Vitaly Yarema
The name of former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema is well known to both businessmen and gangsters. At various times, he's been called a "fiery revolutionary," a "wanted legend," and even a "bandit protection racket." Judging by his biography, one could also add "corrupt official," "swindler," and "honest cop" to this list. In short, Vitaliy Grigorievich has been called many things, but who is he really?
"Honest" cop
Vitaliy Yarema was born in the village of Strokova in the Kyiv region in October 1963. Immediately after finishing school, he worked at a fur farm in the city of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi. Beginning in 1981, he served in the Soviet Army, after which, in December 1983, he joined the police. While working as a police officer in the Dniprovskyi District Department of Internal Affairs in Kyiv, he simultaneously studied at the Police Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, after which, in 1987, he was appointed a district police officer at the same Dniprovskyi District Department of Internal Affairs in Kyiv.
For Vitaliy Yarema, working as a district police officer was mundane and boring, so starting in 1990, he worked as an operational detective and also served as deputy head of the criminal investigation department. Having risen from the very bottom, Vitaliy Grigorievich rose to the position of head of the criminal investigation department in 1997, and just two years later, he became first deputy head of the Main Directorate of Criminal Investigation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
Vitaly Yarema
"Unexpected" career growth
Towards the end of the 90s, a series of murders of prominent businessmen and simply "significant" citizens occurred in Kyiv. Judging by the pattern of the murders, everything was carried out professionally, leaving no trace. The police shrugged their shoulders, claiming nothing could be done; the investigation had reached a dead end. In 2001, police arrested a certain Georgy Suvorin, a habitual drug addict, who was "mistaken" for heroin possession. To everyone's surprise, he claimed to have killed 18 people and attempted to kill six more.
Georgy Suvorin, a drug addict who confessed to murder.
Remarkably, it was after this incident with the "drug-addicted killer" that Vitaliy Yarema's career skyrocketed. In 2001, he was transferred to serve as the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine at the Lviv Railway. After a series of positions in various departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in February 2005, Vitaliy Yarema was appointed head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Kyiv.
It's noteworthy that Vitaliy Grigorievich was appointed Kyiv's chief police officer immediately after the Orange Revolution and the rise to power of Viktor Yushchenko, whom he actively supported during the Maidan protests. Unsurprisingly, in the very next election, he won a seat on the Kyiv City Council as a member of the Our Ukraine bloc. After serving as Kyiv police chief for over five years, Vitaliy Yarema resigned from the post following the election of Viktor Yanukovych, a president with a criminal past.
Vitaliy Grigorievich ran in the 2012 elections alongside Viktor Yushchenko's former allies, the Batkivshchyna party. He garnered over 30% of the vote in the 212th majoritarian district.
Vitaly Yarema. Election Campaign
Following the revolutionary events in Ukraine in February 2014, Vitaliy Yarema was elected Vice Prime Minister, responsible for the security sector. But during Avakov's election (Read more about it in the article Arsen Avakov: The criminal past of the Minister of Internal Affairs) Yarema was just one vote short of the post of Minister of Internal Affairs. In June 2014, Yarema was appointed Prosecutor General of Ukraine, a position he distinguished himself in several times.
Why Yarema was "removed" from the Prosecutor General's Office
To understand this scheme, we need to go back several years. During the formation of the "Family," Vitaly Zakharchenko, together with Alexander Yanukovych, organized a sort of financial pyramid designed to "cash out" themselves. The "Family" managers created "certified platforms," and with the help of conversion centers (given a monopoly on transactions), money flowed into the pockets of Zakharchenko and Yanukovych. Zakharchenko directly oversaw this scheme, and even after becoming Ukraine's top security official, he continued to oversee the "cashing out." He was actively assisted in this work by Sergey Mishchenko, who later became an assistant to the new head of the Fiscal Service, Igor Bilous. The head of the State Fiscal Service needed him, as he was ignorant of the shady schemes launched by Zakharchenko. It turned out that money was "flowing" past the pockets of the new government, and the economy was sinking even deeper into the shadows.
Resigned to his fate, Mishchenko agreed to work for the benefit of the Yatsenyuk-Bilous coffers. However, upon entering the cash-out market, he discovered a competitor: Serhiy Dumchev. Dumchev is the godfather of former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema. Moreover, it was under Yarema's patronage that he was actively involved in building the cash-out system.
Sergey Dumchev, Vitaly Yarema's godfather
Read on: Dumchev. The Era of Political Déjà Vu in Kyiv
This was confirmed by the arrest of several tax officials involved in cash-out schemes and the operations of envelope centers. These officials were arrested for bribery at the instigation of Vitaly Yarema. Further confirming Dumchev and Yarema's involvement in this scheme is the appearance of "fresh offers" on cash-out platforms, with interest rates half those offered by tax officials.
Immediately after Bilous discovered this scheme, Vitaliy Yarema began to be actively denounced, and Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the most interested party, who was losing significant money due to Yarema's activities, agreed to submit compromising information against him. As is well known, in February 2015, Vitaliy Yarema was finally dismissed from his position as Prosecutor General, and Yatsenyuk received yet another way to "make money."
Fight with a policeman
While a member of the Batkivshchyna party, Vitaliy Yarema assaulted a police officer during the revolutionary events on the Maidan. This is how all Ukrainian media outlets described this episode in his biography. The incident occurred on the night of December 23-24, while he was on duty at the Maidan. According to Yarema, the incident occurred while attempting to block the road for vehicles transporting food and firewood for the Maidan tent camp. Traffic police officers in a police vehicle refused to allow the vehicles onto the Maidan due to the lack of accompanying documents for the cargo. During the confrontation, Vitaliy Yarema punched one of the officers (his former subordinate) in the face. Later, during a special briefing, Yarema denied the fight with the officers, claiming that he was the one who was hit in the stomach, not the officer, as the media had trumpeted.
"Dangerous" relatives
Vitaliy Yarema, among other exploits, is linked to the beating of Russian citizen Mikhail Klimov. The incident occurred in 2008 in a Kyiv hotel. A group of men of Caucasian descent, including the Aloyan brothers, barged into Klimov's room. The men kicked Klimov, abused him, and finally raped him. During the beating, they also threatened him with a gun and slashed him with a knife. Afterward, they slashed his throat and dumped his lifeless body in a forested area outside of Kyiv. Amazingly, Klimov survived to tell the tale.
Now to the main point. This case was essentially abandoned because of Vitaly Yarema, who is related to the Aloyan family. His wife Margarita's brother is Jamal Aloyan, who in turn is the brother of crime boss Shabab Aloyan, the man who ordered the slitting of Mikhail Klimov's throat. At the instigation of the then-chief of the Kyiv police, Vitaly Grigorievich, the case was shelved due to a lack of evidence. Rumor has it that the case was settled "family-wise" for $100. A couple of years later, Yarema was spotted in family photos with members of the Aloyan family.
Experience in protection rackets
Early in his career, Vitaly Yarema, like most "successful" police officers of the time, was involved in protection rackets for commercial enterprises, the most important of which was the Mezokred company, which sold alcohol and manufactured clothing. The director of this company was a certain Kredisov V.A. (Deputy Minister of Defense under Viktor Yushchenko). Protecting the company wasn't difficult; having a relative in law enforcement was enough, so Vitaliy Grigorievich was hired at Mezocred. His responsibilities included providing cover from the police and resolving tax issues. With Vitaliy Yarema's help, the company underpaid several million dollars in taxes to the state budget.
Kremlin pocket journalist Anatoly Shariy, currently hiding in Lithuania, claimed that Yarema was responsible not only for organizing and protecting Kyiv brothels and organizing contract killings, but also for human trafficking. During Yarema's tenure as head of the Kyiv police, Kyiv was virtually overwhelmed by a wave of girls being sold to brothels in Asian countries.
Data from the online publication "Fraza":
Vitaliy Yarema's biography is full of interesting episodes; at various times, he's been linked to racketeering, murder, and even real estate fraud. However, the "honest cop" is still at large, and, according to the latest information, he's in excellent health, preparing for future "exploits." And while Vitaliy Yarema prepares, his godfather, Sergei Dumchev, is actively running for mayor of Kyiv...
Dmitry Samofalov, for SKELET-info
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