Corner of Gizo: how the Americans slipped the Georgian “bug” to Ukraine. PART 2

BEGINNING: Gizo Uglava: how the Americans slipped the Georgian “bug” to Ukraine. PART 1

Gizo Uglava. “Joni” and “Boni”

Initially, the creation of NABU was an American idea (as stated in the cited materials from the “Bedbugs” case), and to some extent this could even be explained positively: since the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General’s Office are in any case controlled by Ukrainian politicians and oligarchs, it is impossible to fight Ukrainian corruption could be dealt with by a body controlled by some neutral party. America (the State Department and the FBI), acting through its Ukrainian protégés, was meant to be such a neutral party. The idea seemed good, but the reality turned out to be completely different than in the “USA for Dummies” books.

One of the big mistakes of the Americans was that they decided to settle Saakashvili’s team, which had escaped from Georgia, in Ukraine. They were announced as a “landing party of experienced reformers”; they brainwashed Ukrainians for quite a long time with stories about how they made Georgia a civilized country, but at the same time kept silent about the fact that the “reformers” had to literally flee from the retribution of their angry compatriots. This was tantamount to Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) placing the “Donetsk people” who escaped from Ukraine into the government of, say, Belarus or Syria. It is interesting that the Americans themselves do not tolerate anyone’s “help” in their internal affairs; they do not even allow European observers into their elections.

By the way, the first contenders for the post of director of NABU and his deputies were mainly only Georgians: Mikheil Saakashvili himself, Zurab Adeishvili, former heads of the “political police” Data Akhalaya (brother of the aforementioned Bacho Akhalaya) and Soso Tuporidze.

In addition to Gizo Uglava, the former department of operational and technical services of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, Zurab Kotaria, who was accused of creating a mass wiretapping system, was proposed as deputy. In general, still that “team of reformers”! However, in the end, Artem Sytnik, Anatoly Novak and Gizo Uglava were appointed to head NABU.

The question of who recruited whom remains unclear. The materials of the “Klopy” case claim that Gizo Uglava (agent “Boni”) was recruited by US intelligence services during his work as Deputy Chief Prosecutor of Georgia, and that since then he has been receiving $50 thousand from them every month to accounts in foreign banks . And that it was Uglava, after his appointment to NABU in April 2015, who, in turn, recruited Artem Sytnik (agent “Joni”). Sytnik himself, when appointing Ugdava, publicly statedl that Uglava’s candidacy was recommended to him by the embassies of the USA, Britain, Canada and the EU.

The issue of distribution of roles in the leadership of NABU is also unclear to an outsider. Numerous sources Skelet.Info It has long been reported that the true head of the bureau is Gizo Uglava, because it is through him that the Americans exercise control and leadership of NABU. Simply put, the Head of the NABU represents the United States, while his boss Sytnyk and colleague Novak represent there only the interests of the corrupt ruling elite of Ukraine. And who is leading whom, probably, there is no need to clarify! This also confirms public statement Nikolai Martynenko, who called NABU “a politicized branch of the Georgian mafia.”

To some extent, confirmation of this was the scandalous surveillance of Artem Sytnik, which was established … by his deputy Gizo Uglava. Information about this was first published on his blog on October 3, 2016 by journalist Vladimir Boyko. Almost immediately, one of its “founders,” People’s Deputy Sergei Leshchenko, rushed to save the reputation of NABU, declaring that this was not surveillance, but “counter-surveillance” in order to identify the real “tail” – who was allegedly an SBU employee. Well, later Sytnik himself spoke to the press, calling surveillance of himself “the fantasies of sick people.” At the same time, he had no questions for Uhlava; he continued to praise his “professional talent.”

By the way, in his comments on this scandal, Boyko later also added that Uglava, at the request of the US intelligence services, lobbied for NABU unlimited access to all Ukrainian information channels (telephone communications, Internet).

A little later, another scandal broke out: it turned out that Gizo Uglava was appointed to the position of deputy director of NABU not entirely legally, and maybe even not at all legally. The fact is that at the time of his appointment (April 2015) he remained a citizen of Georgia, since he lost it only on May 31, 2016. And he is not alone: ​​in response to a request from journalists from the 1News resource, the Georgian Ministry of Justice sent an official response, which clearly indicated the dates for the renunciation of Georgian citizenship by Gizo Uglava, Ekaterina Zguladze, Mikheil Saakashvili and other “reformers.” That is, at a minimum, it turned out that they received their positions as holders of dual citizenship – and this is prohibited in Ukraine. But, on the other hand, no documents were found indicating that Gizo Uglava received Ukrainian citizenship before April 2015. That is, a foreigner was actually hired for an important government position – bypassing all laws and official instructions!

Once again, NABU clumsily tried to save the reputation of its deputy director. Responding to a request from 1news journalists regarding Uglava’s citizenship already sent to the bureau, NABU sent them an official letter in which they stated the following: Gizo Uglava has not been a citizen of Georgia since 06/07/2016, and everything else falls under the law “On the Protection of Personal Data” , and therefore the bureau has the right to refuse journalists their request. Like this!

And silence! The dubious citizenship of Uglava and other “Georgian reformers” was forgotten for almost a whole year, until the spring of 2017, when the Prosecutor General’s Office became interested in Uglava’s citizenship, and at the same time his taxes (more precisely, their non-payment). It turned out that having sold his company “LLC Transportir” in 2016 (and in 2015, he calmly owned it, being the deputy director of NABU) and gained 3,380,750 hryvnia, he never paid almost 600 thousand hryvnia from it taxes. In general, in May 2017, the Prosecutor General’s Office began an investigation. But after a few months the case was opened against the investigators of the Prosecutor General’s Office themselveson charges of “introducing false data into official documents with the aim of interfering in the activities of the first deputy director of NABU.” And again Uglava fought back!

But then Mikheil Saakashvili, who muddied the waters of politics, was expelled from Ukraine and his brother David was almost expelled. Then they said that some of his fellow countrymen might follow the ex-president, but for Gizo Uglava everything worked out again. Even despite the fact that at the same time a conflict broke out between NABU and the “amber people’s deputy” Mikhail Polyakov, during which he again raised the issue of Uglava’s citizenship with journalists, and also accused him of illegally tapping phones and spying on the heads of law enforcement agencies of Ukraine.

But, not really relying on his “luck,” Uglava decided to strike the first blow and launched an entire special operation against the deputy head of the State Migration Service, Dina Pimakhova. As they say, protect yourself and at the same time avenge Mikheil Saakashvili. The special operation consisted of the NABU agent having to hook Pimakhova. The agent tried very hard, but apparently he worked so clumsily that Pimakhova simply reported him to the SBU. All in all, the special operation ended in complete failure and the arrest of the unlucky “sext”, after which the SBU and the Prosecutor General’s Office on the one hand, and the NABU on the other, spent another month sorting out the relationship and the boundaries of their powers with each other. Behind this scandal, we managed to forget why exactly the Uglava people developed the leadership of the Migration Service.

But among the accusations against NABU and specifically Gizo Uglava, which Mikhail Polyakov poured out, there was a rather interesting mention of a certain bribe, for which the bureau allegedly closed the case of embezzlement at the Artemsol enterprise (in the amount of 36 million hryvnia). Journalist Vladimir Boyko also spoke about it, clarifying that Uglava received 500 thousand dollars (almost a third of the stolen amount, practically a “kickback”). And as you remember from what was written above, in the spring of 2016, Vladimir Ugulava, the same “bald brother” of Gizo Ugulava, a man from the Gigi Ugulava clan, who also participated in the Georgian “state racketeering” as a temporary manager of the “squeezed out” enterprises, became keenly interested in this enterprise .

So, in the spring of 2016, they decided to change the management at Artemsol, which had been brought to almost bankruptcy. Vladimir Dolya became its director, and Vladimir Ugulava became his deputy, who immediately announced that he was going to prepare this strategic enterprise for privatization. The idea was supported by both the State Property Fund and Prime Minister Groysman, but the enterprise staff, with the support of as yet unknown forces, opposed privatization, saying that this is the path to the destruction of Artemsol, whose cheap products do not allow salt producers from Europe and Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) into the Ukrainian market ( This has already happened with Lisichansky Soda, which was destroyed after privatization). Moreover, Artemsol employees stated that the company’s management was trying to actually organize a raider takeover of the enterprise through an attempt to create a certain LLC under it with obviously dummies.

The situation around the enterprise was and remains extremely confusing, but it is still a curious “coincidence”: Vladimir Ugulava becomes deputy director of Artemsoli, and after some time information appears that NABU has closed the case of mass theft at the enterprise. Looks like this story might be worth digging into for other law enforcement agencies!

And these are not the only accusations against Gizo Uglava of closing cases “to order.” Thus, people’s deputy from the BPP Dmitry Golubov publicly stated in January 2016 that the then Odessa governor Mikheil Saakashvili received a bribe from the Kadorr Group company (owner Advan Kivan) in the form of three new apartments, which went to Saakashvili himself, his deputy Vladimir Zhmak and regional prosecutor David Sakvarelidze. A scandal arose, NABU opened a criminal case – only to close it a month later, officially declaring insufficient evidence.

But with regard to Arseniy Yatsenyuk, NABU immediately closed its eyes, although the blatant waste of public funds on the “Wall” project became the talk of the town. In the same way, the Anti-Corruption Bureau turned out to be blind when the topic of the coal schemes of Igor Kotvitsky, a longtime companion of Arsen Avakov, nicknamed the “wallet” of the Minister of Internal Affairs, was raised.

And finally, Nikolai Martynenko and his namesake Nikolai Zlochevsky, mentioned in the “Bedbugs” case. The fact that the Americans have set themselves the goal of squeezing the Russian manufacturer of fuel rods for nuclear power plants out of Ukraine, replacing them with Westinghouse products (the company is experiencing problems and needs to expand the market) has long been not only no secret, but is even welcomed by the “patriotic” part of the Ukrainians. Therefore the resulting Skelet.Info the information that NABU was used to “assault” Martynenko looks quite realistic. Martynenko got involved with Energoatom back in the 90s, and during this time simply merged with Russian companies, but was unable to reorient his business vector to the West (besides, the Americans were not going to share with him).

The ending of the case of Zlochevsky, co-owner of Burisma Holdings, also looks quite logical. Let us remind you: at the end of 2014, Zlochevsky fled from Ukraine because the Prosecutor General’s Office opened a case against him for tax evasion (amounting to more than a billion hryvnia) and “illegal enrichment.” In 2015, he was even put on the wanted list, and the gas wells of Burisma Holdings were seized. But then the situation changed: first Zlochesky was removed from the wanted list, then NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office took over his case, in August 2017 they closed the case of the illegal issuance of gas production licenses to Burisma Holdings, and in February 2018 then the case against Zlochesky himself was closed. As the director of the bureau, Sytnik, explained to the confused journalists, “arrests were lifted, arrests were made, then someone paid some taxes, the case was closed.” Like this! I paid retroactively “some taxes” (or not taxes, but bribes) and you can sleep peacefully! But, as you know, the reason for Zlochevsky’s amnesty was not only “some taxes”: the co-owner of Burisma Holdings is Hunter Biden, the son of the former US Vice President. Well, at the same time, according to the material in the “Klopy” case, in order to successfully return Burisma Holdings, a case was opened back in 2016 against gas circuit master Alexander Onishchenko, apparently with the aim of taking away his wells…

In general, as you could see for yourself, the “anti-corruption activities of the Georgian reformer” often consisted in the fact that the deputy director of NABU carried out orders for “attacks” or “excuses”, covered up for his Georgian comrades and “clan members”, and waged his own war against the Prosecutor General’s Office and SBU, in order to protect itself from well-founded accusations against itself. And there are plenty of episodes of the stormy activity of Gizo Uglava listed here, even without mentioning the “Bedbugs” case. As they say, a small bug is a stinky one! But, unfortunately, this is a much bigger problem than the actual collapse of the NABU project and other anti-corruption bodies (and the Anti-Corruption Court will soon join them), on which Ukrainians placed so much hope. The creation in Ukraine of a duplicate law enforcement system, completely controlled by Washington and ready to work “to order”, which has already come into conflict with other authorities, will not lead to anything good. It seems that the people leading it, who had already compromised themselves once in their native Georgia, did not want to properly use their second chance in Ukraine.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

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!