Sergei and Vladimir Kaltsev: long-term “rotten” pillars of the Opposition Platform for Life in Zaporozhye.

The Zaporozhye Regional State Administration was headed by the head of the Supervisory Board of the Poltava Mining and Processing Plant, Aleksey Kucherenko (future Minister of Housing and Utilities), but he was removed in March 2001 and replaced by Sergei Sazonov (a future member of the Batkivshchyna), who ruled for only 4 days. Then Kartashov was returned to the Regional State Administration, who had worked for quite a long time, right up to July 2003, after which, having won the election of the mayor of the city, he lost the chair of the governor to the quiet Vladimir Berezovsky. On this “great turmoil” of 1998-2003. in the Zaporozhye region is almost over. However, at the level of city government, a fierce struggle for the mayor’s chair continued for several more years.

In February 2000, Alexander Golovko was forced to resign, which the pro-government city media and publications controlled by the Kaltsevs tried to give the appearance of an honorary one. In the extraordinary elections held on June 4, 2000, with a turnout of only 33%, the former head of the criminal police of Zaporozhye, General Alexander Polyak, the main opponent of Golovko and the Kaltsev brothers, won. Two years later, the next elections of the mayor took place, in which Polyak again won, having already gained 65%. Vladimir Kaltsev, who tried to sit in the mayor’s chair himself, received only 20%.

Caricature for the election of the mayor of Zaporozhye in 2002

However, in February 2003, Alexander Polyak died suddenly – officially from a heart attack. And the early elections of the mayor were held again (44% turnout), in which Vladimir Kaltsev again participated. But even in them, he received only second place with 27%, losing the victory to Evgeny Kartashov (49%). The most ambitious for the Kaltsevs was the next election in 2006, for which they prepared ahead of time and very carefully. To begin with, Vladimir Kaltsev created a powerful alliance with the director of Ukrgrafit, Boris Petrov, a member of the Party of Regions since 2001, associated with the Klyuev brothers. It was through him that the Kaltsev brothers joined the Regionals! The union was so strong that in the local media it was repeatedly referred to as the “Peter-Kaltsevsky clan.”

Vladimir Kaltsev and Boris Petrov

Thanks to Petrov, the brothers managed to carry out an internal party coup. In the course of lengthy intrigues, they literally threw Yevgeny Kartashov out of the PR – despite the fact that he was one of the founders and leaders of the regional organization of the party (2003), the initiator of the 4th congress of the PR (2004) in Zaporozhye, at which Yanukovych was nominated as a candidate for president, and an active organizer of the first Severodonetsk Congress (2004). Already by the spring elections of 2006, the Kaltsevs established control over the election headquarters of the Party of Regions (which was guarded by their own private security company) and distributed quotas among their people. The same Razgulyaev and several other trusted people of the Kaltsevs were brought to the city council on the list of the Party of Regions (and Andrey Ivanov, Petrov’s nephew, headed the faction). Sergey Kaltsev, together with Boris Petrov, entered the Verkhovna Rada on the list of the PR, and Vladimir Kaltsev again ran for the mayoral elections, now under the flags of the popular PR – however, again losing to Yevgeny Kartashov (30% against 36%). The revenge of the Kaltsevs was terrible: in October 2006, through the PR faction they controlled in the city council, they initiated the dissolution of the city executive committee, and at the same time expelled Kartashov from the members of the Party of Regions. Kartashov went to Kiev for the truth, met with Yanukovych and was reinstated in the Party of Regions by the decision of the central political council of the party, but after a couple of weeks Petrov and the Kaltsevs gathered a regional organization and again expelled Kartashov.

From May 2006 until the spring of 2014, Vladimir Kaltsev headed the Zaporozhye city organization of the PR, which did not prevent him from becoming in December 2006 the deputy head of the regional state administration for finance and foreign economic activity. And the regional administration was then headed by Yevgeny Chervonenko – one of the most ardent “orange”! Kaltsev fruitfully worked with him throughout 2007, and after Chervonenko’s resignation, for another five months he was deputy to his successor Valery Cherkaska, who at that time was a member of the BYuT. Power and money don’t smell for the Kaltsevs!

But Sergei Kaltsev was not lucky in the extraordinary parliamentary elections of 2007: for some reason in Kiev he was pushed to the very back of the PR list, and he did not enter the parliament. According to Skelet.Info, the reason was that Yanukovych was very dissatisfied with the arbitrariness of the brothers.

Immediately after the victory of Yanukovych in 2010, Boris Petrov was appointed to the post of head of the Zaporozhye Regional State Administration. The Kaltsevs, together with their new situational vodka allies Yevgeny Chernyak (the owner of Khortytsya) and Boris Shestopalov (Hlebodar holding), rejoiced in anticipation of a big revenge! First of all, they hurried ahead of schedule to remove Kartashov from the post of mayor – this happened in September, a month before the official local elections. At the same time, the city council voted to change the secretary, electing Vladimir Kaltsev as the new one, who automatically became acting. mayor (he was re-elected secretary in the next composition of the City Council). Vladimir Kaltsev really hoped that this would help him finally win the election. But, alas! Despite the customized exit polls screaming about Kaltsev’s victory, which were provided to him by the director of the Solving information and advisory group Svetlana Pokhodenko, the mayor’s chair went to Alexander Sin, who was the main BYuT member of Zaporozhye.

Sergei and Vladimir Kaltsev: long-term “rotten” pillars of the Opposition Platform for Life in Zaporozhye.

However, in two months of his acting (before taking office of Sin) Vladimir Kaltsev managed to appoint his people as directors of eight utility companies in the city, and they immediately signed long-term (up to 5 years) contracts with companies that Kaltsev indicated to them. According to Skelet.Info, a year later, a criminal case was opened against one of these directors.

In Kiev, Yanukovych, the results of the elections in Zaporozhye, where Tymoshenko’s ally became the mayor, and the BYuT and the Front for Change won 12 out of 45 seats in the city council, were taken very badly. Accordingly, all responsibility was assigned to the local party leadership, to acting. mayor and governor. The ground under the feet of Petrov and Kaltsev shook, and their competitors immediately took advantage of this, bombarding Kiev with denunciations and complaints. And in October 2011, Petrov was removed from the post of head of the Zaporozhye Regional State Administration, transferring him to one of the presidential advisers (after 2014, Petrov’s traces were lost). At the same time, he also lost the post of head of the regional organization of the PR. All this went to Alexander Peklushenko, who overthrew the “Peter-Kaltsevo clan” with the help of Yevgeny Anisimov, who was called the “watcher” of Zaporozhye from Yuri Ivanyushchenko himself, as well as his close ties with Yanukovych himself. Everything was so serious that in February 2012 Vladimir Kaltsev fearfully resigned from the post of secretary of the Zaporozhye City Council and even announced that he was ending his political career. But he was graciously allowed to continue to lead the city cell of the PR – mainly because its activities were served by the firms of the Kaltsevs. Moreover, in the 2012 parliamentary elections, Sergei Kaltsev was allowed to run under the flags of the Party of Regions in the 75th majoritarian district – and he nevertheless took the mandate, although he was accused of massive falsifications, and the same Svetlana Pokhodenko with with their fake exit polls.

Brothers Kaltsev: From Party to Party

Pekshulenko remained as governor until March 2014, supported the local Anti-Maidan, then was dismissed by Turchinov. And before he had time to lose his position, the Kaltsev brothers tried to take away the regional organization of the PR from him. They did not finish the job just because the crumbling Party of Regions was already living out its last days. And a year later, in March 2015, ex-governor Peklushenko was shot dead by an unknown killer. The killers, in fact, were never looked for …

After the events of the winter-spring of 2014, the Kaltsevs sat quietly for a year, fearing that they would be reminded of their active past in the Party of Regions. But then, in the summer of 2015, they solemnly returned to politics. Moreover, Vladimir Kaltsev made a whole show out of his return, beautifully deceiving fellow countrymen with speeches about the project of “our Zaporizhzhya party”, slightly playing either on small-town “patriotism”, or on the light separatism of the Cossacks. But in reality it turned out that he was promoting the Our Land party, which soon gained a reputation as a “refuge for scoundrels” and Bankova’s political project, created to take votes from the Opposition Bloc. Which got votes mainly by “sowing” buckwheat, sugar and banal distribution of money under the guise of helping the poor.

Sergei Kaltsev “sows” the electorate with gifts

The brothers habitually took over the new political force: Sergey Kaltsev headed the regional organization “Our Territory” and was elected from it to the regional council, and Vladimir Kaltsev became a member of the political council of the party and was elected to the city council of Zaporozhye. Moreover, the last one in 2015-2017. liked to boast that “Our Land” was allegedly invented and created in the office of his company “Alexander”. However, with the drop in the ratings of Our Land and the cessation of its support from Bankova after Poroshenko was replaced by Zelensky, the Kaltsev brothers decided to change their political orientation again and joined the more promising HLE project. And now Sergey Kaltsev, who was elected to the regional council from Our Territory, headed the Opposition Platform for Life faction there. And Vladimir Kaltsev, who headed the regional organization of the Opposition Platform for Life, in the elections of 2019 received a passing 24th place in the party list and was elected a people’s deputy for the first time in his life – soon becoming famous as the “button press of the year.”

But the brothers did not have time to get used to the new party, as usual they took up the old intrigues. For example, in the local elections of 2020, the Kaltsevs refused to participate in the struggle for the seat of the mayor of Zaporozhye, decided to support Volodymyr Buryak and his pocket party. Considering that Buryak is Akhmetov’s protege, who is considered an enemy of the Opposition Bloc (formed from the Opposition Bloc deputies who left Akhmetov), ​​the act of the Kaltsevs should have raised big questions in the leadership of the Opposition Platform for Life. The Kaltsevs themselves risked on the basis of a profitable alliance with Buryak, hoping that the Opposition Platform for Life would create a coalition in the city council with the Party of Buryak (perhaps the Kaltsevs promised this to Medvedchuk as well). But in the end, Buryak refused the coalition, the Kaltsevs were left with nothing – but they justified everything with Buryak’s cunning. And also during these elections, the Kaltsevs stuck their people on the electoral lists of Our Territory, where one could find the “exit-police” Svetlana Pokhodenko with her daughter, and Kaltsev’s political strategist Striganov, and Vladimir Kaltsev’s former assistant Andrey Gorsky.

If such a game on several fronts was immediately carried out by the Kaltsevs during the period of growing popularity and influence of the Opposition Platform for Life, then what are they up to now, when the party is under tremendous pressure from Bankova? One thing can be said: if suddenly the ship of the Opposition Platform for Life begins to sink, then the Kaltsev brothers will be the first rats to escape from it!

Vladimir Kaltsev: raider, deceiver, animal killer

For those to whom the political intrigues of the Kaltsevs outlined here still have not shaken their faith in the HLE, it will certainly be interesting to learn about the brothers and other information. For example, that Vladimir Kaltsev, a member of the For Life party, is an enthusiastic killer of animals in distant Africa, where he regularly went on safari. Either he didn’t shoot enough in Afghanistan at one time, or he has such peculiar ideas about “entertainment”. In any case, such a hunt, which is a prepared shooting of animals, is not at all cool, but only amuses the black soul by the very process of killing. And in our time it is considered simply discrediting any parliamentary politician – and not only in the countries of the West, where after such photos Vladimir Kaltsev would receive not the votes of the electorate, but a bucket of blood on his head from animal rights activists. It seems that many Ukrainians will also not like the fact that Vladimir Kaltsev, for the sake of his own “entertainment”, killed a kind smart elephant, a peaceful antelope, a beautiful proud lion and other animals that also have the right to life.

Victims of “entertainment” by Vladimir Kaltsev

And here is evidence of the insincerity of Vladimir Kaltsev’s political statements. Residents of Zaporozhye probably heard numerous speeches of a “pro-Russian-anti-Western direction” from him even before, when he was a member of the PR, and now, when he settled in the Opposition Platform for Life, from him. There is nothing seditious and “anti-Ukrainian” in this, this is a normal healthy political position, which is shared and supported by many Ukrainians. But to scold the West from the podium, and then send your children there to study and live – this is already hypocrisy and deception of voters! And here’s a fact for you: his son Alexander Kaltsev went to study in the United States back in 2009, where he graduated from a private school, then from the Faculty of Economics at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, and completed an internship at Bloomberg. He stayed to live and work in the States, periodically traveling to Hong Kong and Singapore. He married (his wife’s name is Angelina), they have two children with completely non-Russian and non-Ukrainian names: Daniel and George. And their grandfather at home calls on Ukrainians to strengthen ties with Russia!

By the way, when Alexander was just about to go to America to study, the media wrote that his father was preparing him to manage the Alexander family company. Perhaps he really represents the interests of the company abroad, in Western and Asian markets.

But if you look at the registration data of the enterprises of the Alexander group and other companies of the Kaltsevs, then almost all of them are registered with their mother, Evgenia Petrovna Kaltseva, who is thus one of the richest pensioners in Ukraine! Vladimir Kaltsev himself declared for 2020 only 1.055 million hryvnias of income (including deputy salary, compensation and material assistance), 847 thousand hryvnias and 21 thousand dollars of bank deposits, and 330 thousand hryvnias and 74 thousand dollars in cash. It’s somehow sparse for a person whose capital back in 2016 was estimated at least $ 5 million! Apparently, everything is rewritten for mom.

But even five million dollars is not much, if we recall, for example, the raider seizures of the Kaltsevs. For example, about the scandalous case of the commercial and industrial OAO Ritm, which owned several stores, salons and warehouses seized by Kaltsev. Back in 2005, the case was taken under control by the Prosecutor General’s Office, and it has remained so. Meanwhile, according to the then CEO of Rhythm, Elena Ivanova:

“… The total value of the seized real estate and equipment is several tens of millions of dollars, and today Kaltsev and his Donetsk partners, represented by Lyudmila Kirichenko, a deputy from the Lugansk region, use and dispose of this property.”

Over the long years of control of the city authorities, the Kaltsev brothers have acquired almost 40 hectares of land in Zaporozhye, including tidbits in the very center of the city. Moreover, these are not some kind of wastelands: the brothers laid their eyes on squares, green patches and stripes – all that, in their opinion, is “empty land”. The history of the Yalansky square (the former square named after the 50th anniversary of the USSR), located between the department store “Ukraine” and the circus, is very sad. In 2006, when the Kaltsevs reached full power, the city council of Zaporizhzhia transferred this square to their Land Development LLC for the reconstruction and construction of an underground shopping center. A year later, the project was “corrected”, removing from it the requirement to preserve the square – now it was possible to build an ordinary above-ground shopping and entertainment center with a parking lot on this site. And the entire plot was leased by Kaltsev, who promised to rebuild Alexander Plaza there. True, the only thing the brothers could do was to cut down all the 50-year-old trees in the park, and then cut down the young trees planted there by the city eco-activists once again. Moreover, the felling was accompanied by attacks by the “titushki” Kaltsevs on the defenders of the square. And from the story of the murder of Razugulyaev, we now know what scumbags are working for the Kaltsevs! And now, in the place of the square, a dirty wasteland with protruding stumps formed – and in this form, by the decision of the Zaporozhye Court of Appeal, in December 2021 it was returned to the property of the city.

The Kaltsevs generally have some kind of unhealthy passion for the destruction of wildlife (animals, trees), as if in childhood she inflicted some kind of non-healing psychological trauma on them. So, in 2020, their company Business Olimp, which set out to build a cottage town on the site of the Orlyonok children’s camp in Veliky Luga, began cutting down trees on a 6.8-hectare site without even waiting for permission to start construction. It’s just that their hands itched to wave an ax! Involuntarily, you will think about who we give our votes to …