Dmitry Torner: from a Moldovan prison to Firtash’s negotiators. More questions than answers
Dmitry Torner became widely known in Ukraine after he was removed from the elections in 2019 at the request of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the SBU, writes Anticorrosive.
Recall that then Torner tried to get into the Verkhovna Rada on the lists of the Opposition Platform for Life, but the then Interior Minister Avakov and the head of the SBU Bakanov demanded that the CEC withdraw his candidacy due to the fact that Dmitry Torner was a defendant in several criminal cases and had fake documents:
Then, by the way, these criminal cases were closed, and the Prosecutor General’s Office stated that “they have no claims against Torner.” But this already happened later, after the name of Dmitry Torner surfaced in a much louder scandal in 2021 – Schemes journalists published information that in February 2021, Torner, who has a rather strange biography, visited the Office of the President of Ukraine Zelensky:
The OPU was silent on this matter. But, unlike the information of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the SBU about the criminal past of Thorner, which was refuted by the Office of the Prosecutor General, they did not refute anything.
After this visit, the mysterious personality of Thorner attracted everyone’s attention – it turned out that this person is called the “negotiator” of Firtash, who, after fleeing to Austria from Ukrainian and American justice, tried to agree on something in the Zelensky Office. And it is clear that Thorner’s visit to the OPU was connected precisely with Firtash’s interests.
In this regard, the biography of Dmitry Torner was quickly unearthed and she was shocked: it turned out that a man calling himself Dmitry Grigorievich Torner changed at least five passports and several citizenships. And yet he really has a criminal past, and, contrary to expectations, these are not convictions of any authority, but what is called “gopnichestvo” in the criminal environment.
Much has been written about this, therefore we will only briefly recall, in order to understand the subsequent series of events. Dmitry Grigoryevich Torner was born in the Moldavian SSR in 1980 under the name Dmitry Nekrasov, in March 2003 and February 2004 he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for embezzlement of property on an especially large scale and fraud. And you should not delude yourself with “especially large sizes” – Nekrasov sat down for stealing mobile phones, the cost of which just falls under “especially large”. The scheme is as simple as the world – “let me call.” I think there is no need to say more. Here, by the way, link for the curious.
In this regard, pay attention to his official biography:
This Wikipedia article was created in 2021 and was last edited on October 20, 2022. This means that Dmitry Torner agrees with everything in it – because he regularly cleans up materials that are objectionable to him both with the help of the justice authorities, and with the help of money and complaints.
Therefore, let’s pay attention to two things in the article: citizenship and a huge hole in the biography – higher education is vaguely mentioned, entrepreneurial activity and interest in chemistry and some kind of technology are also vaguely mentioned.
The first (it is also the last) specific information says that “In 2019, he held the position of head of the analytical department of the Chem-Trade company (Ukraine), which specializes in the supply of gas and electricity. At the moment, he is a consultant to a number of European companies operating in the field of energy, chemistry and technology.” At the same time, the phrase “sports functionary” flaunts on the right. Which somewhat contradicts the previous paragraph.
Everything is explained quite simply – the information that the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office pathetically refuted after Torner appeared in Zelensky’s Office as a “negotiator” of Firtash is true. Torner, then still Nekrasov, was convicted and served time in the so-called open colony No. 9 (Prunkul), in which he only had to spend the night. Using these conditions, on November 11, 2004, Nekrasov married a citizen of Moldova, Lyudmila Bozhy, took her last name, received a new passport and left Moldova for Ukraine.
Who helped a man with a term of 11 years to get into such a camp is an open question. As well as the one who closed the criminal case six years after the escape because of the “wanted man’s death.” On November 9, 2009, Dmitry Nekrasov’s death certificate was provided by his brother Oleg. The same brother in 2019-21 accompanied the “dead man” during meetings with Moldovan President Dodon.
After escaping from a Moldovan prison, Nekrasov (then already God’s) appears in Ukraine. Where, too, begins to change names. This process is described in some detail in the Ukrainian press, therefore we will only mention that from God he turned into Dmitry Grigorievich Malchenko (passport EB No. 169210), then he became Grozny (passport EB 183214), after Grozny, in 2015, he finally took his current last name. True, in this interval there was also a Russian passport with the surname Sokolovsky, but more on that below.
And in an incomprehensible way, he makes a huge career leap, if such a phrase can be applied to a petty swindler. While still Dmitry the Terrible, our hero finds himself in the highest spheres of Ukrainian power – he establishes close relations with the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Ratushnyak, and the chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Ovcharenko.
In 2103, something else strange happens – Dmitry the Terrible suddenly hides in the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra (UOC-MP) and appears some time later in Russia, in the Borovsky Monastery in the Kaluga Region. There, he was joined by a citizen of Ukraine, Olga Valerievna Sokolovskaya, whom Grozny married. But he married her already as a citizen of the Russian Federation (RF passport 516131004). And he took his wife’s surname. After that, he received a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation Dmitry Igorevich Sokolovsky, born on August 28, 1979.
And flies under this name to Vienna. Where, in an incomprehensible way, he finds himself surrounded by Firtash, who is holed up there, and takes the position of his negotiator. But already under the name Thorner, under which we now know him. Let us recall that Dmitry Torner has a Ukrainian passport for this surname.
And as a citizen of Ukraine, Dmitry Torner begins to communicate not just with the highest stratum of business or the authorities of Ukraine, but with the really powerful of this world. He met with Trump’s lawyer Rudolph Giuliani while Trump was President of the United States. What is very interesting is that Dmitry Firtash in Austria is hiding not so much from corrupt Ukrainian justice, but from American justice.
Dmitry Torner and Rudolf Giuliani
And then Firtash’s strange articles about the need to launch Nord Stream 2 and Ukraine’s unconditional fulfillment of the Minsk agreements appear. Which was consistent with Trump’s position.
After that, Torner appears in Zelensky’s Office, but what he talks about there and with whom is still unknown. But immediately after this visit, information appears about some incomprehensible negotiations between the head of the presidential office, Yermak, and Russian puppets in ORDLO. At the same time, information appears about Dmitry Torner’s visits to Moldovan President Igor Dodon, who was also a Russian puppet.
How all these disparate episodes are connected is unknown. In connection with Thorner’s visit to the OPU, it is also worth paying attention to the fact that Schemes published a photo of this visit only eight months after the fact that Thorner visited Zelensky’s Office. Hence the conclusion – someone leaked this information to journalists, and these were clearly those who did not like the capitulatory moods of the President of Ukraine and his entourage.
Around the same time, the administration of US President Joe Biden changed course towards Russia, with which they stopped playing giveaways. Regarding the answer to the question why the information about Thorner’s visit to the OPU appeared eight months after the event itself, we venture to assume the following. This investigation did not appear because journalists accidentally spotted Torner, a criminal and FSB agent, on Bankovaya. It was another hello to Zelensky from our overseas partners. And for business with the oligarchs, and for trading on blood with Putin and Lukashenko. And for the collapse of Ukraine, which two and a half years ago was a subject in the international arena, and now has turned into a freak show and a general laughing stock.
But at the same time, a whole flurry of materials about Dmitry Torner suddenly appears, exposing him in a favorable light. And political strategist Igor Mizrakh claimed in numerous interviews that an information campaign was waged against Torner, organized by banker Denis Kireev.
At the same time, Kireev allegedly acted not only in his own interests, but also in the interests of his relative Tatyana Sergienko, Torner’s ex-wife. She worked for many years in the central office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was a trusted assistant to Deputy Interior Minister Viktor Ratushnyak. Tatyana’s father, Yevgeny Sergienko, a major general, under Kuchma was deputy chairman of the SBU.
“Thorner’s opponent was Denis Kireev, who actually formed this conflict in favor of the Sergienko family. And therefore, probably, in these situations it is clearer why the SBU paid so much attention to this opponent (let’s call him that) in the process, ”Mizrakh said. And at the same time he accused the then head of the SBU Bakanov of conspiring with Kireev.
Because of this collusion, allegedly, Thorner was removed from the election. The version looked, albeit a little far-fetched, but similar to the truth. However, in 2022, something happened that Mizrakh and other defenders of Torner could not have imagined – Kireev was shot dead by SBU officers. And therefore, the version of the conspiracy of the “super agent” of the GUR (at least, this is what Budanov claims, although his version is in doubt) Kireev and the SBU employees under the leadership of Budanov (his activities in this post also raise a lot of questions) regarding the “denigration” of Dmitry Torner looks very doubtful.
In addition, one should not forget that with the change of power in 2019, both Ukrainian special services (this applies more to the SBU, but, nevertheless), returned to their state of the times of Yanukovych – that is, they became completely controlled by the Russian special services. And in the days of Yanukovych, Torner just appeared in the big politics of Ukraine. And it is doubtful that the Russians themselves began to “merge” it.
In addition, as already mentioned, the leak of information about Thorner’s visit to the Zelensky Office most likely originated from the US intelligence services. So the Mizrach version, although it has a place to be, does not keep a heap. In addition, let’s not forget on whose list Torner tried to get into the Verkhovna Rada – the Opposition Platform for Life is an open fifth column, and Medvedchuk controlled it at that time. Well, let’s add – Kireev was shot dead almost a year ago, but materials about Thorner continue to appear. Isn’t Kireev ordering them from the Baikovo cemetery? Yes, and Bakanov is also unknown where.
After the start of a full-scale war, Thorner’s activities also slowed down somewhat. More precisely, after it became clear that the blitzkrieg had clearly failed. It was at this time that an article appeared on Wikipedia, which indicated that Dmitry Torner was a citizen of Moldova. Now most of the news about the name of Dmitry Torner is focused mainly around his activities as head of the Moldovan Biathlon Federation.
But the questions about who he really is and what he did in the Office of the President of Ukraine, as well as how he made his way to the highest spheres of power in Ukraine and in the circle of Dmitry Firtash, this does not remove. As well as about the involvement of the Russian special services (those in Moldova and Ukraine can be considered in the context of Torner as a branch of the FSB) in the fate and career rise of the petty swindler Dmitry Nekrasov-Torner.
Marina Vorona
