The Cabinet of Ministers dismissed the acting head of the railway monopoly, Oleksandr Zavgorodniy, and replaced him with Yevhen Kravtsov, who is believed to be a protégé of Kyiv restaurateur Mikhail Beilin.
The change in the head of the Ukrainian railway monopoly occurred through two government orders, No. 229 and 230, issued on March 30. One dismissed Oleksandr Zavgorodniy, who had served as acting general director of the State Administration of Railway Transport of Ukraine since July 2015, by decision of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine. He became acting head of the new company in October 2015, when the government registered Ukrzaliznytsia as a public joint-stock company. By another order, the Cabinet of Ministers entrusted Yevhen Kravtsov with the temporary leadership of the railway.
Zavgorodniy's predecessor as acting head of Ukrzaliznytsia was Maksym Blank, who had led it since September 2014. Before joining the state-owned company, Blank worked for businessman Leonid Yurushev, considered one of Arseniy Yatsenyuk's key sponsors, so the railway was considered part of the prime minister's quota at the time.
After financier Blank was replaced by Zavgorodniy, a career railway worker, insiders began talking about a new curator for the company, whose revenue reached UAH 63 billion that year. The person in question is Moscow restaurateur Mikhail Beilin.
The change of supervisor was not without controversy, though it remained largely unnoticed by the general public. The appointment of the aforementioned Yevhen Kravtsov to the board of Ukrzaliznytsia confirmed the idea of a change in overseers. The corporate website describes him as one of the architects of the new charter and the corporatization of the railway, which took place in 2015. However, the website also states that the young lawyer only began his career in 2008. Prior to that, he graduated with honors from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (major in Law) and the European University (major in Foreign Economic Activity Management). He then worked as a lawyer at the Ukrainian law firm Asters.
This entry in Kravtsov's employment record is key. The aforementioned Mikhail Beilin was a business efficiency consultant at Asters (formerly Shevchenko, Didkovsky & Partners Law Firm, until 2008), but is better known as a restaurateur. His establishments include the Moscow restaurants Zucca, Vero Vero, and others. Beilin is also Lozhkin's business partner in the company Vinomania. Lozhkin himself admits that Beilin was responsible for two major areas of his UMH holding company when Lozhkin owned it until 2013.
Serhiy Vovk, Director of the Center for Transport Strategies, believes that the current personnel changes at Ukrzaliznytsia shouldn't be overemphasized. In a month, the final stage of the competition to select a new head, overseen by the Ministry of Economic Development, is scheduled. "As far as I know, Zavgorodii himself plans to participate; perhaps his departure is motivated by a desire to be fully prepared for the upcoming election," Vovk believes.
Another issue is that, given the impending resignation of the Cabinet of Ministers, the position of the new head of the Ministry of Economic Development is becoming crucial. And there's already food for thought here. On Monday, March 28, at a meeting of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction, Yuriy Lutsenko presented a draft version of the new "chessboard" for the future Cabinet of Ministers. In this draft, the position of First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy was assigned to Borys Lozhkin.
On the topic: Mikhail Beilin. "The Overseer" from the AP
Leonid Yurushev. Arseniy Yatsenyuk's secret "sponsor"
Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, Facebook , Twitter , VK - Only new faces from the SKLEP section!