Alexander Abdullin: what “Tymoshenko’s wallet” hides. PART 1

Why did Yulia Tymoshenko take not second, but only third place in the elections? Why did Batkivshchyna get so little in the local elections? She should ask this question to the one who financed and directed the election campaign, that is, Alexander Abdullin. Five years ago, he took the place next to her that was vacated after the escape of Alexander Turchinov, but, it seems, he copes with his duties very poorly. Abdullin failed to achieve Tymoshenko’s victory in 2014, let her down in the current presidential elections, and may well fail “Batkivshchyna” in future parliamentary elections. The question inevitably arises: is he a deported Cossack? And it is quite logical, if you remember Abdullin’s distant past.

How did journalist Alexander Abdullin become a gas oligarch?

Abdullin Alexander Rafkatovich (ethnic Tatar) was born on June 29, 1962 in Kyiv, where he grew up in an old house on Lenin Street (now Bogdan Khmelnitsky). The apartment there belonged to Abdullin’s grandfather, who in the 30s was an academician and vice-rector of KSU named after. Shevchenko, he died in 1941 as a militia fighter.

After graduating from high school, Alexander Abdullin went to the Kiev Tochelektropribor plant, where he became an apprentice turner, and then twice (in 1979 and 1980) he tried to enter the Faculty of Geography of KSU, but failed. In the end, he was still overtaken by the long arm of the Soviet military registration and enlistment office. According to him, he was taken to the army in a black Volga, and he served in an air defense unit in Vasilkov (25 km from Kyiv), having the opportunity to spend leave at home. Having been demobilized in 1983, Alexander Abdullin spent another year hanging around somewhere, and only in 1984 he entered the Faculty of Journalism at KSU, where a familiar dean invited him. He graduated from the university in 1989, so it’s not difficult to calculate the year of admission.

These oddities gave rise to many rumors about what the young man, who was listed as a turner at the plant, could actually be doing. Moreover, after this, Abdullin began to have unprecedented luck: in 1985, the second-year student began working part-time in several publications, including the mysterious English-language newspaper “News from Ukraine” (no information about such a publication was found), after graduating from university he made an instant career at Rabochaya Gazeta (from journalist to commercial director), and then in 1992 he abruptly jumped into big business.

Of course, Abdullin himself is not from a simple family, and neither is his wife Tatyana Rostislavovna (and before Abdulin she was allegedly the wife of the son of a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine), but still they told different things about him. For example, that before and after the army, Abdullin led a cheerful life as a Soviet major (as far as his parents’ incomes allowed), that one day he got so seriously “into trouble” that he was forced to agree to cooperate with Soviet authorities. That he allegedly first helped them identify “anti-Soviet” (hence the work for an unknown English-language newspaper), and then was switched to working with Kyiv organized crime groups. Where he met his “senior comrade” Alexander Volkov, who, according to Skelet.Infofrom his youth he was assigned as an agent of the Threat Investigation Department to his neighbor Vladimir Kisel (the late Kiev “authority” nicknamed Grandfather).

All these are, of course, just rumors. However, in the early 90s, when all of Ukraine was plunged into crisis and hyperinflation, few could afford to literally swim in dollars. To do this, it was necessary to have access to export resources, as well as great connections in government, law enforcement agencies and the criminal world. Abdullin then not only became rich, he became one of the first Ukrainian oligarchs to rise to fame in oil and gas. And what’s curious is that he still hides exactly how he succeeded! Therefore, there is something to hide there…

In 1989, a young graduate of the journalism department set out to take a series of photographs with views of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. With the help of friends, I received permission and an accompanying person with a dosimeter, and then, with the help of the same friends, I published these photos in the Western press – and, apparently, again with the help of friends, I received an international prize for this in convertible currency, with which I bought myself a A separate apartment in Kyiv (according to rumors, with some repatriate). And as a bonus, journalist Abdullin received a “liquidator” certificate – according to which he has benefits and payments from the state.

In 1992, having abandoned Rabochaya Gazeta and the path of a journalist, Alexander Abdullin became the director of the Intertrade company – information about which was not preserved (or was carefully deleted). After working there for several months, he moved to the position of vice president of the notorious Respublika corporation, created by Igor Sharov and Igor Bakai. This corporation entered the history of Ukraine in the wake of a major gas scandal, causing losses to the state of almost half a billion dollars (and then the dollar was many times “stronger” than the current one). And by the way, unlike a similar scandal with the UESU corporation, it did not have such a resonance and continuation: everyone quickly “forgot” that Bakai and his companions (including Abdullin) had defrauded the state of such a huge amount. Which allowed them to quietly carry out their next scams. And again the question is – why?

Alexander Abdullin. Republic scams

There will be even more questions if we remember who the founders of the “Republic” were then. The first is Kirovograd businessman Igor Sharov, who with his brothers opened the company “Inkopmark”, which became one of the founders of “Republic”. According to sources Skelet.InfoIgor Sharov moved to Kyiv thanks to the connections of his older brother, a policeman, with the former head of the Kirovograd Regional Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Yuri Kravchenko (future Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs). This happened just when Kravchenko became the chairman of the State Customs Committee of Ukraine in 1993, that is, he opened the gates of customs to the “Republic”. Well, it’s more or less clear.

The second is Igor Bakai, who until 1993 “made a living” by selling food products, and suddenly rose to the position of president of one of the largest gas companies, which also robbed the state of half a billion “bucks” with impunity. But the secret of his success is as surprising as the career rise of his assistant Abdullin. Perhaps he really is the nephew of the first president Leonid Kravchuk, as various sources have repeatedly reported. But perhaps it was about other, not at all related, connections of Bakai with the largest organized crime groups in Kyiv and their high-ranking patrons.

When Bakai ran in the majoritarian district in Rivne in the 2002 elections, he was remembered there for his political advertising in the company of the Klitschko brothers. This, by the way, was the first time that the Klitschkos participated in big politics, albeit only as a support team. So, back in 1997, Bakai became the main sponsor of Vitali Klitschko, but became close friends with this sports star back in the early 90s, when he was a protégé of the crime boss Rybka (Viktor Rybalko). One might assume that Bakai “bought” Klitschko from Rybka, but this is not so. Because in the early 90s they were all one team: Bakai, Klitschko, and Rybka. At the same time, Alexander Abdullin joined their team, associated with another team – Alexander Volkov and Vladimir Kisel (Grandfather). All of them (including Sharov) were united by a big business carried out through the Respublika corporation. To which Semyon Mogilevich and his Kiev “supervisor” Alexander Presman also had a relationship. By the way, when Kisel ended up in a pre-trial detention center in 1997, Bakai gave the money for his ransom (a million dollars), and Presman brought it to the Organized Crime Control Department.

Obviously, there were many such deals, and it was they that allowed Bakai (and Abdullin, who accompanied him) to quickly blaze a trail to the palaces of the Central Asian “emirs,” where he agreed on barter gas schemes. The situation was as follows: by the beginning of 1994, the state company Ukrgazprom, due to hyperinflation and the crisis of non-payments, owed Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) and Turkmenistan huge sums for gas – and they simply stopped selling it to it (and in February 1994, the Russian Gazprom for the first time stopped gas transit through Ukraine for days). This became the reason that gas purchases in Ukraine began to be carried out by those who could pay for it – that is, private companies. “Itera” and “Commonwealth” (since 1995 – UESU) purchased gas mainly in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), and the “Industrial Union of Donbass” in Uzbekistan, and fully served the interests of their owners. “Respublika” was supposed to become a mediator between Ukrgazprom and Turkmenistan, and first of all pay off old debts – this is exactly what Leonid Kravchuk, who was preparing for early elections, blessed it with.

The authorized capital of “Republic” was about 4 thousand dollars, Ukraine’s gas debt to Turkmenistan was 672 million dollars. Respublika actually did not have its own money, however, using an “unlimited loan” from the Cabinet of Ministers and the President, in a few months of 1994 Respublika, under the management of Bakai, Sharov and Abdullin, somehow settled the old debts of Ukrgazprom. . Moreover, Turkmen President Niyazov became a great friend of Bakai – that is, he probably received good kickbacks from this. However, appeasing the “Turkmenbashi” came at a cost to Ukrainian enterprises, whose products sent to Turkmenistan remained unpaid, and loans taken from Ukrainian banks were not repaid. The same thing happened with Turkmen gas supplied under new contracts in 1994: “Republic” almost paid for it with Turkmenistan, but again did not return anything to either Ukrainian enterprises and banks or to the Ukrainian budget.

Where did the money go? According to sourcesSkelet.Infoa significant part went to finance Kravchuk’s election campaign (presidential elections), plus the election funds of several officials and businessmen who ran in majoritarian districts (parliamentary elections). Apparently this was the main reason that after the elections, “Republic” simply quickly curtailed its activities. But here’s a new mystery: in the storage facilities of Ukrgazprom, 2.2 billion cubic meters of gas belonging to Respublika lay untouched for two more years (!) – and no one dared to confiscate them to pay off the corporation’s debts to the budget and state-owned enterprises, which amounted to half a billion dollars! Moreover, soon the documentation of the Republic was burned during a mysterious fire at its head office.

Fraudsters from Intergas

In February 1995, Intergas CJSC was established in Simferopol (USREOU 22298336). For a long time now, this has been an unremarkable company, doing who knows what and rewritten to some dummies. However, it was with her that a new large-scale project of Bakai and Abdullin began. Within a few months, they registered a number of subsidiaries of the same name in Ukraine, the parent holding in Kyiv (JSC Intergas), and in Pennsylvania (USA) the company Intergas Inc – of which Igor Sharov became the director. The main office of Intergaz, with the rank of president of the company, was headed by Alexander Abdullin, who remained in this position until the spring of 1998, when he received the mandate of a people’s deputy, and Igor Sharov (as chairman of the board of directors).

It is curious that the first vice-president of Intergez, that is, Abdullin’s deputy, then became Ivano-Frankivsk businessman Alexey Ivchenko, the future scandalous head of Naftogaz and future owner of the collapsed Eurogasbankwhich cost investors and creditors 2.18 billion hryvnia. It was from his position at Intergaz, in the team of Bakai, Abdullin, Presman and Kisel, that his rapid gas career began. But how the wind carried him there also remains a mystery. Ivchenko is a very dark horse, it is only known that he was a man from a certain group that controlled the oil and gas business in Galicia and decided to participate in Bakai’s big undertaking.

Together with Bakai, Abdullin repeatedly traveled to the United States, where they were engaged in the acquisition of expensive real estate with money transferred from the Ukrainian Intergas to its Pennsylvania branch Intergas Inc. Again, it was known that Bakai and Sharov bought a “ranch” there for themselves, but information about Abdullin was again carefully deleted. The same goes for all the details about the activities of Intergas, although it was not easy to hide them: the corporation was the largest importer of gas. Only in 1996, Intergaz purchased 10 billion cubic meters of blue fuel from Gazprom at a price of 80 dollars – it was much more expensive than Turkmen gas (at 55), but for some reason Intergaz switched from Turkmenistan to Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) . Perhaps the name of this reason was Presman – who was the “supervisor” from Mogilevich, who in turn was interested in sales of Russian gas (not Gazprom’s, but through Gazprom).

However, in the same 1996, Pavel Lazarenko became prime minister, who patronized the UESU corporation (Yulia Tymoshenko). Things did not go as well for Intergaz as they could have, but the Bakai-Sharov-Abdullin team managed to butter up Leonid Kuchma. Back in 1996, Igor Sharov, who defected from the Communist Party (the gas oligarch was elected to the Rada as a communist) to the pro-presidential “Constitutional Center”, was appointed Kuchma’s representative in parliament. And in 1997, Igor Bakai was appointed Deputy Minister of the Oil and Gas Industry of Ukraine. A few months later, Bakai abandoned scams with private companies and created the state corporation Naftogaz of Ukraine, which included structures of the collapsed Ukrgazprom and Ukrgaz. According to Bakai’s idea, Naftogaz became a gas monopolist, so the activities of all other gas companies were curtailed.

How did “Kravchuk’s nephew” manage to gain Kuchma’s trust so quickly? Perhaps this was facilitated by Alexander Volkov, who financed Kuchma in the 1994 elections and has since been part of Leonid Danilovich’s inner circle. Well, the common link between Bakai and Volkov was the “authority” Kisel.

By that time, Alexander Abdullin himself had acquired a mandate, having been elected to the Verkhovna Rada in electoral district No. 97 (Kyiv) in the spring of 1998 and joining the ranks of the eternal people’s deputies – he has, as they say, been in parliament for 21 years. And this was very useful to him already in the same year, 1998, when the Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal case against Abdullin and his three partners: Oleg Rafalsky, Valery Akopyan and Oleg Zeldin.

Hakobyan was the chief accountant of Respublika and Intergaz, that is, a direct participant in all their dirty schemes. Rafalsky was called Sharov’s man – he is also from the “Kirovograd”, but in the “2000s” he joined the “Donetsk” and served Yanukovych faithfully for a long time, making a career as a deputy in his Administration (2010-2014), after which he ran to serve Turchynov, and then Poroshenko. No information has been preserved about Zeldin; perhaps he was closely connected with Abdullin, who also carefully cleaned up his past.

These four were accused of large-scale scams involving barter transactions for the purchase of gas, stealing money from state-owned enterprises that sold products for barter payments for gas, non-payment of huge sums to the budget, as well as laundering dirty money through Ukrgasbank and transferring large sums abroad (including number in the USA). The case was set in motion, investigators seized stacks of documents from Ukrgasbank. However, then, on orders from above, the investigation was curtailed, the documents were returned to the bank, and the case was forgotten – after which a fire broke out again, and all the evidence was allegedly burned. As you can see, Abdullin burned evidence in the most literal sense of the word!

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

CONTINUED: Abdullin Alexander: what is hidden in “Tymoshenko’s wallet” PART 2

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