Zhan Belenyuk
Professional athletes are not poor people. Especially those who manage to combine the seemingly incompatible – an active sports career with a deputy mandate. So, Zhan Belenyuk.
Do training, camps, and competitions leave time for quality legislative work? One way or another, it is paid – promptly and generously.
Understanding this, in 2019, the famous Ukrainian wrestler Zhan Belenyuk took a new “title” – he became a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada. Why did the multiple champion of Ukraine, Europe and the world in Greco-Roman wrestling, medalist of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo need a political career? Develop sports in Ukraine and/or for personal enrichment? Let’s briefly analyze both versions.
According to the portal “Word and deed”, which monitors the implementation of election programs by politicians, to the equator of his tenure Zhan Belenyuk restrained only 10% of promises. Among them, by the way, none of them relate to sports. Moreover, he is not just a deputy, but the first deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Youth and Sports. Accordingly, it has the powers and all legal tools to reboot domestic sports.
Print screen from the website “Word and Deed”
The second version is supported by a number of facts. For example, a week before the start of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)’s full-scale war against Ukraine, on February 17, Belenyuk supported a significant increase in the incomes of people’s deputies. He pvoted for bill No. 7062, which returned a 100% salary increase to people’s representatives. Thus, the deputy’s salary reached almost 50 thousand UAH per month, and this is not counting other allowances and bonuses. As deputy head of the committee, Belenyuk receives even more. In addition to a decent salary, the people’s deputy athlete does not disdain all kinds of bonuses and “goodies” at the expense of the state budget. For example, in 2021, he received the maximum compensation possible by law for transportation costs – UAH 90 thousand.
At the same time, a sports career brings an already good income to the deputy. For example, for a gold medal at the Tokyo Games he got from the state 125 thousand dollars. This amount must be reflected in the 2020 tax return. However, it is temporarily impossible to verify this – due to martial law, public access to the declarations of officials is limited.
It is known that in 2019, already being a people’s deputy, Belenyuk earned 1.3 million UAH. The income structure again points to pathological commercialism: in addition to salaries, it is full of compensation, bonuses and other payments. Thus, he received 344 thousand UAH of financial assistance from the state administration of national teams and provision of sporting events “Ukrsportobespechenie”, 115 thousand UAH from the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, another 161 thousand UAH – payments from the Ministry of Defense.
The Olympian willingly accepts “incentives” from regional budgets. For example, 143 thousand UAH from the Department of Family, Youth and Sports of the Poltava Regional State Administration, 60 thousand UAH scholarships from the executive committee of the Kremenchug City Council, another 18 thousand from the Poltava Regional School of Higher Sports Excellence. In 2019, the athlete-deputy only kept 126 thousand dollars, 41 thousand euros and 856 thousand hryvnia in cash. He also placed 93 thousand UAH and over 7 thousand euros in Privatbank, and another 10 thousand UAH in Oschadbank.
Zhan Belenyuk is also “complete” with real estate. After the athlete complained that he lived with his mother in a tiny one-room apartment, in 2018 the Kyiv authorities, with the assistance of the head of the National Olympic Committee Sergei Bubka, gave him a two-room apartment in Poznyaki. Another apartment in Kyiv was presented to Belenyuk by the President of the Freestyle Wrestling Association of Ukraine Yuriy Kopytko – the athlete prudently registered it in his mother’s name. However, instead of moving into his long-awaited home, the Olympian suddenly decided to rent out both of his Kyiv apartments. In the village of Shevchenkovo near Kiev, he owns a two-story house and a plot of land with an area of 566 square meters. m. This property is also registered in his mother’s name. And although Belenyuk already has enough housing (both bought on his own and donated for his sporting merits), he happily accepted another apartment as a gift – in Poltava. At the same time, hundreds of other worthy athletes, Olympians and Paralympians in no less prestigious sports have been unable to resolve the housing issue for years.
The role of athletes in strengthening the image of Ukraine and its popularization in the world is invaluable. Enjoying great respect and popular love, yesterday’s wrestlers, football players and athletes often go into politics. But instead of changing it, they change themselves. Olympian Belenyuk had a chance to break this tradition, but he did not take advantage of it. After almost 3 out of 5 years of his parliamentary term, this is already obvious. In sports arenas, they bring much more benefit to the country than in the session hall, where too much money is turned around and there is practically no control.
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