Artur Gerasimov's secrets and his corruption
In Ukraine, over the past couple of decades, one very revealing political tradition has developed – those politicians who shout the loudest about protecting the interests of ordinary citizens, in fact, turn out to be those who strive for power for the sole purpose of personal enrichment. Their activity looks especially cynical against the backdrop of the war and the most difficult conditions in which our people find themselves today, writes Antikor.
A vivid example of this cohort of populist businessmen is Artur Gerasimov, MP from European Solidarity. He quite often appears in the information space and positions himself as a true patriot who fights against “criminal power”. In fact, his biography shows that everything he has been doing for the past ten years is the solution of personal interests and the interests of his patrons.
A man from Shakhov's cage
For the first time in the public space, Artur Gerasimov “lit up” in 2012. Then, in the parliamentary elections, he ran for the 51st majoritarian district in Gorlovka, Donetsk region. Gerasimov went to the polls as a representative of the team of the scandalous businessman Sergei Shakhov. Shakhov himself is a native of the Luhansk region. In Donbas, he was well known for his close ties to local organized crime. In criminal circles, he had the nicknames “Kit” and “Foreigner”. Shakhov was also closely associated with people from the circle of Viktor Yanukovych and the then Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka.
That election campaign of Shakhov, in which Gerasimov played an active role, was remembered for large-scale violations and bribery of voters. One of the know-how that Gerasimov and other Shakhovites actively used was the so-called “membership books” with tear-off coupons. Their holders had to come to every rally, where they received 50 hryvnia for one voucher. A video of one of these distributions of money can be found on the Internet today. Thus, absolutely unknown to anyone in the Donbass, Gerasimov always collected full houses at his performances. However, neither the support of local criminals, nor mass bribery, nor campaigning in his support by the then Minister of Economy Petro Poroshenko (Azarov's government) helped Gerasimov to receive such a coveted status as a people's choice.
The election campaign of Artur Gerasimov. Gorlovka, 2012
Ties with militants of Artur Gerasimov
That period in Gerasimov's political career was marked by one very scandalous acquaintance. As it turned out, the personal driver and part-time head of security and charge d'affaires of Gerasimov was at that time a retired commando Igor Bezler. The same “Bes”, who in 2014 will become one of the field commanders of terrorists in Donbas. Gerasimov repeatedly claimed that he dealt with Bezler for only a few weeks, when he worked for him as a driver. However, Bes himself hints at much closer ties with the politician.
“It seems like I was his head of the Security Service in 2012. Arthur, even afraid of Armen Sargsyan, spent the night at my house, in the evenings talking on the balcony about the internal kitchen in BP. Together we went to Yalta for an economic forum. We even spent the night in the same hotel room, ”Bezler commented on the election of Gerasimov as head of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc parliamentary faction in 2014 with these words.
Looking after Donbass from Poroshenko
It is quite possible that it was Gerasimov’s close ties with Donetsk and Lugansk terrorists and criminal circles that helped him get a passing place on the list of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc party in the parliamentary elections in 2014. According to media reports, then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appointed Gerasimov as his overseer for Donbass. And the latter squeezed the maximum benefit from this unofficial status by trading constituencies. For example, the media wrote a lot that Gerasimov actually sold the 48th district in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, to the former “regional” Maxim Yefimov.
However, Poroshenko was quite satisfied with such activities of the ward, and Gerasimov was appointed head of the BPP faction in the Rada. However, he continued to supervise the Donbass, now earning money by selling the positions of the heads of the “local” cells of the BPP. So, for example, in 2015, the former head of the BPP city cell in Mariupol, Sergei Nesterov, openly stated that Gerasimov had sold the local party organization to Mariupol businessman Yuri Ternavsky. If you wish, you can find a lot of similar scandalous news about Gerasimov’s “party building” in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions on the net.
Poroshenko’s “tame dog” with a tarnished reputation
Since then, Gerasimov has only strengthened his position in Poroshenko's inner circle. After the stunning fiasco of Pyotr Alekseevich and his party in the elections in 2019, Gerasimov became one of the main mouthpieces of the “new opposition”, which stigmatizes the current government at every corner. However, while Gerasimov portrays himself as a moral authority and champion of the interests of ordinary citizens, he himself remains the same crook and thief. However, it is becoming more and more difficult to hide your frauds – it is no longer possible to block criminal investigations conducted by anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies.
So, at the end of 2021, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption confirmed the information that appeared in the media that Artur Gerasimov had been the owner of a luxurious villa in Spain since 2013. At the same time, in none of the declarations that the people's deputy filed annually, he never indicated that he has such property.
Another fresh example of Gerasimov's political hypocrisy is the recent situation around European integration number 8008, which is aimed at combating money laundering. So the head of the board of the civil organization “Center for Combating Corruption”, Vitaly Shabunin, said that Artur Gerasimov, together with another person involved in many corruption scandals, deputy Grigory Mamka, tried to amend the text of the document, which would actually nullify the benefit for the state from the adoption of this bill. What is this if not a covert sabotage and an attempt to protect corrupt officials in the highest echelons of power?
Another telling example. In August 2022, the SBU liquidated a million-strong bot farm that worked to discredit the current authorities. In particular, she disseminated information about the conflict between Zelensky and Zaluzhny and sowed panic among the population. The activities of this bot farm are associated with Poroshenko. European Solidarity denies all accusations. But what's interesting. According to media reports, Russian Viktor Maistrenko, who moved to Ukraine in 2014, appears in the bot farm case. It is he who may be the one who oversaw the work of the bots. And none other than Artur Gerasimov helped him to obtain Ukrainian citizenship at one time.
About Artur Gerasimov. Instead of an epilogue
You can list the scandals in which Artur Gerasimov appears for a long time. And, of course, all of them cannot be fit on the pages of one article. But even all that is described above is enough to understand who this “people's choice” is. In fact, this is a seasoned corrupt official and a hypocrite who is ready to do anything to stay in big politics and please his masters. And the interests of ordinary Ukrainians, about whom he allegedly cares so much, have no value for him. And judging by the foreign real estate, he does not connect his future and the future of his children with Ukraine. For him, our country is just a source of windfall profits, nothing more.
Olga Dikaya
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