Valery Voshchevsky
With Oleh Lyashko's party leaving the majority, the name of the Radical Party's sole representative in power, Deputy Prime Minister for Infrastructure Valeriy Mykolayovych Voshchevsky, has surfaced. We've already reported on this resignation. Now it's time to write about who this radical deputy prime minister is, who, incidentally, hasn't done anything particularly radical in this rather lucrative position. Instead, he is remembered for a number of other scandals, including the Pechersk Hills development project and the biography distributed to deputies before the vote, which stated that a criminal case had been opened against him for the theft of an Avtodor enterprise. Even the official biography of the "twice-clean" Yanukovych didn't mention such a thing.
Despite Oleh Lyashko's frequent statements about not having corrupt officials from the previous administration on his team, Valeriy Mykolayovych is indeed corrupt, and specifically from the previous government. True, he hasn't been implicated in any high-profile scandals. But his career as a public official is long-standing. He began it under Anatoly Kinakh. He then served as deputy head of a department in Kuchma's administration. He served in Yanukovych's government, and several times held the lucrative position of head of the State Joint-Stock Company "Automobile Roads of Ukraine." And under Mykola Azarov, he briefly headed Ukravtodor, the very same agency hated by drivers. In short, he's a seasoned official and, as you can see, has held lucrative positions at various times.
He's no stranger to politics either. He's the organizer and sponsor of the small Ukrainian Peasant Democratic Party. At various times, he tried to gain a parliamentary seat as part of Pinchuk's "Winter Generation" (Read more about it in the article Viktor Pinchuk: Ukraine's richest son-in-law), Litvinov's "We" party, and the "Agrarian Ukraine" bloc, but he never made it into parliament. His dream only came true in 2014, when he ran on the Radical Party list, though he immediately converted his parliamentary mandate into the position of deputy prime minister. During his long public and political career, he also racked up a fair share of criminal cases, which is no surprise. In such positions, and with such so-called "status rent," it's impossible not to come under the watchful eye of the competent authorities.
Specifically, from 2010 to 2012, the Kyiv Transport Prosecutor's Office investigated a case of abuse of office that resulted in multimillion-dollar losses. The case involved the long-term lease of one of Avtodor's enterprises, DRSU 100, to commercial entities. The losses from these actions amounted to 12 million hryvnias. However, the case was never brought to trial and was hushed up. Apparently, while the case was still open, Valeriy Mykolayovych hedged his bets by obtaining Maltese citizenship and a European passport for a citizen of this island nation. Journalist and MP Mustafa Nayem openly and directly stated this in the Verkhovna Rada. Voshchevskyi himself claims that the case against him was brought by the "criminal Yanukovych regime" to remove the head of Ukravtodor from his position.
But that's all in the past. Just recently, Valeriy Nikolayevich became embroiled in a new scandal. It concerns the development of one of the Pechersky Hills, which his company, Zhitlobudinvest, is carrying out. The construction is located near the Botanical Garden, and, according to the documents, a four-story building is being built there. In reality, more than nine floors have already been demolished, and the construction continues. Residents of the surrounding buildings appealed to all authorities demanding that this illegal construction, which violated every conceivable building code, be stopped. But apparently, some official, perhaps the Deputy Prime Minister for Infrastructure, easily resolved the issues with all the authorities. Especially since these issues are practically his specialty.
Another of Voshchevsky's businesses, the Chernihiv-based confectionery factory "Strela," is of interest. This factory has been posting losses every year for the past seven years, sometimes amounting to almost half a million hryvnias. However, the factory hasn't been closed; it continues to produce goods, but as a loss-making enterprise, it doesn't pay taxes. 
Why pay them? It's just losses. But somehow, this doesn't raise any questions from Chernihiv tax authorities. Besides the aforementioned Strela factory and Zhitlobudinvest, the official owns the developer Eaton Group and the company Agronafteprodukt, which relies heavily on selling fuel to state-owned enterprises at inflated prices. And, of course, he also owns a few smaller businesses, including real estate agencies in his native Chernihiv and a restaurant business in Kyiv run by his wife. However, it appears he has no intention of selling his businesses, despite holding a government position.
Already this year, Valeriy Nikolayevich apparently wanted to take control of Ukrzaliznytsia. He made a number of high-profile statements about this. But then he came into conflict with Infrastructure Minister Andriy Pivovarsky. Pivovarsky, in turn, was connected to the late Igor Yeremeyev and his clan. They tried their best to push their man into the position, while Vashchevsky resisted as much as he could. He wrote memos to the Prime Minister and generally stalled the appointment. It's unclear how it all ended, but by a strange coincidence, it was precisely at the height of this conflict that Valeriy Vashchevsky was hospitalized in serious condition. Incidentally, Ukrzaliznytsia still has no director.
It remains to be seen whether Valeriy Nikolaevich's departure from his lucrative position is connected to Oleh Lyashko's desire to join the opposition, or whether there are other reasons. According to some media reports, the Prosecutor General's Office is preparing a notice of suspicion against Voshchevsky. Investigators are also currently investigating radical MPs Lozov, Moseychuk, and LinkoAnd they're already prepared with reports. In short, it's entirely possible that law enforcement is now closely monitoring the Radical Party's leadership. Then, joining the opposition seems logical. The Coalition Party wouldn't want to blame political persecution, but the opposition would. And perhaps this is the only way for this entire radical faction to avoid the dock.
Yes, and today it became known that Voshchevsky are being promoted to mayor of Kyiv.
Denis Ivanov for SKELET-info
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