Luzhniki rules!
In the fall of 2015, the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine opened two criminal cases on suspicion of tax evasion due to understatement of profits and fraud with tender purchases. Officials of VS Energy and its then-owned Kyivoblenergo were persecuted. The company’s capital office in Kyiv was searched, writes ORD.
As the Detective-Info publication wrote, during a search at the office of BC Energy International Ukraine, accounting workers, at the direction of management, transferred documents of interest to the security forces to individual bank safes. The trick is that the branch of Giner’s First Investment Bank, and the office of “energy workers from the European Union”, and a lot of other enterprises associated with Luzhniki (including a company that manages a chain of hotels) are registered at the same address – the address of the Rus Hotel, which was taken over from Skorobogatov – st. Hospital 4.
The investigation established that PIB Bank is controlled by officials of VS Energy International Ukraine LLC and is used to conduct illegal financial and business transactions. Managers stole budget funds by falsifying documents and inflating expenses allegedly incurred during ensuring the activities of oblenergos.
And a little about other assets.
A. Babakov owns an apartment in the center of Paris and a small palace and 11 hectares of land near Versailles. A. Navalny discovered them in 2013 and called Babakov “Cinderella” because he pretends to be poor.
As follows from the Scanner project investigation, Babakov married his daughter to one of his European managers in order to avoid the sanctions imposed on him in 2014. Having the opportunity to celebrate the event in any hotel in the world, he chose a Moscow hotel called “Ukraine”.
Voevodin and Giner also own houses and hotels in France, and this property is registered in their French companies. At the organized crime group there is business in Slovakia and France.
4. Who protected Luzhniki for 20 years, and can patronize organized crime groups now
Thanks to whom and what did such important assets end up in the hands of our—as is now clear—existential enemy?
In fact, the Russian mafia never left Ukraine. Since gaining independence, Moscow has successfully achieved its goals with the connivance or complicity of the Soviet-Ukrainian KGB and SBU officers – all sorts of Derkachs, Marchuks and Smeskos. “Solntsevskie” (a group of the boss of bosses of the Russian mafia S. Mogilevich) and “Luzhnikovskie” divided feed bases in Ukraine among themselves as owners.
The goal was for Ukraine to join the customs union and a single economic space with the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) on the same rights that Belarus has today, having lost its independence. And energy assets were bought up as part of a long-term strategy to take over Ukraine.
This is how “Ukrainian” oligarchs appeared in Ukraine from behind the curb – Grigorishin and Novinsky. And “foreign investors” like Babakov and Giner. Economic expansion primarily concerned the gas transportation and energy industries. And everything was going great for the aggressor right up to the Revolution of Dignity.
At various times, journalists claimed that they favored the Luzhnikov organized crime group Leonid Kuchma and the head of his administration Viktor Medvedchuk, as well as the well-known I. Bakai. And under all the presidents of Ukraine, things went well for this gang.
FAMILY OF VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO. The ex-president, whose “hands did not steal anything,” became friends with this organized crime group through his brother.
In 2001, the Russians bought shares in the First Investment Bank from Peter Yushchenko, after which he became the godfather of the younger partner and manager of the gang, M. Spector.
“It’s a standard pattern for them to enter the country. They followed the same scheme in Latvia, when they wanted to buy the KRAJBANKA bank, but it didn’t work out. Although Babakov, together with the Latvian “pounds” (who cover him in the regional power companies), threatened the man with a pistol. The mayor himself gave an interview about this“says M. Skorobogatov.
He believes that at that time the main protector of the organized crime group was P. Yushchenko: “During the capture of “Rus”, even internal troops were involved at his request.”
He says the deputy had a hand. Prosecutor General V. Kudryavtsev (later – ex-member of the High Council of Justice), S. Kivalov (second chairman of the HCJ, ex-chairman of the Central Election Commission, ex-people’s deputy-regional) and his daughter Tatyana. Of the police officers, according to Skorobogatov, those directly involved were V. Yarema (ex-head of the department for combating organized crime of the Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Kiev, ex-head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Kiev, ex-people’s deputy and ex- Prosecutor General) and A. Danilenko (ex-deputy head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Kyiv and former deputy Prosecutor General).
“And under President Yanukovych, the entire structure worked at Luzhnikovsky. Everything was decided automatically, at the level of M. Voevodin and his contacts with Yuri Ivanyushchenko. In the economic court, Yanukovych’s people Tatkov and Emelyanov provided escort. It was under Yanukovych that I left Ukraine. Because in 2009 there was an attempt on my life, and in 2012, after the capture of Slavutich, they told me that I would sit down – I had to fly away in what I was wearing.”continues Skorgobogatov.
At the same time, the Luzhniki gang successfully implemented its political projects in Ukraine.
Just imagine this contrast: now Babakov is promoting neo-fascists in the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism). And then I was in the Ukrainian “orange” team! The odious enemy of Ukraine, Dmitry Rogozin, who was recently expelled from Roscosmos and who is aiming for the post of Putin (*criminal)’s chief Gauleiter in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, is a long-time political ally and friend of Babakov. And also Yushchenko’s comrade-in-arms during the 2004 Maidan…
Here is an advertisement for the Rodina party, founded by Babakov: “Let’s cleanse Moscow of garbage” – with Rogozin:
Here is Rogozin zigging in Moscow:
And here he is in 2004 on the Maidan in Kyiv next to Yushchenko:
It is curious that then there was a split in the gang: the still living deputy chairman of the “Russian Club” in Ukraine, Kurochkin, bet on the odious Natalya Vitrenko in the 2004 elections.
MIKHAIL SPEKTOR. The same godfather of ex-President Yushchenko’s brother, who is called the junior partner of Luzhniki and the crisis manager. In 2004, in a column for the propaganda newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda under the heading “Ukrainian King orange summer for Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)!” Spector advertised Viktor Yushchenko’s team as Moscow-oriented and signed as a representative presidential candidate of Ukraine.
In 2013 in “Economic Pravda” M. Spector was called “representative of one of the most non-public financial and industrial groups – Luzhniki, and the only citizen of Ukraine among co-ownersV“
He promoted Ukraine’s entry into the Customs Union with the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) and until September 2015 headed the VS Energy holding. He sat next to Yushchenko and Yanukovych at official events as a socialite. At the same time, the media called him representative of the Moscow organized crime group.
In general, until February 24, 2022, representing the Russian mafia in Ukraine was not considered shameful…
Until 2015, Spector was a member of the supervisory board of the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant as a representative of the Russians. And recently he has been promoting the iron ore business of the Black Iron company, which… has already agreed with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on the purchase from the state of a site used for training purposes, for a plant in Krivoy Rog.
Such activity of Spector did not go unnoticed by “Peacemaker”.
KIRILL KULIKOV. We once wrote that one of the first appointments of the “orange” Minister of Internal Affairs Yu. Lutsenko in 2005 was the appearance of the unknown “Babakov’s six” as head of the National Bureau of Interpol. By the way, under Lutsenko’s Prosecutor General’s office, the investigation into the theft of budgetary funds from the Luzhniki regional power company was closed in 2015.
Compared to others, K. Kulikov, of course, looks like a small fry, but still deserves attention due to his anti-Ukrainian activity. This former “member of the orange team” and fellow party member of Lutsenko, after OPZZH entered the Verkhovna Rada in 2019, surfaced in Medvedchukov’s trash heaps, and then in Muraev’s trash heap, the Nash TV channel – as one of the mouthpieces of the Kremlin. He defended Soviet monuments, talked about external control, denounced the “Anglo-Saxons,” was indignant at the “persecution of Russian culture” and insisted that it was shameful to be Ukrainian.
Kirill Kulikov on Facebook
It’s worth looking at Kulikov’s Facebook posts to understand why the FSB reported to Putin (*criminal) that Kyiv would fall in 2 days, and Ukrainians cannot wait for the Russian army and hate their power. At a minimum, the occupiers could count on Kulikov’s support.
Kirilli Kulikov
VALERY TARASYUK. It is a member of the National Commission, which regulates energy and utilities. And from November 4, 2019 to February 22, 2022, he even headed NKREKP.
But how did Mr. Tarasyuk end up in the video of the seizure of the Rus Hotel on November 24, 2006? And this is how he appeared as a lawyer for VS Energy:
Probably, the OP began to realize that it was not comme il faut to leave a former employee of the Luzhniki gang in such a post, since they removed him 2 days before the invasion. However, as a member of the commission, he still sets tariffs for former chefs…
Previously, Tarasyuk was a member of the supervisory board of the Premier Palace Hotel, and participated in the seizure of other hotels. And in the fall of 2020, competitors discovered that his brother had a business in the energy sector.
This is how this brother and his role in Luzhniki is described in a 2009 article: First Investment Bank and LD-Perspective LLC belong to the so-called “Luzhniki” group. The director of LD-Perspective is Artem Vladimirovich Tarasyuk, the brother of VS Energy Vice President Valery Tarasyuk.” Further, the material talks about the fraud of VS Energy and the corruption of NBU officials who issued loans to Muscovites. It was noted that the First Investment Bank previously belonged to Yushchenko. “What explains the ease with which the National Bank agreed to obviously a dubious deal“
It was A. Tarasyuk’s LLC “LD-Perspective” that was issued the pressed “Rus”. And V. Tarasyuk can still please his former employers. Oblenergos are monopolists that the oligarchs got almost for nothing, but despite the impressive income (VS Energy’s turnover in 2015 was estimated at UAH 6.1 billion), the owners did not spend money on modernization. Instead, they found a way to extract additional funds from our pockets for repairs. In 2017, they stated that the wear and tear of networks is 70% and with the help of NKREKP pushed through the RAB tariff. They pulled about the same trick with tariffs in 2015.
BORIS BAUM. Curator of the Gambling and Lotteries Regulatory Commission, until recently Deputy Advisor. the head of the OP K. Timoshenko and the locomotive of the legalization of the gambling business in Ukraine. Former VS Energy top manager and Latvian citizen who received Ukrainian citizenship in 2020.
The incredible story of his appearance on President Baum’s team told in an interview: Imagine this luck: in the spring of 2019, in the midst of elections, there is a chance acquaintance with the “servant of the people” D. Arakhamia at a children’s birthday party, and on August 2, Baum is already invited to a meeting with V. Zelensky and is offered to “finalize the law on the gambling business”! And then – the covid year and a dream job: the Baum Foundation was entrusted with managing the money of the oligarchs, which they donated to fight the pandemic. At the same time, Baum himself did not donate a penny; he also received the salary of the director of the fund.
And then – under his patronage, the Russian bookmaker 1xBet was issued a license to operate a casino, just at the time when the Russians were committing atrocities in Bucha. The InformNapalm team found out that the 1xBet office not only operates in the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), but also supports the Z-“operation”. The investigation traced the role of the aforementioned M. Spector, and it turned out that he was also associated with gambling – he was a partner Pari Match.
Baum is the former head of the supervisory board of the PIB bank, the former head of the supervisory board of the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant, a former top manager of the Russian TV channel RTVI, which is controlled by the Russian corporation Rostec, and, as they say, he was personally recommended by Giner, a neighbor of the general director of Rostec » Chemezova.
According to the victim Skorobogatov, like Tarasyuk, Baum participated in the raider takeover of “Rus” as a representative of the “new owner.” “Metrograd” and “Metropolis” were registered on Baum’s offshore. And in Latvia this gentleman was accused of fraud for the purpose of tax evasion.
Today, the National Police is investigating the concealment of income received from gambling activities, and “Peacemaker” suspects Baum of money laundering and financing Russian aggression.
IGOR KOLOMOYSKY. The group is in close friendly and partnership relations with Kolomoisky – they are partners in both the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant and the Dneprospetsstal plant. In addition, together with Luzhniki, Kolomoisky is right now squeezing out the Poltava Mining and Processing Plant.
Not only Luzhniki, but also Medvedchuk has close business ties in media, energy and metallurgy with Kolomoisky. And so the position of this oligarch, expressed about 2 years ago in The New York Times, becomes clear. America is forcing us to fight with Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), Ukraine cannot win this war, and it is better to exchange sovereignty for a bribe of one hundred billion dollars from comrade Putin (*criminal) – such theses were rolled out by Kolomoisky then.
The Russians took advantage of Kolomoisky’s enmity with Pinchuk and entered their joint business with the task of making sure that the partners did not cheat each other. “And so little by little the jacket was sewn onto the button,” our source comments on the appearance of the third partner in the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant. As it became known from the Panama Papers about the Tribecca company owned by Babakov, ferroalloys were shipped by steamship standards.
A significant part of experts believe that the Luzhniki organized crime group cooperates with the Office of the President of Ukraine through Kolomoisky. Does our Supreme Commander-in-Chief, who so ardently fights for the victory of Ukraine over the Russian barbarians, know about this? Maybe this is a slip?
Facts indicate that the influence of the Luzhniki group continues to grow.
- In April 2021, the District Administrative Court of Kyiv lifted the ban on entry into the territory of Ukraine for a citizen of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), Slovenia and Israel, Mikhail Voevodin, whom the FBI and intelligence services of other states perceive as one of the most powerful Slavic “thieves in law”. The order not to include Voevodin-“Luzhnetsky” on the NSDC sanctions list in May 2021 was given at the highest level – they wrote about it in the media.
- The Lvov Court of Appeal, by a decision dated September 12, 2022, canceled the seizure of the property of the Dniester (Lvov) and Lybid (Kyiv) hotels, refusing the petition of the prosecutor’s office. The basis was the lack of evidence of links between hotels and Russian citizens and companies. The court’s ruling notes that the arrest attempt was supported by information from online publications, and the pre-trial investigation body did not provide evidence. The owner of the hotels is the international group of companies Financiere, which, according to the court, has no relation to Luzhniki. The shareholders of Financiere, we add, are the same denominations from Latvia and the wife of “Misha Luzhnetsky” Natalya Selivanova, and Financiere is just new name Premier Hotels & Resorts.
- On September 20, 2022, Luzhniki won a long-term legal dispute with Ferrexpo of Konstantin Zhevago, regaining 40.19% of the shares of the Poltava Mining and Processing Plant, which sold Zhevago 20 years ago. And Espreso journalists believe that Kolomoisky is helping the Russian oligarchs seize the Poltava Mining and Processing Plant. The judge turned out to be the wife of lawyer Viktor Barsuk, who works in Kolomoisky’s office.
Zhevago himself is not in white clothes – he is on the international wanted list and does not want to return to Ukraine, thereby opening a window of opportunity for competitors. But the staff of the mining company is concerned about the illegality of the court decision. Forbes Ukraine also believes that behind the process of squeezing out assets from Zhevago are not only Luzhniki (with which Zhevago had a dispute in the past regarding control over Odessaoblenergo), but also Kolomoisky.
“I am sure that Igor Valerievich has a direct connection with the Kremlin, thanks to this group,” comments M. Skorobogatov. — Our state encouraged the expansion of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) and was interested in Russian raiders for 16 years. Because they carried money, but I didn’t. They were called “negotiable”. Presidents changed, but I heard the same thing from the security forces: nothing was stolen from you. This is how I understand it: there are still shareholders in the country (one of whom is Kolomoisky) and there are service personnel. The judicial system, parliament and security forces serve the shareholders. And these “shareholders” are skinning Ukraine. We are food for them!”
ANDREY KOSTIN. There is a version that the Luzhniki invisibility cloak provides connections with the new Prosecutor General. This assumption was made on social networks. For example, here.
The OP saw him as the new head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. Kostin is an ex-people’s deputy from the Servant of the People, he applied for the post of chairman of the SAP, but dropped out of the competition. Reason: the candidacy did not meet the criteria of integrity; international experts voted unanimously against it.
Full namesake Odessa resident Kostina is listed as a member of the board BO “Foundation “Our Future”the founder of which is another former manager of Luzhniki and also from Odessa – Yuri Pechersky. According to Odessa journalists, this man commanded Odessaoblenergo, helped to “squeeze out” the Yunost Hotel, and at the same time tried to get the Odessa Thermal Power Plant for Luzhniki.
And another touch to the portrait: this spring Kostin found himself as a member of the negotiating team in Istanbul. Of course, all this may turn out to be a coincidence, but the above-mentioned Roman Abramovich also took part in the peace negotiations between the aggressor and the victim. Putin (*criminal)’s wallet, Giner’s friend and one of the accomplices in the misappropriation of our regional power companies.
Luzhniki in Turkey
They wrote that Abramovich helped bring back the “Azovites” from captivity, and even allegedly the President of Ukraine asked the US President to refrain from imposing sanctions against Abramovich, since he could turn out to be a useful mediator.
Who is the head of the GPU playing for? For Luzhniki? What will be his position regarding the confiscation of assets of Russians? Time will tell. In the meantime, Kostin is appealing to American congressmen, demanding action to freeze and seize the assets of Russian oligarchs, not noticing the log in his eye.
The fate of criminal cases that are still in the State Bureau of Investigation and related to the Moscow gang will also become an indicator. According to Skorobogatov, the case regarding the confiscation of hotels from him became more active after the full-scale invasion.
“There is such an influential judge Samsin, who worked at VKKS, and now works at VS Energy as a consultant on legal issues. People lie that the accounting department allegedly gave him 500 thousand, and these funds migrated to Lvov (meaning Bogdan Lvov, the recently fired chairman of the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine. Schemes journalists discovered that he had Russian citizenship and a secret apartment in Moscow). Under Prosecutor General R. Ryaboshapka, the prosecutor’s office transferred the case to the Pechersk District Department of Internal Affairs. It was at that moment when the investigator of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate came out to raise suspicions regarding the seizure of “Rus” and “Metrograd”. For two years, this case languished with an investigator who deals with phone thefts. And if not for the horror that began on February 24, they would have died there. But then there were caring security officials who began to collect information about the Russians. “Mine” UD was taken from the Pechersky District Department of Internal Affairs, and, as far as I know, R. Gowda himself (the first deputy Prosecutor General) canceled the closure order. We’ll see what happens next“
5.What happens next?
It is no secret that after the annexation of Crimea, Babakov and company electrified the checkpoint of the Russian occupiers for free, while the Ukrainian checkpoint located opposite used generators. This is an eloquent answer to the question – on whose side was, is and will be the group that owns Khersonoblenergo.
Once, Russian oppositionist A. Navalny published a transcript of a meeting during which Giner said that 85% of his business is located in Ukraine and works for the interests of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism). And this is also a bright indicator.
And we are on the ORD website back in 2017 warned about Luzhniki:
“According to our experts, the Kremlin’s main interest in the Kherson region is water and electricity for the annexed Crimea. Despite the energy blockade, Ukrainian electricity is supplied to Crimea by Alexander Babakov, a member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), who owns Khersonoblenergo. This is another paradoxical and unpublicized page of this strange war: in 2014, the pro-Putin (*criminal) leader Babakov was included in the EU sanctions list due to the actions of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) in Crimea. But in Ukraine itself, nothing really prevents Putin (*criminal)’s oligarchs from owning the second most powerful energy company. Together with another Russian billionaire, Evgeniy Giner, Babakov can easily organize an energy “Amargedetz”. And at the end of April 2017, the aggressor had a new reason for anger: Crimea finally gained independence from the Dnieper water“:
As predicted, this is what happened: a full-scale invasion began from the Kherson region – with its electricity and its water for Crimea.
But again there were no conclusions. Repeated “attacks” by the SBU and the police on the management of “Khersonoblenergo” and other “raids” (which we also talked about in our publications) were not crowned with success. None of the VS Energy representatives were punished for withdrawing funds from Ukraine, for non-payment of taxes and for creating the preconditions for mass disconnections of consumers from power supplies. On the contrary: throughout the war years, deputies and ministers made statements that “Latvian investors from VS Energy” were impeccable.
It is necessary to deprive the Luzhniki members of their assets primarily because of the criminality that accompanied their acquisition of property rights. The second reason why they deserve priority confiscation is control over energy infrastructure facilities, while the terrorists’ immediate plans are to give us a “Cholodomor” and man-made disasters.
Finally, it’s time to understand that the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) is a gangster state in which loyalty to the boss Putin (*criminal) is the cornerstone. All big business in that country is organized on the principle of a common fund for thieves, and all organized crime is controlled by Lubyanka. Russian oligarchs are members of a mafia clan who sponsor the genocide of Ukrainians. And therefore, all Russian business in Ukraine should be seized to compensate for the damage caused by the war.
It would seem that everyone understands that mercilessness towards the enemy, breaking all ties with the aggressor is the key to the survival of our nation… Back on May 12, 2022, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law on confiscation… Plans were announced to confiscate 9,000 objects… President Vladimir Zelensky announced a course towards dismantling Russian influence, promising the nationalization of Russian assets…
According to activists from the Anti-Corruption Center, the easiest way to dismantle this should look like this:
1. Add Russians to the sanctions list of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine;
2. Confiscate assets through a lawsuit by the Ministry of Justice in the High Anti-Corruption Court.
But something is preventing the leadership of Ukraine from acting decisively and uncompromisingly: the “sword of sanctions” touched only one moneybag – on September 1, VAKS satisfied the claim of the Ministry of Justice to recover the assets of Russian Vladimir Yevtushenkov for state income.
As for Luzhniki: the more you dive into the details, the more you are surprised at how deeply this organized crime group has taken root. You begin to understand that the occupier had reasons to count on bread and salt and an easy ride in a Ukraine weakened by corruption and nepotism.
Putin (*criminal) was “unlucky” that Russian corruption turned out to be much more serious, turning the “second army of the world” into dust. The will and spirit of the Ukrainian people undermined the plans of the invader even more; they proved impossible to break. But everything has a price, and our price is too high. Ukraine pays for the mistakes of the authorities with the blood of its defenders.
Tatiana Zarovnaya
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