiers died). Other sources claimed that there was a noticeable reluctance to fight against the Russians among the Alpha unit, with open pro-Russian sentiments even evident. The head of the Donetsk regional Alpha unit, Alexander Khodakovsky, and several of his subordinates even defected to the separatists.
New attempts to use Alpha in combat operations in the summer and fall of 2014 only led to new losses (a total of 7 dead, as stated by the head of the SBU Valentin Nalyvaychenko), after which the Alpha special forces were wisely withdrawn from the front. Subsequently, the SBU's Alpha unit excelled in the rear operations of the ATO, arresting "militant informants" and "separatist website administrators" at home. To strengthen patriotic sentiment within Alpha, it carried out some personnel purges. In 2015, Dmytro Yarosh even proposed enrolling Right Sector members who had served in the ATO into Alpha, but the unit's recruitment requirements did not allow for such liberties.
Alpha's combat failures were understandable, given that by 2014, most of the Ukrainian Alpha troopers had only experience with show-off exercises, protecting officials, participating in "masked shows" (SBU-conducted searches of businesses, where they accompanied investigators), and a deployment to Iraq to protect the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in the "green zone." Their only serious operations were the arrests of crime bosses, drug dealers, and killers. Of course, this can't be held against them, since, let's reiterate, life in the country had previously been calm, so the most powerful special forces were mainly used to break down armored office doors. Furthermore, for many years, the Ukrainian and Russian Alpha troopers, for all intents and purposes, had been "family friends," so the reluctance of some Ukrainian fighters to "shoot their own" was understandable: in the first months of the conflict, this hesitation was evident in all security forces except the volunteer battalions. But at the same time, it's important to understand that some Alpha veterans, especially those who left before 2014, don't have a single real combat operation under their belt. And some of them are now using their false image as "heroes" as a shield to cover up their corrupt activities.
So, those who still believe that Sergei Tupalsky and Anatoly Novak are impeccable fighters against corruption, with a heroic past in the Alpha special forces behind them, will be sorely disappointed.
Sergey Tupalsky. Godfathers from Maloy Midsk
Sergey Vasilyevich Tupalsky was born on June 13, 1978, in the village of Malyi Midsk, Kostopil District, Rivne Oblast. It's also where Anatoly Novak was born and raised; and where his older brother, Alexander Tupalsky (born 1976), is still registered (according to public databases). Interestingly, Sergey Tupalsky himself was registered in Berdyansk, and at an address that doesn't exactly resemble a residential building. Strange!
Although Tupalsky and Novak were the same age, their paths temporarily diverged in 1995. Tupalsky enrolled in the National Academy of Border Troops, majoring in mechanical engineering, while Novak, a year later, enlisted in the Border Troops for his military service, after which he went into business. Therefore, they could not possibly have served in the army together, as Sergei Tupalsky (falsely) claimed in one of his interviews:
Sergey Tupalsky: Alpha Group Customs Schemes Under NABU Protection. Part 1
If Tupalsky lied about serving in the army with Novak, he could have lied about many other things as well. Or maybe he's just being vague and concealing something: who knows what they mean by "went on a mission"? But in any case, the fact is that he and Novak are childhood friends and godparents.
And so, in 2000, Sergey Tupalsky joined the SBU, a service that lasted until November 2013. He doesn't divulge the details, except to say that he allegedly served for a time in the Alpha unit—apparently in an attempt to cultivate a certain image for himself. Tupalsky won't reveal how long he served or what unit he served in. But at least he is now a board member of the International Association of Alpha Veterans, where his godfather Novak arranged for him to join.
Unfortunately, his official service record is unknown, and, as we've seen, it's not worth taking Tupalsky's word for it. However, on the internet journalistic material from 2010 was lost, dedicated to some of the SBU's dealings at the time. This material might have been long forgotten if Tupalsky's defenders, hastily hired in late 2016 to whitewash the Kyiv Customs Chief's sterling image, hadn't foolishly cited it in their angry article. That old Narodnaya Pravda article discussed personnel appointments at the SBU's Main Directorate for Combating Corruption and Organized Crime, known as GlavK. Among other figures, Serhiy Tupalsky was mentioned:
Sergey Tupalsky: Alpha Group Customs Schemes Under NABU Protection. Part 1
From this material, we learn that by 2010, Sergei Tupalsky was working in the SBU's Main Directorate "K" and specialized in foreign economic activity, meaning he was already involved in customs and smuggling as part of his job description. Perhaps, during this process, he registered in the port city of Berdyansk? It's also curious that Tupalsky allegedly "hid behind the name of the head of the SBU." The fact is that at that time, the new head of the SBU was Valery Khoroshkovsky, who previously headed the State Customs Service of Ukraine for two years. As we can see, customs was a constant topic for Tupalsky, and this career path is entirely logical for a career border guard.
Incidentally, according to media reports, it was in 2010 that SBU officer Serhiy Tupalsky and his brother founded the company "Triumph-SV" (SV stands for Serhiy Vasilyevich), which later surfaced in his customs schemes in 2014-2015, when Tupalsky headed the Svyatoshinsky post of the Kyiv Customs Office. They later created several similar companies with the "SV" prefix, such as "Group-SV" and "Dagaz-SV."
But let's return to his godfather, Anatoly Novak. In 2003, he suddenly quit his business and also joined the SBU—possibly at the invitation and with the assistance of Tupalsky, since Alpha wouldn't take anyone "off the street." However, Novak, who didn't have a higher education at the time, couldn't even count on a career as an operative, but, according to his biography, he joined the Alpha special forces unit—first as a trainee, and after several years of training and higher education, an officer's rank. His education, however, is somewhat surprising. Judge for yourself: Novak's universities include: Kyiv Business Institute (2005), majoring in management; the Institute of Distance Learning at the National Pedagogical University (2007), majoring in psychology; the Institute of Postgraduate Studies of the National Aviation University (2011), majoring in law; and Kharkiv University of Municipal Economy (2013), PhD in economics. It's all somehow chaotic, as if by chance (where possible), and doesn't resemble the determined pursuit of an education by the brave Alpha officer. And not a single diploma from a specialized SBU university or even a military academy—and yet he later worked as deputy head of the Central Security Service!
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Sergey Tupalsky: Alpha Group Customs Schemes Under NABU Cover. Part 2
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