Yuri Boyko – “Untouchable”
Yuriy Boyko is the main partner of Dmitry Firtash. True, unlike his godfather, Yuri Anatolyevich has no problems with the law and calmly sits in the Verkhovna Rada. Boyko went through a thorny path from a foreman at a factory to the Minister of Fuel and Energy. He exemplifies diligence, dedication and determination. And the fact that even after Euromaidan he remained one of the leading players in the political strife of Ukraine speaks of his power and the existing opportunities for a full-fledged revenge of Yanukovych’s people.
For more than ten years of participation in Ukrainian politics, Yuriy Boyko can safely be called one of the once most influential and serious players. Having headed NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine in 2002, he was able not only to gain a foothold in his position, but also to rise to the highest echelons of power. What cannot be taken away from Yuri Boyko is the ability to select the right partners. First, Oleg Dubina recommended Boyko for the post of head of Naftogaz in 2002. After this, contact is established with Dmitry Firtash, for whom ideal conditions for gas supplies were created. In 2007, he united his “Republican Party of Ukraine” with the “Party of Regions” and entered the cohort of the most senior people in the country.
Constant reproaches for cooperation with Dmitry Firtash, involvement in the scandal with RosUkrEnergo, open war with Yulia Tymoshenko, infamous drilling rigs – what Yuriy Boyko has not endured. But, no matter how much it contradicts the law and common sense, he came away unscathed from every scandal.
And now a logical question arises: why the post-Maidan authorities do not seek the conviction of the notorious Yuri Boyko, who today is the leader of the “Opposition Bloc”. Everything agrees that this is another “agreement”. The main point of the “non-aggression act” between the new government and officials of the Yanukovych era was mutual neutrality. The “opposition bloc” helps promote the necessary laws, and in return the prosecutor’s office turns a blind eye to the “past merits” of Yuri Boyko, Dmitry Firtash, Sergei Lyovochkin and other characters.
Why did a prominent regional figure, who was involved in corruption schemes, was and is an outspoken lobbyist for Russian interests in Ukraine, never appear in court? This question is rhetorical and should be asked by the current government. After the victory of the Maidan and the flight of Yanukovych, most of the population expected the arrest of corrupt officials and the restoration of order in all branches of government, but the reality turned out to be different. By and large, none of the prominent officials from the Yanukovych era were brought to justice.
Today, probably, Yanukovych’s escaped retinue is scratching their heads, asking the absurd question: “What, it was possible to just stay and not leave the trough?”
Yuri Boyko showed by his own example that our country has selective justice, and with the post-Maidan government it is quite possible to bargain for preferences and stay afloat. Even after your ship was seemingly shattered after the storm.
Yuri Boyko. Biography
Boyko Yuri Anatolyevich was born on October 9, 1958 in Gorlovka, in the Donetsk region. He was the only child in the family, he studied at Gorlovka secondary school No. 4. Due to the fact that Yuri Boyko did not talk about his parents when communicating with journalists, detailed information is available from Skelet.Info no about them.
Yuri Boyko is fine with higher education – he has two. In 1981 he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology. Mendeleev, specialty chemical engineer, engineer, and in 2001, Eastern Ukrainian University, specialty engineer-economist.
Family. Yuri Boyko has a wife and six children. His wife Vera Dmitrievna Boyko is a master of sports in gymnastics. Yuri and Vera met at the institute, when they studied in the same group. In her third year of study, Vera transferred to Moscow State University. The change of university did not affect the relationship. Therefore, in the fifth year, Yuri and Vera got married. After receiving higher education, the newlyweds moved to the Lugansk region.
Yuri Boyko with his wife Vera
Yuri and Vera Boyko have six children: three sons – Anatoly, Yuri and Nikolai and three daughters – Yaroslava, Ulyana and Maria.
Career. In the period from 1981 to 1999, he worked at the Zarya chemical plant in Rezhdansk, whose specification was the production of explosives. Starting as a foreman at one of the production sites, Yuri Boyko eventually became the general director of the plant.
In 1999, he went to work as the general director of one of the largest processing enterprises in the Lugansk region – OJSC Lisichansknefteorgsintez (abbreviated LiNos).
In 2001, Yuri Boyko moved to Kyiv. Here he receives the position of general director of Ukrvzryvprom. At the same time, he was appointed head of the board of directors of CJSC Transnational Financial and Industrial Oil Company Ukrtatnafta.
February 2002 – March 2005 – Yuriy Boyko heads the national joint-stock company Naftogaz of Ukraine. As Yuriy Boyko himself said in one of his interviews, Oleg Dubina, at that time Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, recommended him for this position. “We had similar life positions, in addition, I had good business relations with him,” Boyko said in an interview with Fakty.
Yuriy Boyko’s first steps in politics date back to July 2003, when he was appointed Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy. At that time, the government was headed by Boyko’s fellow countryman Viktor Yanukovych. Having taken the post of deputy minister, he remained in his position at Naftogaz of Ukraine. It was during this period that the fateful rapprochement between Yuri Boyko and Dmitry Firtash took place.
In November 2004, he became a member of the Supervisory Board of CJSC UkrTatnafta.
In March 2005, Yuri Boyko was fired from his post as Deputy Minister of the Fuel and Energy Complex. After the Orange Revolution, he also lost his position as head of Naftogaz of Ukraine.
After this, Yuri Boyko briefly retreated from serious politics. In 2006, he participated in the parliamentary elections, but the attempt was unsuccessful. Then he ran on the list of the “NOT SO!” bloc created on the basis of the SDPU(o). The SDPU(o), as you know, was headed by the godfather of Russian President Vladimir Putin (*criminal), Viktor Medvedchuk. According to the election results, “NOT SO” were unable to overcome the 3 percent barrier without getting into the Verkhovna Rada.
But fate turned out to be favorable to him: the government of Viktor Yanukovych decided to appoint Yuri Boyko as Minister of Fuel and Energy.
In 2007, in the early parliamentary elections, Boyko ran for the Party of Regions, receiving number 49 on the party list. True, for the sake of a career in PR, he had to resign as head of the Republican Party of Ukraine. Based on the election results, he successfully becomes a people’s deputy. In the newly created parliament, he was appointed to his core Verkhovna Rada Committee on Fuel and Energy Complex Issues.
April 2008 – Yuriy Boyko headed the Federation of Employers of Ukraine.
September 2008 – rises up the career ladder in the Party of Regions and becomes deputy head of the party.
On March 11, 2010, the Cabinet of Ministers was completely changed. Mykola Azarov became prime minister, Yuriy Boyko returns to the chair of the Minister of Fuel and Energy. On December 9 of the same year, the Ministry of Fuel and Energy and the Ministry of the Coal Industry were reorganized; instead, the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry was created, headed by Boyko.
December 24, 2012 – Yuri Boyko becomes Deputy Prime Minister for the fuel and energy complex and the coal industry in the newly elected government of Mykola Azarov after the parliamentary elections.
Minister Yuri Boyko
After the Maidan victory, on February 27, 2014, Yuriy Boyko was dismissed from the post of Deputy Prime Minister by decision of the Verkhovna Rada.
In the spring of 2014, he became a candidate for President of Ukraine in early elections, which took place on May 25, 2014. According to the election results, he received 0.19% of the votes.
Already in the fall of 2014, Boyko became number one on the list of the “Opposition Bloc” in early parliamentary elections. Upon entering the Verkhovna Rada, he became the head of the Opposition Bloc faction.
On May 27, 2016, a congress of the “Opposition Bloc” took place. According to the results of the congress Boris Kolesnikov and Yuriy Boyko became co-chairs of the party.
Boris Kolesnikov and Yuri Boyko
Yuri Boyko. Scandals
NJSC Naftogaz
During the period of management of Naftogaz (2002-2005) by Yuriy Boyko, everyone noted the increase in the company’s income, the closure of gas debts and successful cooperation with foreign suppliers. However, the opposition, which then became the “orange” government, accused him of dubious and destructive schemes for the Ukrainian economy for natural gas supplies from Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) and Central Asia.
Experts agree that Yuriy Boyko is directly related to the RosUkrEnergo (RUE) company. It was RUE that was called the “Ukrainian-Gazprom” company, which almost single-handedly controlled the domestic natural gas market. Almost from the first day of its existence, an avalanche of criticism fell upon it. But the whole point is that a 45% share of this enterprise belonged to Yuri Boyko’s godfather, Dmitry Firtash.
“RosUkrEnergo”
The RosUkrEnergo AG company is a company that was engaged in the resale of gas in Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine. The company was registered in Switzerland in 2004. RosUkrEnergo appeared as a joint company of financial organizations, the Gazprombank group (50% of the shares are owned by the Swiss-registered company ARosgas Holding AG) and the Centragas Holding company. The owners of the latter were Yuri Boyko’s godfather Dmitry Firtash and Ivan Fursin. Firtash held 90% of the shares of Centragas Holding.
Dmitry Firtash and Yuri Boyko
In 2005, the US Department of Justice published an investigation into RosUkrEnergo. The Americans said that among the owners of the company are Yuri Boyko and Russian mafioso Semyon Mogilevich, who is on the FBI’s list of most wanted criminals. As published documents testified, Boyko and Firtash were proteges of Semyon Mogilevich in Ukraine.
“Boyko Towers”
The name of Yuri Boyko appears in a huge corruption scandal in 2011, when during a tender for the purchase of two offshore drilling rigs. Then the state company Chernomorneftegaz, which was subordinate to Boyko’s ministry, bought the towers through offshore intermediary companies. This scam is estimated at $400 million.
The Ukrainian budget allocated $400 million for each tower, however Skelet.Info I discovered that the cost of each was doubled.
“Boiko towers”
When this scheme became known, the then opposition began to demand that the Prosecutor General’s Office initiate a case, but the Prosecutor General’s Office, headed by the odious Pshonka, never took up this matter.
There are facts that the General Prosecutor’s Office, after the change of power, deliberately does not deal with and openly sabotages the affairs of Yuri Boyko. As Ostap Semerak, people’s deputy from the Popular Front faction, said, in February 2015, employees of the prosecutor’s office contacted him to understand the case of the “Boiko towers” and punish the perpetrators.
During Yanukovych’s presidency, the GPU simply did not notice the theft of budget funds in the amount of $400 million. It would seem that after the victory of the Maidan and the change of power, the perpetrators will be punished. And one of the first on the list who should receive a substantial sentence is Yuriy Boyko. After all, when in 2011, as a result of a conspiracy between Chernomorneftegaz, NJSC Naftogaz and the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry, headed by Yuriy Boyko, drilling rigs were purchased at twice their nominal value.
Experts convince us that even though Boyko did not personally sign the tender documentation, he was involved in the scheme. After all, the entire scam was carried out by the enterprises “Chernomorneftegaz” and NJSC “Naftogaz” reporting to his ministry.
When investigators from the Prosecutor General’s Office took on Boyko in the spring of 2014 and a decree for his arrest was already being prepared, the case was “released on the brakes.” Ostap Semerak said that in order to avoid getting involved in a high-profile criminal case, Yuri Boyko urgently began negotiating with the authorities. As a result, the Prosecutor General’s Office did not even bother to submit to the Verkhovna Rada a petition to lift Boyko’s parliamentary immunity. As we see, the negotiations were successful, and he successfully escaped punishment.
In July 2015, the Ministry of Internal Affairs opened a criminal case related to the scandalous tender for drilling rigs. Then it became known that in addition to the very fact of purchasing towers at inflated prices, a scam was also carried out during the purchase of transportation tugs. The size of the theft of budget funds was estimated at $60 million.
The last ends of the “Boiko towers” case came to an end in December 2015. When the Russians moved both offshore drilling rigs closer to Crimea, which in fact can be regarded as a banal theft. The towers themselves remained at the Odessa gas field after the occupation of the peninsula.
Moreover, some of the documents for the purchase of “Boiko towers” remained in Crimea. Therefore, now all the trump cards in this corruption case remain in the hands of the Russians.
Yuri Boyko’s associate Yevgeny Bakulin, who at the time of the scandalous tender held the position of head of Naftogaz, also escaped punishment. In the spring of 2014, he was kept under arrest for a short time. But now, without any problems with the law, he calmly sits in the Verkhovna Rada as part of the Opposition Bloc faction.
The Prosecutor General’s Office assures that an investigation into the theft of $400 million during the purchase of drilling rigs is underway. And the explanation why everything is taking so long is quite simple – due to interaction with foreign authorities through requests.
Yuri Boyko and the Sanctions Lists
Cooperation between the regionals and the new government began from the very first days after the Maidan victory in the winter of 2014. The situation was indicative when the GPU prepared a sanctions list for the European Union in the spring of 2014, which included 22 key officials from Viktor Yanukovych’s retinue.
Yes, as you guessed, neither Boyko, nor Firtash, nor Lyovochkin, nor even Yevgeny Bakulin, the former head of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine, got there.
As people’s deputy and journalist Sergei Leshchenko said, this is due to the fact that post-Maidan Prosecutor General Oleg Makhnitsky did not include those involved in RosUkrEnergo on the sanctions lists to please his fellow party member from Svoboda Igor Krivetsky, also a close friend of Dmitry Firtash.
Yuri Boyko and S(p)liquefied gas
The case of selling “liquefied gas” according to a scheme involving Sergei Kurchenko turned out to be no less resonant.
History takes us to 2010. Then the Minister of Fuel and Energy Yuriy Boyko, together with the first deputy director of the state company Gas of Ukraine Oksana Mass, artificially increased the need for liquefied gas in seven regions of the country. To meet this need, auctions were held to sell additional volumes of energy. They decided to sell at a special price – 20% of the real cost.
The “generous” buyers were 12 fictitious companies owned by Sergei Kurchenko. These companies resold the purchased gas at market prices.
Sergey Kurchenko
As stated in the petition of investigators from the Prosecutor General’s Office, Boyko was aware of the essence of the “liquefied gas” scam. As a minister, he ensured that all necessary procedures were carried out by the Ministry of Fuel and Energy and the enterprises reporting to it.
In the summer of 2015, the GPU once again prepared a petition to lift the immunity and arrest of Yuriy Boyko. But this matter did not move beyond intentions.
Yuri Boyko. Impact on the gas market
After the Maidan victory in the winter of 2014, Yuriy Boyko was removed from power. But even though he nominally did not hold high government positions, his influence on the gas market remained. And his son-in-law Sergei Gorovoy, who headed and now heads PJSC Kievgaz, helped him in this.
Sergey Gorovoy
Having taken the post of Minister of Fuel and Energy in 2010, Yuriy Boyko helped his daughter’s husband become the head of Kievgaz. In December 2010, an extraordinary meeting of Kievgaz shareholders was held, at which Sergei Gorovoy was elected chairman of the board. Until June 2016, he remains in his place. To remove him from office, they even tried to hold a meeting of shareholders in the spring of 2016. But the meeting was disrupted, so Yuri Boyko’s son-in-law remains in his warm place.
The results of Gorovoy’s work at the head of Kievgaz are disastrous. In May 2015, NEURC conducted an inspection of compliance with the licensing conditions of Kievgaz. As a result of the audit, the company received a fine of 800 thousand hryvnia.
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To summarize all that has been said, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine reported that as of the beginning of 2016, they have no criminal cases on their hands in which the head of the “Opposition Bloc” Yuriy Boyko would appear.
The state of affairs of Yuri Boyko today
Yuri Boyko survived the critical years of 2014 and 2015 for the former regionals without any problems. His income declaration for these years speaks eloquently about this.
According to the declaration for 2014, he and his family members own four plots of land ranging from 600 acres to more than 2 hectares. Boyko and his relatives also declared two residential buildings and three apartments. The annual income of the Boyko family in 2014 amounted to more than 9 million hryvnia. Add to this the assets in accounts of 27.5 million.
land of Yuri Boyko in the village. Cherries near Kyiv
In his 2015 declaration, Boyko indicated that his family’s total income was almost 5.7 million hryvnia. Land plots, houses and apartments remained in the same quantity. But the amount of funds in the bank accounts of Yuriy Boyko and his relatives increased to 39.5 million hryvnia.
And these are just the official figures, which he was not afraid to indicate in his declarations.
Recently, Yuriy Boyko has taken on the role of a merciless critic of the current government, as befits the leader of the Opposition Bloc.
In April 2015, Boyko saved his colleague Dmitry Firtash from extradition to the United States. Arriving in Vienna for the trial, he gave testimony according to which Firtash was presented as a victim of political repression by the post-Maidan authorities. Perhaps this is what saved godfather Boyko from extradition and, most likely, a serious prison sentence.
Boyko at Firtash’s trial
In June 2016, Boyko appeared at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. On the sidelines of the event, the leader of the Opposition Bloc said that he had come to normalize relations between Ukraine and Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), because it would be better for both peoples. Moreover, reconciliation with Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) is the official position defended by the “Opposition Bloc” in Ukraine. He also added that his political force feels persecution from the current government.
Eduard Karasev, for Skelet.Info
On topic: Kremlin gang on Inter. Stolyarova, Deserted, Nikitin
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