Nikolai Vorobey: why did the oil captain of Belarusian corruption dock in Ukraine? PART 1

Many Ukrainians naively imagine Belarus as a country with a strong economic leader, Lukashenko, who has driven away all the thieves and speculators. In fact, everything will be arranged almost the other way around: it is under Father’s wing that for a quarter of a century now the most incredible scams have been almost officially carried out, on which his tame oligarchs make their capital – Nikolai Vorobey is one of the top ten today…

Nikolai Vorobey. The Solvent Case

Vorobey Nikolai Nikolaevich (in Belarus they often write “Mikalai Varabey”) was born on May 4, 1963, somewhere in Ukraine. He hides his past so carefully that he didn’t even want to admit in which city or village he was born. Likewise, nothing is known about his parents and relatives.

After high school, Vorobey entered Kyiv University. Shevchenko, where in 1985 he received a diploma in history – which he never found useful. Immediately after graduating from high school, he was drafted into the army, where he conscientiously served for two years, after which he did not return home, but went to the Belarusian city of Novopolotsk (Vitebsk region), where he got a job at a local service station for VAZ cars. This resembled some kind of escape, perhaps even from the law, but this is Sparrow’s personal secret, which, perhaps, is known only to his oldest friend and companion Vitaly Grigorievich Zeif – with whom they started together at this service station.

The historian Sparrow did not know much about cars, but he turned out to be a “cool kid.” Having worked at the station for a little over a year, he managed to persuade its workers to elect him as the new director (at the height of “perestroika” in the USSR it was fashionable to elect managers by the work collective), and immediately appointed Zeif, who also had little knowledge of technology, as his deputy. According to rumors, Vorobey owed his election to the fact that the local “lads” arrived to convince the work collective of the service station to vote for him. Sparrow either managed to quickly make friends with her, or (also rumored) he had a certain acquaintance in the local organized crime group, apparently a comrade from the army or university, who invited him to live in Novopolotsk. In general, it turns out that the bandits put their own man in the chair of the service station director.

However, the station workers did not complain, since in the period 1989-91. Sparrow transferred it to “self-financing” and launched a real business – albeit mostly a shadow one. There were always scarce spare parts at the station, whatever they were, which either Sparrow got or the bandits brought to him, but they cost one and a half to two times more. There were also two queues: in one, repairs had to wait for months, in the other, they were done “quickly, but more expensive.” However, Sparrow always had “discounts” for VIP clients (bandits, city leaders, police).

In the early 90s, Vorobey and Zeif switched to trading in foreign cars, which were shipped in a stream from Europe. This “topic” was the most gangster, many Belarusian organized crime groups fed from it, so here, too, rumors about Sparrow’s connection with crime are not surprising, as well as his absolute reluctance to talk about his life during these years. It is known that in April 1994, Vorobey established Avtoimport LLC (UNP 300220895), which is still operating today. From this enterprise his accumulation of starting capital began.

Big people

Sparrow’s next leap was facilitated by a certain “Ivan Ivanovich”. Residents of Novopolotsk who knew Sparrow spoke about this character, adding that “Ivanovich pulled up” many people. True, there were two such “Ivanichs” in Sparrow’s life. The first is the director of the Novopolotsk ATP No. 6, Ivan Ivanovich Raschinsky, also a “cool” person, with many different connections, but still a figure of a local, provincial scale. The second is Ivan Ivanovich Titenkov, once one of the most influential people in Belarus. It was Titenkov who suggested Lukashenko run for president, helped him win the 1994 elections, Titenkov personally tore and tore up the old “Litvinian” white-red-white flag from the roof of the presidential administration, Titenkov held under Lukashenko the incredibly lucrative and most corrupt position of the Administrator of the Presidential Administration of Belarus – where he worked until 1999.

Titenkov was “gobbled up” by another Lukashenko close associate, General Viktor Sheiman, in 1994-2000 and 2006-2008. holding the position of Secretary of State of the Security Council of Belarus. He created under him the sinister Directorate for the Protection of the State System, commanded by Colonel Vladimir Tkachenko (died under mysterious circumstances in 2005) and supervised by Shcheiman’s deputy on special assignments, Viktor Novelsky (nicknamed “Saruman” for his characteristic appearance and character). This Directorate was a special detachment of political police, and was engaged not only in surveillance, but also, as the Belarusian opposition claims, played the role of a “death squad.”

One of Sheiman’s old army friends (from Afghanistan) is retired Colonel Alexander Metla. According to reviews of people who know him, Broom has always been a restless entertainer: in the army he designed something, in civilian life he was engaged in business, then, with the help of high-ranking friends, he established the Memory of Afghanistan Foundation, and then became involved in reenactors, becoming director of the historical and cultural complex “Stalin Line”created by him in 2005. The complex, it must be said, is simply gorgeous: it is located around the reconstructed fortifications of the Minsk fortified area, there is a lot of unique restored military equipment from the times of the Great Patriotic War (even an armored train), reenactment shows are regularly held there, and episodes of several films about the war were filmed there. Alexander Lukashenko came there more than once for festive performances – whom Broom met personally, in a WWII uniform, giving the president a tour.

The oldest thread of connection between Sparrow and Lukashenko’s entourage runs through Alexander Metla. Broom is the owner of the offshore Virginia company Interforest Corp, established back in 1998. A year later, the Interforest JV was created in Belarus (since 2004, Interforest JV CJSC), the founders of which were Metly’s Interforest Corp and Sparrow’s Avtoimport LLC.

Nikolai Vorobey. From forest to oil

Nikolai Vorobey is a good showman himself: he owns one of the largest hunting grounds in Europe “Krasny Bor”which he turned into an international tourist complex. The history of its creation is quite interesting, but Sparrow himself does not tell the whole truth, so let’s supplement it with information from Belarusian sources/Skelet.Info.

In the mid-90s, Nikola Vorobey, associated with local criminals, was involved in the trade of foreign cars and timber, investing money in restaurants. And allegedly it was the forest that led him to Ivan Titenkov, who had been engaged in an extensive, varied business since the late 80s. They said that it was on the forest that the Interforest joint venture later grew, but this was back when Titenkov and Sheiman were Lukashenko’s team, although they already hated each other. That is why it turned out that Metla, Sheiman’s man, became the “foreign founder” of the company.

Instead of simply exporting round timber, as Ukrainian companies do, Interforest began producing lumber, prefabricated houses, bathhouses and other wooden structures. It was, so to speak, a progressive step forward. Krasny Bor LLC was created using the same principle (UNP 391033635). At first, illegal hunting of wild animals was organized in those parts: this is how bandits, “cops”, and officials had fun in the 90s. Thus, wild animals were almost destroyed, but this territory was not used for development or large-scale clearing (many streams, lakes, and swamps prevented this). In 1997, the territory was staked out, creating the Krasny Bor landscape reserve. And in 1998, Vorobey received permission to create a hunting farm of the same name there. In order to have someone to hunt, they created special farms where they raise deer, roe deer and other animals, which are then “released” into the sights of hunters. This is such a bloody business – in the truest sense of the word!

Sparrow, who had previously purchased several restaurants, already had some experience in the leisure industry. “Krasny Bor” initially relied on wealthy clients, for whose services a hotel complex with separate chalet rooms was built. Mostly Belarusian businessmen and officials, as well as Europeans (Germans and Austrians), go there. Since hunting in Europe is too expensive an entertainment, and besides, it is now very reprehensible from an ethical point of view, local lovers of shooting animals go hunting to Belarus.

No matter how Alexander Lukashenko patronized his corrupt circle, from time to time he “shook it up”, and then purges of officials and businessmen began in the country. In 2007, Vorobey also came under such a purge: he was arrested by the Belarusian KGB in the case of the chairman of the Belneftekhim concern Alexander Borovsky (sentenced to five years in prison, a year later pardoned by Lukashenko and appointed general director of MAZ). Thanks to his patrons, Nikolai Vorobey then escaped with a slight fright, but for several years he “lay low”, disappearing from the field of view of the media.

In 2010, his partner Zeif “quietly” created AMKO CJSC in St. Petersburg. According to the Russian and Belarusian press, at that time the Kremlin was changing its economic policy towards its eastern ally, and Belarusian companies lost the opportunity to directly purchase Russian oil. Then she began to do this through companies registered in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) – one of which, apparently, became AMKO.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

CONTINUED: Nikolai Sparrow: why did the oil captain of Belarusian corruption dock in Ukraine? PART 2

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