Stanislav Tolchin
In May of this year, the Donetsk clan tried to promote a certain Stanislav Marksovich Tolchin, former general director of the Makeevugol state association, to the post of Deputy Minister of Energy and Coal Industry. Journalist Sergei Leshchenko believes that this is Petro Poroshenko’s way of paying for the vote on Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko. A new session of the Verkhovna Rada will begin soon, at which various laws will have to be voted on and a budget adopted. This means that bidding will soon begin, as a result of which Tolchin may again try to get Tolchin into the position of Deputy Minister, and maybe even Minister. The current minister is Igor Nasalik (Read more about him in the article by Igor Nasalik. The criminal face of Ukraine’s energy sector) – is very closely associated with Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and also personifies, together with his partner Pyotr Dyminsky, the “Galician” group. Well, besides, he is too independent a figure and has his own small business empire. In general, it is more profitable for the current government to place Stanislav Tolchin, who is dependent on it, in this important chair. However, this person’s entire path does not speak, but simply shouts that this cannot be done.
Reinforced concrete products
Despite the remarkable patronymic, which would have been quite suitable for a Komsomol leader, Stanislav Marksovich was not noticed in any special ties with the Soviet government. In those years he was making a normal career in business. In 1980, on the eve of perestroika, Tolchin graduated from the Donetsk Polytechnic with a degree in mining engineer and immediately went to work in a mine as a foreman. Apparently, he was quite a smart specialist, since he advanced well in his career, by the end of the “eighties” he became the head of the site. And in 1989, there was a sharp leap in his career – he became the director of a reinforced concrete plant, which belongs to the Makeevugol association. He was promoted to this position by Vladimir Kuzyara, the then director of Makeevugol, and essentially the owner of Makeevka. The next director of Makeevugol, Yuri, the Coming One, also favored Stanislav Tolchin, especially since under him in 1996 the reinforced concrete plant was carefully “removed” from the association, after which it was quietly privatized. Stanislav Marksovich became its chairman of the board. Time has passed. Vladimir Kuzyara died, but his son Sergei became one of the top managers of the ARS company (short for “Alik, Rinat and Samson” – “Akhat Bragin, Rinat Akhmetov and Yakov Bogdanov, nicknamed “Samson””), from which Rinat’s empire began Akhmetova. Yuri Gryadushchy became Deputy Minister of the Coal Industry. But they did not want to lose their patrimony, Makeevka, and, which is completely logical, they lobbied for the position of director of Makeevugol for their man, Stanislav Tolchin. Another of his patrons, who personally lobbied Tolchin in the highest offices, was four-time Minister of the Coal Industry Sergei Tulub. Here we need to say a few words about the city of regional subordination of the Donetsk region – Makeevka.
Stanislav Tolchin shakes hands with Sergei Tulub
Makeevka
Official documents say that Makeyevka is located five kilometers from Donetsk. In fact, there are several streets, one side of which is still Donetsk, and the other is Makeyevka. The city is quite large, third in population after Donetsk and Mariupol. Well, naturally, there are several groups in it. The people whom we described above can conditionally be called “old” Makeevka, because in those years when Stanislav Marksovich was already managing the plant, the “new” Makeevka – Vasily Dzharty and Anatoly Mogilev were a service station foreman and a district inspector, respectively. They began to “rise” only in the wake of the nineties. Dzharty became one of the leaders of the local organized crime group, they say he was called “Vasya-bita,” but already in 2000 he became the mayor of Makeyevka. In the same year, he appeared in Makeevka and Mogilev, he became the head of the local department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In fact, these two clans “held” the city, and both of them belonged to the Party of Regions. By the way, the “Makeevites” are a very specific people. For example, the wife of Dzharty’s “right hand”, local deputy Vladimir Nazarov, drives a gold Bentley, and his daughter drives a pink Hummer. The hero of our story, Stanislav Tolchin, also loved to show off – he drove to the head office of McKeyevugol every day in different cars. I remember that on Mondays it was a Jaguar, on Wednesdays a Hummer… These kind of “Nedelka” panties in Makeyevka style. At the same time, Stanislav Marksovich is proud of his education: in his biography it is written that he is a “Doctor of Philosophy of Technical Sciences.” Well, we are no strangers to “professors” from Donetsk. But we got ahead of ourselves, let’s go back to the moment of his appointment of Tolchin as director of Makeevugol.
“General”
Traditionally, the leaders of Makeevugol are called “generals” to their face and behind their backs. In 2006, Stanislav Marksovich Tolchin became such a “general”. At the same time, the reinforced concrete products plant actually remained in his ownership; his son-in-law became the director of this enterprise. In addition, he owned Granite Quarry LLC and the consulting firm Pravo Plus LLC. He built a huge office, with a shower and a bedroom, which contrasted sharply with the rest of the dilapidated Soviet building of the head office of Makeevugol. He was also remembered by his employees for his Bovet watch, which was so large that it looked more like an aquarium than a watch. In the same 2006, Sergei Tulub was the Minister of the Coal Industry of Ukraine; according to some sources, he allocated about 200 million hryvnia from the budget to the enterprise; I would like to remind you that the dollar was then worth five hryvnia. Tolchin spent them on a grand scale. There were billboards with his portraits on all the highways, and films about him were shown on local TV channels, telling how he was modernizing the enterprise entrusted to him and what successes the association was achieving under his leadership. He organized miners’ balls and supported the local football team, and in general promoted himself as best he could. As for the enterprise itself, of course some cosmetic changes were carried out there and some small equipment was purchased. But the collapse of the headframe of the Bazhanov mine in Makeevka speaks best of all about his “modernization” activities. This tragedy claimed the lives of 11 people, and it was not due to the release of methane or other natural disasters. It’s just that no one has repaired it for many years and everything has fallen into disrepair. The chief engineer was then appointed “switchman”, and he was imprisoned.
Under Tymoshenko
In 2007, the government changed, Tulub was removed from his post, and Viktor Poltavets took his place. It seemed that the days of Makeev’s “general” sitting in his chair were numbered. However, he did agree. And not with the minister, but with the “coal princess” Natalya Korolevskaya (read more about her in the article Natalya Korolevskaya. The second “Lady Yu” or the first “Lady N”), then she was a deputy from BYuT and secretly oversaw the coal industry. It is a mystery how he managed to do this. Of course, he allocated $5 million for the Donetsk headquarters of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. But this amount is quite microscopic in order to maintain such an advantageous position. Perhaps they agreed on the terms of cutting, rollback and further skidding. Tymoshenko’s Cabinet has allocated about seven billion subsidies for the coal industry throughout its entire history. Most likely, some of them were sawn through Makeevugol.
Here we should tell you a little about how billions of dollars were made in the Donbass coal industry. There are two sources of coal production. The first is mines where very high-quality coal is mined. For example, in the same Makeevka he mined coking coals, which are always in demand. The second is the diggings, where they extract who knows what, sometimes completely substandard coal and hand it over to illegal collection points. And then the following happens: coal extracted from the mines is sold to commercial enterprises, often without any documents. And the coal that goes to the state is coal from diggings, which, according to documents, passes as coal mined in mines. And government funds are allocated for it, including subsidies. This is a very scary business. Minors often work in diggings; even basic safety rules are not observed there. And those who die in these terrible caves are most often simply thrown out onto the road, and the cops, for a small fee, register them as victims of an accident, which is why the Donetsk region leads in the number of road accidents. This is how the curators of the coal industry earned their money. But 2010 came, Tymoshenko’s tenure in the Cabinet of Ministers came to an end and it was unclear whether she would win the presidential election. Then Korolevskaya and Tolchin decided that the property called “Makeevugol” should not go to waste and decided to privatize it.
Stanislav Tolchin
Operation “Rent”
They decided to privatize it this way: the company leases the mines and earns money from them. And the debts that hang over the enterprise, and many of them have accumulated – 50 million were owed to carriers, 100 million to the city – are blamed on the state. Since Makeevugol is a city-forming enterprise, this could be a disaster for the entire region. The local authorities, and these were the proteges of the “new” Makeevskys, about whom we wrote above, stood on their hind legs. The mayor of Makeyevka, Alexander Maltsev, personally did everything possible to ensure that this lease did not take place. Vasily Dzharty also wrote parliamentary inquiries. Their efforts were not in vain; they managed to slow down the process. However, if Tymoshenko became president, nothing could stop Stanislav Marksovich. But Viktor Yanukovych became president, and the “new” Makeevskys were in good standing with him, moreover, they were his close associates. Mogilev, for example, became the Minister of Internal Affairs, and Dzharty became the Prime Minister in Crimea. They decided to privatize Makeevugol, but now without Tolchin and Korolevskaya. It was then that the ORD website joined in the denigration of Tolchin.
In the office of the enterprise, an entire floor was occupied by the Donbass Rozrakhunko-Financial Center company, which belonged to Alexander Yanukovych. However, Stanislav Marksovich fought for his place until the last. He was not frightened by the prosecutor’s checks, which discovered that he registered his guards as employees of the enterprise and paid them money from the state treasury. He was not afraid of the explosion near his office and the grenade thrown into his yard. Even the numerous cases that various government bodies brought against him did not frighten him. But the clock was ticking, Sasha the dentist was developing his empire, reports were brought to Tolchinski to the then Prime Minister Mykola Azarov (read more about him in the article Mykola Azarov. Survivor) and, according to rumors, they were going to make a report to “The Pope.” In October 2011, after Berkut blocked Makeevugol’s office, Stanislav Tolchin wrote a letter of resignation for health reasons and fled to Israel.
He swam out again
The results of the “work” of Stanislav Tolchin after an inspection of Makeevugol in 2011 by a special commission are as follows: damage to the state – 117.5 million hryvnia, damage caused to the Makeevugol State Enterprise – 312.3 million hryvnia, damage to the company’s employees – 46.1 million. hryvnia However, despite the sky-high sums, no one was going to pursue Stanislav Marksovich, and he floated out quite quickly. Tolchin suddenly received the position of head of the investment department from his benefactor Sergei Tulub, who received the post of Cherkassy governor. But it was clear that this was not his level and he disappeared again. Apparently, he went on vacation to his Cypriot villa. And shortly before that he… got married. This is his third wife, her name is Alina and she, of course, is good enough to be his daughter. At first she was his mistress, but then she became pregnant by him, and Stanislav Tolchin, as a “decent” person, kicked out his second wife and married his mistress. She gave birth to his son Mark, so at the age of 50 he again knew the happiness of fatherhood. But, as they say, there is time for business, but time for fun. In April 2013, Tolchin was appointed head of the Kyiv territorial department of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine. That is, he was very lucky, considering how events unfolded in the Donbass, including in his native Makeyevka, a year later.
Alina Tolchina – left
Kyiv macho
In Kyiv, Stanislav Marksovich lived approximately the same way as in Makeevka. Despite the official’s salary of five thousand hryvnia, he continued to go to work in luxury cars, he especially loved Maserati. He also wore provocatively expensive suits and loved to dine in an expensive restaurant in Monaco. His position probably did not bring in as much income as his work as a “general,” but, nevertheless, it was possible to earn money. The Anti-Corruption Center accused Tolchin of turning a blind eye to a number of dubious transactions related to Ukrposhta, Naftogaz and the State Administration of Presidential Affairs. So, at the very least, he did have a pretty penny in this position. The most interesting thing is that the lustration check of the AMCU carried out after Euromaidan did not reveal in Tolchin’s actions any grounds for applying to him the prohibitions provided for by the law “On the Cleansing of Power”. That is, this corrupt official of enormous scale can hold any public position on completely legal grounds. However, he left the antimonopoly committee. Moreover, what is most interesting is that the AMCU simply liquidated its Kiev city territorial branch. Knowing Tolchin’s fighting character and his ability to hold on to a chair, no one would be surprised if the department had to be closed only in order to kick Stanislav Marksovich out of it.
Today Stanislav Tolchin and other Donetsk millionaires are striving with all their might for the state trough. They simply don’t know how to “earn money” in any other way than by stealing from the country. And today, when they are left without Donbass, they are ready to snatch money anywhere. And from all of the above, we think it is clear that once you have allowed them to this very feeding trough, it will be almost impossible to tear them away from it. And if you think that the war somehow changed them or their attitude towards life, then watch this video and everything will immediately become clear to you.
Denis Ivanov, for SKELET-info
