Victor Reshetnyak
Vyshgorod Mayor Viktor Reshetnyak is running for the Verkhovna Rada. Given the number of controversial land issues the Vyshgorod authorities have addressed since his administration in 2006, it's possible that Reshetnyak's sole goal is to gain parliamentary immunity.
On September 30, 2014, a scandal erupted at a session of the Vyshgorod City Council. More than a hundred land-related issues were brought up at the session.
The first land issue was the allocation of a 2,07-hectare land plot to the municipal enterprise (ME) "Department for the Development of Physical Culture and Sports of the Vyshgorod City Council" (Director: Vasily Kolobov) for a 49-year lease for the construction, operation, and maintenance of a yacht club on Parusnaya Street. The controversy surrounding this issue was so intense that it was impossible to resolve it without the involvement of Mayor Viktor Reshetnyak.
But Reshetnyak himself was not present at the session. City Council Secretary Maria Reshetnikova said the mayor had gone to see Sports Minister Dmitry Bulatov specifically regarding the future of the Junior Yacht Club.
It should be noted that Bulatov previously expressed concern about the future of yacht clubs based in Vyshgorod and its environs, since after the annexation of Crimea, only these were left with adequate facilities for training athletes and maintaining the bases.
But the mayor did not go to the minister, as reported from the City Council podium by Deputy Alexander Balanyuk, who contacted the Minister of Sports.
The mayor's absence from the city council session was apparently due to his reluctance to report to the public, which included representatives of the Right Sector, regarding the 2 hectares of land next to the Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Station dam.
The issue with the two hectares of land on the dam began in 2013, when, without the consent of the Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Station, the Vyshgorod City Council allocated several dozen plots for private use.
But even the risks to Kyiv that private construction in the water protection zone would entail, not to mention the fact that allocating land in the water protection zone is illegal in principle, didn't deter the mayor's loyal city council members and Reshetnyak himself.
The basis for allocating land both near the dam and on the grounds of the yacht club of the Kyiv Palace of Children and Youth, "Junior," was the unregulated ownership and boundaries of these land plots. The "Junior" documentation burned, and despite the Kyiv Palace of Children and Youth's efforts to restore it, Vyshgorod Mayor Viktor Reshetnyak, according to documents, responded with formal replies and, it seems, was interested in maintaining the legal uncertainty surrounding the "Junior" lands. A similar story applies to the land on the Kyiv Reservoir dam.
An even more egregious story concerns the Energetik Yacht Club. The club has existed since 1964, and after the annexation of Crimea, it essentially became one of the key training bases for cruisers. But at the instigation of Mayor Reshetnyak and by a decision of the Vyshgorod City Council on December 27, 2013, as the Euromaidan protests raged in Kyiv, the yacht club's lands were divided into 32 garden plots and distributed to private individuals.
What happened here is a classic situation for Vyshgorod, and unfortunately, not just for Vyshgorod, where land was handed out to unknown individuals, many of whom were not even aware that they had become the happy owners of plots of land near Kyiv.
The yacht club was left with only a strip of land near the water, where the most it could do was drag a yacht onto the sand. Forget about sports facilities, boathouses, and technical rooms. Yachtsmen have been waging a long-running battle for land, but Reshetnyak seems completely indifferent to all the public's efforts. By handing out land left and right since 2006, he has brought the situation to the point where virtually the entire Dnipro River shoreline is built up. And Reshetnyak himself hasn't forgotten to build himself a little mansion.
Numerous inquiries from Verkhovna Rada deputies went unanswered by law enforcement agencies. Only one inquiry from MP Yaroslav Moskalenko received a response. In response to his inquiry, the prosecutor's office opened approximately ten criminal investigations.
It's worth noting that the City Council is ignoring the Vyshgorod general plan (see scans), which was approved at the session, when allocating land. According to law, changes to the general plan can only be made five years after its adoption, and only at the session.
But even this doesn't seem to be having any effect on Reshetnyak. He prefers to hide from journalists and carry out his schemes using the same old methods—the same people.
Here's just one story. On August 9, 2007, at the instigation of Viktor Reshetnyak, the Vyshgorod City Council granted permission to Novaya Initsiativa-99 LLC to prepare materials for the relocation of the power line to Naberezhnaya Street.
Two years later, the Vyshgorod City Council, represented by Mayor Viktor Reshetnyak, signed a lease agreement for this plot with Novaya Initsiativa-99, represented by its director, Vladimir Balabanov. At this point, it became clear that the lease was for a different plot—or, more accurately, two different plots.
Two months after the lease agreement was signed, the "New Initiative" service cooperative was established, with Igor Vanyushin listed as its director. Immediately, "New Initiative-99" LLC approached the Vyshgorod City Council with a request to transfer the land plots to the service cooperative of the same name. Mayor Reshetnyak refused.
Vanyushin immediately filed a lawsuit in the Kyiv Regional Administrative Court against the City Council's inaction. He won the case. Balaklitsky served as judge. Naturally, the City Council was unable to deny the court's request for immediate issuance of the title deed, and the "New Initiative" service cooperative became the proud owner of 2,38 hectares of land.
And all would be well, if the courts of the Poltava region (in particular, Judge Radzivon) had not made decisions recognizing property ownership in favor of persons clearly affiliated with each other, including Vyshegrad LLC, Budinitsiativa Invest LLC, and others. In all of them, the aforementioned Balabanov and Vanyushin act as either co-founders or managing directors.
But these individuals aren't independent figures. According to local activists and deputies, the same person is behind Novaya Initsiativa-99 LLC, the cooperative of the same name, Budinitsiativa Invest, and a dozen other companies. His name is Alexey Polischuk (see diagram).
Oleksiy Polischuk is a member of the Vyshgorod City Council and, more recently, the director of the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Land Resources. This is likely why all the aforementioned firms are exchanging orders, subcontracts, and land plots. His uncle, Vitaly Polischuk, openly holds the director's position at Budinitsiatyva Invest.
According to those in the know, there are people of greater importance behind the Polischuks – the permanent de facto leadership of the Land Agency, as well as the permanent Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Construction since 2007 Dmitry IsaenkoIncidentally, in 2006-2007, Isaenko headed the Department of Alienation of Assets at the Ministry of Defense, primarily land.
Considering that the lands adjacent to the Energetik Yacht Club, as well as adjacent lands, were previously under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense, there is an opinion in the expert community that Mr. Isaenko is behind Vyshgorod Mayor Reshetnyak's land schemes.
But it's not Isaenko who's running for the Verkhovna Rada, but Reshetnyak. Therefore, in this situation, the main responsibility lies with Reshetnyak.
RBC-Ukraine
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