Vasily Pisnoy
Lieutenant General Vasyl Pisnyi deserves a place of honor in the top 100 of Ukraine's top-ranked corrupt officials. He's truly earned it, having spent nearly thirty years exclusively lining his own pockets by any means necessary. His track record includes racketeering, smuggling, bribery and extortion, corruption, and official misconduct. Pisnyi would be an excellent candidate for a show trial, but it's important to remember that he's currently desperate to avoid the impending punishment, preferably by running for parliament.
For a long time, Vasyl Pisnoy was known only in Western Ukraine, where he grew up and worked for many years, earning himself the criminal nickname "Antibiotic," a reputation for being a paragon of corruption, and a substantial fortune. But on November 19, 2015, Pisnoy became "famous" throughout Ukraine after becoming the "victim" of scandalous activist and MP Volodymyr Parasyuk . During a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada's Anti-Corruption Committee, to which General Pisnoy, Deputy Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), was invited, the two "heroes of the Maidan" began arguing over which of them had done more for the revolution. A furious Parasyuk quickly ran up to Pisnoy and kicked him in the head. After the brawl, he gave an interview to journalists, declaring that he had no regrets whatsoever.
Most Ukrainians didn't understand what was going on back then, why the hooligan Parasyuk (such was his reputation) had started a brawl within the walls of parliament, or why he'd kicked an SBU general himself! But residents of the Lviv and Ternopil regions, who remembered Pisny-Antibiotic well, openly gloated that a blow to corruption had been dealt, at least with the help of Parasyuk's shoe. And now you too will understand why...
Werewolves in uniform
Vasyl Mykhailovych Pisnoy was born on January 2, 1963, in the village of Lopushany, Zboriv district, Ternopil region. Although the village is old, almost ancient (founded in 1541), it is very sparsely populated: according to the 2001 census, only 180 people lived there, and today the number is even lower.
The media pronounces the general's surname both as "Pisnoy" and "Pisnyi." Which is correct? In the original Ukrainian, his surname is "Pisniy." In Russian, according to transcription rules, it is "Pisnoy." However, in recent years, a trend has emerged in Ukraine to "Ukrainize" Russian-language transcriptions of surnames, and the literacy of officials and journalists has noticeably declined. Therefore, his surname is often written in Russian as it is heard in Ukrainian: "Pisnyi." We will adhere to the old linguistic rules of the literary classics.
Since childhood, Vasyl Pisnoy had a reluctance to work with his own hands, but he yearned for great wealth. His dream was a management position on a state farm, but he also lacked any enthusiasm for learning. So, dreaming of a rich life, he waited for his draft notice and, from 1981 to 83, dutifully served his military service. He returned home, completed his discharge, and then it was almost like in the film "Brother": his mother sent her younger son off to the city to live with her eldest, Bohdan Pisnoy, who worked in the police and was a big shot by Lopushan standards. "You'll see, maybe she'll find a job for you, you idiot."
His brother helped him get a job in the police, took him under his wing, and a year later, Vasyl Pisnoy even enrolled in correspondence at the Lviv Agricultural Institute (now the National Agrarian University), studying mechanical engineering. However, in 1989, when Pisnoy received his long-awaited diploma, the situation in the country as a whole and in his life in particular had changed dramatically. The position of chief mechanic at a state farm no longer seemed as promising as the path of a cooperative member. Moreover, Pisnoy realized that even a simple traffic cop could earn a good living, and if he combined service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs with entrepreneurship, he would be truly "rich in the dumps." So the newly minted lieutenant founded several businesses with his brother, colleagues, and acquaintances, and a year later (in 1990) he enrolled in the law faculty of Ivano-Frankov National University of Lviv, aiming to become a captain, and perhaps even a major. And he was right.
According to Skelet.Org , Vasyl Pisnoy's main business in the first half of the 90s was small-scale smuggling. Using his police credentials and customs connections, Pisnoy and his associates exported some goods to Poland and imported others to Ukraine. Specifically, one of their "exports" was cigarettes and alcohol, which they smuggled across the border in canisters hidden under the seats of a Mercedes-Benz 123 (owned by Maria Kurgan), through the Rava-Ruska and Shehyni customs crossings, and to the Polish city of Tomaszów. There, the alcohol was sold to Polish citizens Bohdan Falger and Marian Gonsior.
It was precisely because of alcohol that Vasily Mikhailovich got caught, ending up behind bars—he spent five months in pretrial detention and nearly lost his epaulettes. What happened was this: one day, while tallying their books, the partners had an argument, and Pisnoy demanded a $5,000 debt from Maria Bereza (Maryan Gonsor's wife). Then Pisnoy decided to show off his tough guy ways and put Bereza on the "counter," demanding six, and then seven thousand dollars. The demands weren't limited to just demands: Pisnoy forcibly took his companion to his mansion under construction in Bryuzovichi, where he held her in the basement until Bereza agreed to pay him at least part of the demand. Confident in his own impunity (he was a police officer, after all!), Pisnoy let her go—and Bereza immediately contacted the Internal Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. A full-scale special operation was carried out, during which Bereza handed Pisnoy a wad of dollars marked with a special isotope. On July 10, 1995, the city police officer who had extorted money was arrested and sent to a pretrial detention center, where Vasyl Pisnoy spent five months. He was charged under Article 144-3 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code (racketeering), and charges of abuse of office and smuggling, as well as illegal currency transactions (an article in effect until 1996), were pending.
His brother, Bohdan Pisny, then head of the Zhydachiv District Department of Internal Affairs and a member of the Lviv Regional Council, came to his rescue. He used all his connections in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the prosecutor's office to not only clear Vasyl Pisny of all charges but also to completely turn the case around. Maria Bereza was accused of not wanting to repay Vasyl Pisny's wife a loan and of "staging a dirty provocation." And the Internal Security Service was accused of slipping Pisny "radioactive banknotes," which, according to his brother, caused him to "carry a mini-nuclear reactor in his pocket for six hours." (In reality, special isotopes with low-energy radiation, which couldn't penetrate even the fabric of underwear, were used to mark the banknotes.) Ultimately, the case was closed, Vasyl Pisny was released and reinstated at work (he was even paid five months' salary), the Internal Security Service officers were forced to apologize to him, and Bohdan Pisny even published a letter in the newspaper "Vysoky Zamok" under the loud title "Provocation."
It would seem that Vasily Mikhailovich had been completely cleared of the charges. However, a month later, on April 23, 1996, the Vysoky Zamok newspaper published an article by S. Dilny, deputy head of the Internal Security Service of the Lviv Department of Internal Affairs, titled "Werewolves in Uniform," in which he detailed Pisny's case. He also included a photocopy of the accounting records confiscated from Vasily Pisny, in which he personally listed who owed him, how much, and for what. For this publication, the Vysoky Zamok staff was subjected to considerable pressure from the Pisny brothers for years to come.
Having been released from pretrial detention and learned a valuable lesson, Vasily Pisnoy decided to quit small-time smuggling and racketeering and pursued larger, safer endeavors. As a traffic police commander, he began providing protection for other smugglers, including drug smugglers. Pisnoy was guaranteed to escort those who paid him from the border to the regional center. Those who refused were dutifully detained as drug dealers. However, there were often complications, like the amphetamine shipment that was once reported in the media.
Here's what happened: Pisnoy and his colleagues seized a car carrying a large shipment of ecstasy (worth hundreds of thousands of dollars) and, contrary to instructions, moved it to their garage before the OBNON officers arrived, ostensibly to secure the seized cargo. But when the investigative team arrived, only a few packets of the large amphetamine shipment remained, and they were recorded. Where the rest of the drugs went is easy to guess – they were sold to drug dealers who collaborated with Pisnoy. It is said that it was because of this story, as well as the popularity of the 2000 TV series "Gangster Petersburg," that Vasily Pisnoy earned the nickname "Antibiotic" from his colleagues and "subordinates," a nickname that soon became famous throughout the region.
What can be gained from Maidan?
When Volodymyr Parasyuk gave an interview to journalists after his confrontation with Pisnyy, he stated that the odious general had long been protected by Yuriy Lutsenko and Stepan Kubiv . Parasyuk did not reveal how long ago, but according to other sources at Skelet.Org , Stepan Kubiv's close relationship with the Pisnyy brothers began even before the first Maidan. Kubiv first became close with Bohdan Pisnyy (a member of the Lviv Regional Council), and through him, with Vasyl. As a reminder, Stepan Kubiv was one of the founders of "Our Ukraine" and also played a key role, through his Kredit Bank, in financing Yushchenko's election campaign and the upcoming "Orange Revolution" with Western funds.
The Pisny brothers also contributed to this historic event: at the very least, Vasyl Pisny participated in the ferrying of Orange Revolution participants from Lviv to Kyiv. While ordinary activists made their way to the capital as best they could, they organized the transportation of the "party guard," as well as the gangs of crime bosses Volodymyr Didukh (Vova Morda) and Ihor Kryvetsky (Pups) , whose "titushki" (bosses) guarded the Maidan from a possible raid by Yanukovych's "titushki." Pisny, who then headed the traffic police in the Ternopil region, devised a scheme to "transit passengers" by car, under the cover of Lviv and Ternopil traffic police officers—a scheme he would later use during the events of 2013-2014.
For his resourcefulness and invaluable assistance, Vasyl Pisny was recognized by the leaders of the 2004 Maidan, and personally by its commandant, Yuriy Lutsenko, who became his "pal." Already in November 2004, in the atmosphere of revolutionary euphoria that reigned in Ternopil, Pisny secured the position of head of the Organized Crime Control Department (UBOP)—and within a few months, he successfully thwarted numerous cases against organized crime groups and "authorities," lining his pockets with payoffs.
In February 2005, Yuriy Lutsenko became the new Minister of Internal Affairs, declaring the need to arrest "those people who have long been known as corrupt officials within the Ministry of Internal Affairs system." But instead of making arrests, he immediately turned to corruption himself. Just a month later, in March 2005, Lutsenko appointed the seasoned "werewolf in uniform," Vasyl Pisny, as head of the Ternopil Oblast Department of Internal Affairs. Skelet.Org's sources within the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that Pisny "paid" Lutsenko $230 for this appointment. The additional payment for his promotion is unknown, but during 2005, Major Pisny was suddenly promoted to major general. However, he wasn't alone, and everyone remembers how, under Yushchenko, security officials close to the government rapidly rose through the ranks: for example, Valeriy Heletey rose from colonel to colonel general in a year and a half.
During the "Regional Party's Revenge" in 2006-2007, Vasyl Pisnyi was appointed head of the Department for the Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of the State Tax Administration of the Western Region. Little is known about his activities in this position, but Skelet.Org sources revealed one small but intriguing detail: Pisnyi's appointment was allegedly lobbied for by Stepan Kubiv. Kubiv, who after the first Maidan actively placed his people in the tax authorities of the Lviv region, had his own vested interests in this. Among them was covering up the criminal cases opened in 2001-2003, when the Lviv State Tax Administration was headed by Serhiy Medvedchuk, Viktor Medvedchuk's brother . And Pisnyi, as head of the Department for the Investigation of Particularly Important Cases, likely provided Kubiv with this important service.
However, Pisnoy provided even more invaluable assistance in this position to his brother-in-law, Stepan Vorozhbit, who worked in the Lviv Oblast Service for Combating Smuggling and Customs Violations. He was so efficient that he himself became the architect of a smuggling scheme under which, at the Rava-Ruska checkpoint, no payment was made to the state treasury for the goods transported, causing losses of approximately one million hryvnia (US$200 at the then exchange rate). But Vorozhbit once got into trouble – and his brother-in-law, Pisnoy, saved him by taking the matter "under his control" and then, apparently laughingly, throwing him into a fire during a family picnic. Incidentally, Stepan Vorozhbit successfully continued working at customs even after the 2016 scandal, when he was fired by order of Prime Minister Groysman, as the corrupt official's appetite and arrogance exceeded all reasonable limits. The fired Vorozhbit simply moved to work at another customs post!
But let's return to 2007. With Yuriy Lutsenko's return to the post of Minister of Internal Affairs, Vasyl Pisnoy immediately made advances on him, and in December, he was appointed head of the Lviv Oblast Department of Internal Affairs. This position was more lucrative than the post of head of the Ternopil police, as it provided access to the western border with Poland and ample opportunities for smuggling—the Pisnoy family's favorite business. Therefore, it cost Vasyl Mykhailovych much more: according to media reports, he paid $3 million for it.
He immediately began to recoup this sum by extorting bribes from his subordinates. Then, in February 2008, an anonymous appeal from alleged employees of the Lviv Regional Ministry of Internal Affairs to President Yushchenko appeared in the media (specifically, in the Lviv newspaper). It contained information compromising the new chief. In addition to a complaint about extortion (up to $100 for retaining his position), it revealed Pisnyy's criminal past (specifically, the "alcohol case"). It was also reported that the contract killing of criminal businessman Borys (a previously convicted member of the Lviv Pampukhi organized crime group) that took place on February 3, 2008, in central Lviv, right next to St. George's Cathedral, was connected to the police chief's brother. He allegedly began interfering with Bohdan Pisnyy's smuggling business, for which he was immediately "removed," the murder being framed as a "criminal showdown." Immediately after this publication, Vasyl Pisnoy became nervous and quickly announced the case had been solved: the killer was declared to be a recently released repeat offender who, a few days earlier, had robbed an arcade with his accomplices. The murder theory was immediately revised, and instead of a "criminal showdown," it was transformed into a banal "attempt to steal or rob a car," during which the robbers allegedly shot the car's owner, Borys. The "solved" case reeked of blatant fabrication; even Pisnoy himself admitted that the killers were found "accidentally" (but quickly), and Lviv residents, commenting on the news, simply laughed unkindly. Interestingly, immediately after the successful "solved" the case was quickly forgotten (and information about it was deleted from the internet), and the fate of the accused remained unknown. In short, this is how Vasyl Pisnoy began to earn himself an extremely negative reputation in Lviv as a corrupt and lawless official, and the nickname "Antibiotic" now thundered throughout the region.
In May 2008, a new letter from unnamed Ministry of Internal Affairs employees appeared in the media, citing new facts, ranging from threats to Lvivska Gazeta journalists to a list of "rates" set by Pisny. Specifically, traffic police department (MREO) managers "tipped" Pisny between $30 and $60, while the salary for a rank-and-file MREO inspector was $10 to $15.
But Yuriy Lutsenko didn't care, nor did Stepan Kubiv—whose families were now friends with the Pisny brothers. It was Lutsenko who gave Vasyl Pisny a gift for Independence Day 2008, including him on the general's list for promotion, along with such "legends of Lutsenko's corruption" as Volodymyr Bedrykovsky , Vasyl Topchy , and Anatoliy Danilenko . And by Yushchenko's decree No. 753/2008, Vasyl Pisny was promoted to lieutenant general of police.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Vasily Pisnoy: The Career of Lviv's "Antibiotic," or Why the Smuggler General Was Beaten. PART 2
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