Ruslan Solvar
The current Verkhovna Rada includes many interesting personalities with dubious pasts or present. Almost all of them try to hide their income or connection with the business. Some people do it better, some do it worse. Some earn less, some more. One of those who earns a lot, but carefully hides it, is people’s deputy from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc party Ruslan Solvar. It’s quite difficult to find information on the Internet that would compromise this person, but it exists, and there’s so much of it…
“Grain” businessman
Ruslan Solvar was born in May 1971 in the village of Peshchanka, Vinnytsia region. After school, he studied at a vocational school to become a gas-electric welder, however, according to his official biography, he did not work a single day in his specialty. He received his higher education in finance and credit at the Kiev National Economic University. Solvar gained his first experience working in government agencies at the Ministry of Agriculture. At the same time, together with his partners, he created a private corporation that was engaged in grain transfers. It should be noted that his career path is very logical from the point of view of lobbying the interests of business. While working at the Ministry of Agriculture, he actively began to develop the grain business. His interests have always included agriculture and railway transport services. His autobiography lists many companies, information about which is generally impossible to find, and it does not even mention where and when exactly he worked in a particular organization.
“People’s Deputy” way
Ruslan Solvar first became a people’s deputy in November 2012, having won the parliamentary elections in the 91st constituency (city of Fastov) from Vitali Klitschko’s UDAR party. Despite very low ratings before the start of the elections, he managed to set up an ingenious scheme to manipulate the minds of voters. He donated significant sums to temples and churches, and in return for this, priests and abbots encouraged parishioners to vote for him. He also launched a “sociological survey” in Fastov and the region. “Poll” is in quotation marks because, through manipulative technologies, it was almost direct propaganda for Solvar. This was his way of becoming “closer to the people.”
Ruslan Solvar
Solvar has repeatedly stated to Ukrainian media that he entered politics to make it easier for him to do business. With his arrival in parliament, his “golden time” began. In the Verkhovna Rada, he worked in the Committee on Transport and Communications, which was headed by the well-known Boris Kolesnikov. As it turned out, Ruslan Nikolaevich became an ideal “comrade-in-arms” for him. With his active assistance, he subsequently became the chief adviser to the general director of the Association of Freight Forwarding Organizations (Ukrvneshtrans). For a man who has been “making money” from rail freight fraud for over a decade, this is simply the perfect place.
As a people’s deputy of the 7th convocation, Ruslan Solvar communicated quite closely with the son of Viktor Yanukovych, actively promoting the interests of the Party of Regions. In the Rada he was called Boris Kolesnikov’s man and one of the “watchers” of the Family (it’s strange that they forgot about this after Euromaidan). He himself in every possible way rejected the connection with the Party of Regions, foaming at the mouth to prove his “opposition”. Experts say that during his time in the unofficial position of “supervisor” from Yanukovych, he managed to steal several tens of millions of hryvnia. But this did not stop him from joining Vitali Klitschko’s party. Probably money played a role here again. It was not without reason that under the new government Solvar was called one of Klitschko’s “wallets.”
In the Verkhovna Rada of the 8th convocation, he became one of the main lobbyists for the interests of former regionals represented by his former “partner” Boris Kolesnikov and a number of other undesirable personalities in Ukrainian politics. This time he became a people’s deputy from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc party. During the elections, by the way, there were some incidents. Bogdan Khmelnitsky, one of Solvar’s competitors in the 91st district elections in 2014, posted their telephone conversation online, during which Ruslan Nikolaevich used rude language, threatening him with big problems.
Controlled companies and railway “frauds”
Today, Ruslan Solvar controls a number of companies specializing in freight transportation. One of them is “Fresh Line”. Its director is Alexey Mozgovoy. So, he was appointed to this position in 2003 by Ruslan Solvar, who at that time was one of its founders. The fact that Mozgovoy is still subordinate to Solvar is evidenced by the fact that he is his assistant in the Verkhovna Rada.
In 2010, immediately after the appointment of Boris Kolesnikov as Minister of Infrastructure, the Fresh Line company entered into an agreement with Ukrzaliznytsia. It should be noted here that 80% of Ukrzaliznytsia’s income comes from freight transportation, and one of the main methods of fraud during the “Family” times was the deliberate underestimation of the cost of freight transportation for the so-called “our” companies. So, after the conclusion of the agreement, Fresh Line became one of these “our” companies. As a result, she managed to save hundreds of thousands of dollars, but Ukrazaliznytsia, on the contrary, suffered significant losses. It was possible to stop such fraud only in 2014, when UZ terminated this ill-fated agreement with Fresh Line after a lengthy showdown.
Another company controlled by Solvar is Metrudtrans. Until recently, its director was Artem Minich, with whom Ruslan Nikolaevich was one of the founders of the Ukrzernotrans-K company. Its owner is listed as Vladimir Pashko. In January 2015, this company entered into an agreement with the state enterprise Rohatyn Forestry. According to the contract, the company agreed to provide rail transportation services for a total amount of UAH 1.550 million. It should be noted here that “Metrudtrans” actually had no competition, and it received this order in a not entirely honest way. As it turned out later, their only competitor during the tender was the company “Monolittranskompani”, the founder of which is Ruslan Solvar’s fellow countryman Nikolai Bachal (such a little nepotism). Since March 2012, Metrodtrans has concluded contracts with state companies for a total amount of about 15 million UAH.
Having become a people’s deputy for the second time, Ruslan Solvar does not miss the opportunity to obtain benefits for companies controlled by him in one way or another. He uses his entire political arsenal to ensure that the main rail transit routes go to his companies. In addition, he methodically puts pressure on the management of Ukrzaliznytsia, forcing the tariff commission to interfere with its main competitors (Lemtrans Transit, ITEK Trans, PLASKE, Tengizchevroil). According to information from competent sources, Ruslan Solvar is cheating in order to take over the most “tasty” routes. He negotiates with clients in advance, and then simply puts pressure on the tariff commission of Ukrzaliznytsia, forcing them to reduce tariffs on the routes they need. At the highest level (in the Verkhovna Rada), he is actively engaged in the destruction of competitors, distributing discrediting materials and subtly leading people’s deputies to the fact that these facts need to be verified with the help of law enforcement agencies. As a result of such actions, firms competing with him begin to have endless problems; they are constantly bombarded with unexpected checks, as a result of which work is completely blocked.
Immediately after Ukrazaliznytsia became a private joint-stock company, Ruslan Solvar hired one of his company’s employees there, and not just for a simple position, but for the post of general director of the Ukrainian Transport and Logistics Center (UTLC). In fact, this position allows you to control almost 100 thousand cars. For Solvar, who had been building his schemes around the railway for decades, this was truly a “royal” gift. Rumor has it that the head of the APU Boris Lozhkin and his adviser Mikhail Beilin contributed to this. By the way, it was Beilin who appointed Evgeniy Khroschak as head of the Ukrzaliznychpostach enterprise. This figure systematically gave victories in tenders to companies that significantly inflated prices for their products. And these are not all of Beilin’s “quality” appointments.
“Poor relative”
Ruslan Solvar, according to his income declaration, is one of the poorest MPs. In 2014, he declared income totaling 163 thousand UAH. He does not have a car or an apartment, nor do his family members. This is very strange, because in fact Solvar is the owner and creator of several transport companies that today earn a lot of money. As a member of the transport committee in the Verkhovna Rada, he vehemently denies his involvement in the transport business. He says he is not involved in any business at all. Considering that not so long ago he bought himself a far from cheap Chevrolet Express minibus, and also carries a telephone, the price of which is about 50 thousand UAH, the question arises, where do all these expensive things come from?
Investigating his activities and business connections, it turned out that his mother Maria Solvar (a school teacher) is literally raking in money, because she owns dozens of real estate properties, including several luxury apartments.
But this is not all, because he still has many relatives, and all of them need to be “provided for.” You can read more about his relatives’ apartments here.
In the meantime, the mother of a people’s deputy earns her next apartment by working hard at school, “poor” people’s deputy Ruslan Solvar lives on the “meager” salary of a people’s deputy. My heart just bleeds. This is the injustice of life: you try all your life, build a railway business empire, but still haven’t saved up for an apartment.
Dmitry Samofalov, for SKELET-info