Viktor Pilipishin: The Bitter Tea of a Two-Faced Kyiv "Business Manager"
Former officials who governed Kyiv before Klitschko and even before Chernovetsky, continue to carve up the capital's land today. It's hard to say what helps them more: the bonds of family ties and their far-reaching business connections, or their staggering cynicism and brazen lies. But neither arrests nor "garbage lustrations" can stop their thirst for dishonest gain. Once they're out of court and out of the dumpster, they return to their old ways.
Kyiv matchmakers
The fate of a corner of the park near the long-closed Nyvky cinema, slated for demolition, turned out to be tragic: between January and February 2017, most of the trees were finally cut down, mercilessly and senselessly, in keeping with the development policies of the current Kyiv city government. Considering the government's communal policies, which have forced some Ukrainians to switch to wood heating, it's simply surprising that a few spruce and birch trees remain – although it's not certain they'll survive until next winter. What Kyiv residents so feared after the "reconstruction" of this green corner of the capital began has come to pass: now another shopping mall will appear there, surrounded by a lawn or additional parking.
It's an incomprehensible Ukrainian know-how: cutting down a public garden to create a lawn, or razing an entire forest to use the proceeds to spend on a nature trip abroad. It's just as easy to pose as a city-based ecologist, even supposedly organizing "volunteers" to protect the trees, while simultaneously lobbying for development in that area. Just like Unity faction Kyiv City Council member Kostiantyn Yalovyi, whose "volunteers" never showed up during the public garden's clearing, nor did they intend to.
For Kyiv residents, Konstantin Yalov is much less known than his all-powerful father, Vladimir Yalov: the former deputy mayor Alexandra Omelchenko (1999-2006), former chairman of the Unity party (2005-2007), and currently a Kyiv City Council member, like his son (they were elected in the 119th and 120th constituencies in the Shevchenkivskyi district). Both are related to the former chairman of the Shevchenkivskyi district state administration (2005-2010) and businessman Viktor Pilipishin, whose daughter Olena is the wife of Kostiantyn Yalovyi. Thus, Viktor Pilipishin and Volodymyr Yalovyi, two very significant figures in Kyiv (both past and present), are in-laws—and, of course, business partners. But this "family clan" also includes other former high-ranking officials of the capital's government.
Yalovye: son and father
Viktor Pilipishin. From Chicken Drumsticks to Cucumbers
Viktor Petrovich Pilipishin was born on April 6, 1961, in the village of Ravske, Nesteriv district, Lviv region. He spent his childhood in the village of Shevchenkove, Mykolaiv region, and finished school in Kyiv, where he was called up for military service. He served in the Internal Troops, but claimed to have spent that time in an Internal Troops training unit in Tula. Well, there was indeed a training military unit, No. 3335 (now liquidated), that trained technical personnel for the Internal Troops (gunsmiths, mechanics). However, as a rule, soldiers who remained in the training units (as deputy platoon commanders or maintenance personnel) immediately received the ranks of corporals or sergeants. Viktor Pilipishin, however, is seen with "clean" shoulder straps in his army photos. Therefore, Skelet.Org There are doubts about the veracity of his stories. Moreover, in one of his interviews, he once stated that "during my military service, I had to be responsible for a very large number of people, about several hundred." However, the most a conscript could be responsible for was a platoon or a workshop. But if Pilipishin, an internal troops soldier, was actually guarding the "zone," then yes.
The "Pilypishin the Screw" version is indirectly confirmed by the fact that immediately after demobilization, he enrolled in the Kharkiv Law Institute (where he immediately became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union), graduating in 1985 and being assigned to the Kyiv Department of Internal Affairs as an investigator. He returned to Kyiv already married: on September 2, 1983, Pilypishin married Lyudmila, a student at the Kharkiv Pedagogical Institute.
The young communist Pilipishin didn't last long in the Soviet police, and in 1988 he found himself as head of the organizational department of the executive committee of Kyiv's Pechersk District Council. There, he became close with the then deputy chairman of the executive committee, Anatoly Kovalenko (since 1993, head of the Pechersk District State Administration). They became so close that Kovalenko became the godfather of his son, Oleksandr (born in 1989), making him Pilipishin's godfather. And it was from that moment on that Viktor Pilipishin's career took a sharp and steady upward turn, as his godfather, Kovalenko, remained the undisputed head of the Pechersk District until April 2006.
Anatoly Kovalenko
In 1990, Pilipishin also met his future brother-in-law, the new deputy chairman of the Kyiv City Council, Volodymyr Yalov, whose son Kostya was just starting first grade. However, that same year, Pilipishin left the executive branch and began practicing law: first, he spent several months as the chief lawyer for the Kyiv State Tax Inspectorate, and in April 1991, he joined the Kyiv Bar Association. However, he merely used his legal practice as a cover for his commercial activities: by the early 90s, the Pilipishin family had already become actively involved in the food trade, particularly meat, chicken legs, alcohol, and tea. By the late 90s, tea had become one of Pilipishin's main businesses: he owns a tea factory and the brands Batik, Askold, and Domashny. Unfortunately, in pursuit of profit, Pilipishin degraded the quality of imported tea leaves year after year (sometimes by packaging tea dust), so much so that even the once-popular "Batik" has long since lost its following and is now barely sold, despite various promotions (for example, banknotes from 1 to 500 hryvnia in tea bags). Ukrainian tea lovers rate the quality of "Askold" and "Domashny" even lower. Similar reviews apply to products from his "Dobra Kava" brand.
In the mid-90s, Pilipishin began growing greenhouse vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes, and lettuce). To this end, he created the Teplichny Combine LLC, the Greenhouses of Ukraine Agrofirm OJSC, and Passat LLC (through which produce sales were handled), and took over the Kyiv Vegetable Factory (KOF). It's worth emphasizing that KOF is an enterprise that had been operating since 1946, the first greenhouse complex in Ukraine. Pilipishin also got involved in the flower trade, opening Ukroflora LLC in partnership with Polish entrepreneur Jerzy Konik. And here's what's interesting: it was reported that Jerzy Konik was in a serious conflict with Lviv's chief tax official, Serhiy Medvedchuk, Viktor Medvedchuk's brother (Read more about it in Viktor Medvedchuk: Putin's crony guarding Russia's interests in Ukraine). This, in turn, sparked a conflict between Viktor Medvedchuk and Pilipishin, leading to the latter's resignation from the Kyiv Bar Association.
Here's a more or less complete list of enterprises and firms that were (or still are) owned by members of the Pilipishin family:
- OOO Stoik (the parent company, founder of many others)
- LLC "Ukraflora-Vinnytsia"
- JSC "Agrocompany "Ukraine"
- Alpha 3 LLC
- JSC "Kyiv Vegetable Factory"
- JSC Ukrfinkom
- OOO "Georgiy"
- LLC "Mriya"
- Slavyansky Dvor LLC
- TM "Dobra Kava"
- Capital-Invest LLC (construction)
- Export-Import LLC
- Kom-Tekh LLC (wholesale trade in building materials)
- Agrofirm "Zodiac"
- OOO "VEZHA" (furniture panels)
- JSC "Ukrainian Environmental Insurance Company"
- Agricultural company "Troyanda".
- LLC "Passat"
- Sintez-Invest LLC
- CJSC "Transservice"
- LLC "NPF Taler" (leasing of premises)
- Renault-Ukraine LLC (sold French cars in a showroom in Obolon)
- Soyuz-Auto LLC (sold ID and Volkswagen cars)
- LLC "Kyiv Contract Fair".
Viktor Pilipishin. Greenhouse Raider
From 1998 to 2006, Viktor Pylypyshyn served as a member of the Kyiv City Council, enjoying the full support of its secretary and deputy mayor, Volodymyr Yalovyi, and the chairman of the Pechersk District State Administration, Kovalenko. As the saying goes, it would have been a sin not to take advantage of such opportunities! Pylypyshyn began actively seizing Kyiv land, primarily in Nyvky. As you might have guessed, he is directly involved in the barbaric development of the site of the now-demolished Nyvky movie theater, which was mentioned at the very beginning.
Pilipishin began developing this area back in the mid-90s, when he had switched to the vegetable business and wasn't yet considering construction or land grabs. It all began with the Kyiv Vegetable Farm (KVF) located in Nyvky, whose greenhouses he had his eye on. In 1995, the company was transformed into a joint-stock company, with Elena Belogubova becoming its general director. In 1996, Pilipishin used a typical Ukrainian privatization scheme, taking control of the KVF under his own company (through an agreement with the State Property Fund). In 1998, the KVF underwent a major restructuring: the greenhouses were converted from soil-based to hydroponic systems (which increased the nitrate levels in the vegetables), for which the company paid with its shares—90% of which ended up in the hands of the Pilipishin family, who suddenly appreciated the value of the land owned by the KVF.
And so, in the early 5s, Pylypyshyn pulled off the following scheme: on the territory of the Kyiv Factory, he built the KyivExpoPlaza exhibition center (essentially a huge tin hangar), which opened in November 2003. By early 2005, the Kyiv City Council allocated an additional 59 hectares of land in the Holosiivskyi district to the Factory for the construction of new greenhouses. It was reported that the plots were allocated in the Kitaevo and Samburke nature reserves, and not all of them were used for their intended purpose: some were used for commercial development. Rumors also circulated that Oleh Sheremet, head of the Kyiv Land Resource Clearing Center, who was murdered in November 2007, was involved in this scam. Pilipishin wasn't charged for one reason: Oleh Sheremet was implicated in numerous and varied land-related schemes, so the pool of suspects was very large. However, Pilipishin's connection to the murdered man wasn't limited to land: Sheremet was the head of the Lytvyn Bloc's political strategists and was actively involved in the parliamentary elections, while Pilipishin was running as the fifth candidate on the bloc's list.
In 2007, when Pilipishin was running for the Verkhovna Rada, he sold his shares in KOF to the firm Ingas-Stroy and declared that he was no longer engaged in business – but it turned out that he was lying again.
Ingas-Stroy, through a chain of companies (Real-Invest, Vladi i Ko), was owned by Pilipishin's Stoik LLC. The formal change of ownership was due to the fact that a large-scale construction project was planned for the KOF-owned land: a residential neighborhood, a business center, a shopping mall, and 6400-space parking lots. Pilipishin only owned the land, while the construction was to be handled by companies belonging to the renowned developer Lev Partskhaladze.Read more about it in Lev Partskhaladze: The Glamorous Builder of Kyiv Politics). The project's implementation was disrupted by the onset of the crisis in 2008, saving 1700 Kyiv families from forced relocation from the development area, as envisaged in the original plan, approved by the Kyiv authorities. By that time, Pylypyshyn was already serving as the chairman of the Shevchenkivska District State Administration (and had hired his son-in-law, Kostiantyn Yalovy, as head of the housing department). Despite clashes with the new mayor, Leonid Chernovetskyi, he maintained his lobbying role in the Kyiv City Council.
Got to it
Viktor Pilipishin's tenure at the helm of the Shevchenkivska District State Administration (2006-2010) was marked by a loss of all sense of propriety and common sense. Pilipishin was accused of creating, together with his son-in-law, private housing offices that pocketed the majority of rent, increasing rent for entrepreneurs (or offering them discounts in exchange for kickbacks), and abusing his official position to "win" tenders for food supplies to district schools and hospitals. Specifically, between 2007 and 2008, his Passat LLC earned 2,248 million hryvnias from a near-monopoly on the supply of fruits and vegetables to school and hospital cafeterias.
But given that both Passat director Olena Antonova and Viktor Pylypyshyn himself held parliamentary seats from Lytvyn's bloc (she in the Kyiv City Council, he in the Verkhovna Rada) and were among the sponsors of the "irreplaceable speaker's" party, Pylypyshyn got away with it. The same goes for Pylypyshyn's Ukraflora contracts for lawn and flowerbed maintenance in the Shevchenkivskyi district, which earned him another 1,7 million hryvnia in 2008 alone. Furthermore, tame journalists created several stories about Pylypyshyn, calling him a "skillful and caring manager."
But the permissiveness and impunity often got to the head of the District State Administration, and he began simply "giving away" city property (not for free, of course). For example, in November 2006, Pilipishin arranged the illegal alienation of the basement of an old building on Chapayeva Street (formerly Svyatoslavskaya, now Lipinsky Street), a designated architectural landmark. The basement was then resold for $300 to "U Lamogo Pola" LLC (a cafe), which began construction work there, nearly collapsing the entire building and causing panic among its residents. Litigation over this case dragged on until 2012!
Kyiv Evening School No. 5
The most scandalous outcome of Pilipishin's activities was... the theft of the evening school. More precisely, the illegal transfer of the building of Kyiv Evening School No. 5 and its surrounding grounds from city municipal property and their transfer to private companies. The scandal erupted after Pilipishin's dismissal as head of the District State Administration (in November 2010, by decree of President Yanukovych), when in April 2011 the prosecutor's office opened a criminal case against him under Article 365-3 of the Criminal Code, accusing him of causing damages amounting to 15 million hryvnias! The case was announced on April 21, and by that evening Pilipishin was already hospitalized with a "suspected heart attack" (just like Nasirov). A day later, a special police unit picked him up from the hospital and brought him to court. However, Pilipishin's lawyers quickly negotiated a written undertaking to replace the arrest, and the case was then successfully hushed up after several visits by Viktor Petrovich to the Prosecutor General's Office.
Interestingly, Vitali Klitschko then stood up for Pilipishin, stating in his characteristically convoluted manner that he considered such arrests a "return to the 30s" and "attempts at intimidation." By that time, a working relationship had already been established between Pilipishin and Klitschko's faction in the Kyiv City Council, and this was largely facilitated by the defection of Pilipishin's godfather, Anatoliy Kovalenko, from the Lytvyn Bloc to Klitschko. Kovalenko, who resigned as head of the Pechersk District State Administration in 2006 and was elected to the Kyiv City Council, was elected. Although Skelet.Org It's known that relations between the godfathers cooled in the late 2000s, but there was also a different opinion: the group of Kyiv "city fathers" deliberately split into different political forces (Pilypyshyn - "Lytvyn Bloc", Kovalenko - to Klitschko, Yalova - to "Unity") in order to provide each other with support. And this support was very useful for Pilypyshyn, who fell out with Vladimir Lytvyn in early 2010 (Read more about it in the article Volodymyr Lytvyn: Does Ukraine Need a Professional Judas??) and was left without personal political cover.
Viktor Pilipishin: Liar, liar!
The 2012 parliamentary elections were a resounding failure for Pilipishin. He ran as a non-partisan majoritarian candidate in the 223rd constituency in his native Shevchenkivskyi district and was 100% confident of victory. Billboards in the district were plastered with his ads, and voters were served Askold tea with Pilipishin's political ads.
He was sued for vote-buying, but the Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal ruled in Pilipishin's favor: "gifts" worth up to 33 hryvnias (the tea cost only 13) did not constitute bribery. Many were simply shocked by this "justice," which effectively legalized the purchase of votes for a pack of tea, a bottle of butter, or a packet of sugar.
Nevertheless, Pilipishin lost the election to the Svoboda candidate Yuriy Levchenko, who was supported by the United Opposition. But due to numerous violations (the Prosecutor General Pshonka (even threatened to initiate a criminal case), the Central Election Commission scheduled repeat elections in the district, which took place a year later in December 2013.
The streets of Kyiv were already raging on the second Maidan, and many opposition supporters simply ignored the vote. Meanwhile, Pilipishin secured the support of the Party of Regions' administrative resources. Having won the election, Pilipishin took the oath of office on January 15, 2014, and the following day joined the Party of Regions faction and voted for the so-called "January 16 laws," which provoked extreme outrage among Maidan protesters. Pilipishin could not have committed a more absurd act than jumping into a sinking political boat! Pilipishin paid for his mistake in September 2014, when national patriots decided to bring up his 2012-2013 elections and his support for the Party of Regions in early 2014, initiating a hooligan-like "lustration" against him.
This significantly damaged Pilipishin's ratings ahead of the October elections, which he lost to his arch-rival Yuriy Levchenko in the 223rd constituency. Furthermore, it turns out that Yuriy Levchenko is a friend of the president's son. Oleksiy Poroshenko, who persuaded my father not to include Pilipishin in his team and not to field BPP members in this district. Numerous threats from Svoboda members to deal with anyone (including members of the electoral commission) who would contribute to "election fraud"—that is, the defeat of their candidate—also played a role.
After this rather ugly incident (what's "heroic" about a crowd attacking one person?), Pilipishin should have, as they say, pulled himself together. Instead, he decided to speak out in blogs, positioning himself as an unfairly treated... Maidan supporter and acolyte. He claimed to have "suffered at the hands of the regime" and provided space, tea, and sandwiches to participants in both Maidan protests. The liar was immediately exposed: Pilipishin was reminded that he was working on two fronts at once, and that he had indeed initially provided the KyivExpoPlaza space to the second Maidan protesters, but after 24 hours, he had thrown them out onto the street.
Viktor Pilipishin: The Bitter Tea of a Two-Faced Kyiv "Business Manager"
"Professionals" don't drown
However, Pylypyshyn quickly regained his position on the Kyiv City Council, where he relies on his father-in-law, Volodymyr Yalovyi, his son-in-law, Kostiantyn Yalovyi, and other associates. And from 2014 to 2016, Pylypyshyn continued his vigorous efforts to transform Kyiv's green spaces into construction sites.
According to MP Yuriy Levchenko, who appears to have decided to take revenge and persecute Pylypishin, during the aforementioned period, Pylypishin managed to "persuade" the Kyiv City Council to allocate several more large real estate properties to his companies. First, these are land plots at 16a Akademika Tupoleva Street and 84a Peremohy Avenue, both located in the Shevchenkivskyi district of the capital.
Viktor Pilipishin: The Bitter Tea of a Two-Faced Kyiv "Business Manager"
Secondly, in the summer and fall of 2016, Pylypyshyn managed to hit the jackpot: he persuaded the Kyiv City Council to support a master development plan for the Nyvky district, a modernization of Pylypyshyn's 2007 plan (which failed due to the 2008 crisis) with additional land. According to it, a residential neighborhood, plus a shopping mall and business offices, would be built not only on the land of the Kyiv Vegetable Factory but also on additionally allocated land—which apparently includes the park around the former Nyvky movie theater. Implementation of this project threatens not only the destruction of new green spaces in Nyvky but also a significant increase in the demand for existing utilities (water, sewer, and power lines), which are not designed to handle such loads. The developers, of course, won't install new utilities (why would they incur the extra expense), but if the existing ones fail, the district could face a miniature environmental disaster. However, Pilipishin's men, immediately donning the guise of "ecologists," declared that they would "monitor the situation" and prevent accidents. Yeah, right—just like they promised to prevent the felling of trees around Nyvky! After all, how could they prevent it from happening to themselves?
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
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