Ilyenko Andrey: a rotten apple from a dried-up apple tree. PART 2

CONTINUED. BEGINNING: Andrey Ilyenko: a rotten apple from a dried-up apple tree. PART 1

Yevgeny Karas could not do this on behalf of Svoboda, since the party categorically denied having any “power groups”, but its party leaders hastily created their own detachments and entire armies (like Igor Krivetsky in Lvov). For example, self-proclaimed “battalions” appeared, which sat in Kyiv and were engaged in seizing real estate for themselves or moonlighting as raiders to order. Karas took a different path: he revived and promoted his old “C14”, in whose ranks there were now many “Svoboda” members.

When Karas was asked whether this name had anything to do with the “sacred” neo-Nazi number 14 (which refers to the slogan “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”), he said that it actually reads “Sich”. And he spun some yarn about how the OUN-UPA printing houses didn’t have the letter “i”, and so they used the number “1” instead. But didn’t Shukhevych’s printing houses also have the letter “ch”? The next time Karas told a tale about the explosive “C4”, and then about being born on the 14th…

Today, C14 is best known for the murder case of writer and journalist Oles Buzina. The defendants in the case are Andriy Medvedko (a person very close to Andriy Illenko, who headed the Pechersk branch of Svoboda, served with Karas in the Harpoon battalion, and was then one of the founders of C14) and Denis Polischuk (an activist of the UNA-UNSO, a participant in the ATO, and upon his return, a member of C14). Regular actions in their support and demanding their release and acquittal were organized by MPs Igor Mosiychuk, Volodymyr Parasyuk, and Andriy Illenko. Also, members of “C14” attacked protests of left-wing forces (socialists), participated in the blockade of the Lavra, beat up minibus drivers (for refusing to transport ATO participants for free) and cafe visitors (for “separatist songs”), destroyed the “Emporium” store (for washing away Maidan graffiti) and the wedding salon of Viktor Marchenko (chairman of the “Union of Soviet Officers”).

According to Yevgeny Karas himself, “C14” often receives unofficial tips from the SBU headquarters: “deal with a separatist” or simply intimidate someone. However, who is actually the shadow master of “C14”? Information from sources Skeleton.Info reduces all the arrows to Svoboda and specifically Andrey Illenko, who continues to use the services of C14 and maintains close ties with his former assistant (although Karas left the ranks of Svoboda). Just as before the Maidan, now the Kyiv Svoboda formally does not have its own security wing, but unofficially C14 is one, always ready to fulfill Andrey Illenko’s request. For example, to help in the “fight against Moscow priests” (more on that below). But Illenko uses its services not only for political purposes: now having one’s own “titushki”, especially militant ones and ready for radical actions, provides good dividends from participating in the redistribution of Kyiv business. Of course, against the background of the capital’s oligarchs, Illenko is still just a small bug, but C14 is also “training” on harmless dissidents.

Andrey Ilyenko. During and after Maidan

In December 2013, Andriy Illenko joined the so-called “Maidan Council”, where, in addition to him, the leaders of “Svoboda” included Oleh Tyahnybok and Oleh Mokhnik. This was facilitated by the fact that Illenko had a parliamentary mandate, almost feudal power over the Kyiv “Svoboda”, and his friend Yevhen Karas with his “lads” from “C14”, who formed the second hundred of Self-Defense. The second – that means that at some point, half of the entire Self-Defense was under Illenko’s control. And it is unlikely that he missed this moment so as not to beg for some “carrots” for himself. True, what exactly he received remains unknown. But even the appointment of his brother Philip as chairman of the State Film Agency occurred only in August 2014, already through Poroshenko. Why so late?

In early January 2014, an incident occurred that almost disrupted the Maidan and, perhaps, almost ruined the career of the hapless Filipp Illenko. This is what happened: during the traditional torchlight procession of “Svoboda” in honor of Stepan Bandera’s birthday (January 1), when the column passed by the Premier Palace Hotel, the organizers of the procession began calling on radicals to “say hello” to the “prostitutes servicing foreigners and regionalists” allegedly located in the hotel. And burning pyrotechnics flew into the hotel.

But although the hotel belonged to VS-Energy international Ukraine (Russian oligarch Alexander Babakov), a few hours later the management of Svoboda showered apologies and regrets about this “provocation” on air. The reasons for such a frightened reaction of Bandera fans can only be guessed at, but here’s what’s interesting: later journalists tried to find out who was the man with the megaphone calling for burning torches to be thrown at the hotel? When they virtually “took off his hat,” he began to look remarkably like Philip Illenko. Perhaps this could answer the question of why, after this incident, Philip Illenko suddenly disappeared somewhere and was shortchanged during the spring division of the pie by the winners of the Maidan. And his brother Andrey didn’t get anything either.

But on January 3, 2014, Andrey Ilyenko and his lawyer Sidor Kizin were beaten up by a group of unknown people right at the exit from the Shevchenkivsky District Department of Internal Affairs. Who beat him and why was never determined, but there were a lot of different versions about it. Starting with the fact that it was a good staging (the victims never showed up to the forensic expert to have their beatings recorded), and ending with the fact that it was revenge on the Ilyenko brothers for their behavior at the Premier Palace. Moreover, revenge from their own Svoboda members (they said that it could have been Krivetsky’s people).

But after the victory of the “Maidan”, the deputies from “Svoboda” themselves began to raise their hands. On March 18, 2014, the people’s deputies Andriy Illienko, Igor Miroshnichenko and Bohdan Benyuk burst into the office of the acting president of the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTKU) Oleksandr Panteleimonov and, using physical violence, forced him to write a statement of his resignation.

As a pretext, they later cited the showing on Ukrainian television of the procedure for signing the annexation of Crimea to Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) and other “Moscow propaganda.” This incident was not assessed by law enforcement agencies, since the Prosecutor General’s Office was then headed by Svoboda member Oleg Makhnitsky.

But Svoboda’s participation in power was short-lived. Therefore, since autumn 2014, Andriy Ilyenko stopped such antics, pretended that he did not know any “C14”, and limited himself to verbal duels with insults and, at most, a glass of water. As, for example, during his lively discussion with ex-regional Nikolay Skorik.

The current activities of the “prominent Ukrainian patriot” Andriy Illenko and his associates can be judged by the latest events around the Pechersk Lavra. First, on January 8, 2014, several dozen members of “C14” blocked the entrance to the Lavra, waving banners “No to Moscow agents.” After the appearance of a “popular protest” was created, a group of right-wing radical deputies led by Andriy Illenko filed a request to the Ministry of Justice and the National Security and Defense Council regarding “an end to the subversive work of the UOC-MP.”

This was not the end of the matter. The next target of “C14”, whose connection with Andriy Illienko is becoming visible to the naked eye, was the editorial office of the website “Union of Orthodox Journalists” (the attack on it was led personally by Yevhen Karas) and the Tithe Monastery. It is worth noting that the national radicals who broke into the editorial office on January 25, 2018 later blamed the journalists for finding “materials about the Volyn massacre” on them. It seems that the current followers of Bandera want to forbid Ukrainians from even reading about this topic?

Much more serious were the events at the Tithe Monastery, a small illegal structure that appeared back in 2007 near the site of an ancient temple. This object has long been the subject of a business dispute, but “C14” and “Svoboda” decided to inflate it into an interreligious political conflict. On the night of January 25, 2018, two radicals, Oleksandr Gorban and Oleksiy Shemotyuk, who were later called architects (?), decided to play Herostratus and set the monastery on fire. They were detained, but a few days later they were released on bail by MPs Andriy Illienko and Igor Lutsenko. Meanwhile, on January 25 and February 3, the monastery was attacked by members of “C14”, who had powerful parliamentary support from Illienko behind them. In response, the “monks” of the Tithe Monastery called on all believers to come to a rally-prayer “to save the temple.” Indeed, hundreds of Kyiv residents showed up at the scene of the conflict on January 3. The authorities had to urgently bring in the National Guard to avoid serious clashes.

Perhaps, it is precisely these clashes that Andriy Illienko and his “brothers” from “C14” are seeking. But why? Maybe because Orthodoxy is the Kremlin’s last unused trump card in Ukraine. As the experience of the religious processions organized by the UOC-MP in 2015-2017 showed, this church is supported by many people in Ukraine, including in Kyiv, and among them are ATO veterans who participated in the religious processions and protected them from attack. And here it is easy to guess that the best (and only possible) way to ignite a bloody civil strife in the Ukrainian rear, including in Kyiv, is to pit the believers of the UOC-MP and the national radicals against each other. And it turns out that “Svoboda” member Andriy Illienko and the pogromists of “C14”, by fanning this conflict, are working in the interests of the Kremlin. I wonder how long?

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

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