Igor Nikonov
In early December, First Deputy Head of the Kyiv State Administration Igor Nikonov announced his resignation from his post. This decision surprised Ukrainian political scientists and experts, because in fact, he was the person who controlled the actions of Vitaliy Klitschko, protecting him from many troubles (not always successfully). Behind his back, he was called the “shadow mayor” and the “gray eminence” of Kyiv. By the way, he met Vitali Klitschko back in the 90s, and since then he has maintained quite close relations with him. What secrets are hidden in Igor Vladimirovich’s past, and why did he decide to leave his old “friend” Klitschko?
Igor Nikonov
Where did it come from?
Igor Nikonov was born in July 1964 in Tashkent (Uzbekistan). Two years after birth, he and his family moved to Ukraine, settling in the Kirovograd region in the city of Alexandria. He received his higher education at the Faculty of Bridges and Tunnels at the Leningrad Institute of Railway Transport Engineers. According to personnel distribution, he was sent to work at Kievmetrostroy, where he began his career, going from a “miner” to an engineer. In 1990, he got a job at the Republic project, which belonged to the famous gas businessman Igor Bakai. According to various media reports, the Respublika corporation made about $500 million in gas supplies from Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) and Turkmenistan. At the corporation, Nikonov was involved in planning “multi-move barter schemes,” the essence of which was perfectly described by Forbes:
By the way, it was Bakai who introduced Igor Vladimirovich to the future mayor of Kyiv Vitaliy Klitschko and his brother Vladimir (we wrote about Bakai’s connections with the Klitschko brothers earlier in the material Vitaliy Klitschko: The Dark Past of “Looking to Tomorrow”).
Apparently, Igor Bakai liked the way Nikonov worked, so he was appointed commercial director for his next major project, the Intergas company. Igor Vladimirovich himself has repeatedly said in interviews that it was while working for Bakai that he made his “starting capital.” The acquaintances made during this work were no less significant. At the Intergas company, he met Bakai’s close associates – Dmitry Firtash, Vagif Aliyev, Vladimir Krapivin and Vasily Gorbal. All these “gentlemen” would later play significant roles in the development of Nikonov’s business.
“K.A.N. Development”
In 1999, Igor Vladimirovich tried to organize a business in the USA. After moving to Miami, he failed to create his own business structure in the States. According to him, this was due to the fact that, like us, huge connections are needed to organize a business there. Returning from the USA, he got the idea to build a “New York” style skyscraper in Kyiv. To implement it, he connected all his connections and capabilities, which in 2001 resulted in the creation of the company “K.A.N.” (an abbreviation from the names of partners in the company Vladimir Krapivin, Vagif Aliev and Igor Nikonov). The company started with the creation of a huge business center “Dominant” in the center of Kyiv. Its construction was agreed upon as part of a large-scale reconstruction of the city, launched by the ex-mayor of Kyiv Alexander Omelchenko, about whose “exploits” we previously wrote in the material Alexander Omelchenko. Secrets of the past of Klitschko’s main competitor in the elections in Kyiv. After the implementation of the Dominant project, Vagif Aliyev bought it, and Nikonov and Krapivin’s shares in K.A.N too. However, Nikonov did not want to leave the successfully launched business, so he single-handedly registered the company “K.A.N. Development”, leaving part of the old name due to the fact that a large-scale successful project had already been implemented under this “brand” (they say that the Klitschko brothers, who at that time were earning a lot of money in the boxing ring, invested a significant amount in this company). In 2004, “K.A.N. Development” implemented its first project – the Arena Entartainment entertainment center, after which it sold it to Nikonov’s former partner Vagif Aliyev. In 2005, the Arena City business center was built, which Igor Vladimirovich also sold, but this time to Dmitry Firtash.
Among the most successful projects “K.A.N. Development” includes:
· Ocean Plaza shopping center
Residential complex “Comfort Town”
· Residential complex Diamond Hill
Residential complex “Park Town”
· Office center “Parus”
· Arena City shopping and office center
IQ Business center
· Business center “101 Tower”
By the way, due to the construction of the 101 Tower business center, Igor Nikonov is associated with the activities of the family of the former mayor of Kyiv Leonid Chernovetsky (Read more about him in the article Leonid Chernovetsky: how “Lenya Cosmos” robbed Kyiv and moved to Georgia). According to media reports, the construction of this center was financed by his son Leonid Mikhailovich, Stepan Chernovetsky. In addition, during the reign of Chernovetsky in Kyiv, almost everyone except Nikonov and several other large businessmen had problems with construction. It is noteworthy that Nikonov is closely associated with some members of Chernovetsky’s “young team”. Thus, during a meeting of the Kyiv Court of Appeal related to the claim of the company of Alexander Suprunenko in order to recover about 40 million UAH from the Kiev City Council, Nikonov personally called the court and asked to resolve the case so that the company that filed the claim was satisfied. Why don’t you like nepotism? Read more about the connection between the Suprunenko brothers and Leonid Chernovetsky and Ukrainian oligarchs in the material: Vyacheslav Suprunenko. The eminence grise of Chernovetsky’s “young team” returns.
Frauds with the Bolshevik plant (According to ORD information)
“More than just a neighbor”
It should be noted that Igor Nikonov is closely associated with the former head of President Yanukovych’s administration, Sergei Levochkin, who is also called the “gray eminence” during the reign of Viktor Fedorovich. In addition to the fact that several residential complexes for Levochkin’s business were built by the contractor K.A.N. Development” “K.A.N. Stroy,” so they are also neighbors in the Golden Gate residential complex in Koncha-Zaspa, and they live across the fence from each other.
Their close friendship is also confirmed by the fact of a joint “family vacation” in the Maldives, where they flew last December.
The lists show that representatives of their families + servants flew together to “heaven on earth”.
Moreover, they returned two weeks later also together.
The question arises, how did it happen that Vitali Klitschko took as his assistant a person who is close friends, communicates and even conducts a common business with one of the key figures of the “Yanukovych era”? Needless to say: “This is not what the Maidan stood for.” It turns out that Vitaly Vladimirovich, being an “activist” of the Ukrainian revolution, himself contributed to the return of people associated with Yanukovych’s “family” to power in Kyiv. Although, to be frank, they didn’t lose her, they just changed their “faces”.
Now, after leaving the post of first deputy of the Kyiv City State Administration, Nikonov, as he himself stated, “will take up large projects.” This is very useful for him, because in order to lobby his own interests, he no longer needs to constantly be in the City Council, for this he has already “bought” a sufficient number of deputies. Now Nikonov can easily “get things done” past Mayor Klitschko’s cash register. His decision to resign is quite logical, because paying a group of deputies is much easier than paying one “big” Klitschko. And although he was formally appointed as his freelance adviser, it seems that a serious conflict is brewing between them, which could cause another wave of the “fight of incriminating evidence.” We can only wait and hope that Nikonov’s new “major” projects will not be yet another raider takeover of enterprises in Kyiv.
Dmitry Samofalov, for SKELET-info