Mikhail Okhendovsky: what is the former “Pidrakhui” keeping silent about?

As you know, it is not so much how voters vote that is important, but who counts their votes and how. For several years now, Ukrainian democracy has been under the control of a person who has a very dark past and has repeatedly emphasized his political involvement. And on top of that, the legitimacy and powers of the former head of the Central Election Commission and people’s deputy, according to Skelet.Info, Mikhail Okhendovsky and colleagues have long been in question!

Mikhail Okhendovsky. The story of one stroke of luck

Okhendovsky Mikhail Vladimirovich was born on October 27, 1973 in Dubossary – then a quiet regional center of the Moldavian SSR, which in the early 90s became the arena of conflict between Moldova, independent from the Union, and Transnistria, independent from Moldova (PMR). That Transnistrian separatism, to some extent, played into the hands of young Okhendovsky: in 1991, conscription into the army on the territory of the PMR simply fell through. However, literally at the same time, the Moldovan authorities tried to return the rebellious region back to the fold of a single young power, so Ochendovsky had to flee his hometown, which was engulfed in firefights. His legs led Okhendovsky all the way to Norilsk – where he became a worker at a mining and metallurgical plant. This coincided with the collapse of the USSR and complete chaos in the accounting system, so the “Moldavian” Ochendovsky was not drafted into the Russian army either. Alas, Okhendovsky did not take root in Norilsk: market reforms began in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), as a result of which the workers of the plant began to delay their wages, which were already eaten up by inflation.

And then, in the summer of 1993, Mikhail Okhendovsky’s legs led him to Kyiv, where his fate changed dramatically.

Firstly, he found himself a job as an assistant at the Proxen Law Firm LLC – which was simply unimaginable luck for a visiting boy from the factory. How this happened and why the twenty-year-old “Moldovan-Russian” Misha, who had only a high school and a metallurgical workshop behind him, attracted the owner and director of Proxen, Alexander Zadorozhny, he is silent – and no one really asked him about it. However, the presence of family ties between them can be ruled out: Zadorozhny “rose up” back in the 80s, jumping from graduate school at the Department of International Law at Shevchenko University of Kyiv to deputy dean of the Faculty of International Relations, and in 1990 founding his own law firm “Proxen”. That is, if they were related, Okhendovsky would have fled to him back in 1991, and not to Norilsk. So the reasons why the “refugee” Okhendovsky was immediately picked up by Zadorozhny and “warmed on his chest” as his own became their personal secret.

Since by that time Zadorozhny was already an assistant professor at the Faculty of International Law at the Institute of International Relations at Kiev University (KNU), it was not difficult for him to place his protégé there – as well as to resolve the issue of Okhendovsky obtaining Ukrainian citizenship. This was done literally immediately, so that in the fall of 1993, Mikhail Okhendovsky was already a student at the prestigious faculty of Kyiv University. But whether he studied on a full-time basis or by correspondence remains unknown – after all, simultaneously with his studies, Okhendovsky continued to work (or be registered) at the Proxen company.

Moreover, since 1996, third-year student Okhendovsky already held the position of lawyer there, although at that time he did not yet have the appropriate diploma. Perhaps this meant his internship. However, there young Okhendovsky did not just print out contracts and make coffee: sources reported that in 1994-96. together with his mentors from Proxen, he participated in the legal registration of metal export operations (about 150 thousand tons), and these operations were not entirely legal. Actually, in the 90s, Proxen’s services were valued because they made any scams and schemes legal (or the appearance of legality), while specializing in foreign economic transactions – it was not for nothing that the owner of the company was an associate professor of international law!

In 1997, Mikhail Okhendovsky completed the 4th year at the Institute of International Relations and, according to the new classification, received a bachelor’s degree – or, according to the previous scale, incomplete higher education. As he always emphasized in his biography, he graduated with honors (who would doubt it with such a patron), but for some reason Okhendovsky did not want to complete his studies for another year to get a master’s degree (full higher education). So he is still working with his incomplete higher education!

Legal “roof”

Having continued his career at Proxen as a certified lawyer, Okhendovsky participated in many dubious contracts in which the company acted as a legal “cover.” Sources reported that Okhendovsky had a hand in the bankruptcy operation of Belotserkovsky RTI Plant OJSC, the purpose of which, of course, was to transfer the enterprise to the disposal of Vremya LLC. Of course, at that time the privatization of many enterprises followed similar schemes, but in this case the intrigue was that the owner of Vremya LLC was a certain S. Ya Levada, a regular client of Proxen and already a close acquaintance of Okhendovsky from the scrap metal export business. That is, if this operation had “burnt out”, then, perhaps, concrete ruins would now be gray on the site of the Belotserkovsk RTI plant.

In addition, there were rumors about the connection of Mikhail Okhendovsky with the Kyiv organized crime group of the Savlokhov brothers (Boris, Ruslan and Teimuraz), known as the “wrestling brigade” – since its backbone consisted of eminent athletes and freestyle wrestling coaches. Rumors claim that Okhendovsky, who is far from sports, certainly did not participate in their “showdowns”, but allegedly provided legal assistance in registering “squeezed out” enterprises in the capital and region.

However, Ochendovsky’s schemes did not always work smoothly, and at the very beginning of his career he got into serious trouble. On February 2, 1999, the investigative department of the capital’s Organized Crime Control Department opened criminal case No. 20-2681 under articles No. 83-3, No. 143-3 and No. 194-4 of the Criminal Code, in which Mikhail Okhendovsky (deputy director of Proxen LLC) and Roman were suspects. Shingur (firm lawyer). It should be noted that by that time Alexander Zadorozhny, who was elected to the Verkhovna Rada in the 217th district in 1998, left his brainchild to “young specialists”. And those, without the supervision of the “boss”, lost all caution, or maybe they simply forgot (or did not want) to “bring it” to someone.

The essence of the matter was as follows: the Kyiv companies “North-South”, “Information Security” and “Magnoavgrostrom”, controlled by Sergei Krasilnikov and Alexander Latyshev (members of the capital’s organized crime group of Vyacheslav Peresetsky, nicknamed “Fascist”), staged an import scam. Namely: under a preferential scheme, they imported building materials from Germany supposedly for their own needs, and then sold them at “market value” – thus, they “save” quite a bit on duties and taxes. But appetites grew, and soon Krasilnikov and Latyshev decided to resort to the then popular fictitious VAT refund scheme – when the state is literally robbed by receiving a VAT refund for goods or services that existed only on paper. It was precisely the preparation of such papers that the Proxen specialists took up. But something went wrong with them, and the scheme was immediately shut down. It’s even possible that Okhendovsky would have been handcuffed if he had not only been the deputy director of Proxen, but also an assistant to people’s deputy Zadorozhny – who at that time was in favor with the president himself.

But they managed to settle the case without bringing in “heavy artillery”: a lawyer helped the lawyers.

This savior turned out to be Yuriy Gaysinsky, the former Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine (1992-93), who at that time was also engaged in private legal practice, providing services to the growing Ukrainian business. Gaysinsky turned to his old connections, talked to the right people – and a few days later the Kyiv prosecutor’s office, represented by investigators Musienko and Grechko, took away case No. 20-2681 from the capital’s Organized Crime Control Department. Then this case was sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office – where it was quickly lost. By the way, since 2000, Gaisinsky returned to public service, working until 2007 as a prosecutor in the Kyiv region. During this time, he skillfully “solved” numerous problems of all politicians and oligarchs, arranging both the “blue” and “red” and “orange” – so they fired him only because he had reached retirement age.

Mikhail Okhendovsky – A flexible guy

Perhaps thanks to the same Gaisinsky, for the next two years the Proxen company and its deputy director Mikhail Okhendovsky did not have any problems with the law – which they helped others to circumvent. However, in 2002, Ochendowski’s patron found him a new, more interesting job.

But first, a little background: in 1999, Alexander Zadorozhny became Kuchma’s confidant in electoral district No. 217, at the same time establishing close relations with Alexander Volkov, who oversaw Leonid Danilovich’s election campaign – and through him reached the head of Naftogaz, Igor Bakai. In addition to his cordiality, Zadorodny offered them his services, including legal ones – thus, the deputy director of Proxen, Alexander Zadorozhny, also met the “big people”. In 2002, Zadorozhny, who was again elected to the Rada, joined the main pro-presidential faction “United Ukraine”, and became close to the new head of the Presidential Administration, Viktor Medvedchuk, whom he helped in developing the so-called. “political reforms” – amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine that deprived the future president of some powers. Medvedchuk, who defended Kuchma from the attacks of the opposition, paid a lot of attention to control over the information space of Ukraine as a method of containing the political situation in the country. And then Zadorozhny, according to Skelet.Info, recommended to him his flexible protégé Mikhail Okhendovsky for the position of head of the legal department of the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU).

One of Okhendovsky’s main tasks was to provide legal support not only for censorship, but also for “temniks”: after all, too “chatty” journalists could not simply be threatened with a fist (the 90s were over), so they were placed under strict liability for violating instructions and editorial policy, making their dismissal legal.

And Okhendovsky clearly succeeded in this matter – judging by the fact that a few months later he received the post of vice-president of NTU.

But he did not stay there for long: a flexible executor of someone else’s will was needed in even more responsible positions: on February 17, 2004, the pro-presidential coalition of the Verkhovna Rada replaced 10 members of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine, approving the candidates proposed by the Presidential Administration. Among them was Mikhail Okhendovsky. It was obvious that he received this appointment as Medvedchuk’s reliable man in order to contribute to the victory of Kuchma’s successor in the upcoming elections.

Interestingly, it was then that Ochendovsky filed his first income tax return. According to it, in 2003 he earned 79,384 hryvnia, had 272,900 hryvnia in his account, and drove a simple Toyota. His wife Ekaterina Vyacheslavovna, who then worked as a private notary, turned out to be much richer: her income amounted to 493.2 thousand hryvnia, she owned a Ford Fiesta, a modest house (79.2 sq. m.) and a simple two-room apartment (45.4 sq. m. . m).

Okhendovsky lived up to the hopes placed on him: during the 2004 elections, he turned a blind eye to numerous complaints about violations and falsifications, and continued to defend Yanukovych’s victory even in the Supreme Court – when almost all allies hastily fled from the unlucky “professor”.

Mikhail Okhenovsky – An irreplaceable person

Although the 2004 elections became the most scandalous in the history of Ukraine, and led to the dissolution of the Central Election Commission, the resignation of its head Kivalov (nicknamed “Pidrakhui”) and a mass of criminal cases against members of the central and territorial election commissions, Mikhail Okhendovsky retained his place. Already in December 2004, he was again elected as a member of the new Central Election Commission: this was one of the conditions for the compromise that the “blue” half of the Verkhovna Rada agreed to. And before the parliamentary elections of 2006, he almost officially represented the newly formed Party of Regions in the Central Election Commission.

By the way, his former “boss” Zadorozhny was a member of the High Council of Justice of Ukraine from 2004 to 2007, and was dismissed from there only after he very much angered Viktor Yushchenko, who stubbornly took the position that the president’s dissolution of parliament was illegal.

As you know, Yushchenko dissolved the Rada anyway (for the third time), after the regionals themselves agreed to early elections. And in preparation for them, in June 2007, the “anti-crisis coalition” of the PR+KPU+SPU again included Mikhail Okhendovsky in the updated Central Election Commission. And he was very useful there during the 2010 presidential elections – for which, by decree of the new head of state Yanukovych No. 726/2010, he received the title “Honored Lawyer of Ukraine.” However, Okhendovsky was even more useful to the regionals in the 2010 local elections: subsequently, both the opposition and even the communists accused him of turning a blind eye and “putting out” scandals around violations during voting and vote counting, playing on the side of the regionals and their local allies. A similar situation was observed in the 2012 parliamentary elections. However, even then Okhendovsky deftly avoided accusations, and in the end, all the blows again fell on the then head of the Central Election Commission, Vladimir Shapoval (2007-2013). The result of the war over the Central Election Commission between the government and the opposition was the resignation of Shapoval and the appointment of Mikhail Okhendovsky as its head.

It would seem that after the Euromaidan, when the regionals lost almost all their key posts, Okhendovsky’s career in the Central Election Commission came to an end: if he doesn’t leave on his own, he’ll be fired with a scandal. But contrary to all expectations, the head of the Central Election Commission remained in his place, and in February 2014 began preparations for early presidential elections. As is known, these elections to some extent raised questions regarding their legitimacy, especially in terms of voting in problem regions in the east and south of the country. But, apparently, Okhendovsky’s experience of giving legitimacy to anything came in handy here. And as a result, the resounding victory of Petro Poroshenko, which the Central Election Commission immediately recognized without any objections, was primarily facilitated by a record low voter turnout (59.48%). Subsequently, Okhendovsky’s merits were appreciated by the new president: by his decree No. 367/2015, Petro Poroshenko awarded him the Order of Yaroslav the Wise.

Several months passed, and a new record of “no-show” (52%) was set in the early parliamentary elections. Moreover, at the time of their holding, the composition of the Central Election Commission was already illegitimate – since the term of office of its members expired in July 2014 and has not been extended until now!

A curious situation has arisen: it turns out that the decisions of the Central Electoral Commission are also illegitimate – which means that for two years now Ukraine has had a not entirely legitimate parliament, and a not entirely legitimate government (and even a president – his rise to power is already directly called a “coup d’etat”, to for example, Alexander Vilkul). In addition, the legitimacy of local authorities elected in 2015 can be questioned in the same way!

However, Mikhail Okhendovsky did not bother himself with questions of legitimacy. The 2015 elections went down in the history of Ukraine as one of the dirtiest in all respects: from attempts to remove some candidates and entire parties from the electoral race, to ban them in a number of districts, to mini-Maidans, where the losing parties burned tires and did not want to recognize the victory of competitors. Okhendovsky, closing the chapter on many violations, did not restrain himself during the elections of the mayor of Krivoy Rog – taking the side of Yuri Vilkul. However, the city still had to hold repeat elections.

In 2016, against the backdrop of worsening crises, Ukraine smelled of either new early elections or a third Maidan – and politicians again remembered the Central Election Commission, including the long-expired terms of office of its members. At the same time, the question was raised: is it time to change its head? Moreover, in May, during the publication of the “black accounting of the Party of Regions”, Mikhail Okhendovsky was named among the recipients of “assistance”: it was indicated that on June 8, 2012 (after the parliamentary elections) he was paid $1,525. It seems like a small amount for a bribe to such an official, but still! A scandal broke out, but as soon as the question of dismissal was raised head-on in July-August, Okhendovsky suddenly found himself on sick leave – and in the fall the topic died down again. Perhaps such a Central Election Commission with such a head, even if his powers have long expired, is needed by any government. Well, legitimacy is a relative matter if Ochendovsky takes it upon himself!

Well, whether his powers have expired or not, Mikhail Okhendovsky receives his salary regularly. In his last declaration, he wrote down: 310 thousand hryvnia of salary for 2015, 463 hryvnia of dividends from a deposit in Ukrgasbank, 205 thousand hryvnia of cash and a Lexus LX 570 car. At the same time, the watch on the hand of the head of the Central Election Commission alone is worth more than all of his declared money – not to mention the car. But Okhendovsky still remains a “homeless person”, not owning any housing. And his wife again turned out to be wealthier: 1.357 million annual income, 125 thousand dollars and 200 thousand hryvnia in cash, a house with an area of ​​240 sq.m. (the family hearth is growing!), 50% of the shares of Slavpipl LLC and a Nissan car.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

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