Andrey Vingranovsky: cultural swindler at the gas tap of Kyiv. PART 1

We are already accustomed to the fact that in our country any monument can be declared “anti-Ukrainian” and demolished to the joyful cries of “patriots.” But few people know that monuments in Ukraine are also stolen! And not just any statues, but entire historical buildings, so that residential high-rises or shopping centers can later be built in their place. Their direct organizer Andrei Vingranovsky, the former head of the Department for the Protection of Immovable Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture, who is now the head of the board of Kievgaz, could talk about these scams. Moreover, in terms of gas scams, he also has very rich experience in the past, which he probably uses today…

Andrey Vingranovsky. Behind the scenes of art

For most Ukrainians, Andrei Vingranovsky is known only as the husband of Yulia Levochkina. Therefore, many mistakenly believe that it is to her (and her brother) that he owes his position and fortune. But this is not true at all! Vingranovsky married Levochkina only in 2014 (this was his second marriage), when he was already fifty dollars. By that time, he had a very stormy, eventful life behind him: he was a businessman, a big boss, and an even bigger corrupt official. He was also known as the son of his famous father.

Vingranovsky Andrey Nikolaevich was born on July 31, 1963 in Kyiv, in the family of the Soviet actor, director and poet Nikolai Stepanovich Vingranovsky (1936-2004). Fate favored the father just as it then favored the son. Having become interested in theater and poetry in his youth, Nikolai Vingranovsky after school entered the first year of the Kyiv Theater Institute. There, already two weeks later, a guy with a very charismatic appearance for those times was noticed by Alexander Dovzhenko himself – and took Vingranovsky to his place in Moscow at VGIK, where he studied from 1955 to 1960. And although Dovzhenko died a year later, he managed to introduce Nikolai Vingranovsky into his creative and family circle – in which he began his career.

Nikolai Vingranovsky: stormy creative youth, 60s

It is worth noting here that Nikolai Vingranovsky avoided military service: then it lasted at least three years, and there is no such “failure” in his biography. However, his film debut was the main role of the soldier Orlik in the film “The Tale of Fiery Years” (1960), which immediately made him both an official star of the Soviet screen and famous abroad (the film won a prize at the Cannes Film Festival). The film was shot according to the script of the late Dovzhenko, his widow Yulia Solntseva – which determined the choice of Nikolai Vingranovsky for the main role, as a “family friend” and “the master’s favorite student.” However, in any case, he played his role excellently.

However, Vingranovsky’s subsequent roles and films were no longer as successful. Perhaps the reason was that he became a young actor and director of the old creative school, which since the second half of the 60s has become somewhat archaic (film styles change every decade). Therefore, in the 70s, Vingranovsky gradually moved away from feature films and took up poetry professionally, in which he succeeded much more. It was for this that he was then mainly honored, including as a “sixties man”.

Nikolai Vingranovsky with his son Andrei on the set of the film “Quiet Shores”, 1972

But, unlike most of the “sixties”, Vingranovsky did not try to “revolt” (in independent Ukraine he was already included among the “awakeners of the nation”). His films were examples of Soviet “film posters”; his poetry and prose were criticized only once. But he received the status and laurels of a living classic, which helped him make many acquaintances – not only in the creative community, but also in power, including in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. This included fees for books and articles, benefits, trips to writers’ sanatoriums and “special rations,” places on the presidium and generous travel allowances, as well as an apartment almost in the center of Kyiv (in a house opposite Chkalov Square).

Thanks to all this, his son Andrei grew up to be a typical Soviet major, overshadowed by the glory of his dad. He studied at an elite school, did not know any material disadvantage, and since childhood he was familiar with many “uncles” and “aunts” (and their children). But in his case, nature clearly rested on the child of a genius: Andrei Vingranovsky had no intention of becoming a successor to the creative dynasty. Moreover, he considered the creative elite surrounding his father to be “pretentious” and useless people – unless they gave him worthy gifts. But he really valued meeting bosses and diplomats, dreaming of growing up and becoming one of them.

His dream could have come true easily and simply, because dad would certainly have placed him, if not in the Foreign Ministry, then in the Komsomol line or in trade. But Andrei Vingranovsky himself ruined everything. According to the testimony of his friends, whom Skelet.Info reviewed, by the end of school he was already an uncontrollable hooligan blockhead who failed to enter a university. Therefore, all that dad could do for him was to arrange for his son to serve in the army near his home, in the Kiev garrison. Which turned it into a series of AWOLs and drunkenness, for which Vingranovsky Jr. more than once ended up in the guardhouse – from where, again, his dad pulled him out.

Whether he later graduated from some university or not is known only to those closest to him. Surprisingly, in the biography of Andrei Vingranovsky there is not a word about his education! There is generally a complete gap from the moment of birth until the mid-2000s, no mention of where he studied (if he studied), who he worked for, or what he did at all. But why?

Bandit gas

If Andrei Vingranovsky had not hidden information about his youth, then there would have been much less bad rumors around his person. And they are really bad: for example, in the media you can find references to the fact that Andrei Vingranovsky was associated with the organized crime group of Viktor Rybalko (Rybka), and was even a companion of his henchmen. How true is this? Let’s just say: to a very large extent!

The venerable master Nikolai Vingranovsky could not even imagine that his son, who played at robbers, would actually get involved with them when he grew up. Which, in general, is not surprising, because the children of the majors of the Soviet elite often made friends with criminal “authorities”: for example, another of them was Arthur Palatny, by the way, who was rotating in Rybka’s near orbit. But Andrei Vingranovsky’s connections were most likely only “around Rybkin”. Bye Skelet.Info does not have information about what exactly he did in the late 80s – early 90s (the era of gangster formation, when many future oligarchs and people’s representatives walked around the markets with bats). But since the mid-90s, Vingranovsky has been featured in the energy business, next to the names of well-known corrupt officials and bandits. And the question of how he got there still remains open.

Vingranovsky’s bosses at that time were the scandalous swindler Igor Bakai and his fraudulent banker Vasily Gorbal. The latter, by the way, studied at KIMO together with Mikheil Saakashvili and Andrei Ermak.

KIMO alumni meeting, 2004:
in the center is Mikheil Saakashvili, Andrei Ermak on the far right, next to Vasily Gorbal,
to the left of Saakashvili is the current “servant of the people” Andrei Zadorozhny

Vingranovsky’s companions were such odious personalities with a rich criminal past as Mikhail Panteleer and Igor Kucherenko, as well as another Bakaev accomplice, Alexey Kucherenko. Moreover, these two Kucherenkos are often confused in materials about Vingranovsky. In addition, since 2005, a number of articles have repeated the same information that has not stood up to scrutiny, claimingthat Vingranovsky was a co-founder of a certain company “Fuel and Energy”, which is the legal successor of Bakai’s company “REK”. At the same time, they claim that REC at one time was a monopolist in the distribution of gas to Ukrainian enterprises. However, the most detailed search of these companies provides links only to articles repeating this information – and nothing more! How so?

Let’s proceed from the known facts: Bakai had two companies involved in gas on such a scale – first the Respublika corporation, created by him together with Igor Sharov, and then Intergaz CJSC. After Intergaz burst, like Respublika earlier, and Bakai created and headed Naftogaz, one of his successors was the Ukrainian-Swiss joint venture Bari, which operated in Ukraine in the form of a closed joint-stock company of the same name (EDRPOU 22936423) and also engaged in barter payment schemes for energy resources. It was there that Andrei Vingranovsky held the position of vice president in the late 90s, as evidenced by surviving articles of that time. It turns out that someone deliberately changed the names of companies so that publications about Vingranovsky became untrue and simply meaningless? But why? Perhaps then why was his entire biography until 2004 destroyed?

He was directly related to Bari CJSC (according to rumors, allegedly named after Bakai and Rybalko) Alexey Yurievich Kucherenko – a well-known “shadow” businessman, one of Bakai’s partners (he was the head of the board of Intergaz). He also did big things with Konstantin Zhevago and Alexander Volkov. And CJSC Bari participated in his corrupt barter and energy schemes, with the help of which control was established over the Poltava Mining and Processing Plant and other large enterprises.

Alexey Kucherenko, shareholder in Gulliver

It is interesting that when Alexey Kucherenko was the head of the board of Bakaev’s Intergas, the president of the company was Alexander Abdullin, later known as one of the main sponsors of Yulia Tymoshenko. Therefore, it is not surprising that in 2007 Alexey Kucherenko received the post of Minister of Housing and Communal Services in the government of Yulia Vladimirovna. It should also be noted that Abdullin is almost the same age as Vingranovsky; in his youth he was the same Kyiv major, and also served in the Kiev garrison (in Vasilkov).

Another Kucherenko, Igor Ivanovich (b. 1969) at the very beginning of the 90s was known under the nickname “Gonzik” as a member OCG of Vladimir Kisel. According to operational information, he was part of Alexander Kadyrov’s brigade and “worked” at the Vladimir market, extorting money from entrepreneurs. Then Gonzik began working for Rybka: there is even a version in the media that it was he who introduced the Klitschko brothers to him in 1992. Which, in general, is incorrect, because Rybka had known them since the 80s through their mutual friend Arthur Palatny (who knew “Uncle Vitya” since childhood). But what is certain is that Kucherenko in the 90s became one of the protégés of the Klitschko brothers, along with Bakai and Rybka. He very quickly rose from a banal racketeer to a criminal businessman: in the late 90s, he controlled the ritual service of the capital’s “Special Plant for Public Utilities,” which brought in considerable income, and also became a participant in Bakai’s energy schemes. Thus, Igor Kucherenko was also directly connected with Andrei Vingranovsky, then in the same gas and energy business – and it is not surprising that the two Kucherenkos are constantly confused.

Igor Kucherenko (Gonzik) and his “Viagra” Santa Dimopoulos

When there was a big gap between Bakai and Rybalko, Igor Kucherenko chose Bakai’s side (as did Vingranovsky). During the long “division of property” in 2002, Igor Kucherenko “cheated” Rybka for a very large sum (according to the media, $42 million), after which he had to urgently leave for permanent residence in the United States. But every cloud has a silver lining: since then, Igor Kucherenko has become an international businessman. He owns the gold mining company MPG Global, the VEK Capital Partners fund and the SportLife club chain. In 2015, he married a former member of the group “VIAGRA” Sante (Chrisante) Dimopoulos.

Another participant in this scam was called Mikhail Panteleer. In the early 90s, he was one of the most brutal “foremen” of Rybka (according to sources Skelet.InfoPanteleer was engaged in “liquidation”) and even walked in a status close to “authority”. Therefore, friction often arose between him and Rybka, which ended in their deadly quarrel. According to media publications, it was Panteleer who was the “supervisor” of Bakai’s gas companies, which were “protected” and in which Viktor Rybalko invested. And Vingranovsky was allegedly hired by them as vice president of one of them, which corresponded to the then practice of criminal groups of appointing their own people to the management of controlled companies.

Mikhail Panteleer, Vyacheslav Dimont and Sergey Estremsky (from left to right)

The scam of Igor Kucherenko and Mikhail Panteleer greatly angered Rybka – and in response, they staged an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the “authority”, after which the first fled to the USA, and the second to Germany – where he soon received citizenship and a passport in the name of Michael Panteleer. Having created a number of companies in Europe and offshore, after Rybka’s death Panteleer returned to Ukraine as a “German businessman”, engaging in profitable shadow and corruption schemes. In particular, together with the “Hungarian businessman” of Russian origin Vyacheslav Dimont and the deputy of the Lviv City Council from “Batkivshchyna” Sergei Estremsky, they created the company “Sankom”, which is one of the key links in the scandalous garbage schemes of Lvov, from which the whole of Western Ukraine has been suffering for many years. As you can see, it’s not for nothing that they are called gangsters!

Mikhail Shpolyansky, Skelet.Info

CONTINUED: Andrey Vingranovsky: cultural swindler at the gas tap of Kyiv. PART 2

Subscribe to our channels at Telegram, Facebook, CONT, VK And YandexZen – Only dossiers, biographies and incriminating evidence on Ukrainian officials, businessmen, politicians from the section CRYPT!