Valery Voshchevsky
In connection with the exit of Oleg Lyashko’s party from the majority, the name of the only representative of the Radical Party in power, Deputy Prime Minister for Infrastructure Valery Nikolaevich Voshchevsky, surfaced. We have already written about this resignation. Now the time has come to write about who this radical deputy prime minister is, who, however, is not remembered for anything particularly radical in this rather lucrative position. But he was remembered for a number of other scandals, in particular with the development on the Pechersk Hills and the biography distributed to deputies before voting for him, in which it was written that a criminal case had been opened against him for the theft of one of Avtodor’s enterprises. Even the official biography of the “twice unconvicted” Yanukovych did not write about this.
Despite the fact that Oleg Lyashko has stated a lot that there will be no corrupt officials from the previous government on his team, Valery Nikolaevich is precisely a corrupt official, and specifically from the previous government. True, he was not noticed in any high-profile scandals. But his career as an official is long-standing. He started it under Anatoly Kinakh. Then he was deputy head of the department in the Kuchma administration. He was in the Yanukovych government, several times he held the very profitable position of head of the State Joint Stock Company “Highways of Ukraine”. And under Mykola Azarov, he briefly became the head of Ukravtodor, the same one that motorists hate. In general, he is a seasoned official and, as you can see, at different times he occupied very profitable positions.
He is also no stranger to politics. He is the organizer and sponsor of the small Ukrainian Peasant Democratic Party. At various times he tried to obtain a deputy mandate, joining Pinchuk’s “Winter Generation” (Read more about him in the article Victor Pinchuk: the richest son-in-law in Ukraine), Litvinov’s “We” and the “Agrarian Ukraine” bloc, but never entered parliament. His dream came true only in 2014, when he entered the Radical Party list, although he immediately converted his deputy mandate into the post of deputy prime minister. During his long state and political career, he also accumulated criminal cases, which is no wonder. In such positions, and with such, as they say, “status rent”, it is impossible not to fall under the scrutiny of the competent authorities.
In particular, the Kiev Transport Prosecutor’s Office in 2010-2012 investigated a case of abuse of power, which led to multimillion-dollar losses. We are talking about the transfer of one of Avtodor’s enterprises, DRSU 100, for long-term lease to commercial structures. The loss from these actions amounted to 12 million hryvnia. But then the case was not brought to court and was hushed up. But, apparently, when the case was still open, Valery Nikolaevich played it safe and received Maltese citizenship and a European passport as a citizen of this island state. Deputy journalist Mustafa Nayem stated this openly and directly in the Verkhovna Rada. Voshchevsky himself says that this case was brought against him by the “criminal regime of Yanukovych” in order to remove the head of Ukravtodor from his post.
But these are things of the past. But just recently Valery Nikolaevich got into a new scandal. We are talking about the development of one of the Pechersk hills, which is being carried out by his company “Zhitlobudinvest”. The construction is taking place near the Botanical Garden, and, according to documents, a four-story house is being built there. In fact, more than nine floors have already been demolished and construction does not stop there. Citizens of the surrounding houses appealed to all authorities with a demand to stop illegal construction in violation of all possible building regulations. But, apparently, some official, perhaps in the position of Deputy Prime Minister for Infrastructure Issues, easily resolved issues with all authorities. Moreover, these questions are almost specialized for him.
Another business of Voshchevsky is of interest – the Chernigov confectionery factory “Strela”. This factory has been making losses every year for seven years now. Sometimes these losses amount to almost half a million hryvnia. At the same time, the factory is not closed; it produces products, but as an unprofitable enterprise it does not pay taxes.
Already this year, Valery Nikolayevich apparently wanted to take control of Ukrazaliznytsia. On this occasion, he made a number of loud statements. But here he came into conflict with the Minister of Infrastructure Andrei Pivovarsky. And he, in turn, was connected with the now deceased Igor Eremeev and his clan. They tried with all their might to push their man into this position, and Voshchevsky resisted this as best he could. He wrote notes to the Prime Minister and generally slowed down this appointment. How it all ended is not very clear, but by a strange coincidence, it was at the height of this conflict that Valery Vashchevsky was hospitalized in serious condition. By the way, Ukrzaliznytsia still does not have a director.
All that remains is to understand whether Valery Nikolayevich’s departure from a very profitable position is connected with Oleg Lyashko’s desire to go into opposition or are there other reasons for this? According to information published in some media, the General Prosecutor’s Office is preparing a report of suspicion against Voshchevsky. In addition, investigators are now looking into radical deputies Lozov, Moseichuk and Linko. And performances are already prepared for them. In short, it is quite possible that law enforcement agencies are closely involved in the leadership of the Radical Party. Then joining the opposition looks logical. The coalition party is not comfortable blaming political persecution, but it is just right for the opposition. And, perhaps, for this entire radical company, this is the only option to avoid the dock.
Yes, and today it became known that Voshchevsky is being promoted to mayor of Kyiv.
Denis Ivanov. for SKELET-info