Inna Rafalskaya
The legal community of Ukraine is a “jar of spiders”, and to be convinced of this once again, it is enough to wait for the third congress of lawyers, which will take place in Mukachevo on November 20–21. If it happens, of course. The previous extraordinary congress in Odessa was actually disrupted by the efforts of the Kyiv organization of the Council of Lawyers, headed by the notorious Inna Rafalskaya. Her henchmen, with the support of allies from several other regional organizations, created a virtual sabbath in the hall, trying to prevent those gathered from making planned decisions, including the election of three members to the High Council of Justice.
At the same time, Rafalskaya’s supporters hoped https://censor.net.ua/resonance/283964/kto_kogo_sezd to overthrow the current head of the National Bar Association of Ukraine (NAAU) Lydia Izovitova and appoint their own person instead. Considering that the Kyiv organization is very numerous, carrying out the action according to its scenario could be crowned with success. But after the people of Kiev failed to appoint their own chairman and they noticed that they did not have enough votes to make decisions, they simply began to block the congress. They even started pouring mother’s milk on the presidium table https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=G83Iaf0YwlQ directly from the source of moisture by one of the respected lawyers in the capital.
There is no doubt that there will be surprises from the capital’s organization this time too, and it will try to thoroughly prepare for them. In any case, Rafalskaya does not hide her dislike for the current leadership of the National Association of Lawyers and the Council of Lawyers and has scandals with them in the public sphere. In particular, the Kyiv Bar Council, which collects contributions from its members, refuses to transfer them to the central office, demanding a report on the use of funds for the past year. Because of this, Kyiv lawyers had difficulties with extracts from the register, which were blocked by NAAU due to non-payments. And without these extracts, lawyers actually cannot carry out their professional activities, having become victims of a setup by local authorities. Moreover, demanding openness from the central office, Rafalskaya herself makes luxurious capital European-quality renovations in her office at the expense of the Council. Moreover, Rafalskaya, on behalf of the Kyiv Bar Council, concocted a letter to the Ministry of Justice demanding that control over the register be taken away from the NAAU, but there, as expected, her proposal was “rejected”, sending her to negotiate with “enemies”.
Inna Rafalskaya
Although if the ministry had taken her side, no one would have been surprised. There is a type of people who are at work in any government – Rafalskaya is one of the brightest examples of such opportunists (her puppeteer David Zhvania is from the same series, but more on him a little later). One gets the impression that she has always been in senior positions in the legal profession. The power in the Pechersk Triangle changed, but it was never difficult for Rafalskaya to agree with her to maintain her position in exchange for certain services on her part.
Rafalskaya was once lobbied for the position of chairman of the Kyiv City Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of the Bar (KDKA) by her father, a well-known official of the Ministry of Justice, Vladislav Kalny. It is interesting that the formation of the Kyiv CDCA, as in other regions, should have been handled by the city council, but Rafalskaya managed to circumvent this norm through the court, and the judge of the Shevchenkovsky court Shostak had troubles in connection with this decision. The experienced legal community discussed this fraud for a long time.
In general, in 2005–2006, Rafalskaya developed a vigorous activity: having caught the demand for transformations in the “orange” wave, she prepared her proposals for reforming the prosecutor’s office. And later, by her own consent, she became a member of the working group on reforming the prosecutor’s office and the legal profession https://www.president.gov.ua/ru/documents/14200.html?PrintVersion under President Yanukovych, which was now headed by persona non grata, and then almighty Andrey Portnov (more about him in the article Andrey Portnov: raider history). And she even had a hand in the law “On the Bar and Legal Activities,” adopted by the “pro-Yanukovych” Verkhovna Rada. This is another illustration of the claims of Rafalskaya and the “revolutionaries” led by her that, in her opinion, the current heads of self-government bodies are allegedly tainted by cooperation with the previous government and, according to the new fashion, are subject to lustration. As they say, start with yourself.
Especially if you remember who was defended at one time by a lawyer who claims to be the main one in this profession in the whole country. Of course, a lawyer cannot be judged by the persona of his client. But while there are lawyers who sometimes, even to their own detriment, defend the disadvantaged and victims of the lawlessness of the “majors,” there are those for whom the client’s “money” is the main factor when choosing a case.
Among Rafalskaya’s clients was such a character as Viktor Pylypyshyn – the odious ex-head of the Shevchenko district of Kyiv https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2013/11/15/7002253/ was accused of exceeding official powers, as a result of which the capital was damage in the amount of 15 million hryvnia was caused. From the second time he participated in parliamentary elections in the “seeded” region, Pilipishin hid behind parliamentary immunity, but in the last elections he lost miserably, because voters fully appreciated his promises and efforts.
Also, the “pseudo-revolutionary” was an opponent of the father and son Pavlichenko accused of murdering Judge Zubkov. The case caused a huge resonance in society, in particular in opposition circles at that time. Although the authorities, with the help of Rafalskaya, condemned the Pavlichenko family on clearly far-fetched charges, the Verkhovna Rada after Yanukovych fled https://fakty.ua/177641-esli-delo-pavlichenko-spornoe-i-neodnoznachnoe-ego-stoilo-peresmotret-no- eto-dolzhen-byl-sdelat-sud-a-ne-verhovnaya-rada released.
In the courts, Rafalskaya, together with another member of the Kyiv Bar Council and her business partner in the https://ukrbaras.com/uk lawyer association “Ukrainian Legal College – International Legal Aid” Igor Boyko, defended the interests of such characters of the Yanukovych regime as the “cashier” of the Family Sergei Kurchenko and ex-Minister of Finance Yuri Kolobov. Here, as they say, comments are unnecessary as about a person who stutters about lustration.
As the head of the Kyiv Bar Council, Rafalskaya actively lobbied for the issue of opening access to tax authorities to the essence of legal advice provided to companies and individuals by lawyers. Such concern for the tax authorities to the detriment of their wards caused https://blog.liga.net/user/igolovan/article/12053.aspx bewilderment and indignation in the legal community.
Retinue of raiders and plagiarists
It’s worth talking separately about Rafalskaya’s friends and partners – over the years of her advocacy, she has acquired a sufficient number of associates, dubious episodes in her biography and “achievements” of many of whom even she herself can envy. Moreover, many of them are Rafalskaya’s partners in the already mentioned https://ukrbaras.com/uk law association. People close to the leadership of the Ukrainian Bar Council say that a rare meeting of “military friends and friends” is complete without a “glass of tea” and the singing of drinking songs, and Rafalskaya’s craving for alcohol is well known in the professional community.
Who are these bosom comrades and table mates of Inna Vladislavovna? For example, her business partner Irina Pikh was remembered for being the lawyer of the scandalous ex-governor of the Transcarpathian region https://zik.ua/ru/news/2006/10/25/112383 Ivan Rizak, who was involved in organizing riots during the presidential campaign 2004. At that time, Rizak was a close associate of the notorious Viktor Medvedchuk.
Rafalskaya’s friend Larisa Merkulova, being a member of the Higher Audit Commission, which could evaluate the arts of the Kyiv organization, actually blocks her work together with Alexander Bashuk, who will be discussed below.
Lawyer Tatyana Kozachenko, together with Rafalskaya, is fighting with Izovitova and declares that the latter has not practiced law for a long time, and therefore has lost her professional qualifications. But Kozachenko herself did not lose her grip – she owes her rapid career to cooperation with the Svitovenko family, whom ill-wishers call members of the criminal group “Leliki-B” olics.” Father and son Svitovenko once owned one of the oldest chains of hardware stores, Megamax, which eventually went bankrupt. Svitovenko “became famous” https://antikor.com.ua/articles/16904-viktor_svitovenko__shahraj_zlodij_i_zlochinetsj_vin_ne_vartij_vashogo_golosu for the raider seizure of the premises at 11 Shota Rustaveli Street. Kozachenko and her business partner in the law firm “Capital” represented Svitovenko’s interests in this case nom deal. Moreover, Kozachenko directly https://pravoscope.com/act-postanova-910-4431-13-smirnova-lg-12-08-2013-ne-viznacheno-s petitioned to involve herself as a third party.
The same https://pravoscope.com/act-postanova-k2-107-12-13-smirnova-lg-19-03-2014-viznannya-zasnovnickix-ustanovchix-dokumentiv-nedijsn-26819956 scheme involving Kozachenko as a third person was also tested in the dispute over the premises of the Latvian Parex Bank, which was also appropriated by the plundering family. Kozachenko is a friend of the controversial lawyer and social activist Tatyana Montyan, whom https://montyan.org/tat-yana-kozachenko-ot-nashego-okruga-tol-ko-montyan-dostojna-stat.html actively supports in her political attempts.
One of the contenders whom Rafalskaya wants to seat in the chair of the head of the NAAU is Izovitova’s current deputy and another of Rafalskaya’s comrades in the “Ukrainian Legal Collegium,” Ekaterina Koval. For Rafalskaya, this figure is ideal because it is absolutely dependent and can be easily manipulated. Koval began her career with Valery Evdokimov in the public association “Union of Lawyers of Ukraine”. She tried to become a people’s deputy twice – in 2012 from the Udar party, in the last elections – as a self-nominated candidate in the 15th district of the Vinnytsia region. What she was counting on is unclear, because her results were, to put it mildly, depressing. At the same time, it must be admitted that she even tried to conduct some semblance of an election campaign. So in one of her interviews she authoritatively stated that over the course of two years she had been creating a system of free legal assistance. Although this is, to put it mildly, an exaggeration, and in truth, a lie, since this system was created on the basis of the law https://legalaid.gov.ua/ua within the structure of the Ministry of Justice. And in the 2012 elections, Koval was noticed in outright manipulation – she registered her assistant Tatyana Kisil as her official representative in the CEC, who received a salary from the NAAU secretariat and was actually Koval’s subordinate. Although the Election Law prohibits candidates for people’s deputies from using subordinates, this also applies to the candidate’s proxies.
Another attempt to take credit for the merits of others was exposed when Koval published an article in a legal newspaper, “Strategy for the development of the prosecutor’s office.” In October of this year, the speaker at the NAU meeting, Natalya Petrova, announced plagiarism on the part of Koval, noting that her presentation of the Strategy was transferred to the NAU back in April 2014, and Koval’s article was published later and contains outright plagiarism. Moreover, Koval clearly used part of Petrova’s work, apparently because, as a leader (deputy chairman of the RAU), she had access to her materials.
Koval applied for a seat in the High Council of Justice at the scandalous Odessa congress and, if this issue is returned to Mukachevo, she will probably apply again.
But the most colorful character around Rafalskaya, undoubtedly, is her “right hand” Alexander Bashuk, who is the main executor of her intrigues. He can be considered a victim of the political repressions of the “Kuchma regime”, under which he spent a year in a pre-trial detention center. The reason is the organization of the seizure of the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine in 2000. A group of young people led by Bashuk demanded a ban on the Communist Party, the withdrawal of the Black Sea Fleet from Crimea and Ukraine’s withdrawal from the CIS. A few hours later the invaders surrendered to the authorities. The then Prosecutor General Mikhail Potebenko told interesting things about Bashuk: that he promised the invaders apartments, cars and admission to universities for this operation. The “chicks of Bashuk” themselves said that the leader intimidated and threatened them. In the pre-trial detention center, Bashuk wrapped himself in toilet paper soaked in sunflower oil and set it on fire, receiving serious burns. After https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2000/11/8/4360535/ unsuccessful self-immolation, he went on a hunger strike and ended up in intensive care.
After his release under an amnesty, Bashuk got a job as an assistant to the famous “whistleblower” deputy Grigory Omelchenko and returned to his old ways. True, this time he decided to seize not the useless office of the communists, but the school “Kherson Collegium”, while boasting of his parliamentary connections. With the help of unknown guys in camouflage, he physically removed the legitimate leadership of the school (Bashuk’s old acquaintances – the Rodnenok family), appropriated the school’s property and… declared it bankrupt, without paying back wages to the employees. Moreover, he legalized his raiding with the necessary decision of the local court.
Over time, Bashuk became close to the increasingly popular VO “Svoboda”, became a candidate for the post of Kyiv mayor from this party, and in the 2007 parliamentary elections was its representative in the Central Election Commission. In 2009, he got into a “blue” scandal, when members of the Sumy organization of this party with a specific ideology left it, https://tertiaroma.livejournal.com/244983.html citing the fact that they could not be in the same ranks with homosexual Bashuk. But this is…
The trail of scandals did not leave our hero. Having “dealt” with school, Bashuk took up the publishing business, which belonged to the herbalist Natalya Zubitskaya. Zubitskaya stated that Bashuk and another lawyer, Yuri Didovets (who ran for the Radical Party in one of the Kyiv constituencies in these elections) offered her their legal services, and she made Didovets the director of some of her enterprises. But over the course of two years, according to her, this couple withdrew millions of hryvnia from the Green Planet PP and Zolotsvet LLC. According to Zubitskaya’s lawyer, during a search in the premises belonging to Didovets, an underground workshop for the production of counterfeit medicines according to Zubitskaya’s recipes and the herbalist’s property, which disappeared after the robbery of her apartment, were discovered. It would not be out of place to mention that Didovets is a member of the Kyiv Bar Council, controlled by Rafalskaya.
Bashuk was also involved in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYPmMCVscFI an attempt to seize the OSBB “Lisova Pisnya”, but the plans of him and his accomplices were prevented by the intervention of the prosecutor’s office.
Such a motley team is at the disposal of Mrs. Rafalskaya, who is now trying to take control of the entire legal community. Moreover, this entire company operates in close connection with the notorious “beloved friend” and political “tumbleweed” David Zhvania and the odious Sergei Kivalov, who retains influence on the judiciary. Zhvaniya, who, https://censor.net.ua/news/311900/vlasenko_opasaetsya_chto_jvaniya_i_kivalov_raskolyut_advokaturu according to ALLJ member Sergei Vlasenko, imagines himself as the new Andrei Portnov, miserably lost the elections in the district in the Odessa region, but is trying to puff out his cheeks and throw dust at eyes, declaring to everyone that he is acting in the interests and with the blessing of the president. Rafalskaya and her organization are a good tool for implementing Zhvania’s machinations, which does not hesitate to use the dirtiest methods to achieve its goals. In particular, the attempt to disrupt the election of members of the HCJ from the Bar is connected precisely with the reluctance to allow members uncontrolled by Zhvania into the council.
But Kyiv lawyers are not only the listed persons, but five thousand professionals who have now actually become hostages of behind-the-scenes games. If they manage to get out of the influence of the crooks who are using them blindly, all attempts by Rafalskaya and Co. to split the already, in truth, not the most consolidated legal community will be doomed.
Irina Boyko, for “ORD”