Gennady Babenko. Puppet of the Crimean brothers Salem

Gennady Babenko is the odious ex-mayor of Simferopol, who illegally occupied the position of mayor for 4 years. He did not make a single decision without the consent of his “masters” – Alexander Melnik and Igor Lukashev – the leaders and “wallets” of the Salem organized crime group. The brothers seized land, protected illegal trade, and then decided to go over to the side of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism).

About how a Crimean official caused chaos, hiding behind the law.

Gennady Babenko. The life of a Soviet political commissar

Babenko Gennady Aleksandrovich was born on June 24, 1950 in the village of Maryanovka, Omsk region (Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)). Nothing is known about the parents of the future politician. However, the official biography indicates that the family lived in different cities of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) from 1952 to 1967 – Vladivostok, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and then moved to Ukraine in Zhitomir. Based on this, Skelet.Info concluded that Gennady Alexandrovich’s father was a military man.

In 1967, Babenko graduated from secondary school No. 5 in Zhitomir. In the same year he moved to Simferopol and entered the Sevastopol Instrument-Making Institute. In 1972, Babenko received a diploma as a radio engineer. For the next three years, Gennady Aleksandrovich worked in his specialty as a process engineer at the Fiolent plant. At work, he received a promotion along the Komsomol line for his ability to speak beautifully and shine his face – from 1975 to 1981 he was deputy secretary, and then secretary of the plant’s Komsomol committee; as well as the head. Department of Komsomol organizations of the Simferopol city committee of the Komsomol.

For three years Babenko studied at the Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. Then he finally left for party work and ended his communist career only in 1990 as first secretary of the Central District Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. After the collapse of the Union, Gennady Babenko, who, strictly speaking, could not do anything, had no choice but to go into politics. Like every principled communist, Gennady Alexandrovich became, of course, a militant democrat. However, he would not have had a political career if not for the secret life led by an “honest” party worker.

Originally from the Salem organized crime group

Crimea has traditionally been considered one of the most crime-prone regions in the country – this was the case both under the Union and at the dawn of Ukrainian independence. In 1988, one of the most famous criminal groups, the Salem organized crime group, appeared on the peninsula. The group borrowed its name from the popular Bulgarian cigarettes “Salem” in the 1990s. It was rumored that all gang members smoked only this brand.

After it became clear that the Communist Party did not have long to live, party workers began to look for a new refuge where they could do nothing and get money. The organized crime group welcomed everyone. Gennady Babenko was no exception. Since the early 90s, he has been an underground member of Salem, and for the public he is the chairman of the Central District Council and its executive committee. The double life lasted 7 years and would have continued further if the authorities had not decided to restore order on the peninsula. In 1997, Gennady Moskal arrives in Crimea (more about him in the article Gennady Moskal: the many-faced general-foul-mouthed general)newly appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, who begins an active fight against organized crime. But Babenko and Salem are clean before the law. Having cleared out the ranks of the small “sixes” a little, Moskal never caught the leaders.

Having survived the raids, the Salemites decide to go into big-time politics to gain immunity. Babenko was again in the forefront. Thanks to money from the common fund, in 1998 Gennady Aleksandrovich became chairman of the Permanent Commission of the Verkhovna Rada of the ARC on industry, construction, transport, communications and the fuel and energy complex. After 3 years he sits in the chair – deputy. Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. After working for 3 years, he is promoted – he is appointed Minister of Construction Policy, Architecture and Housing and Communal Services of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. The situation was under control until 2006. Then Gennady Moskal came to Crimea again, but in a new position – plenipotentiary representative of President Viktor Yushchenko. He publicly stated that there are many representatives of organized crime groups in the Verkhovna Rada of the peninsula and a “witch hunt” has begun.

To ensure its safety, Salem decides to push its representatives into the councils of Crimea. The choice fell on Babenko, who was to take the place of mayor of Simferopol. The running was initiated by one of the leaders of the Salem organized crime group – Alexander “Melya” Melnik and Igor “Lukash” Lukashev, who began to lead the group after its “father” Sergei “Voronok” Voronkov went to prison.

Melya and Lukash allocated “Salem” money and seated Babenko in the chair of the mayor. In fact, for Gennady Alexandrovich personally it was a significant demotion, but you can’t do that for the lads. Moreover, the leaders did not ask his opinion at all.

Investment in Babenko’s election campaign was not irrevocable. At one of the gatherings, the Salemites developed a plan to return the money, and also prescribed interest for their use. The business raised funds to return funds from city lands, non-privatized capital buildings, including architectural monuments, and, of course, from countless permits for retail outlets. It was rumored that this plan was drawn up by Gennady Babenko himself for his “masters” and it was he who proposed to “cut” city budget funds between members of the organized crime group in order to snatch a tidbit for himself.

Gennady Babenko. The impostor mayor in the “third Donetsk”

At the beginning of 2006, an electoral bloc “For Yanukovych” was created in Crimea (70% of candidates from the Party of Regions, 30% from the Russian Bloc party) to participate in elections to the Supreme Council of the autonomy. Gennady Babenko was included in the list. The Party of Regions began to nominate him for the role of mayor of Simferopol.

On March 26, 2006, mayoral elections were held in Simferopol and, of course, Babenko won. True, there were some traditional misunderstandings. On March 27, the Simferopol Territorial Election Commission, headed by Chairman Vladimir Krylov, declared the elections invalid. The reason was the presence on the ballots of the names of retired candidates – Alexander Gress (head of the Crimean branch of the Republican Party of Ukraine, part of the “Not So!” bloc) and Viktor Nevirko (leader of “For Ukraine! For Yushchenko!”) – without appropriate marks. Moreover, Gress was deregistered on voting day, which is strictly prohibited by law.

Babenko appealed to the court with a demand to overturn the commission’s decision and on April 22 he was named the winner. However, the epic did not end there – an enchanting battle began between the teams of Viktor Yanukovych and Yulia Tymoshenko. So, keep an eye on the schedule.

Alexander Gress filed a lawsuit demanding that the elections be declared invalid. After a series of proceedings, he was refused. In early May, the Zheleznodorozhny District Court prohibited the commission from registering Gennady Babenko as mayor and submitting information to the City Council about the election results. Despite this, Gennady Aleksandrovich began his duties on the basis of a decision of the Kyiv District Court, which did not see any crime in the actions of the chairman of the commission (according to the law, only the chairman of the city election commission can announce the mayor).

The mayor did not work for long. On June 9, the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Simferopol overturned the decision of the election commission and declared the mayoral elections invalid, and the Court of Appeal of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea left this decision unchanged. However, these decisions did not frighten Gennady Alexandrovich; he continued to work as if nothing had happened. Moreover, he immediately signed a resolution on bonuses to the mayor’s salary.

A new wave of indignation against the impostor mayor was raised in the fall by Gennady Moskal, who stubbornly played the role of a Gogol auditor on the peninsula, sent from Kyiv to fight local corruption. He insisted on holding repeat elections and called Babenko “illegitimate.” However, Gennady Aleksandrovich taxied here too – he said that the election commission does not have the right to hold new mayoral elections in Simferopol, since the deadlines have expired.

This situation is quite predictable – Babenko took the chair by agreement. A year before the elections, Viktor Yanukovych attended a rally in Simferopol. Even then, he introduced Gennady Alexandrovich to the public as the future mayor of the Crimean capital. It should be noted that the Party of Regions collected the third most important harvest of votes on the peninsula, after Donetsk and Lugansk – half of the seats in the autonomous parliament were taken by deputies from the Yanukovych bloc. Therefore, Simferopol was secretly called the “Third Donetsk”.

In 2007, Babenko’s lawyer Alexander Gnezdov wanted to resolve the conflict within the framework of the law. He appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine to appeal the decision of the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Simferopol. But the Supreme Court upheld the decision. Naturally, Gennady Aleksandrovich remained in his position.

In 2008, Gennady Moskal, the newly appointed deputy head of the parliamentary committee to combat organized crime and corruption, again launched an active fight against Gennady Babenko. Armed with the decision of the Supreme Court, he submitted a bill to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in which he proposed holding early elections for the Simferopol mayor. However, BP did not cooperate. At a meeting of the special commission, it was determined that this issue should be resolved by the Simferopol Central Election Commission, so the Verkhovna Rada rejected the law. The Central Election Commission met several times on this issue, but no decision was made, and then it was unexpectedly dissolved.

According to Skelet.Info, another force began to work against Gennady Aleksandrovich that year – the public organization “Civil Asset of Crimea” (CAC). Its active member Sergei Aksenov decided to prove the mayor’s illegitimacy by going to the courts.

Aksenov positioned himself as a businessman, but he has a criminal background – he comes from the Salem organized crime group (nickname “Goblin”) and is a good friend of Sergei “Voronka” Voronkov, who, by a “coincidental” coincidence, was released from prison at that time and decided to go into politics. GAK is the joint brainchild of Aksenov and Voronkov. The main purpose of the public organization was to return the financial assets that Voronok left to Melnik and Lukashev when leaving for the zone, and to gain control over new spheres of influence. The SAC decided to “hit” Gennady Babenko in order to weaken and discredit Melnik and Lukashev. Aksenov begins to actively cooperate with part of the Crimean PR organization, which was subordinate to the People’s Deputy of Ukraine Vasily Kiselyov.

In 2009, the election campaign of Viktor Yanukovych started. It was built on a good tradition – criticize the current government. The only trouble was that power in Crimea belonged entirely to the Party of Regions. For Yanukovych, the peninsula became an “inconvenient” region: two warring branches of the organized crime group Babenko-Melnik-Lukash and Voronkov-Aksenov kept the peninsula under complete control.

At the beginning of February 2009, the political council of the KRO PR, which was headed by people’s deputy Vasily Kiselev, expelled from its ranks the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Viktor Plakida, and the mayor of Simferopol, Gennady Babenko. The reason was a violation of party discipline: regular failure to appear at meetings of the coordinating council of the “Bloc “For Yanukovych!”” faction. in the city council and non-payment of membership fees.

In fact, at the end of last year there was a split in the ranks of the Simferopol “regionals”. Babenko’s opponents, supported by Kiselyov, demanded changes in the composition of the executive committee of the city council, as well as the permanent deputy commission on architecture, urban planning and rational land use, reproaching it for the non-transparent distribution of land. At each session, Kiselev insisted on considering this issue, while Babenko put the 2009 budget on the agenda. The mayor’s actions are quite logical – he was afraid that the top of the party would be able to cover up the shadow schemes for the distribution of land plots, which were covered by his “master” Melnik (ex-deputy of the Supreme Council of Crimea). Gennady Aleksandrovich even raised party cells throughout Crimea against the head of the political council. About 25 thousand party members expressed no confidence in Kiselyov. However, Babenko and Plakida lost. Skelet.Info it is known that those expelled went to Kyiv for a reception with Yanukovych, but he did not receive them.

At the height of party confrontations, Viktor Yanukovych came on a working visit to Simferopol. Here he spoke sharply about Babenko’s activities, calling him… “an asshole.”

After this, Gennady Babenko decided to play only with the “owner” Melnik and against everyone. In mid-March, at the next session of the City Council, Gennady Aleksandrovich brought up a strange question for consideration by deputies – the resignation of the secretary of the Simferopol City Council, chairman of the Simferopol organization of the Russian Community of Crimea, Vladimir Blinov. Two members of the Bloc “For Yanukovych!” faction also came under attack. Vladimir Zhivitsa and Boris Frotman. He gives vacant positions to candidates from the Rukh-Kurultai faction (organized group Mejlis-Kurultai). At the same time, Babenko secretly gives representatives of the faction freedom of action to build mosques and protect them from demolition by squatters. By the way, on that day the new electronic voting system, which was purchased with money from the city budget, did not work, so deputies voted by hand and using “secret” ballots. For their “correct” votes, the deputies received land plots from 6 to 15 acres in the city center. The decision to separate them was made after Blinov, Zhivitsa, and Frotman were expelled.

Another incident occurred at this meeting. As a sign of protest, city council member Natalya Lantukh broke 4 chicken eggs on Gennady Babenko’s head. Gennady Aleksandrovich estimated the moral damage for the “scrambled eggs” at 10 thousand hryvnia.

In April, a formed anti-mayor coalition led by Boris Frotman spoke out against Babenko. Its representatives demanded the resignation of the illegitimate mayor and the election of Vladimir Blinov to the post of mayor. The latter could become acting mayor if he were secretary of the City Council. However, Gennady Aleksandrovich calculated the situation well and removed him from his position a month earlier.

Babenko was non-party for 5 months. On July 7, the Presidium of the Political Council of the Party of Regions decided not to expel the odious mayor from the party, but after 2 months he changed his mind and on September 14, Gennady Aleksandrovich became non-party.

The “career” of Mayor Gennady Babenko ended in 2010. The next election was won by Viktor Ageev, who previously occupied the chair of the standing commission of the Crimean parliament on industry, transport and communications, and the fuel and energy complex. At that time, Babenko, according to the chairman of the Crimean PR organization Vasily Dzharty, was not supported by about 60% of voters.

A month after the elections, Gennady Babenko ended up in the hospital. He slipped in his own bathroom and broke his spine. The official spent a year on sick leave.

Rubbing of land and other lawlessness

Land scams. As soon as Babenko sat in the mayor’s chair, he immediately classified for the press the decisions of the City Council regarding the allocation of land plots.

This completely freed the hands of Gennady Aleksandrovich and his criminal friends. They were able to freely distribute land to the right people and take the money for themselves. Here are examples of the most egregious shady schemes:

• – in 2006, deputies allocated 1.9 hectares of land for housing construction to the “Capital Construction Department” of the KRO of disabled organizations. It was planned to build a 142-apartment building on the land plot, as well as a complex of multi-storey residential buildings for the disabled. In fact, it was a banal commercial project, disguised as social housing;
• – the city council allocated a land plot of 1.2 hectares for operation and maintenance of vehicles to the enterprise OJSC Simferopol Technical Service Station No. 14397;
• – Babenko gave 3 hectares of forest zone for individual cottage construction. At the same time, the forest zone was initially separated from the reserve category.

Self-grabs. In this case, we are not talking about the systematic occupation of land by the Crimean Tatars, but about cases of appropriation of land plots for commercial gain. Self-captures were at their peak during Babenko’s work. However, it’s not that simple. Gennady Aleksandrovich was most directly related to the land commission, which purposefully slowed down the issuance of land. The following business scheme emerged: the senior squatter gathered people and coordinated their actions, the land commission did not give any conclusions, and as a result, construction began. It’s not difficult to guess who received the kickbacks.

Monument to Catherine. Gennady Babenko stood out for his brilliant ideas. In 2007, the mayor decided to restore the monument to Catherine II, which was destroyed during the years of Soviet power. The idea was presented to Gennady Aleksandrovich by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov during his visit to Simferopol. Luzhkov gave Babenko two photographs of the monument to the Empress, which once stood in the Crimean capital.

Inspired by support from Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), Babenko “hurriedly” opened a granite stone installed the day before with the inscription “The monument to Empress Catherine the Great will be restored at this place on the initiative of the Simferopol mayor Gennady Babenko and with the support of city residents.” Representatives of the Crimean Tatars, led by the leader of the Majlis Mustafa Dzhemilev (more about him in the article Mustafa Dzhemilev. The dark Tatar past of a bright fighter against the regimes) staged a rally during which they accused the mayor of the city Gennady Babenko of provocateurs and chauvinism.

Let us note that during the turbulent years of his scandalous activities, Babenko solemnly laid as many as 6 foundation stones with his signature. True, none of them have yet turned into a monument.

Fatal accident. In mid-December 2007, Gennady Babenko’s Mercedes company car was involved in an accident, as a result of which one person died and two people, a 26-year-old man and an 18-year-old girl, were taken to the hospital. The car violated traffic rules, collided with a foreign car Daewoo at high speed, drove onto the sidewalk as a result of the impact, hit a pedestrian and crashed into a power pole.

According to eyewitnesses, there were two people in the Mercedes at the time of the accident, and there was a “Wedding” sticker on the license plate; According to traffic police reports, there were three people in the car – two guys and a girl, but there were no stickers at all. The driver was a certain Andrei S., although the driver Babenko’s name is different. Gennady Aleksandrovich allegedly was in the hospital with a cold at that time.

The manager of the affairs of the Simferopol City Council, Babenko’s right hand, Evgeniy Velikolug, quickly found the “culprits” – the female driver of the damaged Daewoo foreign car, who allegedly did not allow the official car to pass. Public activists began their investigation and established that Evgeniy Velikolug was driving the Mercedes at the time of the accident. Eyewitnesses claimed that the driver was drunk. However, over time, Velikolug received a certificate in his hands, which confirmed the absence of alcohol in his blood. The matter was hushed up.

Trip to Salem. Gennady Aleksandrovich is not a fan of luxurious life, but he doesn’t mind spending money on money from the budget. In 2007, he and his comrades in the Rotary Club (formally Rotary is “an international association of businessmen with the goal of helping those in need,” but many consider this closed organization a Masonic club. Babenko has been a member of the club since 1997) secretly joined Salem is a small American city in Oregon, which is considered a sister city to Simferopol. The trip was financed with budget money. In Simferopol they did not know where the mayor had gone. An American newspaper shed light on the trip. According to the Statesman Journal, the 5-day visit included skiing, a tour of the Salem City Hall, meetings at the local Rotary Club, visits to museums, casinos, beaches, an aquarium, shops, attractions and… a trip to a performance by the world famous illusionist David Copperfield.

A week after this trip, Babenko went on the road again. This time to the Turkish town of Eskisehir, where I stayed for 5 days.

In 2009, Gennady Babenko wanted to fly with funds from the budget for 4 days to London for the International Tourism Exchange “WTM-2009” as part of a delegation of 21 Crimean officials. The trip received publicity. The deputies began to make excuses that they were flying for “their own people.”

Accrual of bonuses. In 2009, the investigative department of the Crimean police opened a criminal case into the illegal accrual of almost 800 thousand hryvnia in bonuses to the heads of the Simferopol mayor’s office. The case involved: first deputy mayor Pyotr Poltavsky, vice mayors Marina Chernovaya and Olga Murko, city council secretary Lyudmila Pykhteeva, executive committee manager Evgeniy Velikolug and, of course, Gennady Babenko himself. The mayor issued this money for 2 years. By the way, Babenko gave himself a bonus of 161 thousand hryvnia.

Business in Moscow. In 1994, a certain Babenko Gennady Aleksandrovich became the owner of the Russian enterprise Terminal K&M LLP, which specializes in the wholesale trade of fuels and lubricants. Together with this person, four more people became co-founders of the business, three of whom were residents of Simferopol, and one of whom was a resident of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism). Moreover, two residents of the Crimean capital are also co-owners of a large chain of stores selling household appliances. The K&M Terminal company successfully operated in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) until 2005; nothing is known about its further fate, although there is also no data on the cessation of activity.

Gennady Babenko. Life after

Gennady Babenko, having left the mayor’s chair, remained a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea. In 2011, he became deputy head of the Office of the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of the ARC. A year later, he heads the newly created first non-profit public organization “Builders of Crimea”, which unites representatives of the construction industry of Crimea.

In 2013, Babenko had a unique chance to head the Standing Commission of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea on regional development, construction and control over privatization. Let us give a unique example of Gennady Aleksandrovich’s economic activity in this position: in the first half of 2013, the budget of Crimea received 17% of the planned funds from the privatization of property (the target for receipt was 15.4 million hryvnia, in fact almost 2.7 million hryvnia were credited). The reasons given for the failed privatization plan were the lack of consumer demand and problems with registration of property rights.

In 2014, Crimeans voted in a “referendum” for independence from Ukraine. However, the old guard of odious politicians and people from organized criminal groups entered the new State Council of Crimea. All of them were received by the Crimean branch of the Russian Rodina party. The first number on the party list was Alexander Melnik. Of course, Melnik cannot live without his man – Gennady Babenko. He passes as a majority voter. Shortly before the elections to the State Council of Crimea, Gennady Alexandrovich was deregistered.

Arina Dmitrieva, for Skelet.Info

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