Igor Shkirya: how to steal from your country and come to an agreement with Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). PART 2

CONTINUATION. START: Igor Shkirya: how to steal from your country and come to an agreement with Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). PART 1

Bandits, titushki, separatists

However, no less interesting is the question of how Shkirya manages to regularly negotiate with Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, who turn a blind eye to his “tricks” over and over again. For example, in the case of non-repayment of a loan in the amount of 25 million hryvnia, taken by Shkirey from Ukrprombank. The details of this murky story were voiced by Yulia Tymoshenko herself (at that time – Prime Minister) in 2009. According to her, Shkirya received a loan from Ukrprombank without any collateral or guarantees, just before the bank began to go bankrupt (after the 2008 crisis), and it looked like a banal scheme for withdrawing money (more precisely, stealing it). However, Tymoshenko did not specify how exactly Shkirya was able to receive as much as 25 million as a gift. After all, as in the story with the Shakhtar basketball club, outsiders are not allowed into such schemes. Meanwhile, “Ukrprombank” could not be called “Donetsk”; it was considered an “Armenian bank” (the bank of the Armenian diaspora of Ukraine), and it seemed completely unclear what could connect its owners and Shkirya. And here, at the level of rumors, Skelet.Info There is information that a famous Armenian who lived in Gorlovka and was a close friend of both Shkiri and Akhmetov’s entire team could become a connecting link. His name is Armen Sargsyanbut most people know him by his nickname Armen Gorlovsky: since the late 90s, he has been the uncrowned crime boss of Gorlovka, “watching” from Yuri Ivanyushchenko (“Yura Enakievsky”), having a close relationship with Rinat Akhmetov and very trusting with Gena Uzbek. Even after leaving for Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) in 2015, Sargsyan continues to “steer” Gorlovka through his people – very closely connected with both local separatists and Putin (*criminal)’s visiting “curators”.

Igor Shkirya and Armen Sarkisyan

Shkiri’s friendship with the shadow owner of Gorlovka (which he disguised as a common interest in boxing) allowed him to launch a struggle for administrative power in the city – which resulted in a many-year war with Yevgeny Klep. It began in 2010, when the incumbent regional mayor Ivan Sakharchuk (who had worked with Igor Shkirey for a long time) and his main opponent Evgeniy Klep, who spoke under the banner of “Strong Ukraine,” clashed in the elections for the mayor of Gorlovka. Tigipko. It should be noted that until the end of 2004, Klep himself was a regional member, but then he fled to the People’s Party. Litvinaand then found myself a new “roof”.

Evgeny Klep

So, in the 2010 elections, Sakharchuk, who lost the favor of Gorlovka residents, lost to Klep. And soon the new mayor created serious problems for Shkiri, since he decided to reshape the public transport sector of Gorlovka in his own way, in which he had his own interests. In addition to the fact that Shkiria has his own transport services company (freight and passenger transportation), he controlled a number of taxi companies in Gorlovka and Dzerzhinsk (at the same time, taxi drivers were recruited mainly by those with previous convictions), and since 2009, Shkiria has headed the Association of Ukrainian Carriers. In addition, part of Gorlovka was then part of the 52nd electoral district, in which Shkirya ran for the Verkhovna Rada in the 2012 elections, and he needed the administrative resources of the Gorlovka mayor. But he failed to come to an agreement with Klep – and a protracted conflict began between them, which intensified when in 2011 Sergei Tigipko dissolved his “Strong Ukraine” and joined the Party of Regions. Left without cover, Klep was subjected to both information attacks from Shkirev’s media (URA-inform, First Business) and pressure from Armen Sarkisyan, and as a result, in 2013, he began to lose ground. The truce was immortalized “in marble”: one of the streets of the city was named after Nagapet Sargsyan, the father of Armen Sargsyan. However, since March 2014, Klep began to look for ways to get rid of such “allies”, while tossing between two forces: the new “pro-Maidan” government in Kyiv, and the local “anti-Maidan”, transforming into a separatist movement. He either formed the “Gorlovka self-defense” to protect the city from the “Right Sector” (as a result of which Igor Bezler became the commander of this “self-defense”), then accused Shkiria of supporting anti-Ukrainian protests in Gorlovka (April 2014), when the “titushki” beat up participants in peaceful pro-Ukrainian rallies, and then seized administrative buildings. In the end, Klep was “snatched” from both sides: first, “pro-Ukrainian activists” placed him in the database of the scandalous website “Peacemaker,” and then Bezler and his militants kidnapped the mayor of Gorlovka and held him captive, mocking him and extorting money.

Igor Bezler

What’s interesting is this: Bezler later stated that he had a grudge against Mayor Klepa since 2011 – they say he tried to take over his funeral business. Thus, the leader of the Gorlovka militants seemed to confirm the rumors that he, too, participated in the “anti-Klepov” company of Igor Shkiri. Moreover, sources Skelet.Info from Gorlovka they claimed that it was Shkirya who tried to make sure that the “Gorlovka self-defense”, the formation of which Klep entrusted to his assistant Oleg Gubanov, would be headed by Bezler. And that it was the “taxi drivers” of Shkiri and the “titushki” of Armen Gorlovsky who formed its first backbone, which then maimed pro-Ukrainian Gorlovka residents and tore down Ukrainian flags from the Gorlovka police department. However, even then Shkirya promptly placed all the blame for the anti-Ukrainian coup in Gorlovka on Klepa, making a corresponding appeal in his media. It was even rumored that it was Shkirya who later tried to get Klep on the pages of The Peacemaker.

But in his native Dzerzhinsk, Shkiri had everything under control since the 90s, and all thanks to the permanent mayor Vladimir Sleptsov. According to information from numerous sources Skelet.Infowhen in 1998, the deputy head of the Dzerzhinsky Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Lieutenant Colonel Sleptsov, decided to run for mayor of the city, there, too, it was not without Igor Shkiri – who at that time was Sleptsov’s partner in some business. But it was not just a matter of business: in fact, the “werewolf in uniform” Sleptsov covered Shkiri’s ass in the 90s, and he also tried to prevent his friend’s dark past from leaking to the media. The rest was completed by the events of 2014, during which, according to some information, separatists from among the people associated with Shkiri in the captured Department of Internal Affairs of Donetsk, Gorlovka and Dzerzhinsk destroyed all operational information about Shkiri’s criminal past (as well as about the past of many other people).

Vladimir Sleptsov

Over the 18 years of governing Dzerzhinsk, Sleptsov not only spread monstrous corruption in it, but also turned the city into the fiefdom of his relatives, who occupied many leadership positions – from the housing and communal services sector to the departments of education and health care. Shkirya also had his own feeding trough under the Dzerzhinsky executive committee: he took over part of the transport operations, and the construction subsidiaries of Ilitash received very fat contracts. But Shkirya not only fed from the generous hands of Sleptsov, but also himself obtained government money for the common pot – regularly (almost annually) knocking out subventions and subsidies in Kyiv for Dzerzhinsk. You can see how they were “sawing up” from Sleptsov’s report for 2011. Spending 261 thousand hryvnia (32.6 thousand dollars) to cover the roofs of three houses with roofing felt, or 305 thousand hryvnia (38.1 thousand dollars) to cover with cement mortar the cracks that formed in the panel “Khrushchev” buildings – this is an example of blatant embezzlement! But Shkirya continues to “carry” subventions to Dzerzhinsk-Toretsk to this day (more than 5 million in 2017 alone), mastering them together with her long-time business partners from the city’s public utilities.

Igor Shkirya: how to steal from your country and come to an agreement with Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). PART 2

A lot of interesting information could be collected about Sleptsov’s corrupt activities, but, unfortunately, Toretsk “pro-Ukrainian activists” were always concerned only with their ideology, presenting only political claims and accusations to Sleptsov. In the city, state-owned millions were “sawed off”, and they were outraged by the “insufficient pro-Ukrainian education of schoolchildren”, the small number of national flags over institutions, etc. So Irina Kirikova, who staged a shocking event at a session of the Toretsk City Council in December 2016, also shouted only about separatism and the events of the spring-summer of 2014, although she could have raised the topical topic of corruption. Or are “pro-Ukrainian activists” not interested in corruption?

And yet Kirikova was definitely right when she accused Shkirya of involvement in inciting the war. At the very least, his longtime friend and business partner Sleptsov had a hand in this when, in May 2014, he publicly, by decision of the City Council, supported holding a separatist referendum in the city.

So what? After the release of Toretsk in the summer of 2014, Sleptsov disappeared for a short time, after which he reappeared and, as if nothing had happened, sat back in his chair. He answered all questions that he was “only making a joke, saving the city from the separatists” – and for some reason Igor Shkiri’s signature style was felt in these answers. Surprisingly, the separatist mayor continued to work for another two years – the SBU came for Sleptsov only in August 2016. However, his arrest changed little in the Toretsian corruption schemes: most of Sleptsov’s relatives and Shkiri’s business partners remained in their positions. But during these two years, Sleptsov and Shkirya managed to pull off two “businesses”.

Firstly, in the fall of 2014, Igor Shkirya was again elected as a people’s deputy in the 52nd district – now it did not include Gorlovka, captured by the separatists, and the elections depended on voting in Toretsk, where Sleptsov provided Shkira with all the necessary administrative resources. But this would not have been enough for such dirty elections as the election campaign and the voting process in Toretsk were then characterized by, if not for Shkiri’s close ties with the head of the Central Election Commission Okhendovsky. On the eve of the elections, representatives of candidates Denis Tokar and Valery Bezlepkin, and even representatives of the ruling Solidarity party were removed from the district election commission! However, Solidarity ruled in Kyiv, while local corruption and crime continued to rule in Toretsk. Where administrative pressure was not enough, threats of physical violence were used:

Igor Shkirya: how to steal from your country and come to an agreement with Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). PART 2

As a result, the voting and counting process itself was accompanied by numerous blatant violations (such as ballot stuffing), but the most striking thing was that the election results and Shkiri’s victory were announced by the CEC even before all the ballots were counted! After which Shkirya, covering his tracks, also accused his competitors of falsification.

“You give me – I give you!” – after Sleptsov helped Shkira again receive the mandate of a people’s deputy, he, in turn, helped Sleptsov stay in the mayor’s chair. And not only because Sleptsov miraculously avoided responsibility for separatism until August 2016. Shkiri’s new somersault was very original: having only been elected himself, he tried (with the help of Okhendovsky) for Toretsk to become one of the cities in Donbass where elections are no longer held “due to the situation.” Thus, Shkirya protected himself from re-election of a people’s deputy in the 52nd district (in the event of a challenge to the 2014 vote), and his sidekick Sleptsov from the risk of defeat in the 2015 local elections, essentially extending his mayoral mandate indefinitely.

Igor Shkirya and his Supporters of Novorossiya

In 2016, a certain “Lugansk human rights activist-refugee” Dmitry Snegirev issued a statement that PJSC Belotserkovsky Reinforced Concrete Plant was supplying concrete supports to Lugansk for the construction of some bridge. He also explained that the information about deliveries from Bila Tserkva was allegedly voiced by the acting. Mayor of Lugansk Manolis Pilavov (former deputy mayor, who remained to work for the “LPR”), who cordially thanked the suppliers at a meeting of the “Council of Ministers of the Republic.” And he stated that the supposed owner of Belotserkovsky Reinforced Concrete Plant PJSC is Beton Nova OJSC, owned by Igor Shkira. There was a wave in the media, many wrote editorials about how the people’s deputy from the “Vozrozhdenie” faction was supplying concrete supports from Bila Tserkva to Lugansk to the separatists, and even bypassing Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). Shkirya was branded as a traitor, but he… just chuckled and threatened to “sue the slanderers.”

Why Shkirya laughed can be determined by anyone who finds information on PJSC Belotserkovsky Reinforced Concrete Plant, as well as the LLC of the same name. Indeed, in 2005-2007 Shkirya tried to buy this plant (as well as several other similar ones), but the deal fell through, and Belotserkovsky ZhBK became part of the CRH group of companies – a connection with which Shkirya cannot be traced. That is, the statement that the enterprise is part of Beton Nova is apparently a fake – launched for an unknown purpose. However, there is no smoke without fire!

During the journalistic investigation, which ended in nothing, it was possible to obtain one small but valuable fact: after 2014, Belotserkovsky ZhBK carried out regular deliveries of products to Rostov, from where they were sent to Donetsk. But to whom? If you think carefully, this is where Igor Shkirya will come up – as the owner of the Donetsk reinforced concrete plant, and as the owner of the Beton Nova Trading House, which has been working in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) for ten years. That is, there is a pattern of supplies of supports and other products of Belotserkovsky Reinforced Concrete Complex to Donetsk (via Rostov) through the mediation of Beton Nova. Well, transporting supports from Donetsk to Lugansk (or directly from Millerovo to Lugansk, without going to Rostov and Donetsk, where they just fill out the documents) is a piece of cake! Thus, Igor Shkirya, who has enterprises in Ukraine (Mironovsky reinforced concrete plant), an enterprise in the so-called. “Novorossiya” (Donetsk reinforced concrete plant) and companies in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) (Trading House “Beton Nova”) use them to carry out almost smuggling deliveries. Which, of course, are not limited to the products of the Belotserkovsky plant! And this is not counting the pressing question of who supplies the products and to whose budget the Shkiri enterprises remaining in Donetsk and Gorlovka pay taxes?

It is worth noting that in the so-called “Novorossiya” (in fact, this concept is also fake, because the separatist “republics” did not want to unite) Igor Shkiri has many old acquaintances and business partners who have settled into leadership positions and fat schemes – in which, for sure, he also participates . Among the names mentioned, first of all, the “Minister of Information Policy of the LPR” Vyacheslav Stolyarenko is singled out – who until 2014 headed the trade union committee of the Toretskaya mine, and in the 2012 elections he headed the district electoral commission, together with Mayor Sleptsov, depicting victory for Shkira. In the spring of 2014, Stolyarenko agitated miners against Ukraine and formed a “militia” out of them, which he then placed at checkpoints outside the city.

Another “big shot of the LPR” is Roman Kamyshov. From 2011 to 2014, he published the newspaper “Dzerzhinsky Uyezd”, which huddled in the office of the owner of the Dzerzhinsky bakery, Igor Rybak (Sleptsov’s former son-in-law). Now Kamyshev has risen to “press secretary of the Ministry of Fuel, Energy and Coal Industry of the LPR”! As for Igor Rybak, this cunning businessman chose to stay in Toretsk, since he not only has a bakery there, but also a vodka business. This vodka is “scorched” (and he poisons Ukrainians with it), Rybak’s workshops have been busted four times over the past two years – but he paid off each time! U Skelet.Info There is information that Rybak actively sponsored the separatists not only in the spring-summer of 2014, but also after they were driven out of Toretsk – because he still had interests in Gorlovka and Donetsk.

In Gorlovka, Shkiri’s former assistant to the people’s deputy, Vladimir Drukovsky, has settled down well, who now heads the city housing and communal services department and is already actively “sawing” the “DPR” budget. He does this not alone, but together with the “first deputy minister of construction and housing and communal services of the DPR” Alexander Alipov, another close acquaintance of Shkiri: they met back in 2011, when Alipov was deputy minister of construction and housing and communal services of Ukraine.

Vladimir Drukovsky

It would seem that all this is quite enough to launch a large-scale investigation against Igor Shkiri and his Toretsk accomplices, which would lead to the opening of numerous criminal cases on economic charges, and on crimes against the state, and on facts of beatings and even murders of those disliked by the “Toretsk gang” » people. However, Shkiri’s connections are so extensive, including in Kyiv, that they allow him to openly make fun of Ukrainian justice.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

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