Vasily Gatsko
On September 23, the Kyiv branch of the Democratic Alliance nominated Vasyl Hatsko as a candidate for Kyiv mayor. Recalling the previous local elections in Kyiv, in which Hatsko's party barely secured the 3% required to enter the Kyiv City Council, a logical question arises: "What are its members hoping for?" The answer lies in Vasyl Hatsko's connections to Ukrainian oligarchs, specifically Serhiy Lyovochkin, whom the media unanimously dub the party's "founder" and main investor.
Political path
Vasyl Gatsko was born in the village of Yuzhnaya Lomatovka in the Luhansk region in 1982. He received his higher education at the Kyiv National University of Economics, in the Faculty of Organizational Management. In 2005, he became a graduate student at the National Institute for Strategic Studies, where he analyzed the state's economic security. After 2004, he became the chairman of the Student Wave Free Initiative in one of Kyiv's districts. During the Orange Revolution, he served as the coordinator of the youth wing of the revolutionaries. A year later, he became the head of the Kyiv center of the All-Ukrainian public organization KHDU (Christian Democratic Youth of Ukraine). In 2011, he was elected head of the Democratic Alliance party, with which he subsequently ran for election.
It's worth noting that the Democratic Alliance party emerged from a parasitic public organization that existed solely on grants. It owes its existence to the oligarchic regime of 2010, and was also founded with dirty money. Its investors set clear goals for the party, and so it was forced to fight its way into parliament, but they failed in both 2012 and 2014. This failure was due to a rather strange reason: the project, despite receiving colossal financial investments, was not actually using them. The reason was the theft of funding by its leader, Vasyl Hatsko. Without this money, the Democratic Alliance barely made it into the Kyiv City Council, and only through legal action. The scandal arose due to a recount of votes at polling station No. 842, and the Democratic Alliance filed a lawsuit demanding a recount. To everyone's surprise, the Kyiv District Administrative Court upheld the claim, and an additional 93 votes were found during a "fair trial."
Vasily Gatsko on the Democratic Alliance
Incidentally, this isn't the only instance of Gatsko "pocketing" voters' money. During the 2012 parliamentary elections, the Democratic Alliance announced it would not accept funding from oligarchic forces and would therefore solicit donations to pay the Central Election Commission's deposit (2,2 million hryvnias). It remains unknown how much the party "raised," but it was certainly several times more than it needed, as Gatsko's trip to the Luhansk region alone raised over $10.
According to the publication "Chesno," which analyzes the work of Kyiv deputies, Vasyl Gatsko's performance in the Kyiv City Council has been shown to be quite poor in legislative capacity. He is also a habitual absentee, missing over 20% of Kyiv City Council meetings, as well as most of the meetings of the commission he serves on. Almost all of the requests and projects he submits are aimed at protecting various financial institutions controlled by his "patrons."
Leader of the Democratic Alliance Vasily Gatsko
Levochkin's Project
In early summer, Vasyl Gatsko visited Slovyansk, where he held several meetings with activists. During these meetings, he engaged in "reconnaissance," interrogating local public figures about voter sentiment and preferences. Given the Democratic Alliance's extremely low ratings in Ukraine, he certainly had no use for this data, but his patrons, who are also actively preparing for the elections, could very well find it useful.
Yuriy Lutsenko first referred to Vasyl Gatsko and his Democratic Alliance party as "Lyovochkin's project" during the 2014 parliamentary elections. Over time, this viewpoint began to be shared by various Ukrainian media outlets, political scientists, and simply "thinking" individuals. The merger of the Democratic Alliance with the Civil Position party confirmed Lyovochkin's "roots." Anatoly Gritsenko, as well as the appearance of Sergei Vladimirovich’s assistants and political strategists in their general headquarters.
Anatoly Gritsenko and Vasily Gatsko
Given these facts, the purpose of Gatsko's trip to Slovyansk becomes obvious: electoral reconnaissance. After all, neither the Opposition Bloc nor the Renaissance Party, whose members are overwhelmingly Party of Regions members, would have been told a fraction of what the activists were so readily willing to reveal to the "democrat" Vasily Nikolaevich.
Naturally, the Democratic Alliance isn't a top-tier project, but Serhiy Lyovochkin needs such a "second-rate" product if he intends to undermine the position of Petro Poroshenko and his team during the upcoming elections. Vasyl Gatsko, who "casually" criticizes Vitali Klitschko and Petro Poroshenko day after day, is perfectly suited for the role of "destabilizer." His actions are aimed at siphoning votes from pro-Ukrainian parties in the local elections, thereby allowing the opposition to boost their ratings.
The Great "Revolutionary"
In April 2013, Gatsko participated in a "march on Mezhyhirya," the official goal of which was to demand "improved road conditions." This seemed rather ridiculous, as the country had plenty of pressing issues to address without it. For this protest, one member of the Democratic Alliance was arrested for a week, and others were fined 170 hryvnias. Vasyl Mykolayovych wasn't satisfied with this; he continued to strike, this time for the release of his fellow party member, for which he was arrested for five days. All these protests were actively covered by media outlets belonging to the "Yanukovych family," as well as the Inter television channel, owned by Serhiy Lyovochkin. These events helped to complete the image of Vasyl Gatsko as a "revolutionary," which would prove useful in the future.
The revolutionary events on the Maidan in Kyiv allowed Gatsko to become a member of the Council of the People's Union "Maidan." After Viktor Yanukovych left Ukraine, Vasyl Mykolayovych was actively promoted to head the Anti-Corruption Bureau, but it didn't work out. Apparently, in the eyes of his Maidan colleagues, he remained a coward who fled as soon as the "hot" moments of the confrontation began.
Following the bloody nighttime dispersal of November 29, MP Oleksandra Kuzhel called Gatsko a "traitor to the ideas of the Euromaidan" and the "chief provocateur." Kuzhel's accusations stemmed from the fact that Gatsko, along with all members of the Democratic Alliance, had disappeared from the Maidan an hour before the "massacre," allegedly knowing the dispersal would soon begin. A similar situation occurred on February 18, when internal troops launched an offensive, attempting to drive protesting activists from the Maidan. The bloody battle raged until the early morning, but—as you might have guessed—Vasyl Gatsko, the Maidan's main "hero," was not there.
In less than a month, local elections will be held in Ukraine, where Gatsko will once again lead the Democratic Alliance. Everyone, even its members, doubts the party's success, as they will also be competing against representatives of their "patrons." For example, Yuriy Yekhanurov, nominated by the Renaissance party, and Oleksandr Puzanov, representing the Opposition Bloc. Vasyl Gatsko and the Democratic Alliance's role in these elections is simple: to draw as many votes as possible from pro-government candidates.
Dmitry Samofalov, for SKELET-info
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I've never met a more corrupt and shady person than Vasya Gatsko. He throws you away right away.