Sergey Dumchev
Probably all Kiev residents and guests of the capital have paid attention to the billboards that are hung all over Kyiv. Where evolution from a monkey takes place and its crowning glory, if you believe this billboard, is Dumchev and the “Dumchev era” and other simple slogans in the spirit of “take away and divide”. And if, by some miracle, someone did not pay attention to these billboards, then they were probably given a newspaper “Kievskiy Nosorog”, published in a circulation of fifty thousand and distributed free of charge. What do they write in the newspaper? Also about Dumchev. So who is this Dumchev? And why had no one even heard of him two or three months ago?
Sergey Aleksandrovich Dumchev loves to talk about his life. About the fact that he is a native of Kiev, and about the fact that his father reconstructed many Kyiv buildings, and about the maritime romance of the Odessa Naval Academy. In short, a standard set of a mayoral candidate, corrected and emasculated by professional PR people. But, paraphrasing the famous maxim, “scratch a patriot and you will find a regional”, this is exactly about Dumchev and his team called “Rukh za reformy”. The first time we heard about Dumchev the politician was in 2014, when he unexpectedly surfaced as number twentieth on the list of “Strong Ukraine” of Sergey Tigipko. The same one that included all those who were not taken into the Opposition Bloc. He was on the list right between the raider Vadym Hryb, about whom we have already written, and the former regional Gennady Fedoryak. The list also included many odious personalities from the times of Yanukovych and even Kuchma, but this is not important, since the entire list of Strong Ukraine flew past the Verkhovna Rada. Perhaps it was then that Sergey Dumchev realized that he needed to assemble his own team… And by the way, who is on his team?
The team of “Rukh for Reforms” included some rather interesting personalities. For example, Leonid Khomenko. His name is not widely known, but he has been the director of the Solomensky market since 2004. Because of him, the ears of the owner of this market, a certain Maksym Konobas, who is connected with deputies Shkurko and Andrievsky, who are also the owners of the elite brothel “Star Rhinoceros”, are clearly “sticking out”. Or Natalia Korenevich, who under Mayor Popov controlled lease agreements with the State Property Fund in Kyiv, and who is remembered “with a quiet, unkind word” by both tenants who had to “bring in” a lot and landlords who, under direct contracts with the State Property Fund, were obliged to rent out space for pennies. The team also included Vladislav Sova, a well-known fighter against drug addiction in narrow circles. Several former drug addicts confirmed on condition of anonymity that it was he who made a business out of drug addicts under the roof of the First City Narcology Clinic on Frunze, 103. In the department, instead of treatment, one could almost legally use drugs. Well, in general, many interesting reviews about him can be read on forums, for example here:
But let’s return to Sergei Alexandrovich himself. His biography is no less interesting. But for this we will have to go back to the times of Viktor Fedorovich. In his biography, he modestly indicated that in the past he was the chairman of the supervisory board of Premium Bank. This is true, but in this context the bank itself is interesting, since it is not a simple financial institution. Through its shareholders, it is connected with other banks, for example, Classic Bank or Ticker LLC and Novator Trading House. Despite their obscurity, during the reign of the “Family”, these finance-related enterprises showed good growth. The fact is that all these enterprises were so-called “envelopes” through which huge amounts of money passed. But now the times of the “criminal regime” are over, and these banks… continue to show growth.
After the escape of the “Donetsk people”, the need for conversion centers did not go away. Only after the victory of Euromaidan, this activity was headed by the then Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema. It is not very clear whether the new government simply took over this liquid business or it has been in it since the past, but the fact is that Sergey Dumchev, and according to some sources he is Yarema’s godfather, did not leave this business. For the sake of fairness, it should be said that, according to businessmen, the “prosecutor’s” conversion center took a lower percentage than a similar structure protected by the fiscal service.
Another scandal in which Dumchev almost “came into the spotlight” is connected with BRSM. This was stated by Alena Yakhno, who was removed from the post of press secretary of the Kyiv prosecutor. In general, an angry woman is capable of reckless actions and Alena posted a message in which she accused Yarema of protecting the infamous BRSM company, and Sergey Aleksandrovich of being, let’s say, the financier of this whole scheme. She quickly deleted her post, but it remained in the cache.
In short, Sergey Dumchev, who shouts at every opportunity that new people should come to power (hinting at himself), is not a new person at all. Rather, he can be called “not so prominent.” There are not so many new people in his team either. And the people standing behind him are certainly not new, they are widely known and have “been exposed” in many corruption scandals. So, the “Dumchev era,” despite the colorful billboards, does not promise anything new to the people of Kiev. Moreover, probably everyone remembers the recent arrival of one of Dumchev’s colleagues, also a banker. This refers to Leonid Chernovetsky (Read more about him in the article Leonid Chernovetsky: How “Lenya Kosmos” Robbed Kyiv and Moved to Georgia). And also his “young team of professionals” and his promises to do… well, basically the same thing that “Rukh za Reformy” promises. In general, it’s a complete political déjà vu.
And finally, some reports from the political technology fronts. All the political technologists working on the Kyiv elections are waiting and can’t wait for Dumchev to oppose the current mayor Vitali Klitschko with this concept:
Let’s see how deeply Mr. Dumchev’s political technologists can work. And whether they can play on such coincidences that are understandable to the Kyiv electorate.
Denis Ivanov, for SKELET-info