UKRAINIAN PROPRESIDENTIAL BLOC’S ELECTION LIST ANALYSED
Ukrayinska Pravda website
13 Aug 07
Kiev
There are three large groups in the election list of the
propresidential Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence bloc: President
Viktor Yushchenko’s, tycoon Ihor Kolomoyskyy’s and former Interior
Minister Yuriy Lutsenko’s, a popular website has said. It profiled the
three factions and other smaller groups in the bloc. The following is
the text of an article by Viktor Chyvokunya entitled "The list of Our
Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence: quotas of Pryvat, Baloha, Lutsenko,
‘Luzhniki group’" and published on the Ukrayinska Pravda website on
13 August; subheadings are as published:
The Orange bloc moves towards the early election under the slogans of
cancelling people’s deputy immunity, with the money of new sponsors
of the project and with oaths not to form a grand coalition [with
the Party of Regions].
A week ago, the list of Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence was
agreed and voted at a congress, however so far it has not been
published. One of the delegates of the congress gave his copy of the
list to Ukrayinska Pravda, otherwise we would not have been able to
get hold of it.
According to calculations inside the headquarters, about 100 positions
in the list are expected to make it to parliament. This means that the
Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence will have to receive a little over
19 per cent of votes in the election, considering the distribution
of votes given to outsider parties.
Should some deputies move to executive offices, those below the 100
mark will become MPs. Contrary to the list of the Party of Regions,
where the people of [tycoon] Rinat Akhmetov dominate, the list of the
Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence bloc can be divided into several
sectors.
Tretyakov-Kolomoyskyy group
The president’s former first aide, Oleksandr Tretyakov, who waited
for hours in [the head of the presidential secretariat, Viktor]
Baloha’s reception for a meeting, was in 59th position.
The president’s former press secretary, Iryna Herashchenko, who is
now in charge of the UNIAN news agency, which Kolomoyskyy passed on
to Tretyakov, will manage it.
Tretyakov’s friend, Eduard Zeynalov, is 76th. He is the head of the
Kirovohrad regional headquarters of Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence.
Tretyakov’s impact turned out to be quite limited. His close associate
Yuriy Ruban was in 195th position and Tretyakov’s long-time friend
and partner, Volodymyr Karetko, a former first deputy head of the
Ukrnafta board of directors, was as low as 331st.
However, the head of Ukrnafta, Ihor Palytsya, is in 68th place. He
is a creature of Ihor Kolomoyskyy, who mediates contacts between the
oligarch and Viktor Baloha. Palytsya is a guarantee that the orange
camp considers interests of the Pryvat group in exchange for all
kinds of assistance from this financial-industrial group.
Lawyer Andriy Bohdan, who cooperated with Yushchenko in the times of
the Orange Revolution, is in 93rd place. He represents the Judicial
Advisers firm, which used to be called Pukshyn and partners, named
after the deputy head of the presidential secretariat, Ihor Pukshyn.
This structure was the Cabinet of Minister’s lawyer in the case of the
privatization of the Nikopol ferroalloys plant, where the interests
of Tymoshenko and Kolomoyskyy coincided. The lawyers said then that
they provided services to the Cabinet of Ministers for free.
Bohdan was included in the bloc’s list on the quota of People’s
Self-Defence. Contrary to Viktor Baloha’s announced ban for state
officials from the presidential secretariat and governors to run for
parliament, there are some exceptions. Roman Tkach, the governor of
Ivano-Frankivsk Region, is in 54th position in the list. This region
is the second strategically important one after Dnipropetrovsk Region
for the Pryvat group.
Here they own an oil refinery, a regional energy distributing company
and a ski resort. When after the revolution Konstantin Grigorishin
tried to change the management at regional energy distributing
companies, Tkach came personally to restore Kolomoyskyy’s managers
at the enterprise.
It is not ruled out that Tkach was put forward as parliamentary
candidate for Pryvat to be able to have an even more loyal governor
in Ivano-Frankivsk Region.
Lutsenko-Babakov group
The biggest surprise in the list of Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence
was former Kiev mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko. He is part of Lutsenko’s
quota.
It is expected that Omelchenko will support the former interior
minister [Lutsenko] in mayoral elections, which the orange camp strives
to hold next year. There is a forecast that Omelchenko is going to
be a deputy head of the Kiev headquarters of Our Ukraine-People’s
Self-Defence. This idea is supported by the head of Our Ukraine’s
Kiev branch, Mykola Martynenko.
People’s Self-Defence leader Yuriy Lutsenko is not just the number
one in Our Ukraine list. He filled the list with a large group of
his supporters.
Some of Lutsenko’s people are directly linked with the Russian Luzhniki
group of Russian MP Aleksandr Babakov and influential entrepreneur
Mikhail Voyevodin.
Number 17 in the list is Ivan Spodarenko, the owner of Silski Visti
newspaper, which is the most popular publication in provincial areas.
Spodarenko left the Socialist Party and joined Lutsenko, who managed
to find sponsors for the newspaper. According to some sources, people
related to Babakov helped the publication.
Oleksandr Cherevko, one of the Silski Visti managers, is in 137th
position in the list. Number 41 in the list is Hennadiy Moskal, who
used to be Lutsenko’s deputy [interior minister] and was involved
in the investigation of the case of [Party of Regions MP] Borys
Kolesnykov. It is now a matter of honour for the head of the Party
of Regions election headquarters [Kolesnykov] to bring him to book.
Moskal is close to Lutsenko and at the same time to Davyd
Zhvaniya. When Zhvaniya was in charge of the Our Ukraine headquarters
in Luhansk, Moskal was the governor there.
When Zhvaniya was the emergency situations minister, he appointed
the head of the Crimean directorate of the ministry Serhiy Vasylenko,
who used to be Moskal’s office manager when Moskal was in charge of
the State Committee for Migration. Serhiy Vasylenko now occupies 77th
position in the list of the propresidential bloc.
No 49 is Kateryna Lukyanova, head of Lutsenko’s organizations in
Vinnytsya, such as Anticriminal Choice and Forward Ukraine. Before
that she was in charge of the Socialist Party in Vinnytsya and Moroz
and Lutsenko even came down to christen her daughter.
Serhiy Kharovskyy, former head of the internal security department
of the Interior Ministry in times when it was headed by Lutsenko,
holds 69th position. Work in police structures is not the only
element in Kharovskyy’s biography. He once was the director of a
combine plant in Kherson following his links with Ukrahromashinvest
structures. When Viktor Pinchuk received control of Ukrahromashinvest,
he removed Kharovskyy and after the revolution Kharovskyy removed
Pinchuk from Ukrahromashinvest.
Kharovskyy also was a member of the Ukrnaftoprodukt supervisory board
in times when the structure was part of the sphere of interests of
Andriy Derkach [businessman who now heads the Enerhoatom nuclear
energy company].
Sources in the People’s Self-Defence say that Derkach and Kharovskyy
split several years ago.
In addition, Kharovskyy was the head of the Khersonnaftoprodukt
supervisory board. MPs from the Party of Regions, Lisin and
Zlochevskyy, and a Russian group Alyans are shareholders of
Khersonnaftoprodukt.
Kharovskyy was formally nominated to the election list of the
propresidential bloc by the Forward Ukraine party. He is positioned
as a member of the coordination council of the nongovernmental
organization Anticriminal Choice.
Yuriy Hrymchak, a former deputy governor of Donetsk Region and earlier
the head of Donetsk regional branch of the Socialist Party of Ukraine,
where Lutsenko appointed him instead of himself, is in 73rd place in
the list.
After Lutsenko broke up with the Socialists and moved to Forward
Ukraine, Hrymchak became the Forward Ukraine leader in Donetsk Region.
Oleksandr Bobylyov, a former head of Dnipropetrovsk police in
Lutsenko’s times, is in 81st place. As a leader in a Ukrainian
region which is crucial for the Pryvat group, he built relations with
Kolomoyskyy, although, according to sources in People’s Self-Defence,
the relations "transformed into antagonism".
Yuriy Lutsenko’s brother, Serhiy, the founder of the Anticriminal
Choice, is in 85th place. Orest Drul, People’s Self-Defence spin
doctor, who was hired by Taras Stetskiv last autumn to make up the
concept of this project which was then called "people’s justice",
is No 101. Taras Stetskiv himself is in 29th position.
There are several Lutsenko’s fellow townsmen in the list. A journalist
from Rivne, Oleksandr Smyk, is in 113th position. He was in charge
of the Ternopil branch of the Anticriminal Choice and of the Forward
Ukraine party.
A deputy chief editor of Rivne Vechirne newspaper and former Socialist,
Serhiy Shturhetskyy, is in 133rd position. When Lutsenko joined the
Forward Ukraine party, Shturhetskyy became its leader in Rivne Region.
Lutsenko’s friends from the Russian Babakov-Voyevodin group are
represented in the list by two people. Kyrylo Kulykov was in charge of
the Ukrainian Interpol bureau when Lutsenko was the internal affairs
minister. Before that, Kulykov was a representative of the Luzhniki
group in some business projects on the territory of Ukraine.
Ihor Pikovskyy is in 97th place. He is mentioned as "a public activist"
in Forward Ukraine documents. It is not known what he does, but several
years ago he was appointed the head of the supervisory board at the
Promzvyazok plant, which belongs to the Luzhniki group.
A large part of Babakov and Voyevodin’s assets is registered on
the territory of the Promzvyazok plant on 6 Moskovskyy avenue,
particularly, the First Investment Bank.
Kyrylenko group and Yushchenko family
Some time ago Viktor Yushchenko’s brother Petro sold his shares in
the First Investment Bank to this Russian group. Petro Yushchenko
is in 39th position in the list. His son, the president’s nephew and
the head of the Kharkiv branch of Our Ukraine, Yaroslav Yushchenko,
is in 87th position.
No 12 is Liliya Hryhorovych, ready for self-immolation, who with the
help of a bottle of gasoline ensured herself a life-long place among
members of the propresidential bloc.
Yushchenko’s relative through the christening of children and former
head of Azhio bank, Stanislav Arzhevitin, is No 63. On the day prior
to Yushchenko’s inauguration, Arzhevitin made him hetman of Ukrainian
Cossacks. A memorial plaque stating this event is located right in
Bohdan Khmelnytskyy Square in [central] Kiev.
A former industrial policy minister, Volodymyr Shandra, is in 75th
position.
He is a relative of the president’s son-in-law, Oleksiy
Khakhlyov. Khakhlyov himself, as is known, was not accepted by the
Our Ukraine congress this spring.
The editor-in-chief editor of Donetsk based newspaper Ostrov, Yevhen
Talyshev, is No 83. His quite privileged position can be explained by
Talyshev’s conceptual struggle against Yanukovych in his newspaper
for several years. Another explanation is that Talyshev is close to
the president’s brother and Petro Yushchenko’s deputy carries a press
card of the Ostrov newspaper.
Illya Rybchych, No 90, was removed after Yanukovych’s second arrival,
from the post of the head of Ukrhazvydobuvannya, the most profitable
subdivision of Naftohaz. He is believed to be close to the "hutsul"
group in Yushchenko’s circles and to Petro Yushchenko. Rybchych was
included in the list on the quota of the Ukrainian Right.
It is worth remembering that Our Ukraine leader Vyacheslav
Kyrylenko owes his position to the fact that Petro Yushchenko liked
him. Kyrylenko is in second position in the list and his friend and
head of the Our Ukraine executive committee, Oleh Humenyuk, in No 34.
The head of Our Ukraine youth organization, Stepan Barna, is in 108th
position. He is also said to be close to Kyrylenko, although Baloha
played a significant role in Barna’s career by supporting his election
as a member of Our Ukraine presidium.
Zhvaniya’s group
Davyd Zhvaniya used to be Viktor Yushchenko’s favourite once and
at the peak of their friendship they became relatives through
christening. Their relations cooled down with time and Zhvaniya
accused the president of weakness and left Our Ukraine. It was not
so easy for him to even receive a place in the election list because
the president himself was against it.
Eventually People’s Self-Defence succeeded in securing independence
in forming its quota and Zhvaniya, who at the beginning of the project
was the first to invest in Lutsenko, received 21st position.
Recommended by Zhvaniya, Nataliya Lukyanova, the head of the chemical
addiction prevention and AIDS, is in 89th position.
There are two more people close to Zhvaniya: 105th Nataliya
Musevych and 141st Yuriy Rezunnyk. Both are included in the People’s
Self-Defence quota.
Musevych was responsible for legal advice from the very beginning of
the project.
Rezunnyk and Musevych were members of the Enerhoatom management team
when Zhvaniya cooperated with this state company. Also, Rezunnyk
and Musevych are founders of the Financial Investments firm which
was used at the presidential elections as a cover. At that time,
Zhvaniya was deputy head of Yushchenko’s election headquarters.
Financial Investments owns a six-litre G-class Mercedes, which
Andriy Yushchenko [the president’s son] drives. When the scandal
with Andriy Yushchenko’s BMW M6 broke out, the Financial Investments
company sacrificed the numberplate of one of its cars so that Andriy
Yushchenko’s sports car with Czech numbers did not stand out among
other cars.
Katerynchuk’s group
The fact that Mykola Katerynchuk refused to vote with indignation for
the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence list at their joint congress
is explained by him being fooled.
It was first planned that he should receive three positions in the
first 100. However, only Katerynchuk himself turned out among the
first 100 positions. He was in fifth position but it was made clear
for him that he would only be used as a ceremonial bystander.
Katerynchuk’s second person, spin doctor Viktoriya Pidhorna, is in
121st place and Svitlana Kustova, a lawyer from Moor and Krosondovych
firm is in 145th place. Katerynchuk’s partner in this firm, Oleh Boyko,
received 250th place.
Petro Poroshenko’s group
After Petro Poroshenko refused to run for parliament in exchange for
a post with the National Bank, it was expected that his father will
run for parliament instead of him. It was announced by the former
secretary of the National Security and Defence Council [Poroshenko],
who said: "I cannot say that there will be no Poroshenko on the list."
However, Poroshenko’s father, who has been in charge of the Vinnytsya
branch of Our Ukraine for many years, was not included in the final
version of the list. According to some reports, Oleksiy Poroshenko
got seriously ill – he had a stroke. Although for the sake of justice
and honour he should have been included in the list.
Yuriy Stets, producer general of the 5 Kanal television channel, can
conditionally be considered Poroshenko’s man. He is from Lutsenko’s
quota and has No 53 in the list.
Viktor Korol, who did not become the head of Security Service of
Ukraine, is in 88th position. Like Oksana Bilozir (44) and Pavlo
Zhebrivskyy (67), Korol did not undergo lustration executed by the
new party leaders towards Poroshenko, which was much targeted and
not quite fair.
Viktor Baloha’s group
Although Baloha is the head of the presidential secretariat and the
head of the propresidential bloc election headquarters, he does not
have a very big team.
Olesya Orobets, the daughter of deceased people’s deputy Yuriy Orobets,
is in 18th position. Her father took active part in the election
in Mukacheve [Transcarpathian Region] when victory was stolen from
Viktor Baloha. Orobets himself was heavily beaten in the conflict.
Ihor Kril is in 40th position. He is Baloha’s first deputy in the
election headquarters and is very close to him personally. No 60 is
Mukacheve city mayor Vasyl Petyovka, Baloha’s cousin. Vlad Kaskiv owes
his 31st position in the list to an invitation from Viktor Yushchenko
supported by Baloha.
Kaskiv’s companion, Illya Shevlyak (123rd position) was appointed
the head of the propresidential election headquarters in Luhansk,
following Baloha’s decision.
Mykola Kovach, who is in 99th position, is in charge of the
Transcarpathian Hungarian institute. Some of Baloha’s people did not
make it to the upper part of the list, such as his advisers Anatoliy
Medvid (203) and Serhiy Lukyanenko (287), Halyna Horokhovska from
Mukacheve knitting factory (306) and the head of Uzhhorod district
administration, Anatoliy Kolibaba (383).
Besides the groups of influence in the election list of Our
Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence, there are also several interesting
details. Oleksandr Bakumenko, who is in 118th position, is the head
of the Union of poultry breeders association was proposed by the
Ukrainian Right. The owner of Nasha Ryaba [poultry company] is also
a member of the Ukrainian Right, which provides the answer to the
question whose creation Bakumenko is.
There is also an interesting tandem of opponents in the election
list of the propresidential bloc. The previous Kiev mayor, Oleksandr
Omelchenko, is in 13th place and his son in 120th place. The father of
the present secretary of the Kiev city council [Oles Dovhyy], Dovhyy
Senior is in 55th place and the uncle of the secretary, Dovhyy Junior,
in 119th place.
To confirm agreements concerning Petro Poroshenko, the head of the
National Bank of Ukraine, Volodymyr Stelmakh, is in 28th place.
There are two enigmatic figures in the upper part of Our Ukraine. No
61 is Yuriy Anatoliyovych But, who was taken from Lutsenko’s personal
quota.
In the documents of People’s Self-Defence, But is written down as
"a public activist" and in the tax administration database he is
registered as a cofounder of United Consultancy of Ukraine. This
company’s second founder is a Russian company dealing with tax
optimization, United Consultants FDP.
According to sources in the Party of Regions, But moved to Ukraine
from Russia not long ago. In Russia, he worked in some projects with
Putin’s administration.
Another interesting story is No 107 in the list, Burzu Khanhulu
Aliyev [Burza Xanqulu oglu Aliyev]. The only mention of him on the
Internet is the deputy president of the public organization with
the complicated title "Kiev centre of journalistic research of GUAM
countries Silk Route".
Our sources in the political council of the Our Ukraine-People’s
Self-Defence bloc told us seriously that Aliyev was included in the
list based on agreements between Yushchenko and the Azeri president
within the framework of friendship of nations and oil corridors.
There has been no information in the media about Burzu Aliyev. However,
Ukrayinska Pravda managed to find out that until recently Aliyev worked
as a top manager in Ekmi-furniture and Ekmi-colour that produce dye
for hair.
Aliyev moved to Kiev from Azerbaijan in the years when the present
foreign minister of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov, studied at the
international relations department of the Kiev Taras Shevchenko
University.
They were friends as representatives of the same Diaspora. Maybe this
is the source of information about secret grounds for Aliyev to appear
in the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence list.
And there is another totally unexpected coincidence. A representative
of the Armenian Diaspora, Garegin Arutyunov, runs for parliament
in the election list of the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc in 106th
position. Considering that Aliyev of Our Ukraine is from Nagornyy
Karabakh, there might be another conflict line in the new convocation
of parliament – Armenian-Azerbaijani.