Mikhail Dobkin: Gepa is on the hook for dopa
In life he was always second best. Until his gray hair, Mikhail Dobkin stood behind his father, who ruled the family business. Having become the mayor of the second Ukrainian capital, he received the nickname of the second Ukrainian “proFFesor”, and remained the second person in Kharkov, even rising to the rank of governor – since he was only a puppet in the hands of his friend and business partner Gennady Kernes. And his only attempt to play his own solo in big politics instead of the runaway leader ended in complete failure. However, for now Dobkin remains one of the richest people in Ukraine. For now…
Mark Moiseevich and sons
Dobkin Mikhail Markovich born on January 26, 1970 in Kharkov, in the family of Mark Moiseevich Dobkin (1947-2016) and Alla Nikolaevna Dobkina (1947), he has a younger brother Dmitry (1975) who has been a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada since 2012. It is to their father Mark Moiseevich that the brothers owe the successful life of typical Ukrainian millionaires – and it all began in the 80s.
Mark Moiseevich and Alla Nikolaevna Dobkin
Then Mark Moiseevich worked in the “1000 little things” store on the small shopping street Suzdalskie Rydy, located in the center of Kharkov, next to the House of Trade and the Central Market, and had close ties with the management of the wholesale consumer goods warehouse located there. In times of shortage, this was a real goldmine: all you had to do was hide popular goods, then sell them at a “margin.” So the Dobkins were engaged in commerce back in Soviet times – albeit illegally. And where there was illegal money, crime appeared. Near Dobkin’s store, he materialized in the person of a gop company of scammers and “scammed” from among the “Novodomovskys” (New Houses is a large residential area of Kharkov) under the leadership of a certain Gepa – in whom the future mayor of Kharkov Gennady Kernes was guessed, (Read more about him in the article by Gennady Kernes. Dark pages of the past of the Kharkov mayor) at that time “earned” his living by playing thimbles and “divorcing suckers.” Gepa had two nearby “points”: near the Start auto store (Lopansky Lane) and near the House of Trade, so Mark Dobkin’s store was within the boundaries of his territory. That’s how they met.
Meanwhile, Misha, who graduated from high school in 1987, got a job in “production” – this is what many young men of that time did, who, instead of entering a university, were waiting for a summons from the military registration and enlistment office. However, they said that he was only listed in “production”, but in reality he helped his father engage in trade and open the first cooperative for sewing fashionable pants from the Soviet “raincoat”, obtained by Mark Moiseevich.
Mikhail Dobkin in the army
In 1988, Mikhail Dobkin left for the air defense forces to serve in units of the Kyiv Military District. And in 1990, he returned home not alone, but with… his young wife, holding the hand of an eight-year-old girl. It is clear that this was not Mikhail’s daughter, but a child from the first marriage of Lyudmila Vikentyeva Molotokas, who also turned out to be eight years older than her new husband. But her father, as they said, wore big stars and was a big boss in the political department of the military district. To seduce the general’s daughter – what else could a young conscript soldier dream of! It seems that Mikhail Dobkin’s further army service was deprived of the necessary hardships and deprivations. And after Lyudmila actively became involved in the family’s business, Mark Moiseevich fully approved of the choice of his eldest son.
One of their first own enterprises was called “Golden Autumn”, was registered at Suzdal Rows 12, and was engaged in small-scale wholesale trade in the contents of warehouses, which had already officially migrated into the hands of efficient “cooperators”. Now Mark Moiseevich no longer needed to disguise his commercial activities, to which he involved Mikhail, who had returned from the army, with his wife Lyudmila, and his youngest son Dmitry, still in high school. He arranged for them to join his other cooperative, the Progress-90 production and trading association. Dmitry in 1990-92 was a senior salesman (to the detriment of his studies, which affected his future), Mikhail was engaged in commercial relations, and since 1993 his father gave him the post of director. By that time, Mark Moiseevich already had other enterprises, and he preferred a much more profitable business to trading pants and shoes.
The dashing 90s: oil, “Bush legs” and VAT
In the 90s, every “cool kid” dreamed of owning his own gas station or car service station (at least at the tire service level), but smarter people, standing a couple of steps higher on the social ladder, sought to get their hands on the wholesale trade of fuel: oil products, gas, coal . And this trade was entirely corrupt and even criminal; it was impossible to squeeze in “from the street”, especially in Kharkov, where the “lads” dismantled even vacant lots into zones of influence, where spontaneous trade arose. Desperate loners, naively believing in the free market, were then found in the city’s forest parks – severely mutilated before death, since the Kharkov crime was distinguished by some abnormal sadistic tendencies. But the Dobkin family entered this business easily and without problems, thanks to Mark Moiseevich’s long-standing and numerous connections in all necessary areas: in business, in government, in law enforcement agencies, and, of course, in organized crime groups. At the same time, the number of enterprises he opened still cannot be accurately counted: sometimes Mark Dobkin registered a one-day company for one single transaction. At the same time, he had several main enterprises participating in all the schemes, through which he not only received profit from transactions, but also saved significantly on benefits.
What follows is even more interesting. Mark Moiseevich’s companies purchased petroleum products and gas condensate through the “Chernobyl” enterprises Brig, Burtex and Bizon, created with the participation of Alexander Bandurka. And the Bandurka family is a real legend of Kharkov! Back in Soviet times, when Mark Dobkin was trading in deficits under the counter, Alexander Bandurka headed the Kharkov Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. And judging by the fact that Mark Moiseevich was never brought to justice, and crime did not bother him either, they could well form a fruitful duet. Later, already in the 90s, Alexander Bandurka contributed greatly to the fact that the criminal “roof” in Kharkov was replaced by the “cop” one. He himself was involved in various businesses: from a yeast factory to arms supplies to Yugoslavia, and then became the rector of the National University of Internal Affairs. His eldest son, also Alexander, thanks to his father, received a leadership position in the Kharkov tax administration in 2003, and another son, Sergei, became the head of the regional tax police. As they say, no comments!
Alexander Bandurka
Let’s return to the “Chernobyl” companies: they got their name because they were registered in the villages of the Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions that suffered from the Chernobyl accident, and therefore were exempt from paying VAT. Being enterprises with the participation of foreign capital (“joint ventures” in Soviet terminology), they had a number of benefits for import processing. In addition, created before 1993, they received the right to include their “judicial and administrative costs” in the cost of imported goods. The most interesting thing is that in addition to direct profits from the direct purchase and sale of goods, these enterprises made even more from cleverly devised schemes for compensation of their “costs” from the state, as well as from VAT refunds – which they did not even pay! There is information that the intricacies of this scheme were developed by Inna Bogoslovskaya, at that time known as the legal luminary of Kharkov.
Dobkin firms involved in shady schemes
According to experts, in the 90s the state annually lost up to 3 billion hryvnia from such schemes in the trade of petroleum products alone (at a dollar exchange rate of 1.75 hryvnia), which ended up in the pockets of their owners. Of course, not only the Dobkins, but also many other Ukrainian “businessmen of the first wave” were involved in this. In addition, a significant part of the profit had to be given in the form of kickbacks and bribes, but still a lot “stuck” to the hands of the Dobkins. And Mark Moiseevich was interested not only in oil products: using exactly the same schemes, since 1996, he organized a channel for importing chicken legs into Ukraine, popularly known as “Bush legs.” The essence of this business was still the same: after the Verkhovna Rada imposed duties on food imports in order to formally support domestic producers, it became profitable only for those who had the corresponding benefits. The Dobkins’ companies had them, and since 1998, goods were delivered through the ports of Feodosia and Mariupol with registration in the special economic zones “Azov” and “Donetsk” – this was done by V. Skorobogach, a close business partner of the Dobkins, who later became a deputy of the Kharkov City Council.
But Lyudmila Dobkina, who enthusiastically got involved in the business, set up sales of legs through private stores in Kharkov.
It is interesting that the chief accountant of most of Dobkin’s companies was a certain Adam Lidia Petrovna (apparently another “family friend”), and they themselves were registered at the address: Kharkov region, Vysoky village, Oshchepkova street, 52. The camp site “Camping” was located at this address ”, later privatized by Ukrproftur CJSC – owned by the former head of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine Alexander Stoyan. What connected him with the Dobkins, since they never seemed to cross paths? What other secret acquaintances did Mark Moiseevich have?
Mikhail Dobkin. Shoulder straps for Misha
In 1997, Mikhail Dobkin entered the National University of Internal Affairs with a degree in jurisprudence. Thanks to the fact that the university was headed by “Uncle Sasha” Bandurka, he only had to register there and wait for the official issuance of his diploma. But why did he, having no special talent for studying, suddenly become interested in higher education, and even at a police university? There were various rumors about this. People close to the Dobkins said that back in the 80s, Mikhail was greatly impressed by Gepa’s gop company, which operated not far from his father’s store, and by his father’s police acquaintances who came to visit them. This gave him mixed feelings: from the desire to become a tough bandit to the dream of getting police stripes. But his character was only enough to become a manager in his father’s shop, so the diploma he later received and the title of police officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were completely useless for him, like a set of plastic Indians for a grown-up child.
And in 1998, Mikhail Dobkin was elected as a deputy of the Kharkov City Council – just like long-time family friend Gennady Kernes. The former “swindler” Gepa was no more: having married the daughter of prosecutor Yuri Gaisinsky, Kernes became a new man and a respectable businessman – albeit with old criminal habits. Essentially, Kernes “rose” first on his family ties with the prosecutor’s office, which allowed him to provide assistance to the “brothers,” and in turn, the “brothers” put him in charge of Kharkov. When, by the end of the 90s, the “brothers” were gradually shot down, Kernes, who had already retrained as a businessman and politician, took over its “common funds” and enterprises.
Later, Mikhail Dobkin repeatedly claimed that he never had a joint business with Gennady Kernes. However, this is far from the case. Of course, his wise and far-sighted father would hardly have risked doing business with a man whom Mark Moiseevich had known since Soviet times as a professional swindler, who was also emotionally unstable and cruel. The business of the Dobkins and the business of Kernes, who also got involved in gas and gasoline in the 90s, was soon “parallel”; they bought or sold through the same companies, but Mark Moiseevich well understood the fraughtness of proposals to become Kernes’s partner. But he failed to convince his sons of this, and could not prevent them from falling under the influence of Gepa, who is excellent at manipulating weak-willed people. In many ways, this became possible thanks to Grigory Solomanin, Mark Dobkin’s long-time business partner. By the way, there is information that Solomanin has two passports in his hands: one with the surname Salomanin, the other with the surname Solomatin.
Back in 1995, the old cooperative of Mark Dobkin was turned into the company “Ukrtorginvest” (OKPO 25611259, legal address: Kharkov, Suzdal ryady, 12), co-founded by Solomanin. In fact, the company was created for the youngest son Dmitry (he became its director), just as later in 1998 the company East Oil Group LLC was created for Mikhail Dobkin (OKPO 30772695, legal address: Kharkov district, Vysoky village, Oshchepkova str., 52), which was also co-founded by Grigory Solomanin. But Solomanin himself has his wife’s brother Timur Tenishev, who is closely connected with the criminal world of Kharkov and is included in the circle of companions of the Dobkin family (he is the founder of Nika Plus LLC). Through him, a new rapprochement between the Dobkin brothers and Gennady Kernes began, and this was not only a business connection. Rumor has it that it was Tenishev who got Mikhail and Dmitry Dobkin hooked on cocaine, which Gennady Kernes was already using. However, the first drug scandal associated with the names of Dobkin and Kernes broke out only in 2007, and by that time Dopa and Gepa had already become well-known characters in Ukrainian political folklore. Then it was reported that Kernes and Dobkin were the organizers of the beating of Kharkov district council deputy Oleg Medvedev (*criminal), who allegedly sold them low-quality cocaine. A criminal case was opened, which was soon closed “due to lack of corpus delicti.”
The story of how Timur Tenishev became an “honest entrepreneur” without a criminal past, and the criminal cases against Dobkin and Kernes strangely “dissolved”, tells the following: the daughter of Lyudmila Dobkina (from her first marriage) was friends with the son of the head of the Kharkov Regional Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Sergei Denisyuk, and in 2001, young people riding around the city at night had an accident. Denisyuk Jr., who was to blame for the accident, survived, but the girl died. The story was diligently hushed up; the most trusted investigators of Denisyuk Sr. arrived at the scene, so it was leaked to the media only as a brief summary without mentioning names. However, Mikhail Dobkin, through Kernes’s criminal connections, received details about this tragedy, and a little later his father Mark Moiseevich, using his personal acquaintance with the General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs A. Gapon and the head of the Internal Security Department of the regional Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs V. Kolesnik, made a “capital presentation” to Denisyuk Sr. And he, being responsible for his son’s misconduct, had to fulfill numerous “requests” of the Dobkin family – including “cleaning up” the criminal past of their entourage in the archives…
Mikhail Dobkin. Golden time
In the 2002 elections, Mikhail Dobkin, not without the help of Gennady Kernes, was elected to the Verkhovna Rada in single-mandate constituency No. 174. Gennady Adolfovich himself entered parliament on the list of the “For EdU” bloc, but then abandoned the mandate of the Ukrainian people’s deputy in favor of the post of secretary of the Kharkov City Council (he also won the local elections). Kernes was clearly in a hurry, since a month later he lost this place during a conflict with the new mayor of Kharkov, Vladimir Shumilkin.
But new prospects opened up for Mikhail Dobkin: he entered big politics, and immediately began to look for someone to join. During his three years as a deputy (2002-2005), the formerly non-party Dobkin changed several factions: “United Ukraine”, “Democratic Initiatives”, “Center”, SDPU(o), Party of Regions. He became a member of the budget committee and several investigative commissions, and authored numerous bills and amendments – many of which lobbied for his family’s business interests.
So, for example, when in December 2002, benefits for enterprises with “special regimes of investment activity in priority development territories” were eliminated in Ukraine, this hit the Dobkins’ “ham” business. And then bills No. 2569 of 04/04/2003 appeared “About making changes to the current laws of Ukraine for the creation and functioning of special (high) economic zones” and No. 3375 of April 23, 2003 “About making changes to the current legislation of Ukraine for regulation ity in special (vile) economic zones and in the territories of priority rozvitku (for poultry meat)”, which Mikhail Dobkin was helped to draft and lobby by deputies Ekaterina Vashchuk and Evgeniy Seagal. Dobkin himself, in support of the bill, made the following speech from the rostrum of parliament: “I am one of those who positively assess the activities of zones where a special economical regime has been introduced, at least this applies to the Kharkov region, Donetsk region, where there are positive changes, where truly new jobs are being created.”
Work in the Verkhovna Rada and involvement in large economic processes inspired Mikhail Dobkin to obtain a second higher education: in 2004 he entered the Kharkov National Economic University, three years later receiving a master’s degree in international economics. However, Dopa’s entourage laughed behind his back at his obviously purchased two higher educations, calling him “the second proFFesor.”
Meanwhile, the Dobkin companies continued to do a successful business on the “refund” of VAT, fortunately this became very easy after the Kharkov tax office was headed by Bandurka’s sons. According to data published later, for the period 2003-2004. only three Dobkin enterprises (Olimp LLC, Nika Plus LLC and Orbita Plus LLC), having transferred only 152,000 hryvnia to the state budget, then “repaid” 80.5 million hryvnia ($17 million) from the budget. At the same time, Nika Plus LLC managed to receive a VAT refund in the amount of 36.5 million hryvnia for a fictitious trade transaction (allegedly exporting heating oil), which it did not even carry out! In general, during the period 2003-2005, the companies of Dobkin and his sons defrauded the state of 139 million hryvnia in VAT refunds alone! However, they had to transfer a significant part of this income to the charitable foundations of the Bandurka family, which, in fact, was the main one in these schemes and worked not only with the Dobkins.
In addition, in 2002-2005, the Dobkin companies actively participated in a scheme to transfer money to foreign offshore companies through Ukrainian-Latvian insurance companies. On the Dobkitny side, operations were carried out through their IC Oberig and IC Hromada (the total amount of money passed through the accounts exceeded 3 billion hryvnia), the scheme also involved the Golden Gate JSCB, whose shareholders were close business partners of the Dobkin brothers and Gennady Kernes. By that time, Kernes, who had created his own parliamentary faction in the Kharkov City Council, was making full use of Mikhail Dobkin as his man in the Verkhovna Rada, and through him and his brother, he got as close as possible to the Dobkin family business – to the great displeasure of Mark Moiseevich. And yet the money itself floated into their hands, as the Dobkin family garage eloquently testified to:
Mikhail Dobkin: Gepa is on the hook for dopa
However, the golden time of big and easy money ended after the first Maidan: the government changed, and new people who came into it themselves wanted to “mow the money”, pushing the representatives of the “old regime” away from the budget trough. In the spring of 2005, the first criminal case was opened against the Bandurok father and son, personnel changes took place in the leadership of the Kharkov police and tax authorities, and the Dobkins’ entire previous business collapsed. Mark Moiseevich fell into depression for the first time in his life, and his youngest son Dmitry became heavily addicted to all kinds of drugs. However, the Dobkins then only lost profit: despite the fact that high-ranking officials associated with their business lost their positions and even went on the run, they themselves were not subject to criminal prosecution.
Dopa and Gepa
The destruction of connections and schemes created over the years forced the Dobkins to become closer to Gennady Kernes, who very successfully survived the first Maidan and even appeared on its stage in the ranks of the “orange leaders”. The curious thing is that in fact Kernes was in charge of Yanukovych’s election campaign in 2004 in Kharkov, but the official confidant of the candidate was Mikhail Dobkin – to whom all the big shots later fell. And in 2005, on the advice of Kernes, Mikhail Dobkin bet on the future revenge of the Party of Regions, becoming a member of its political council and deputy regional organization – and after the murder of Kushnarev, the main Kharkov regional leader. But the main thing is only formal: even then it was noted that the cunning Gepa uses the “slow” Dopa as his puppet. Moreover, it was believed that Gepa did not take over the capital of the Dobkin family only thanks to the vigilance and connections of Mark Moiseevich. A striking example of the relationship between Gennady Kernes and Mikhail Dobkin was the recording of the election speech of the candidate for mayor of Kharkov (in December 2005), which later ended up on the Internet and became a hit of political satire.
Despite all the absurdity of the tongue-tied Mikhail Dobkin, who had difficulty reading the text on the screen, he perfectly played the role of the opposition candidate from the Party of Regions, and Kharkov residents elected him in the spring of 2006 as the new mayor of the city. This, too, was Kernes’s cunning: he himself had every opportunity to get this post, but did not want to take advantage of them in view of the fact that power in the country was in the hands of the “orange”, and the “blue” regional mayor could be the object of their persecution. Kernes himself became the secretary of the Kharkov City Council, in fact the “guiding shadow” of Mikhail Dobkin. This is how the duo of Dopa and Gepa, as they say, emerged in public politics.
Much less is known about their joint activities in the Kharkov economy in the period 2006-2014, when Dobkin and Kernes actually crushed half of the city. However, not everyone surrendered to them without a fight. An attempt to wrest the Barabashov market from the local oligarch Feldman ended in nothing: he was supported by Arsen Avakov (Read more about him in the article Arsen Avakov: the criminal past of the Minister of Internal Affairs), who, thanks to his closeness to Viktor Yushchenko’s brother, was appointed governor of the Kharkov region in 2005. Then there were interesting rumors that among the “titushki” used for raider seizures there were also members of the Kharkov right-wing radical organization “Patriot of Ukraine”, which was allegedly financed by Gennady Kernes (and he also provided it with expensive office space in the city center at 18 Rymarskaya Street ). However, then Kernes and the leader of “Patriot” Andrei Biletsky quarreled, after which the right-wing radicals came under the wing of Avakov (in 2014, he created the Azov battalion from them) and were inflamed with a desire to take care of the “health of the nation”, starting to fight the sales of smoking mixtures ( who themselves smoked heavily) and products of the pharmaceutical factory “Zdorovye”. It was stated that the smoking mixtures included cannabinol and ecstasy, and “Zdorovye” was engaged in the production of synthetic drugs. This business in Kharkov belonged to the Russian “authority” Shishkin (Kemerovo group), and its overseer was Igor Salo, Kernes’s “sidekick”, whom he assigned as an adviser to Mikhail Dobkin. This was the second drug scandal associated with Kernes and Mikhail Dobkin – and now it was no longer about drug use, but about the production and sale of drugs.
The construction of the Kharkov forest park, which actively developed under the mayor of Dobkin, caused no less scandal in its time. If in the early 90s the territory of the forest park was 2385 hectares, then in 2009 it was already 2060 hectares, and in 2010 less than 1900 hectares. The main initiator of the distribution (or rather, sale) of plots was the secretary of the city council, Kernes, but the mayor only followed his lead. Moreover, Mikhail Dobkin did not come up with anything smarter than to build himself a mansion there behind a five-meter fence. His neighbors also included: a relative of the director of the Department of Family, Youth and Sports of the Kharkov Regional State Administration Dmitry Perepilitsa, the head of the Kitaris Kharkov charitable foundation Sergei Koval, the owner of Kharkovyuvelirtorg LLC Alexander Saratov, as well as a dozen business partners and “sidekicks” of Gennady Kernes .
Mikhail Dobkin’s house in a forest park
After a small fire broke out in this house in 2010, Mikhail Dobkin (who had already become governor) moved to live in his country mansion in the village of Artyukhovka, Zmievsky district. There he enjoyed the hospitality of the head of the district, Evgeniy Muraev (Read more about him in the article Evgeniy Muraev: a new candidate from the old Kharkov clan), to whom Dobkin had such caring attention that rumors arose that Muraev was allegedly his relative. Actually Evgeniy Muraev is the son-in-law of Oleg Taranov, who back in the 80s was closely acquainted with Vadim Rabinovich (read more about him in the article Vadim Rabinovich: secrets of an underground billionaire) and Mark Dobkin. Thus, they are connected by a long-standing acquaintance of their “ancestors”, and, surprisingly, Gennady Kernes has nothing to do with this. Moreover, Evgeny Muraev is under the “roof” of Vadim Rabinovich, and is not afraid of attacks from Kernes’ semi-criminal cronies – so he is one of the few close people of Mikhail Dobkin who are not influenced by Gepa.
In 2009, Kharkov was decorated with huge blue “big muzzles” with the slogan “Ukraine for the people”: Mikhail Dobkin and Gennady Kernes, who became the main Kharkov regional officials after Kushnarev’s death, diligently contributed to the second election campaign of Viktor Yankovic. These diligence were rewarded: in March 2010, Mikhail Dobkin was appointed head of the Kharkov regional administration, and in October 2010, Gennady Kernes won the election of the Kharkov mayor. Victory with a minimal margin over Arsen Avakov (30.09% versus 29.46%), in an atmosphere of numerous violations and scandals.
Mikhail Dobkin. When everything falls apart
The law does not allow the governor, like the mayor, to personally engage in business, so since 2006, Mikhail Dobkin has not had his own companies – at least, he did not mention them in his declarations. The family’s business was registered in the name of his father and brother, but things were not always going well in the Dobkin family. In 2007, Mikhail divorced Lyudmila, who for many years actively participated in their common business (in 1993 she gave birth to a daughter, Alla, and in 2000, a son, Nikolai), and married Alina Bozhenko – who gave birth to daughters Eva (2007) and Polina (2010). At the gossip level, it was rumored that Kernes contributed to his divorce from Lyudmila and his marriage to Alina, thus depriving Mikhail Dobkin of reliance on his strong-willed wife.
Lyudmila Dobkina with her daughter Alla
And in January 2016, while returning from the Dominican Republic, Mark Moiseevich Dobkin died right on board the plane. The death of his father, on whom the whole family had been supported since childhood, shocked Mikhail. But he was also the main obstacle protecting his sons from being completely absorbed by Gepa, and most importantly, the entire family business rested on Mark Moiseevich, and most of the enterprises and shares were also registered in his name. The once powerful business empire of the Dobkins had already begun to fall apart: in the summer of 2016, six months after the death of his father, his heirs came to blows. Mikhail Dobkin, having forgotten about politics, began the legal process of depriving the right to inheritance of his four-year-old half-brother Tolik – the son of Mark Moiseevich from his mistress Maria, with whom he actually lived for almost ten years. Since the laws allow Tolik to claim an inheritance, the question arose about his guardianship, and someone (allegedly Kernes) suggested to Mikhail Dobkin the monstrous idea through the court to recognize Maria as incompetent (an alcoholic) and to become Tolik’s guardian himself – and the administrator of his share of the inheritance.
They say that this is only the beginning: a fierce division of their father’s inheritance between the brothers Mikhail and Dmitry is expected ahead, during which they may quarrel with their mother Alla Nikolaevna Dobkina – by the way, who is also the owner of some of the family’s enterprises. For example, it was the mother who registered a house and a plot in the Kharkov forest park, as well as the Veresk Dacha Cooperative, the Kiparis housing cooperative and the Triumph housing cooperative.
Mikhail Dobkin
Today this is the main problem of Mikhail Dobkin (for what is a person without capital in Ukraine?), but it is not the only one. For two and a half years now, he himself has been subjected to regular political pressure from the new government and pro-Maidan “activists.” It all started back in February 2014, when Mikhail Dobkin disregarded political prudence (like many of his comrades) and openly opposed the second Maidan. He supported the police and Berkut, initiated the holding of a congress of deputies of local councils of the South-Eastern regions in Kharkov (nicknamed “Severodonetsk-3” and declared separatist), called the coup in the capital “fascist”, announced his participation in early elections and chose one one of the main points of his program is the federalization of Ukraine.
The reaction of the new government was not long in coming: on March 2, 2014, he was removed from the post of governor, and on March 7, they tried to detain him on charges of separatism. On March 10, Mikhail Dobkin himself appeared for questioning, and subsequently the accusations against him were not confirmed. But his absence in Kharkov allowed him to avoid subsequent accusations of involvement in the seizure of the Regional State Administration by supporters of the “Kharkov Republic” – for which Gennady Kernes later had to take the rap.
However, this put Mikhail Dobkin between two fires of hatred on the part of the masses engulfed in turmoil. Those who supported the second Maidan saw only an enemy in Dobkin: a regionalist, a separatist, a pro-Russian politician, Yanukovych’s henchman, Gepa’s sidekick, etc. etc. When in April 2014, as a presidential candidate, he went to the ICTV studio for a live broadcast on the “Freedom of Speech” program, a crowd of “activists” shouted obscenities and shouted “Glory to the heroes!” doused it with brilliant green and sprinkled it with flour. I wonder why flour and what does the “heroes” have to do with it? And just a few days before this incident, Mikhail Dobkin was sworn at, pelted with eggs and almost lynched in Lugansk. There, a crowd of pro-Russian supporters of the “Crimean option” (proclamation of a “republic” and joining Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)) greeted Dobkin as a “traitor to the South-East” for his calls to enter into a peaceful political dialogue with Kiev.
In the early presidential elections of 2014, Mikhail Dobkin was a candidate from the already crumbling Party of Regions – the Regions did not find other candidates, since all the potential “leaders” simply fled. With a result of 3.03%, Dobkin took sixth place, forever burying PR as a political project, after which he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada at number 3 on the list of the “Opposition Bloc” (having bought a passing seat for his brother Dmitry). However, this was already the end of the short career of politician Mikhail Dobkin. Since then, he has not even been able to normally perform his functions as a people’s deputy, perhaps fearing new arrests or aggression from “activists.” In the Rada you can only see his brother, sometimes staggering around high, while Mikhail himself disappears for two years in an unknown place and makes himself known through messages on Twitter. The fact that Mikhail Dobkin still remains a people’s deputy was only indicated by the news about his income decoration for 2015, in which he indicated income from “gifts” in the amount of 10 million hryvnia! He also declared: cars Toyota LS 2007, Toyota LS 200 2012 and Toyota LS 200 2013 (his own), Mercedes GL 350 2012, Volkswagen Multivan 2012 and Porsche 911 Turbo 2011 (family members), Silver boats Hawk 520 and Bass Prote 520 (own), Tracker Tundra boat (family), two houses, two apartments and a 1.6 hectare plot of land. And, of course, no business!
It seems that in light of recent events (the death of his father, the division of inheritance), Mikhail Dobkin will appear even less often. Well, since he is no longer an official, and is unlikely to ever become one, and his deputy’s “crust” is of little use even for himself, and he has lost all the main connections in business, then Mikhail Dobkin is unlikely to is of interest to his friend Gennady Kernes. But Gepa is of great interest to the capital of the Dobkin family!
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info
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