ATB owner Gennady Butkevich: The rise and fall of one oligarch
The events of autumn-winter 2013-2014 were dubbed the Revolution of Dignity. Many are dissatisfied with the pace of change in the quality of Ukrainian government, but, without a doubt, tectonic shifts have occurred in Ukraine’s domestic and foreign policy. The most odious functionaries of the previous regime left the country, mainly in the eastern direction. The people of the old regime who remained in Ukraine lost access to power. Having lost influence, they are forced to look for themselves in a new reality. Some are looking for approaches to the new government, others are literally going crazy.
An example is the case of Gennady Butkevich, co-owner of the ATB corporation, a supermarket chain of the same name. Having acquaintance with the top officials of the previous government, Butkevich decided destinies. Today, all his power has been reduced to petty fraud in a banal family squabble. In this example of the reverse evolution of a figure from a past era, all the vicissitudes of the formation and collapse of the oligarchic Ukrainian state are reflected in a drop of water.
Stage one. “Press on the gas!”
Google “Tymoshenko stores” – and the search engine will probably lead you to “ATB”. Three funny letters – short for “Agrotechbusiness”. According to Forbes, this company was founded in 1993 by Gennady Butkevich. Under Soviet rule, Butkevich made a career in the police, where he was involved in the fight against economic crimes. True, they say that back in Soviet times he was miserably fired for taking a bribe, along with his colleague, who eventually served time “for himself and for that guy.” They also say that this colleague now holds a responsible position in the ATB corporation – as a reward for his loyalty.
In the early 90s, like many, Gennady Vladislavovich Butkevich went into commerce, selling everything from gasoline to potatoes. Things in the company took a turn for the worse after the ex-silovik headed the security service of the Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine, the most powerful business structure at that time, in the mid-1990s. Such a roof provided access to money and, more importantly, administrative resources for opening more and more retail outlets. This is how Butkevich’s retail business took off.
But, as they say, let he who is not without sin cast the first stone. We must live not in the past, but in today. And today “ATB” is one of the leading trading companies in the country. This chain is in first place in terms of the number of stores. What was the reason for the success? Entrepreneurial talents of owners and management? Technological know-how? Yes, not without that. But this is hardly the main thing. In Ukraine, not a single large business has succeeded without a political roof.
Stage two. Carcass. God level
It is generally accepted that every self-respecting oligarch puts his eggs in different baskets – that is, he finances several political forces at the same time, so as not to depend on the successes or failures of any one political force.
Butkevich took a different path. Having accumulated his initial capital in Dnepropetrovsk, in 2010 he bowed to the Donetsk people. Maybe he believed that the Donetsk ones were forever. Maybe the professional instincts of the cunning Obepovets failed.
Stage three. Big Family. And Gennady Butkevich
In Sicily, initiation into the Cosa Nostra is a sacred sacrament. A newcomer must be recommended by at least three mafiosi. During the ritual, the initiate cuts the newcomer’s palm and spills his blood, symbolizing the brotherhood sealed by blood. There are no stronger ties than blood.
Domestic mafiosi prefer to shed blood other than their own. Our oligarchs unite in hunting clubs and go hunting together. True, not everyone returns from it, as we remember from the tragic incident with Yevgeny Kushnarev, who showed promise as a promising leader of the South-East.
“The Godfather” is Butkevich’s favorite book. However, it is not known for certain whether our hero performed any rite of passage with Yanukovych, Ivanyushchenko, Zakharchenko, Yakimenko and other odious figures of the previous regime. It is known for sure that in the Ivankovsky district Gennady Butkevich rents hunting grounds with an area of 8,000 hectares (!), of which 40 hectares are actually privatized by him. Right next door is Mezhyhirya Yanukovych.
The link with the Donetsk people is people’s deputy Yuriy Samoilenko, a graduate of the USSR KGB higher school, deputy chairman of the SBU, secretary of the Committee on National Security and Defense of the current Verkhovna Rada. An influential person, a member of the notorious “Cedar” hunting club, a kind of secret order that included the closest and most trusted associates of the former president. The famous Mezhigorsk meetings of Yanukovych at the height of Euromaidan could not be done without the participation of Samoilenko.
The owner of ATB built bridges not only with the special services, but also with the police. The highest police officials, prosecutors, judges, and politicians came to his farm to hunt. Gennady Butkevich used his own money to buy a luxurious estate for Minister of Internal Affairs Vitaly Zakharchenko in the village of Romankov, Vasilkovsky district. What can you do to have an entire head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs live next door to your house (or rather, palace).
Friendship with the Family brought Butkevich considerable fruits. Today the ATB chain includes more than 870 stores. And at the beginning of 2010 there were just over 300 stores. Almost threefold growth in four years! And this is against the backdrop of an economic crisis! Isn’t that impressive?
Gennady Butkevich. Stage four, final
After Euromaidan, Butkevich’s patrons fled eastward. It seems that the loss of power has undermined not only the retail corporation, but also the mental health of the retail king.
How else can we explain that a strange attempt on Butkevich’s life took place in August? On September 7, his armored GMC was fired upon in the area of his hunting property. Butkevich himself was not in the car at that time, the driver did not receive a single scratch, they shot at the armored car (which is visible to the naked eye) from a clearly weak caliber (AKM 5.45). The specialists of the operational-investigative group have many questions about this incident, given that this is the fifth application of this kind submitted by Butkevich to the Ivankovsky District Department of Internal Affairs over the past six months.
There are suggestions in the press that Butkevich is trying to cast another shadow on his former son-in-law, owner of S.I. Group Sergei Rybalka. After 7 years of a happy marriage, the couple divorced in 2013. Then followed an unpleasant divorce process, which was accompanied by numerous conflicts between S.I. Group and ATB-Market (S.I. Group produces chips, crackers, snacks under well-known brands, and ATB sells these products), “raids” of the SBU to Butkevich’s company, etc.
When the government collapsed in February 2014, Butkevich could no longer use administrative resources. But he applied his experience from the UBEP past. The former son-in-law was accused of having Russian saboteurs working at his enterprises. In July, a Mercedes was discovered near Nikolaev, registered to an entrepreneur’s old passport with an invalid registration. His belongings and drugs were found in the car. The seller of the car, which was registered a few days before its discovery, did not even see Rybalko, nor did he himself see the car allegedly belonging to him.
A clumsy job, an obvious “set-up,” – this is what law enforcement officials familiar with the circumstances of these cases, friends and relatives think. It seems that the loss of guidelines after the revolution led to Butkevich simply losing touch with reality. Has family conflict really turned into persecution mania?
If respected people cannot come to an amicable agreement on a simple issue and part ways with the world, it means that this is not an economic or psychological case, but a clinical one.
This is an instructive lesson in the modern history of Ukraine. In any circumstances, under any regime, be yourself, remain human, do not turn into people of the regime. Personal happiness and harmony with others are not worth any money. If at least someone in this country understands this simple truth, then the Revolution of Dignity was not in vain.
Skelet.Info
DOSSIER: Rybalko (Fishing) – Semki in chocolate. How the oligarch deputy from Lyashko’s party rests
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