Sergey Taruta
At the end of 2015, a large-scale meeting of eminent Ukrainian businessmen took place at the Hyatt hotel in the capital. It was initiated by the ex-governor of the Donetsk region Sergei Taruta. According to information available to the media, Ukrainian oligarchs discussed the deteriorating economic situation in the country and ways for Ukraine to overcome the crisis. In addition, during the meeting Taruta openly expressed his dissatisfaction with the policies pursued by current President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. This is not the first time that he openly criticized Ukrainian politicians – a little over a year ago he already paid for his “hot tongue” with his place at the head of the Donetsk Regional State Administration. Who is Sergei Taruta if he can afford to oppose the “presidential” opinion, and where did he come from?
“Coming from the Village”
Sergei Taruta was born in the Donetsk region into a simple working-class family from the village of Vinogradnoye. His father, according to media reports, worked as a workshop manager at one of the factories. Sergei Alekseevich received his higher education first at the Zhdanov Metallurgical Institute (mechanical and metallurgical faculty), and then at the Donetsk State Academy of Management (faculty of management). Immediately after graduating from university, Taruta worked at the Azovstal plant, where he soon became head of the department for foreign economic relations. In 1995, together with his partners, he founded the Azovimpex company, engaged in foreign trade. By the way, now the head of this company is his brother Alexander Taruta. In addition, one of Sergei Alekseevich’s daughters also received a tasty job there. In the same 1995, a corporation was founded, thanks to which Taruta made his considerable fortune. It is called the “Industrial Union of Donbass” (IUD). His main partners were Vitaly Gaiduk and Rinat Akhmetov, who at that time did not have such “weight” either in economics or in politics. Experts say that Taruta earned his first millions using the so-called “debt loop” (in the activities of the ISD this fraud was “proprietary”). Its essence lies in the fact that with the help of “verified” people, “fictitious debts” were created for enterprises that needed to be bankrupt. The shares of these “debtors” were bought up, and enterprises that automatically became bankrupt were bought for next to nothing.
With the help of these and other frauds, in the late 90s, Sergei Taruta and his partners managed to take control of the bulk of the financial flows of the largest enterprises in the Donetsk region. One of the striking examples of such an “elegant” squeeze is the situation with the Alchevsk Metallurgical Plant, the owners of which did not even understand how they lost their assets. At the time when ISD was completely owned by Sergei Taruta, it included more than a hundred industrial Ukrainian companies. In addition, the corporation controlled: media resources “Economic News”, “Comments:” (Evolution Media holding, main control of Vitaly Gaiduk, headed by Gaiduk’s former press secretary Yulia Litvinova), “Fotolenta” (or “phl”, Evolution holding Media), “Kyiv Weekly” (Evolution Media holding), ugmk.info (Evolution Media holding), “Expert-Ukraine” magazine; football clubs “Stal” (Alchevsk), “Stal” (Dneprodzerzhinsk), “Metallurg” (Donetsk). It is noteworthy that after Yanukovych’s team came to power, ISD quickly began selling its assets, with the most active buyers being the structures of the young oligarch Sergei Kurchenko and former ISD partner Rinat Akhmetov.
Sergey Taruta and Rinat Akhmetov
“Policy for the benefit of business”
Sergei Taruta entered politics to make it easier to solve business problems. In 1998, he was elected as a deputy of the Donetsk Regional Council. In 2004, Sergei Alekseevich bet on “orange” and won. Having supported Viktor Yushchenko during the revolution, he received an influential weapon in his arsenal, because the “grateful” newly elected president helped and trusted him in every possible way. Evidence of “deep” trust was Yushchenko’s decision to entrust Taruta with the installation of special telephone communications in the main bodies of the country (and this despite the fact that all the experts were against it). Needless to say, Sergei Alekseevich failed this case; in fact, because of him, a lot of “state” information leaked into the wrong hands (for a lot of money, by the way, which went into Taruta’s pockets). Despite the large-scale leak of information, Taruta did not suffer any punishment for his actions. Moreover, in 2005 he became a member of the Council of Entrepreneurs under the Cabinet of Ministers.
In November 2008, ISD fell deeply into debt and was obliged to repay more than UAH 5 billion in short-term loans. This forced Taruta and his partners to sell a controlling stake in the corporation, leaving only 49% for themselves (of which the lion’s share belonged to Oleg Mkrtchan).
Sergei Alekseevich, like many other “political corpses,” reached a new height in March 2014, when, by decision of the “revolutionary authorities,” he was appointed to the post of head of the Donetsk Regional State Administration. Experts called this appointment a “payoff” for representatives of the Donetsk oligarchy. Despite the fact that Taruta denies in every possible way his involvement in the “Donetsk clan,” he is more than closely connected with it. By the way, there is another interesting version according to which Taruta is in fact not an oligarch, but only a “representative” of one of the “shadow” tycoons, and part-time the secret owner of the “Industrial Union of Donbass” Vitaly Gaiduk, with whom they “allegedly on a partnership basis,” created the ISD.
Vitaly Gaiduk
When he came to the post of governor of the Donetsk region, Sergei Alekseevich first of all tried to improve the position of the Industrial Union of Donbass, which still brought him income, although not the same as before. So, having headed the region, Taruta ordered Shell to speed up the rate of shale gas production, arguing that a company that had invested $200 million in the region should not have obstacles in achieving its goals. Everything would be fine, attracting investors is good, but the way Shell extracted gas there violated all the rules, harming local residents. Rumor has it that Taruta received a good kickback from Shell for such a “service.” And these are far from the worst things he did under the guise of the war in Donbass, when people simply turned a blind eye to other problems in the region. In fact, his rise to the post of head of the region was associated with the need to solve the problems of his companies. And immediately after things got better, he left his post, but, as Carlson said, he “promised to return.”
Despite estimates of Sergei Taruta’s income and assets by various publications, his declaration as a people’s deputy in 2015 looks very modest. During the year he earned a little more than 12 million UAH.
Considering that in 2011 Focus magazine estimated his fortune at $2.126 billion, and in 2010 Correspondent magazine at $1.06 billion, the question arises, where did his funds go? The answer is simple – they did not go anywhere, but were simply re-registered to other offshore structures, trusted people and relatives of Taruta. This is a typical pattern for Ukrainian political realities that has existed and will exist. A striking example of such typical relationships should be called the Azovintex company, which Sergei Alekseevich owns together with his brother Alexander. This company is engaged in the construction of reinforced concrete structures, mining, and the production of various metal structures. By the way, it was this company that received and implemented the lion’s share of the state order for the construction of the Lviv Arena for the Euro 2012 football championship in Ukraine.
Who is Sergei Taruta, and what does Poroshenko accuse his brother of:
Sergei Taruta is a very smart and thoughtful person, on camera he often communicates with ordinary people: pensioners, students and children, but during “working” hours he decides the fate of many Ukrainians, coming up with other Ukrainian oligarchs strategies for “robbing”, or, as they call it “stabilization of the economic situation in the country. This was once again confirmed by the December meeting of the oligarchs in Kyiv, where Taruta, Pinchuk (Read more about him in the article Victor Pinchuk: the richest son-in-law in Ukraine), Bakhmatyuk, Khmelnitsky (read more about him in the article Vasily Khmelnitsky: misplaced oligarch) and other major Ukrainian businessmen talked “about the main thing” in a “friendly atmosphere.” And while they are talking about problems and deciding our destinies, I remembered an episode that occurred after the liberation of Slavyansk. Then, the governor of the Donetsk region, Taruta, decided to ride a bicycle, as if there were simply no other problems requiring his actions. Truly a carefree person, a selfless “servant of the people.”
Dmitry Samofalov, for SKELET-info