Andrey Pivovarsky
The Ministry of Infrastructure has been at the epicenter of the news lately. We are talking about increasing prices for train tickets, and about a ban on Russian aircraft flying over Ukraine, and about some new semi-mythical port on the Black Sea, and even about expanding the powers of the minister by transferring to him part of the functions of the Ministry of Regional Development. This ministry is headed by a “yuppie boy,” a 38-year-old soldier of the second post-Maidan conscription, Andrei Nikolaevich Pivovarsky, who replaced BYuT member Maxim Burbak in this post (Read more about him in the article Maxim Burbak: how the Chernivtsi people sat on the “golden toilet” of the Donetsk people) from the first government of Arseniy Yatsenyuk. The Ministry of Infrastructure has always been an institution with a high level of corruption – this is due to its specifics, namely the large number of tenedras and the strong “economy” that belongs to it – these are roads that need to be repaired, and all types of transport, and radio frequencies. Suffice it to recall the scandals that shook this government structure during the years of Georgy Kirpa and Evgenia Chervonenko. The current minister is no exception to the rule; we have already written about his corrupt connections with the TIS company, which built an illegal hydraulic structure near the port of Yuzhny. We also wrote about scandals related to the appointment of Ukrposhta leaders. Moreover, literally in August of this year, it was Pivovarsky who was the first contender for removal from the Cabinet of Ministers, which we also reported. But then, apparently, everything worked out. Will it work out now, and where did Andrei Pivovarsky come from in power? We will try to answer these questions in our article.
Eremeev’s protégé
Before his appointment as minister, Andrei Nikolaevich had nothing to do with the civil service or infrastructure. He comes from a business background. He started his career at Dragon Capital, where quite a lot of people came from and went directly from this company to the buildings on Grushevsky and Bankovaya. However, we also wrote about how employees of this company under the leadership of Tomas Fiala evade taxes and generally violate Ukrainian legislation. Then he headed the Continuum company, which includes the oil and food assets of the late deputy Igor Eremeev and his partner, also a deputy Stepan Ivakhiv. Both deputies organized the “Will of the People” group in parliament, the group grew, they gradually bribed majoritarians to join. At the same time, not being in the coalition, the group voted synchronously with the majority for all the initiatives of Petro Poroshenko. Apparently, this was the payment for the appointment of Andrei Pivovarsky to the Cabinet of Ministers under the BPP quota. Eremeev benefited directly from this. His company Vog-Retail has become an almost exclusive supplier of fuels and lubricants for Ukrzaliznytsia and the State Enterprise “Ukrainian Ports Administration”. His food companies began supplying food for trains and planes. But these were minor things. According to some reports, the late Igor Eremeev was actively interested in ports, in particular Nikolaev and Odessa, as well as the Odessa port plant. If he were alive, without his “pocket” minister he would not even be able to think about it. But, as they say, c’est la vie.
Andrey Pivovarsky at the funeral of Igor Eremeev
Fiala’s protégé or second version
According to another version, Pivovarsky was promoted to the position by the already mentioned head of Dragon Capital, Tomas Fiala, allegedly he personally advised Poroshenko, with whom he has a good relationship, Andrei Nikolaevich. This version is supported by a large number of experts from the investment fund who work or collaborate with the ministry. They are mainly engaged in assessing the objects of the Ministry of Infrastructure from the point of view of their possible privatization. Initially, there was talk about the privatization of Ukrazaliznytsia, but they managed to defend it, just like Ukrposhta and the seaports. So far we have succeeded. But there are other tidbits, for example: the Kiev bus station and 24 bus stations in Kyiv and the region, the Ivano-Frankivsk locomotive repair plant, the building of the Institute for Postgraduate Education of Sailors and Rivermen, the state stevedoring company, the Danube Shipping Company, Inflot, river ports. All these enterprises have already been privatized or are preparing for privatization. And it is precisely on such transactions that investment funds, such as Dragon Capital, make money. However, the first version does not exclude the second at all. It could well have happened that both Igor Eremeev and Tomas Fial interceded for Pivovarov.
Tomas Fiala
Scandals in the ministry
Having taken an office in the ministry, Andrei Nikolaevich does not have time to get out of scandals. To list them all would not be enough for this article. But let’s remember the loudest ones. Perhaps the most resonant scandal was the appointment of Alexander Zavgorodniy as head of Ukrzaliznytsia. The fact is that Pivovarsky appointed him without any competition based on… publications on Facebook, which the minister really liked. As a result, Zavgorodniy was caught in non-transparent tender purchases and transferring all profitable cargo transportation to private companies. Another no less loud scandal is the Lviv-Krakovets road. It was supposed to be a concession – the state plus a private investor. As a result, the construction was fully paid for by the state, taking out loans under state guarantees. The scandal surrounding the Ilyichevsk port and Yuri Kruk also deserves attention. In October of this year, the governor of the Odessa region, Mikheil Saakashvili, finally removed the latter from the post of head of the port. But Pivovarsky immediately appointed Kruk as his advisor. Another scandal emerged from Saakashvili related to the low-cost airline Atlas Jet. Andrei Pivovarsky’s subordinate, the head of the State Aviation Service Denis Antonyuk, did not want to give this airline permission to fly to Odessa, but after the personal intervention of the Odessa governor, who complained personally to the president, he finally gave it. By the way, Antonyuk was only suspended from his post, but not fired. And he may well be restored through the courts.
Mikheil Saakashvili and Denis Antonyuk
Plain incompetence
Some of the scandals were generated not by the evil will of Andrei Nikolaevich, but by a banal lack of competence. For example, this summer the minister announced that he had liquidated Ukravtodor – the same one that motorists hate so much that they hang corresponding stickers on their cars. In fact, he is alive and well, and what Pivovarsky liquidated is called the Ukrainian Highways Group of Companies. The reform, according to which 65% of roads should be transferred to local authorities, is also caused by incompetence. Experts say that they simply cannot afford the money. Ukrzaliznytsia still cannot formulate reasonable tariffs and present them to the public, and this is also a lack of competence, but not among the railway workers, who hide these calculations for obvious reasons, but among the minister, who cannot force them to do this. And then Andrei Nikolaevich burst out with a statement in which he called river transport promising. And this is in a country where river ports lie in ruins, and the river fleet has long been cut into scrap metal.
PR and anti-PR
What the Minister of Infrastructure has really excelled at is PR. The ministry’s statements are made almost every week, and each one is more bravura than the other. More and more ambitious plans for reforming the industry are being built and announced. And Andrei Nikolaevich himself is a nice person, European, intelligent, with an American education. He wants to believe. However, the efforts of PR specialists are reduced to zero every day. Almost all residents of Ukraine are, to one degree or another, clients of enterprises of the Ministry of Infrastructure. They travel on roads, on trains, use mobile communications and, as they say, experience the difference between the minister’s statements and harsh reality first-hand. And then he has enemies who are cruelly “tarnishing” him in the PR space. So, for example, in July of this year, boards appeared on which it was written: “Beer + Baileys = Does dad know?” Dad is Poroshenko, beer is Pivovarsky, and Beilis is a freelance adviser to the president, Mikhail Beilin, who is close to Boris Lozhkin and oversees infrastructure in the AP. This poster, apparently, hinted at some “pranks” between them behind Petro Poroshenko’s back. The initiator of these public hints is considered to be one of the leaders of the BPP, deputy Igor Kononenko. He himself wanted to take this place, which he very opaquely hinted to the whole country in an interview with Focus magazine. Next came boards that read: “Absinthe + Sauvignon Blanc. Dad knows everything,” “Egg liqueur + moonshine. Dad knows everything” and “Rogan + Cognac. Dad knows everything.” Sauvignon Blanc is Maxim Blanc, Deputy Director of Ukrzaliznytsia, Rogan – Arsen Avakov (Read more about him in the article Arsen Avakov: the criminal past of the Minister of Internal Affairs), and Egg liqueur – Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Apparently, the author of this campaign liked trolling.
What’s next?
Very soon, on December 11-12, the Verkhovna Rada will hear a report from the Cabinet of Ministers on the work done. The situation is such that the Prime Minister himself may fly out. The Radical Party has left the coalition and is likely to vote for resignation or no confidence simply on principle. There was also a revolt of the “15 Spartans” in the BPP. Fatherland, as always, hesitates. Yulia Tymoshenko went to the anti-tariff Maidan to see Oleg Lyashko and is clearly hinting that she might go again. In a word, you will have to bargain. This means renting out enough profitable positions to situational partners who can prolong the political life of Arseniy Petrovich. With a high degree of probability, the positions of Minister of Health and Minister of Fuel and Energy Complex have already been put up for auction. But these two positions may not be enough, then you will have to pass the AIC and the Ministry of Infrastructure. So it is quite possible that in two weeks Andrei Pivovarsky will return to the closer and more understandable business of an investment banker or managing a company. So, already at the beginning of December, everyone can really win: he himself, the country’s infrastructure, and Ukraine.
Denis Ivanov, for SKELET-info