Valery Pisarenko: Gubsky’s “boy”, Portnov’s partner, Kernes’ “keychain”
A new president surrounded by old corrupt officials—that's how Volodymyr Zelenskyy's team is beginning to look , as odious representatives of the previous regimes are actively gathering around him. Fugitive oligarchs and corporate raiders, scandalously dismissed officials, and political defectors are once again seeking to return to power and get their hands on the trough. And perhaps the most active is the duo of Valeriy Pisarenko and Andriy Portnov, who act as if they've already been hired by the Administration.
During the current election campaign, Andriy Portnov, who is on the run , spoke so confidently on Zelenskyy's side that it seemed as if he was coordinating his campaign from abroad. However, given Portnov's highly controversial past as one of Ukraine's leading corporate raiders, this could only damage the image of the "disgraced Holoborodko." Official representatives of Zelenskyy's team were even forced to repeatedly state that Portnov had no connection to them. Meanwhile, MP Valeriy Pisarenko, although not yet in hiding, hastened to declare that the signature drive he initiated for Speaker Andriy Parubiy's resignation was his personal initiative and that he was not carrying out Zelenskyy's orders.
And yet, despite all these statements, there is objective evidence that Volodymyr Zelenskyy's election campaign was financed by people directly connected to Portnov and Pisarenko, as well as those connected to the oligarch Pavel Fuks , who at one time financed Pisarenko's own election campaign.
Incidentally, Fuks has a friend and business partner, Mikhail Fridman, a Russian oligarch who owns Alfa Group and previously owned the agency WE Partners, which in 2014 nominated "prominent professionals" Natalia Yaresko , Aivaras Abromavicius, and Oleksandr Kvintashvili to the Yatsenyuk government. Today, Abromavicius is a member of Zelenskyy's team! And did you know that when Yaresko was the head of Western NIS Enterprise Fund many years ago, the young economist Oleksandr Danylyuk , another official Zelenskyy ally, began his career under her direct supervision?
It's unlikely that all of this is a coincidence. Therefore, despite the hasty declarations that Portnov and Pisarenko are not part of Zelenskyy's team, they should be kept in mind as possible future allies or allies of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Moreover, they are no strangers to changing their political allegiances and defecting to the winning camp. Skelet.Org has already told you about Andriy Portnov, and now we invite you to learn about Valeriy Pisarenko...
Valery Pisarenko. A Happy Childhood
Valeriy Vladimirovich Pisarenko was born on July 8, 1980, in Nova Kakhovka (Kherson Oblast) to a design engineer and a doctor. It's worth noting a curious fact: when Valeriy Pisarenko, as part of a self-promotional campaign, gave interviews to journalists about his past, he talked at length about how wonderful his parents were, even the type of cap they wore—but for some reason, he never revealed their first and middle names. What kind of conspiracy is this? Of course, his mother died several years ago, but what about his father? Some media outlets claim he, too, "passed away early."
I had to take a roundabout route through MP Pisarenko's online declaration , where, among four pages of "change forms" (what was he so actively changing?), I managed to find his annual reports for 2017 and 2018. These declarations list his very much alive father, Volodymyr Semenovych Pisarenko, who receives a more than modest pension for a former engineer (16,910 hryvnias per year), but is also the founder of several companies, has $1,35 million (a million lent, the rest in cash), and earned 2,4 million hryvnias in interest alone on a deposit at Oschadbank. Could he really be "hiding" this from journalists, or is there something else going on?
According to information from Pisarenko's "childhood friends," his father was himself a "greased man," having landed a position at a defense design bureau at the age of 27, along with the typical Soviet "perks"—a good salary and an apartment. However, Pisarenko now, recalling his childhood, claims they lived like a "modest Soviet family." Apparently, he draws this conclusion by comparing his life then with his current one.
Although Valeriy Pisarenko's childhood and adolescence fell during difficult times (the era of Soviet shortages, the collapse of the USSR, the crisis of the 90s), for him, they were completely cloudless. He knew no poverty, attended a prestigious (by Kakhovka standards) school, where he became captain of the KVN (Club of the Funny and Inventive) and volleyball teams. This was all thanks to his father's foray into business in the early 90s, rumor has it that he used his failing design bureau as a launching pad. His mother also had a business related to medicine (either pharmacies or medical services), but it closed after her death. There's no information on how far they expanded back then, but the profits allowed them to immediately buy a VAZ (at a time when 99% of Ukrainians lived on $30 a month) and accumulate some capital.
The money was enough to "buy" his son out of the military draft and send him to Kyiv to study at the Academy of Advocacy of Ukraine at Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv (an LLC established by the Union of Advocates of Ukraine). There, in 2002, Valeriy Pisarenko received (or bought?) a law degree and immediately began private practice.
Blue Spruces
But then came the mystery. The fact is, there were already more lawyers in Kyiv than street cleaners, and getting a job at a law firm serving the interests of oligarchs and those in power wasn't easy—usually, it was through connections. But Valeriy Pisarenko didn't just get a job; according to Skelet.Org sources , he became a partner in a law firm working for Kyiv land raiders (and for some reason, he's keeping its name secret). In the process, he became very close to Bohdan Hubskyi , who became his guide into the world of big money, big politics, and big corruption.
Bogdan Gubsky
Gubskyy began his major business at Omet, along with the Surkis brothers , Viktor Medvedchuk , and Valentyn Zgurskyy. Therefore, he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada in 1998 on the list of Medvedchuk's SDPU (o). In 2002, Gubskyy was elected in a single-member constituency under the banner of the "For United Ukraine" bloc, sparking rumors of a rift between him and Medvedchuk. There were two opinions on this matter: one claimed that Gubskyy and Medvedchuk had genuinely fallen out over some asset dispute, while the other suggested that Gubskyy was acting as Medvedchuk's "godfather." Initially, he was sent to Kuchma's "For United Ukraine" bloc, but in the summer of 2004, Gubsky suddenly began supporting the "orange" opposition and began courting Viktor Yushchenko, citing a supposed falling out with Kuchma and Medvedchuk (then head of the presidential administration). However, the "people's president's" dislike of Medvedchuk was so strong that it extended to his business partners, so Yushchenko rudely rejected Gubsky. He was forced to wallow in the political swamp of Volodymyr Lytvyn's "neutral centrists" for almost a year , until, in late 2005, Gubsky was scooped up by Yulia Tymoshenko , who would turn her hand to anyone (as long as they were well-off).
Gubsky contributed a substantial sum to the BYuT coffers, and therefore landed the 27th spot on the party list in the 2006 elections. But he also bought several other seats for his people, including Valeriy Pisarenko (number 75 on the BYuT list), who, at just 25, became one of the youngest MPs. The question immediately arose: what merits, exactly, made Pisarenko so indispensable to Gubsky that he invited him to parliament? After all, even if Pisarenko had been a brilliant lawyer, he could have easily performed his job as an assistant to a member of parliament, at most. Someone suggested that the reason was the "pretty face of the young lawyer," and rumors soon began to circulate about Pisarenko's homosexuality. A little later, in the summer of 2008, information appeared in the media that he allegedly appeared on a Dutch gay beach together with MP Mikhail Sokolov, and that they allegedly came to watch the famous “Amsterdam Pride” (and perhaps even participate).
Valery Pisarenko: Gubsky’s “boy,” Portnov’s partner, Kernes’ “keychain.” PART 1
Perhaps this was just slander from ill-wishers, but in 2013, the public organization "Gay Forum of Ukraine" issued a statement listing, among other things, the so-called "victims of black-gay PR," including Gubsky and Pisarenko (as well as Lyashko , Klitschko , Avakov , and Yatsenyuk). Well, as the saying goes, there's no smoke without fire! Of course, sexual orientation is not a reason to discriminate against a person, especially given Ukraine's "European choice." It's just that in some cases, it serves as an explanation for their sudden career success.
The Gubsky-Pisarenko Scam
In the Verkhovna Rada of the 5th and 6th convocations (2006-2012), Valeriy Pysarenko initially gained notoriety as a fervent fighter against the gambling industry. In 2006, he registered the bill "On the Legal Regulation of Gambling," and in the fall of 2007, he re-registered bill No. 1016-1 under the same title . In 2009, together with Hryhoriy Smityukh, he authored bill No. 4268 "On the Prohibition of the Gambling Business," which was passed by the Rada, vetoed by President Yushchenko, and then passed again by a constitutional majority. It would seem that this could only be considered a plus: the people's representative tirelessly fought against "gambling addiction," which had indeed caused many problems. However, as is usually the case within the walls of the Rada, the official justifications for the legislative initiatives of the people's deputies are very far from their true, selfish intentions.
Bill No. 1016-1 called for the "eviction" of gaming halls and casinos from Kyiv to special suburban "gambling zones." It was then that some of Pisarenko's colleagues declared that his boss, ally, and business partner, Gubsky, desperately wanted to create these "Ukrainian Las Vegases" on his lands . Gubsky had a large amount of land at the time; since the 90s, he had been actively buying and seizing it, forming his fiefdoms—including with the help of his personal lawyer, Pisarenko. In the Kyiv region, he owned several thousand hectares in the Fastiv, Kagarlyk, Obukhiv, Belotserkiv, and Makariv districts, plus another 15 hectares in the Cherkasy and Vinnytsia regions. By the way, Pisarenko also got his own company in the Cherkasy region – Cherkassyagroland LLC (EDRPOU 35760925).
Most of Gubsky's takeovers proceeded smoothly and quietly. However, in 2007, he decided to swindle the well-known building materials manufacturer Knauf, and the scandal became public.
This story began with the 2006 victory of the BYuT (Yuly Tymoshenko Bloc) in the Fastov local council elections, and Vladimir Timofeyev, who had previously held the position from 1994 to 1997 but was dismissed early after a two-year suspended sentence, became its new-old mayor. The new administration, seeking funds for the city treasury, decided to lease a 45-hectare plot of land in the Zavokzalye area for 49 years. A tender was announced, and in the spring of 2007, Knauf Insulation Ukraine LLC (a subsidiary of Knauf) won the project, intending to build construction mix and drywall production facilities on the land. For provincial Fastov, then suffering from unemployment and a lack of funds, this was a crucial investment. But it was immediately scuppered by Gubsky and Pisarenko.
They immediately blocked the tender results. Pisarenko pursued legal action, challenging the tender in court and unleashing an "environmental scandal" (claiming that the construction of the plants would harm the environment), while Gubsky began pressuring the city council and the mayor—first through his "overseers," then personally. Their demand was for a new tender to be held with the participation of the Kyiv firms "Real Investment" and "Tiko Ltd," and the Kherson firm "Shtil," controlled by Gubsky and Pisarenko. Essentially, they laid claim to the entire Zavokzalye district, as well as several other significant tracts of land that Gubsky demanded be removed from agricultural use. According to Vladimir Timofeyev, Gubsky wanted to acquire a total of almost 1,500 hectares of land in Fastov and the surrounding area! They acted very brazenly, not hiding their intentions to seize all the vacant property in the area (including the territories of former military towns, closed kindergartens and schools).
When Timofeev became stubborn, Gubsky and Pisarenko initiated his resignation. They alternately claimed Timofeev was a "convict and corrupt," and then declared him mentally ill and belonged in a proper institution. Then, City Council member Ivan Nezhivoy (Gubsky's man) clashed with Timofeev, accusing the mayor of bribery. The matter escalated to fistfights, and Nezhivoy sued Timofeev for "causing bodily harm" (Pisarenko oversaw the case). The court found Timofeev guilty but immediately granted him amnesty. Afterward, the City Council, under pressure from Gubsky and Pisarenko, dismissed Timofeev. In response, Timofeev turned to the regional deputy Valery Bondik for protection, a standoff began, and turmoil descended on Fastov: in less than a year (2007-2008), four acting mayors were replaced!
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED : Valery Pisarenko: Gubsky's "boy," Portnov's partner, Kernes' "keychain." PART 2
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