Volodymyr Satsyuk: Yushchenko's Forgotten "Poisoner." Part 1

Vladimir Satsyuk

The prime suspect in the "dioxin case" all these years has been and remains former deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Volodymyr Satsyuk, at whose dacha Viktor Yushchenko was allegedly poisoned. After his forced exile to Russia, where he received the rank of FSB general, Satsyuk returned to Ukraine in 2011 and even attempted to run for the Verkhovna Rada. He failed then, but he is trying again, joining the current wave of returning political émigrés. His son, Vladislav, has already followed in his father's footsteps and plans to run in the parliamentary elections in the 62nd single-member constituency.

Volodymyr Satsyuk can count on the fact that all suspicions against him, like the Yushchenko poisoning case itself, have long since become irrelevant. After all, the case was destroyed and turned into a "dioxin farce" by Viktor Andreevich himself, who for several years inflated his mysterious illness into a political farce. But with Yushchenko's departure from the scene, Ukrainians quickly forgot about the former president, his bees and pots, and his alleged poisoning with a massive dose of dioxin—which stubbornly refused to leave his system until the 2010 elections. The second defendant in this case, Ihor Smeshko, has already run for president himself and is now running with his party in the parliamentary elections—and his former deputy has decided to join him. Moreover, Volodymyr Satsyuk is considered the paymaster of the Strength and Honor party.

Also forgotten was the question to which no one has ever given a direct, honest answer: why, exactly, did the "people's candidate" Yushchenko, who daily denounced the "Kuchma regime," go to a friendly dinner with two of his enemy's "watchdogs"? Moreover, Satsyuk and Smeshko not only headed the SBU at the time, they were considered his protégés. Viktor Medvedchuk - the most hated enemy of the "orange".

The semi-official version from Yushchenko's team was that the "Ukrainian messiah" had gone to negotiate with them about "going over to the people's side." And many fans of the "Orange Revolution" believed this. However, as I discovered Skelet.OrgThis was far from Yushchenko's first meeting with Satsuk. By the time of the ill-fated dinner (September 5, 2004), they were long-time and good acquaintances, practically "buddies"—as eloquently evidenced by the photograph of their "rendezvous" at Satsuk's dacha, where he placed a friendly hand on Yushchenko's shoulder (something only friends of Viktor Andreevich were allowed to do). The photo was taken David Zhvania, raised other questions as well—for example, who was the fifth participant in this meeting? Perhaps the fifth cup of lighter tea belonged to Thomas Tsintsabadze, the man behind the scenes in this scandalous affair as the "chauffeur." Tsintsabadze later claimed to have been a longtime close acquaintance of Satsuk's, and that this was far from the first time he had driven Viktor Yushchenko to his dacha.

Viktor Yushchenko, Vladimir Satsyuk, and Igor Smeshko. That very dinner at Satsyuk's dacha.

Behind the Scenes: David Zhvania and Thomas Tsintsabadze with Viktor Yushchenko after dinner at Satsiuk's dacha. The future president is healthy and cheerful.

Vladimir Nikolaevich Satsyuk was born on March 11, 1963, in the town of Malyn in the Zhytomyr region. After finishing school, he joined the local foundry and mechanical plant as an apprentice milling machine operator. According to his biography, Satsyuk, for some reason, was "late" for military service. He missed both of his 1981 drafts, as well as the spring draft of 1982, continuing to work at the plant. From the fall of 1982 to the spring of 1987, he studied at the Frunze Higher Combined Arms Command School in Kyiv (closed in 1992), specializing in military tactical reconnaissance and German translation. After graduating from college, Vladimir Satsyuk served in the army until 1994: first in the Soviet Army, and then... well, it's unclear what happened next, because that page of his biography was "classified" when he later served as deputy head of the SBU in the 2000s.

According to sources Skelet.OrgSatsiuk was an officer of either the GRU or the KGB—in short, of the Soviet secret services. At the same time, this could have been just a cover story, created later to allow Satsiuk to obtain a senior position in the SBU. The question remains: where and for whom did he serve from 1992 to 1994—Ukraine or Russia? Hence the information that Satsiuk was a "plant" for the Russian secret services, which is confirmed by other information that after his defection to Russia he became an advisor to the director of the FSB in the rank of major general of this department.

But the most interesting thing is this: Satsyuk studied at the Kyiv Command Academy with Igor Potapenko and Serhiy Fedorenko, and it was these two who played a crucial role in his life, introducing him to big business and big politics. Moreover, it was reported that Potapenko and Fedorenko also had direct ties to the secret services (after all, they were training to be intelligence officers), and Potapenko was the leader of their group—after all, he was the one who started their business.

Sergey and Alexander Fedorenko

Igor Potapenko

While former Komsomol and Communist members were stashing the "party gold" in commercial banks, this trio of secret service agents began trading sugar. Rumors circulated that they allegedly "stealed" their first sugar either from army warehouses or from the State Reserve, entering into a partnership with high-ranking officers of the rear services. Officially, in 1992, Potapenko, who had left the army to enroll at MGIMO (a well-known "incubator" for secret service personnel), created the Ukrainian-Russian enterprise UkrRos. They shipped sugar and sunflower oil from Ukraine to Russia, and petroleum products back. Two years later, Potapenko brought his military academy friends, Satsyuk and Fedorenko, into this business; they had left the army (Ukrainian or Russian?) for this purpose.

Thus, in 1994, Satsuk became deputy director of the joint venture Tavr, which was involved in this business. When UkrRos was reorganized in 1996 (its Russian part merged with the Razgulyai holding, and the Ukrainian part became a closed joint-stock company), Satsuk became its general director. At the same time, Potapenko financed the purchase of their first sugar mill, the Palmyra enterprise in the Cherkasy region. Over the next few years, the partners acquired five more sugar mills in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Ternopil regions, and in 1997, they created an entire holding company on the basis of UkrRos CJSC, the largest company of which became the Sugar Union UkrRos. Fedorenko became its main shareholder and chairman of the board, but sources reported that Satsyuk also controlled part of the shares; however, when he became a member of parliament and then deputy head of the SBU, he “hid” his business.

Fraudsters at Bank Ukraine

In the second half of the 90s, UkrRos' business was doing incredibly well—in addition to sugar, the holding expanded into transportation, gas, and construction. Experts later noted that UkrRos was one of the few companies that didn't attempt to raise outside capital and refused such offers. This was typically the case for companies with strong internal financing, often "shadow"—for example, by laundering money from organized crime groups or stolen state funds. Of course, the holding received generous cash injections from Russia from Potapenko (and perhaps others as well), but suspicions regarding the "sugar special forces" were nevertheless rife. And, as it turned out, they were well-founded.

In March 1998, Volodymyr Satsyuk became a member of parliament from the electoral bloc of the Village and Socialist Parties. Who exactly did the sugar refineries have to pay for Satsyuk's parliamentary mandate—the leading "Village" figures Dovhan and Tkachenko, or the Socialist leader Moroz? There's a concrete answer to this question: one of the founders of UkrRos at the time was Alla Oleksandrivna Peshko, head of a department at the Kyiv City Endocrinology Hospital, co-owner of numerous companies, and also the daughter of Oleksandr Tkachenko. And this explains why the mandate wasn't the only one: after Tkachenko became Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Satsyuk was also given the portfolio of head of the Committee on Border and Customs Issues, the National Guard, and National Security. Thus, a previously unknown sugar refinery spy suddenly found himself overseeing two key issues: Ukraine's national security and the border and customs. But that was only the beginning!

Alla Peshko

In the spring of 1998, Vadym Hetman, the father of the Ukrainian banking system and the founder of Bank Ukraina, who remained its patron until his death, was assassinated in Kyiv. This is understandable, as it was through Bank Ukraina that billions in generous budgetary funding were doled out to state and private enterprises every year. So, many were vying for control of this trough. Then Hetman was assassinated, and literally at the same time, Oleksiy Poletukha, the new head of the main operations department, appeared at Bank Ukraina. He came to this position from the directorship of UkrRos CJSC. When Satsyuk left for parliament, he installed him in his own chair, and then transferred him to Bank Ukraina. How did he manage it? Oh, back then, Satsyuk was capable of even greater things! As soon as Satsyuk and Fedorenko had their man at Bank Ukraina, they decided to milk the bank thoroughly.

Alexey Poletukh

A little background: in 1998, Pustovoitenko's government was experiencing major financial problems, as state-owned enterprises were no longer generating the same profits, and oligarchs' firms were evading taxes. So Kyiv begged the IMF and the World Bank. One of the conditions for the tranches was the sale of a state-owned stake in JSCB Ukraina. The sale of 12,8% of the bank's shares began in June 1998 on the Ukrainian Stock Exchange, but for some reason, it never materialized. Then, on August 10, 1998, the share sale was cancelled by decree of Acting Chairman of the State Property Fund Bondar, and on August 12, Chairman of the Board of UkrRos Fedorenko sent an official letter to Prime Minister Pustovoitenko and Deputy Prime Minister Tigipko with a request... to transfer this block of shares to the management of UkrRosGazStroy (a subsidiary of UkrRos). The stated reason was the threat of acquisition of this block of shares by a "non-resident of Ukraine." In other words, give these shares to us, or else foreigners will buy them! Then, on September 4, UkrRosGazStroy sent a letter to the State Property Fund proposing to transfer the company's block of shares in JSCB Ukraina as a contribution to the company's authorized capital, so that the State Property Fund would become a co-founder of UkrRosGazStroy LLC (holding 47% of the company's shares).

It's worth noting that all this began just a few days before "Black Monday" (the Russian default), which later hit the Ukrainian economy hard, triggering a massive economic crisis: banks collapsed, the hryvnia collapsed, and real estate prices plummeted. It was as if the "sugar special forces" knew something. And then, on September 22 (with the crisis raging and the hryvnia falling), Bondar decreed that 12,8% of Ukraina's shares be transferred to the authorized capital of UkrRosGazStroy.

But the most interesting part was yet to come! On October 11, the same Bondar signed an order withdrawing the State Property Fund from its co-founding stake in UkrRosGazStroy LLC. He left a 12,8% stake in Bank Ukraina to Sotsyuk and Fedorenko's firm, asking in exchange for payment only for the State Property Fund's 47% stake in UkrRosGazStroy.

It later emerged that UkrRosGazStroy paid the Fund 9 million hryvnias for this stake, which was taken out as a loan from Bank Ukraina. Furthermore, this loan was never repaid, as were others taken out by UkrRos holding companies from the same bank. As for the 12,8% stake in Bank Ukraina, the real value of which was several times greater, it ended up in the hands of new owners. It was divided between the controversial MP Oleksandr Volkov (6%), Oleksandr Skrynnik (4%), and Alla Peshko (2,8%).

From the conclusions of the special commission of the Verkhovna Rada on the case of Bank Ukraine, 2001

In May 1999, a new board of JSCB Ukraina was formed. It included National Bank Governor Yushchenko, Ukraina's main shareholder Volkov, Finance Minister Mityukov, UkrRos CJSC Board Chairman Fedorenko, and UkrRosGazStroy President Goncharov. They all unanimously elected Volodymyr Satsyuk as chairman. He immediately appointed Poletukha, who was already working at the bank, as his deputy. It was there, back in 1999, that Satsyuk and Yushchenko developed a close working relationship. For example, they collaborated on personnel matters:

Then, the agony of JSCB Ukraina began. The bank was decided to be used as the main cash desk for Leonid Kuchma's election campaign, with Volkov being the initiator of this idea—and thus, he obtained control of the bank. However, under this pretext, the bank was simply plundered, with one hryvnia going to Kuchma's interests, and two or three going into the pockets of fraudsters. Among them were Volodymyr Satsyuk, Poletukha, and Fedorenko, who allocated several loans from JSCB Ukraina funds for their holding company, UkrRos, totaling $31 million and 21 million hryvnia. These were "problem" loans, which they never repaid—after all, Poletukha later became deputy chairman of Rusalin's Bank Ukraina liquidation commission. And this is not counting the fact that Satsiuk used Bank Ukraina to buy dollars allocated to him by Yushchenko's National Bank at a preferential rate.

All of this ultimately sealed the deal for JSCB Ukraina, which collapsed immediately after the presidential elections. Why Satsyuk and other "sugar special forces" were appointed to head the bank remains unclear – perhaps due to ties to the family of Tkachenko, who was then the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada. Yushchenko was involved, at least as a council member, so he also bore his share of responsibility. But later, Yushchenko himself took it upon himself to find justice for all those responsible for Ukraina's collapse – something he never did. Perhaps because he never intended to.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org

CONTINUED: Volodymyr Satsiuk: Yushchenko's forgotten "poisoner." Part 2 

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