CONTINUATION. BEGINNING: Vitaly Belyakov: Coal schemes of the old and new authorities. PART 1
Belyakov was wanted in the “DPR”, but not in Ukraine
During these blessed years for the Yanukovych family, the press began to mention Vitaly Belyakov. Sometimes, in passing, they mentioned him as being involved in the coal schemes of the “family”, in the context of scandals. One of them, which broke out in early 2012, was the supply of that same “earth-enriched” coal to coke plants owned by the holdings “EVRAZ” (Russian oligarchs Alexander Abramov and Alexander Frolov), “ArcelorMittal” (Lakshmi Mittal, Krivoy Rog Coke Plant) and even Akhmetov’s “Metnvest”! The latter raised this scandal, although its background was never revealed. Okay, let’s say the supply of low-quality raw materials to the enterprises of Russian oligarchs and the “Indian” can still be understood – perhaps Alexander Yanukovych wanted to harm their business in this way, cause them losses, “squeeze” the plants away from them. But why did he do this to Akhmetov? Of course, it was then that relations between Yanukovych and Akhmetov began to deteriorate – but was it that bad?
No, this was a different matter, because Akhmetov blamed not Oleksandr Yanukovych and his managers, or even their coal preparation plants, but state-owned mines (Derzhynskugol, Makeyevugol, Artemugol, etc.), although they had absolutely nothing to do with it (coal passes through coal preparation plants anyway). But no one bothered to look into it – they simply stopped buying coal from state-owned mines, driving them and the state holding Ugol Ukrainy into losses. Akhmetov and Yanukovych Jr. immediately found a replacement for them: the so-called “secondary coal market,” that is, the infamous “kopanki.” And the fact that DRFC LLC and other Yanukovych firms, managed by Vitaly Belyakov, Eduard Bondarenko, and Vsevolod Bukhtiarov, sought to bankrupt and destroy Ugol Ukrainy as a state intermediary that was in their way, was obvious.
At the same time, details of coal schemes around PJSC Donbassenergo began to emerge. In particular, In 2013, two companies competed for coal supplies to it: OOO TD Energougol, controlled by people of Efim Zvyagilsky, and OOO Trans Invest, controlled by Eduard Bondarenko and Vitaly Belyakov. In fact, both companies were two “hands” of Oleksandr Yanukovych. It is not surprising that they supplied coal to the thermal power plant at a price of 990 hryvnia, although its market price barely exceeded 600. Under this scheme, Belyakov and Bondarenko had an excess of up to 150 million hryvnia profit per month.
It is clear that these millions flowed into the coffers of the “family”, but Yanukovych’s loyal managers received good “bonuses” for their diligence. So, Vitaly Belyakov had the opportunity to fly to England for football matches, after which he got completely drunk in British pubs. Once in London, according to information Skeleton.Infohe got so wild that he started a fight, and he was saved from arrest only by the fact that the police are not welcome in London pubs. Nevertheless, British journalists made a photofit of the man who got violent, swore and threatened everyone with his connections to President Yanukovych – and established that it was indeed “Mr. Belyakov.”
photofit of Vitaly Belyakov
Between Ukraine and the “DPR”
If for ordinary Ukrainians the conflict in Donbass brought only grief, then for the corrupt “families” of Yanukovych and Poroshenko – billions of profits. Because the sluggish conflict (more like an imitation of war), maintaining the division of Donbass into two parts, allowed them to create new coal schemes. And in essence, the position of the Akhmetov and Oleksandr Yankovych groups has practically not changed: they controlled most of the coal industry of Ukraine until 2014, continued to control it after the second Maidan, and are going to maintain their control under Zelensky. How? If you can’t come with a “tempting offer” directly to Zelensky himself, then you can make it to an influential person from his circle – for example, Kolomoisky. That is why many journalists are sure that the current reshuffle of “coal overseers” is carried out in the interests of Kolomoisky, and that Vitaliy Belyakov now works for him. But is that true?
First, let’s find out what Belyakov was doing in the period 2014-2016. During this period, he was hardly mentioned in the press, and Ukrainian law enforcement officials unanimously claimed that they did not know such a person – however, from somewhere, an alert from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the “DPR” appeared, according to which the separatists declared him wanted. It is unknown whether it is real or fake. However, Belyakov could well have “stirred up” such a thing on the other side of the demarcation line that the entourage of the late Zakharchenko would covet his head. According to rumors, known Skeleton.Infothe reason was the fight for the remains of the state enterprise “Coal of Ukraine”, which Belyakov’s people tried to seize. After this incident, Belyakov hid in Crimea for some time.
The main feature of the coal schemes of the Poroshenko era was that Akhmetov, without hiding, worked closely with the new government, increasing the power of his DTEK and “divorcing” the entire country to his “Rotterdam formula” – but the group of Alexander Yanukovych cooperated with the Poroshenko “family” very secretly, through common “overseers” and curators, such as Vitaliy Kropachev. And if Akhmetov continued to increase his official empire, then Alexander Yanukovych gradually resold it in parts to front men.
During this period, it was decided to liquidate OOO DRFC and sell the shares of TsOF. They sold them to various people, for example, reportedthat the controlling stakes in the shares of the Ukraina Coal Processing Plant were bought by a certain Sergey Pushnyak (apparently a front man), and the Rossiya Coal Processing Plant was bought by Oleg Bondarenko (Eduard Bondarenko’s brother), while the rest were bought by Vitaly Kropachev’s Ukrdoninvest LLC. But if you look at the latest databases, you can see that Kropachev is now the main beneficiary of the Ukraina, Rossiya, and Mirnogradskaya (formerly Komsomolskaya) factories – three out of five that were previously owned by DRFC LLC. The other two – Krasnaya Zvezda Coal Processing Plant (Torez) and Uzlovskaya (Gorlovka) are located “behind the curb” and are a hidden part of the coal schemes (according to sources Skeleton.Infothey belong to Belyakov and his relatives). According to media reports, their manager there is Maxim Eckert, Belyakov’s alleged nephew.
Belyakov continued to work actively on both sides of the front – for Alexander Yanukovych, who was hiding in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), with the support of Vitaly Kropachev, who was sitting in Kyiv, and with the help of his nephew, who was working in Donetsk. One of his schemes was the illegal supply of coal from the “DPR” to the enterprises of “Centrenergo” via… Belarus! He was assisted in this by his godfather, Alexander Uvarov, the director of logistics at “Centrenergo” (now, thanks to Belyakov’s efforts, he is the commercial director), whose son Igor Uvarov was appointed head of the fuel department. And, of course, he will not forget about the coal schemes at “Donbassenergo”, whose director remains Eduard Bondarenko, a man of Alexander Yanukovych. This is where the bulk of the coal from the “DPR” went, from the enterprises controlled by Belyakov.
Although formally the owner of Donbassenergo is Maksym Yefimov, who also bought LLCs leasing mines from the former structures of Alexander Yanukovych, in fact we see people from the same team everywhere. What is happening now? Alexander Yanukovych continues to maintain control over his main enterprises, he only changes their formal owners and directors (he changes directors less often, so they are the main figures). But there are changes: Zelensky’s entourage has entered the game. But who?
It would be a mistake to think that Kolomoisky will be directly involved in this. Does he need it? Coal has never interested him, Kolomoisky needs something else – cheap electricity for his ferroalloy plants. He already achieved through the court preferential tariffs due to the refusal to pay for “green tariffs” (the most expensive). Kolomoisky has one “trick”: for his “DniproAzot” he runs his own gas production companies (in fact, he uses free gas), “Ukrnafta” gives him gasoline and diesel for his fuel companies and gas stations – and logically one could assume that Kolomoisky would want to get his own power plants. For example, the coal-fired thermal power plants “Centrenergo”. But in order to get cheap electricity at these thermal power plants, cheap coal is needed – and its sources are under the control of Akhmetov, Alexander Yanukovych and other groups. Without this coal, the very ownership of “Centrenergo” is meaningless for Kolomoisky – therefore the “privatization” of the enterprise through its bankruptcy by the firms “Transnova” and “Legist Invest” of the scandalous Kryuchkov brothers, who carried out the oligarch’s order, was never carried out.
But then the government changed, and coal leaseholders came to negotiate with them. The media have already named the new “svinarchuks” of the new president: Andriy Gerus and Andriy Bohdan, who have already worked together with the adviser to the head of the National Security and Defense Council of Oleksandr Danylyuk – the odious Serhiy Kuzyara, another “top manager” of Oleksandr Yanukovych.
Sergey Kuzyara
Thus, we have come to the unambiguous conclusion that Vitaliy Belyakov is not Kolomoisky’s man – he has always been and remains one of Oleksandr Yanukovych’s trusted people. It’s just that now Sasha Stomatolog’s people have started to negotiate and “make schemes” with the new government, just as they negotiated in 2014-2015 with Poroshenko’s team. It seems that Zelensky’s entourage is not much different from them! And here’s the most interesting thing: given that Akhmetov’s fortunes have waned recently and there is no information yet on whether he managed to build bridges with Zelensky’s team, we can say that Oleksandr Yanukovych’s people will now “rule” the coal industry.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info
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