How the Gerega family knows how to successfully “pull” all the people of Kiev
The names of Alexander and Galina Gerega are well known to everyone who is even slightly involved in the construction business. They made their huge fortune at the Epicenter construction hypermarkets, which today exist in almost every big city. This married couple is distinguished by their ability to use politics for their own purposes. So they spend money lavishly when election time comes. The local elections in 2015 were no exception. This time, renouncing their “regional” roots, the Geregs created their own political party “For Concrete Action”. Its official leader is Lyudmila Koval, but there is no doubt that this is the party of the Gereg family.
How the Gerega family made their business
Galina Fedorovna was born in the Lviv region in 1959. She received her education at the Lviv Cooperative Technical School, after which she came to Kyiv. In 1978 she entered the Kiev Trade and Economic Institute and graduated with honors. Her husband Alexander Vladimirovich was born in 1976. In the 90s he started doing business and was a businessman. At this time, his future wife worked at the Kiev Culinary School. Later she became the chief engineer at the enterprise “Association 906”, which worked at the Higher Party School. In 1994, Galina took the post of deputy director of the Glibochitsya enterprise, and four years later she became financial director at the Tsermet AGS company.
UPDATE 12/08/2022: Alexander and Galina Gerega. Portrait of an oligarch
The Geregas began doing business in 2003, opening the Epicenter enterprise, which initially sold only building materials. The post of financial director of the company was held by Galina Fedorovna herself. After opening the first store, business went so well that they decided to expand, she said. When they came to the chief architect of Kyiv Sergei Babushkin with the first hypermarket project, for some reason they believed that the project would be approved. By the way, it was approved at the suggestion of the then mayor of Kyiv, Alexander Omelchenko. Rumor has it that he received a huge kickback for opening the first construction hypermarket.
“Epicenter” on Polyarnaya Street 20
Galina Fedorovna first came to politics in 2006. She managed to get into the Kiev City Council on the lists of the Civil Activities of Kyiv (CAK). This project was implemented by political strategist Alexander Korotenko (Kiev, Omsk and Bishkek strategy workshop). The executor was the current “political strategist”, who went to work on Korotenko’s work, Sergei Gaidai (who tied up with Korotenko in the elections to the Duma of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) to promote Khakamada. After a quarrel at the State Accreditation Commission for money with Korotenko, Gaidai, having forgotten to share, did not implement a single successful project. Now he has been hired Gennady Korban for the UKROP party). The main sponsor was the oligarch Vasily Khmelnitsky (read more about him in the article Vasily Khmelnitsky: misplaced oligarch)however, the Geregas also added money to the project.
Their business survived the 2008 crisis relatively calmly due to the assets accumulated earlier. Moreover, in 2009 they opened the world’s largest do-it-yourself hypermarket, and a year later three more hypermarkets appeared. In 2010, Epicenter became a sponsor of Euro 2012 in Ukraine. In parallel with this, Gerega became the head of the Kiev City Council at the suggestion of Leonid Chernovetsky (Read more about him in the article Leonid Chernovetsky: how “Lenya Cosmos” robbed Kyiv and moved to Georgia). In the 2012 parliamentary elections, Alexander Gerega became a people’s deputy of Ukraine in the 192nd majoritarian constituency, but his wife did not succeed; in the 215th constituency, in which she ran, she lost to Andrey Ilyenko. In 2013, experts estimated the fortune of the Gereg family at $794 million (24th place in the ranking of the richest Ukrainians).
Galina Gerega. All means are good in the fight for voters
Having gained experience working in the Verkhovna Rada as part of the Party of Regions faction, Alexander Gerega perfectly understood that in the fight for the “powerful” seat, all methods are good. And if politicians like Gennady Korban distribute buckwheat, then he went much further. He is ready to buy votes for building materials from the stocks of his stores. For ordinary ordinary voters, paint or a hammer is enough, and for the more demanding representatives of the electorate, he provides agricultural machines and tractors. It was in this way that at the last parliamentary elections he made Andrei Shinkovich, whom no one there knew at all, a people’s deputy in the 189th majoritarian constituency.
During Euromaidan, AutoMaid activists led by Sergei Poyarkov came to picket Gereg supermarkets. However, they very quickly “merged”, and now Poyarkov is a member of the Gereg “For Concrete Causes” party. For Gereg, ending the picketing of their supermarket is said to have cost six figures in dollars. Well, given the love of “patriots” like Poyarkov for green pieces of paper, it’s not hard to believe.
For specific information, ask Gereg
In the upcoming local elections, Gerega went even further. In the Khmelnytsky region, he created his own political force “For Concrete Action”, which claims a majority of votes in 20 districts and 6 cities of the region (Belogorsky, Izyaslavsky, Krasilovsky, Teofilsky, Gorodotsky, Dunaevetsky, Chemerovets and Yarmolynetsky districts, as well as the city of Netishin) . Now Gerega’s party is promoting itself quite aggressively using social networks and placing billboards. Gerega also spares no money on “processing” voters with the help of hidden advertising. The most striking example of this is a series of publications that are constantly published in one of the regional publications of the Khmelnytsky region, “Podilskie visti”. Without any advertising notes, notes are constantly published there about the “exploits” of the Gereg family in the field of charity.
Alexander Vladimirovich does not hesitate to use the employees of his hypermarkets, of whom, by the way, there are about 15 thousand, in his PR campaign. But, obviously, they are not doing it out of their own free will, because only a few of them are satisfied with the leadership, and even those are only hostages of the situation.
Feedback from an Epicenter employee about the Gereg family
Politics – as a way to solve the problems of your own business
The Gereg family knows how to perfectly “grease up” to any current government; they have a real talent for this. Thus, in 2009, then-President Viktor Yushchenko personally opened one of the “Epicenters” in Kyiv. Two years later, the notorious mayor of Kyiv Leonid Chernovetsky appointed Galina Gerega to the post of secretary of the Kiev City Council. In this position, at the instigation of the “gray eminence” of the Yanukovych government, Sergei Levochkin, she actively lobbied for the interests of the Party of Regions until the end of the Ukrainian revolution. In addition, Galina Fedorovna managed to distinguish herself in this post during the scandalous “high-speed session” of the Kiev City Council, which made 5 decisions in 10 minutes and ran away from the meeting room. It looked about the same as voting for “dictatorial laws” – “235 For. The decision has been made.” The reason this all happened so quickly was because activists stormed the building during this meeting. Vladimir Gerega was also always loyal to the Party of Regions. Evidence of this is that after being elected in a majoritarian district, he joined the faction of the regionals. By the way, Alexander Vladimirovich was one of those who voted for the “dictatorial laws” on January 16.
As secretary of the Kyiv City Council, Galina Gerega actively abused her official position. Having influence in the City Council, she entered into a conspiracy with officials of Kyivpastrans and the Department of Economics and Investment under the Kyiv City Council. Gerega entered into an investment agreement, according to which a huge plot of land (almost 10 hectares), at 20 Polyarnaya Street, was eventually transferred to the private enterprise Epicenter. Taking into account the fact that Galina Fedorovna’s family owns Epicenter, the prosecutor’s office had a lot of questions about the legality of these actions. During the inspection, it was proven that during the transfer of this plot the land legislation of Ukraine was violated. According to the prosecutor’s office, there was no official permission from the City Council to transfer the site. In addition to all this, there was also a property complex there, which belongs to Kievpastrans and is a collection point for mobilization resources of the Obolonsky district. In fact, the military personnel and the equipment intended for them lost their location before being sent to the ATO.
Judging by the comments of political scientists and sociologists, in the local elections the Geregs will still take theirs – they will finally crush the Khmelnytsky region under them. However, there is hope that if voters remember some of the episodes in the biography of these “figures”, they will come to their senses, and no amount of paint or hammers from “Epicenter” will convince them otherwise.
Dmitry Samofalov, for Skelet.Info
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