Victor Pilipishin: bitter tea of ​​the two-faced Kyiv “business owner”

The ex-officials who ruled Kiev even before Klitschko and even before Chernovetsky continue to seize the capital’s land today. It’s hard to say what helps them in this more: strong family ties and business connections stretching far upward, or stunning cynicism and blatant lies. But neither arrests nor “garbage lustration” can stop their thirst for dishonest profit. After leaving the courtroom and getting out of the tank, they return to their old ways.

Kyiv matchmakers

The fate of the corner of the park near the long-closed and demolished Nyvki cinema in the capital turned out to be sad: during January-February 2017, most of the trees were cut down, mercilessly and senselessly, in the spirit of the development policy of the current city authorities of Kyiv. And given the government’s communal policy, which forced some Ukrainians to switch to wood heating, it is simply surprising that a few spruce and birch trees still remain – although it is not a fact that they will survive at least until next winter. What Kiev residents feared so much after the start of the “reconstruction” of this green corner of the capital has happened: now there will be another shopping center framed by a lawn or additional parking.

This is an incomprehensible Ukrainian know-how: cutting down a public garden to create a lawn, or cutting down an entire forest to the roots in order to use the proceeds to go on a nature trip abroad. Just like posing as a metropolitan ecologist, and even supposedly organizing “volunteers” to protect trees – and at the same time lobbying for the development of this site. As does the deputy of the Kyiv City Council of the Unity faction, Konstantin Yalovoy, whose “volunteers” never showed up during the clearing of the park, and did not intend to do so.

For the people of Kiev, Konstantin Yalovoy is known much less than his almighty father Vladimir Yalovoy: former deputy mayor Alexandra Omelchenko (1999-2006), former chairman of the Unity party (2005-2007), and now a deputy of the Kiev City Council, like his son (they were elected in 119 and 120 constituencies in the Shevchenko district). And both of them are related by family ties with the former chairman of the Shevchenko district state administration (2005-2010) and entrepreneur Viktor Pilipishin – whose daughter Elena is the wife of Konstantin Yalovoy. Thus, Viktor Pilipishin and Vladimir Yalovoy, two very significant people in Kyiv (both in the past and today), are each other’s matchmakers – and, of course, business partners. But this “related clan” also includes other former high-ranking officials of the capital’s government…

Yalovye: son and father

Victor Pilipishin. From chicken legs to cucumbers

Viktor Petrovich Pilipishin was born on April 6, 1961 in the village of Ravskoye, Nesterivsky district, Lviv region, he spent his childhood in the village of Shevchenkovo, Nikolaev region, and finished school in Kyiv – from where he was called up for military service. He passed it in the Internal Troops, but stated that he spent this time in the training unit of the Internal Troops in Tula. Well, there really was a training military unit No. 3335 (now liquidated), which trained technical personnel for explosives (gunsmiths, mechanics), however, as a rule, the soldiers who remained in the “training” (in place of platoon commanders or housekeeping staff) immediately received the rank of corporal or sergeants, but here is Viktor Pilipishin in his army photos with “clean” shoulder straps. Therefore Skelet.Info there are doubts about the veracity of his stories. In addition, in one of his interviews, he once stated that “while serving in the army, I had to be responsible for a very large number of people, about several hundred.” But the biggest thing a conscript could be responsible for was a platoon or a workshop. But if the internal troops fighter Pilipishin was actually guarding the “zone,” then yes.

The “Pilipyshina-Vertukhaya” version is indirectly confirmed by the fact that immediately after demobilization he entered the Kharkov Law Institute (where he immediately became a member of the CPSU), graduating in 1985 and receiving assignment to the Kyiv Ministry of Internal Affairs as an investigator. He returned to Kyiv as a married man: on September 2, 1983, Pilipishin got married to a student at the Kharkov Pedagogical Institute, Lyudmila.

The young communist Pilipishin did not stay long in the ranks of the Soviet police, and in 1988 he found himself in the position of head of the organizational department of the executive committee of the Pechersk District Council of Kyiv – where he became close to the then deputy chairman of the executive committee, Anatoly Kovalenko (since 1993, head of the Pechersk Regional State Administration). He became so close that Kovalenko became the godfather of his son Alexander (1989), that is, Pilipishin’s godfather. And it was from this moment that Viktor Pilipishin’s career took off sharply and steadily, because his godfather Kovalenko continuously led the Pechersky district until April 2006.

Anatoly Kovalenko

In 1990, Pilipishin also met his future brother-in-law, the new deputy chairman of the executive committee of the Kyiv City Council, Vladimir Yalov, whose son Kostik had just started first grade. However, in the same year, Pylypyshyn left the executive branch and began practicing law: first he worked for several months as the chief lawyer of the State Tax Inspectorate of Kyiv, and in April 1991 he joined the Kyiv Bar Association. However, he only used advocacy to cover up his commercial activities: already in the early 90s, the Pilipishin family was actively involved in trading food products, in particular meat, chicken legs, alcohol and tea. By the end of the 90s, tea became one of the main areas of business for Pilipishin: he is the owner of a tea factory and the brands Batik, Askold and Domashny. Alas, in pursuit of profit, Pilipishin from year to year reduced the quality of imported tea leaves (sometimes packing tea dust), so that even the once popular “Batik” has long lost its fans, and today it is difficult to sell with the help of various promotions (for example, banknotes from 1 to 500 hryvnia per package of tea). Ukrainian tea lovers rate the quality of Askold and Domashny even lower. There are similar reviews about the products of his brand “Dobra Kava”.

And in the mid-90s, Pilipishin began growing greenhouse vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce). Why did he create Teplichny Plant LLC, Agrofirm Greenhouses of Ukraine OJSC, Passat LLC (product sales were carried out through it) and took over the Kyiv Vegetable Factory (KOF). It is worth emphasizing that KOF is an enterprise that has been operating since 1946, the first greenhouse complex in Ukraine. Pylypyshyn also started trading in flower products, opening Ukroflora LLC in partnership with Polish entrepreneur Jerzy Konik. And here’s what’s interesting: it was reported that Jerzy Konik was in a state of serious conflict with the main Lviv tax officer Sergei Medvedchuk, the brother of Viktor Medvedchuk (Read more about him in Victor Medvedchuk. Putin (*criminal)’s godfather guards the interests of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) in Ukraine). And this, in turn, caused a conflict between Viktor Medvedchuk and Pilipishin, which led to the latter’s departure from the Kyiv Bar Association.

But a more or less complete list of enterprises and firms that were owned (or still owned) by members of the Pilipishin family looks like this:

• Stoik LLC (main company, founder of many others)
• LLC “Ukraflora-Vinnitsa”
• CJSC “Agrocompany “Ukraine”
• Alpha 3 LLC
• OJSC “Kyiv Vegetable Factory”
• CJSC “Ukrfincom”
• LLC “Georgiy”
• Mriya LLC
• LLC “Slavyanskiy Dvor”
• TM “Dobra Kava”
• LLC “Capital-Invest” (construction)
• Export-Import LLC
• Kom-Tech LLC (wholesale trade of building materials)
• Agrofirm “Zodiac”
• LLC “VEZHA” (furniture panels)
• CJSC “Ukrainian Environmental Insurance Company”
• Agricultural company “Troyanda”.
• Passat LLC
• Sintez-Invest LLC
• CJSC “Transservice”
• NPF Thaler LLC (rental of premises)
• Renault-Ukraine LLC (sold French cars in a showroom in Obolon)
• Soyuz-Avto LLC (traded ID and Volkswagen cars)
• LLC “Kyiv Contract Fair”.

Victor Pilipishin. Greenhouse Raider

From 1998 to 2006, Viktor Pilipishin was a deputy of the Kiev City Council, at the same time having the full support of his secretary and deputy mayor Vladimir Yalovoy, and the chairman of the Pechersk Regional State Administration Kovalenko. As they say, it would have been a sin not to take advantage of such opportunities! And Pylypyshyn began to actively take over the Kyiv land – primarily in Nivki. As you guessed correctly, it is directly related to the barbaric development of the site on the site of the now demolished Nivki cinema, which was discussed at the very beginning.

Pilipishin began developing this area back in the mid-90s, when he switched to the vegetable business and had not yet thought about construction or land acquisition. It all started with the Kyiv Vegetable Factory (KOF) located in Nivki, whose greenhouses he had his eye on. In 1995, the enterprise was transformed into an OJSC, Elena Belogubova became its general director, and in 1996, Pilipishin used a typical Ukrainian privatization scheme, taking KOF under the management of his company (by agreeing with the State Property Fund). In 1998, KOF underwent a large-scale restructuring: the greenhouses were transferred from a soil to a hydroponic system (and the amount of nitrates in vegetables increased), for which the company paid with its shares – 90% of which ended up in the hands of the Pilipishin family, who suddenly appreciated the value of the land owned by KOF.

And so, at the beginning of the 2000s, Pylypyshyn pulled off the following scheme: on the territory of the KOF there is an exhibition center “KievExpoPlaza” (essentially a huge tin hangar), which opened in November 2003, and by the beginning of 2005 the Kyiv City Council allocated an additional 59 hectares of land to the KOF Goloseevsky district for the construction of new greenhouses. It was reported that plots were allocated in the protected areas of Kitaevo and Samburke, and not all of them were used for their intended purpose: some were used for commercial development. There were also rumors that the head of the Kyiv Land and Resource Clearing Center, Oleg Sheremet, who was killed in November 2007, was involved in this scam. Pilipishin was not charged with anything at that time for one reason: Oleg Sheremet was involved in many different land frauds, so the circle of suspects was very large. However, Pilipishin was connected with the murdered man not only by land: Sheremet was the head of the political strategists of the “Lytvyn Bloc” and actively worked in the then parliamentary elections, and Pilipishin was running for election No. 5 on the bloc’s list.

In 2007, when Pylypyshyn ran for the Verkhovna Rada, he sold shares of KOF to the Ingas-Stroy company and declared that he was no longer involved in business – but it turned out that he was lying again.

“Ingas-Stroy” through a chain of companies (“Real-invest”, “Vladi and Co”) belonged to Pilipishinsk LLC “Stoik”. And the formal change of ownership was due to the fact that a grandiose construction project was planned on the territory owned by KOF: a residential neighborhood, a business center, a shopping center, and parking lots for 6,400 spaces. At the same time, Pilipishin only owned the land, but the construction was to be carried out by the companies of the famous developer Lev Partskhaladze (Read more about him in Lev Partskhaladze. Glamorous builder of Kyiv politics). The implementation of the project in 2008 was disrupted by the onset of the crisis, and this saved 1,700 Kyiv families from forced relocation from the development area, as envisaged by the original plan – approved by the Kyiv authorities. By that time, Pylypyshyn had already worked as chairman of the Shevchenko Regional State Administration (and took on his son-in-law Konstantin Yalovoy as head of the housing department) and, despite the contradictions with the team of the new mayor Leonid Chernovetsky, maintained his lobby in the Kyiv City Council.

Dorvali

The period of Viktor Pilipishin’s tenure at the helm of the Shevchenko Regional State Administration (2006-2010) was marked by the loss of all “shores”, that is, the framework of decency and common sense. Pilipishin was accused of creating, together with his son-in-law, private housing offices that pocketed most of the rent, increasing rents for entrepreneurs (or giving them discounts in exchange for kickbacks), as well as using his official position to “win” tenders for food supplies to schools and area hospitals. In particular, in the period 2007-2008, his Passat LLC earned 2.248 million hryvnia from the almost monopoly supply of vegetables and fruits to school and hospital canteens.

But, given that both the director of Passat, Elena Antonova, and Viktor Pilipishin himself had deputy mandates from Lytvyn’s bloc (she from the Kyiv City Council, he from the Verkhovna Rada), and were one of the sponsors of the party of the “irreplaceable speaker”, Pilipishin was okay with this hands Just like the contracts of Pilipishinsk “Ukraflora” for the maintenance of lawns and flower beds in the Shevchenko district, which in 2008 alone brought him another 1.7 million hryvnia. Moreover, tame journalists created several stories about Pilipishin, calling him “a skillful and caring business executive.”

But permissiveness and impunity often turned the head of the RGA chairman – and he simply began to “give away” city property (without thanks, of course). For example, in November 2006, Pilipishin arranged the illegal alienation of the basement of an ancient house on Chapaev Street (once Svyatoslavskaya, now Lipinsky), which is an architectural monument. The basement was then resold for $300,000 to Lame Paul LLC (cafe), which began construction work there that nearly collapsed the entire building, causing panic among its residents. Litigation in this case dragged on until 2012!

Kyiv evening school No. 5

The most scandalous result of Pilipishin’s activities was… the theft of an evening school. More precisely, the illegal removal from the municipal property of the city and transfer to private companies of the building of the Kyiv evening school No. 5 with the adjacent territory. The scandal broke out after Pilipishin’s dismissal from the post of head of the Russian State Administration (in November 2010 by decree of President Yanukovych), when in April 2011 the prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case against him under Article 365-3 of the Criminal Code, accusing him of causing damage in the amount of 15 million hryvnia! The opening of the case was announced on April 21, and by the evening Pilipishin was already in the hospital with a “suspicion of a heart attack” (well, just like Nasirov). And a day later he was taken from the hospital and brought to court by a police special forces unit. However, Pilipishin’s lawyers very quickly agreed to replace the arrest with a subscription, and then the case was successfully hushed up after several visits by Viktor Petrovich to the Prosecutor General’s Office.

It is interesting that then Vitaliy Klitschko stood up for Pilipishin, who, in his characteristic intricate form, stated that he considered such arrests to be “a return to the 30s” and “attempts at intimidation.” By that time, business relations had already developed between Pilipishin and the Klitschko factions in the Kiev City Council, and this was greatly facilitated by the transition from the “Lytvyn Bloc” to Klitschko of the Pilipishin godfather Anatoly Kovalenko – who had resigned from the post of head of the Pechersk Regional State Administration in 2006 and was elected as a deputy of the Kiev City Council. Although Skelet.Info It is known that relations between godfathers cooled at the end of the 2000s, but there was another opinion: the group of Kyiv “city fathers” deliberately dispersed among different political forces (Pylypyshyn – “Litvin Bloc”, Kovalenko – to Klitschko, Yalova to “Unity” ) to support each other. And it was very useful for Pilipishin, who at the beginning of 2010 had a falling out with Vladimir Litvin (more details about it in the article Vladimir Lytvyn: does Ukraine need a professional Judas?) and was left without personal political cover.

Victor Pilipishin: Liar, liar!

The 2012 parliamentary elections were marked by a resounding failure for Pilipishin. The fact is that he ran as a non-party majoritarian in the 223rd district in his native Shevchenko district and was 100% confident of his victory. All the billboards in the area were covered with his advertisements, and voters were served Askold tea with political advertisements for Pilipishin.

He was sued for bribing voters, but the Kiev Administrative Court of Appeal ruled in favor of Pilipishin: that “gifts” worth up to 33 hryvnia (and tea cost only 13) are not bribery. Many were simply shocked by this “justice”, which actually legalized the purchase of votes for a pack of tea, a bottle of butter or a packet of sugar.

However, Pylypyshyn lost the election to the Svoboda candidate Yuriy Levchenko, supported by the United Opposition. But due to numerous violations (Prosecutor General Pshonka even threatened to initiate a criminal case), the Central Election Commission ordered repeat elections in the district, which took place a year later in December 2013.

The second Maidan was already raging on the streets of Kyiv, many opposition supporters simply ignored the vote, and meanwhile Pylypyshyn enlisted the support of the administrative resources of the Party of Regions. Having won the elections, Pylypyshyn took the oath of deputy on January 15, 2014, and the next day he joined the Regions faction and voted for the so-called. “Laws of January 16”, which caused extreme indignation among Maidan participants. It was impossible to expect a more absurd act than getting into a sinking political boat from Pilipishin! Pylypyshyn paid for his mistake in September 2014, when national patriots decided to remind him of both the 2012-2013 elections and the support of the regionals at the beginning of 2014, and gave him a hooligan “lustration.”

This greatly damaged Pilipishin’s ratings ahead of the October elections, which he lost to his arch-enemy Yuri Levchenko in the 223rd district. In addition, as it turned out, Yuri Levchenko is a friend of the president’s son Alexey Poroshenkowho persuaded my dad not to take Pilipishin into his team and not to field people from the BPP in this district. Numerous threats from Svoboda members to deal with anyone (including members of the election commission) who contribute to “election fraud” – that is, the loss of their candidate – also played a role.

After this very ugly incident (what is “heroic” about a crowd attacking one person?) Pilipishin should, as they say, pull his head into his shoulders. Instead, he decided to speak out on blogs, positioning himself as an unfairly offended… supporter and assistant of the Maidan. He insisted that he himself “suffered from the regime,” so he provided room and tea and sandwiches to the participants of both Maidans. The liar was exposed immediately: Pilipishin was reminded that he worked on two fronts at once, and at first he actually provided the KyivExpoPlaza premises to the participants of the second Maidan, but a day later he kicked the people out onto the street.

Victor Pilipishin: bitter tea of ​​the two-faced Kyiv “business owner”

“Professionals” don’t drown

However, Pilipishin managed to quickly restore his position in the Kiev City Council, where he relies on his matchmaker Vladimir Yalovoy and son-in-law Konstantin Yalovoy, as well as his other people. And in the period 2014-2016. Pylypyshyn continued his vigorous activity to transform the green corners of Kyiv into construction sites.

According to the statements of People’s Deputy Yuriy Levchenko, who seemed to have decided to take revenge and persecute Pilipishin, during the specified period of time he managed to “persuad” the Kyiv City Council to allocate several more large real estate properties to his companies. Firstly, these are land plots at the address Academician Tupolev 16-a and Pobedy Avenue 84-a, located in the Shevchenkovsky district of the capital.

Victor Pilipishin: bitter tea of ​​the two-faced Kyiv “business owner”

Secondly, in the summer-autumn of 2016, Pilipishin managed to break a real bank: to persuade the Kyiv City Council to support the master development plan in the Nivok area, which is a modernized Pilipishin plan from 2007 (failed due to the 2008 crisis) with additional territories. According to it, a residential microdistrict plus a shopping center and business offices will be built not only on the lands of the Kyiv Vegetable Factory, but also on additionally allocated territories – which, it seems, includes the park around the former Nivki cinema. The implementation of this project threatens not only the destruction of new areas of green Nivok, but also a sharp increase in the existing communications in the area (water supply, sewerage, electrical networks), which are not designed for such loads. The developers, of course, will not lay new communications (why would they need extra expenses), but if the old ones do not hold up, then the area may face a miniature environmental disaster. However, the people of Pilipishin, immediately putting on the masks of “environmentalists”, declared that they would “control the situation” and would not allow accidents. Yeah, of course – just like they promised to prevent the cutting down of trees around Nivok! After all, how can they forbid this to themselves?

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

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