Recently, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk removed Borys Ostapyuk from the management of the railways in connection with receiving information from law enforcement agencies about possible violations in the economic activities of Ukrzaliznytsia. Following this, Infrastructure Minister Maksym Burbak (Read more about it in the article Maksym Burbak: How Chernivtsi residents sat on Donetsk's "golden toilet") appointed the acting head of Ukrzaliznytsia, the company's first deputy, Maksym Blank.
Ostapyuk was removed from office despite being a protégé of MP Andriy Ivanchuk, known as Yatsenyuk's "grey cardinal." Blank, in turn, is associated with the notorious oligarch Leonid Yurushev.
The dismissal of yet another UZ CEO is a bolt from the blue, writes new.transpress.kiev.ua. This includes the railway workers. Especially considering that Ostapyuk is a railway worker by education and still has some experience working "within the system." But it's absurd: managing railway transport as a first deputy CEO, with a degree from a trade institute and experience in shady financial transactions, on behalf of an oligarch owner, who had previously become his own "factor"—or, as he now calls himself, an overseer—at the railroad.
This "tourist" doesn't even try to understand railway matters. His chatter in the media and on social media makes it clear: his attitude toward the industry has shifted from disdain to hatred, which is completely reciprocated by railway workers.
The transport layman who remains "in charge" specializes in financial fraud. His "miracles" with passenger insurance, dubious tenders favoring his suppliers and companies where he serves as a member or chair of the supervisory boards, and empty schemes are more or less well-known. His highly questionable, but apparently mutually beneficial, contacts with the leadership of the DPR/LPR are not hard to guess.
An unprecedented case in the history of global transport: in the entire Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, there isn't a SINGLE PROFESSIONAL in transport—aviation, navy, road transport and road construction, communications and information technology, and now even railways! They're comprised of failed teachers, financial intermediaries, small-time lawyers, and inexperienced engineers. This entire rabble couldn't even pass the competition for the most junior clerk position in this very ministry, which requires a specialized education and at least three years of relevant work experience.
In normal times, a ministry employee was a respected figure, always a top-class specialist with extensive experience and authority in the industry.
Doesn't the President realize that irresponsible and thieving laymen at the helm of the largest and most important sector of the economy, employing hundreds of thousands of people, pose a TERRIBLE DANGER TO THE COUNTRY'S VERY EXISTENCE? Is there no one to advise him?
The formal reason for the removal of Ostapyuk, according to the official information of the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers: “Law enforcement agencies have found information about possible malfeasance in financial-state activities and facts of corruption in the Ukrzaliznytsia system.”
Before this, the press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure reported: “... in the process of taking inventory of all mines, a shortage of UAH 72,8 million was revealed. (rukhomiy warehouse, computer and computing equipment, commodity-material values, commodity-material values)".
This only confirms that:
* a fellow countryman of the Prime Minister who accidentally became a minister is out of place and has no idea what transport is in general, and rail transport in particular;
* If the total shortfall across all railways is so minimal, all railway workers should be immediately awarded the highest state awards, and all managers should be given statues “for honesty.”
But, most likely, all of this is preparation for a privatization grab.
Moreover, the UZ CEO was removed and the pike was "thrown into the river." Those responsible for financial and business operations were left in charge, in particular those most mentioned in the media for abuses – Blank, Lozinsky, and their accomplices.
Experts estimate that the industry's direct losses in less than four months have long exceeded one billion. Indirect losses from bizarre reorganizations and the displacement of professionals will still make themselves felt.
1. The general director of UZ took “not according to his rank” and did not “pay” as much as he was supposed to.
2. Blank, through its oligarch owner, is oriented toward Yatsenyuk. Having made a career in the BYuT, he quickly betrayed Yulia and fled. Ostapyuk, another Tymoshenko protégé, didn't have time to betray her so quickly.
3. For the past 15 years, Ukrzaliznytsia has always been mentioned before elections. But this is solely for the purpose of squeezing out money, attempting to exploit administrative resources, and, if possible, to pull off "carousel" maneuvers, as Kuchma, Kirpa, and Yanukovych attempted in 2004. At least 1 billion hryvnias are needed for the upcoming parliamentary elections on October 26.10.2014, 5. This doesn't include coal transportation and everything else needed to restore the destruction of the last five months...
4. It's hard for any mentally sound railway worker (and they all undergo mandatory and regular medical examinations) to destroy their native industry. For an outsider, someone who came from various investment funds, juggling papers and figures, who knows neither the people nor the industry, for whom all this is foreign, incomprehensible, hostile, and therefore hateful, it's easy to destroy rail transport and eliminate the remaining professionals who stand in the way. The alien Blank is ideal for the role of "marauder" of the industry.
5. The disgraced CEO, no stranger to dismissals, has been suspended, but is still needed for something. Someone who can not only be revived but also pursued at any moment with a raft of criminal cases can always be useful.
Former Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister Kolesnikov accuses Yatsenyuk of embezzling at least $10 billion from the state budget. Meanwhile, Yatsenyuk is hastily faking a "fight against corruption and official abuse" and desperately seeking ways to plug the financial hole? With Ukrzaliznytsia funds and the privatization of the enterprises that miraculously remain in state hands.
He cannot, does not want to and will not truly get rid of his henchmen on the “gold mine” – on the UZ.
Why is all this necessary? In order to:
* remove the last three skins from the last functioning major state enterprise;
* to fragment and destroy the last large detachment of skilled workers, capable, with proper organization, of throwing out the ineffective government not only from the UZ and the ministry;
* fulfill the order of foreign competitors to eliminate our railways from the international transportation market and redistribute the market for domestic freight and passenger transportation in favor of private carriers.
Those who, by some strange chance, ended up in power and who, it seems, have no intention of living here, let alone even spending the winter, don’t care that by destroying the railway and the railway workers, they will ultimately destroy both the country’s economy and the country itself.
Columnist
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