Vasily Astion: family union of corruption and crime. PART 1

No matter how the former Dnepropetrovsk is renamed, it will in no way change its long-standing reputation as the capital of Ukrainian corruption. Closely merging with business, politics and crime, it turned into a monster there, tenaciously holding the entire region in its tentacles and trying to control the rest of Ukraine from its lair. Until now, attempts to chop off at least a couple of them have had virtually no success…

An example of the impunity and omnipotence of Dnepropetrovsk corruption is the case of Vasily Astion, who was accused of a raider takeover of the Pectoral agricultural enterprise. Lasting for three years, it was “drowned” in court, and the accused, who escaped punishment, soon became involved in new similar scandals. This outrageous, but typical for Dnepr, ending of the “fight against corruption” did not surprise anyone – after all, the Astion-Koshlyakov clan belongs to the local corruption “elite”! And it is interesting because it was formed during the long-standing friendship of the families of the General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the criminal “authority”, who decided to one day marry their children.

Son of a werewolf

Astion Vasily Nikolaevich born on August 11, 1981 in the city of Sinelnikovo (Dnepropetrovsk region), in the family of police lieutenant Nikolai Vasilyevich Astion (b. 1958). His father had just joined the police force, having graduated from the Dnepropetrovsk Mining Institute a year earlier. Why didn’t he start working in his specialty as an electrical engineer? According to one version, Nikolai Astion was persuaded to become a policeman during the mass “conscription” of university graduates and demobilized soldiers into the Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to another, his father-in-law placed him there, promising a dust-free and well-paid job with benefits no less than at the mine.

Nikolai Astion did not stay too long as a lieutenant, but in the 80s there were not enough big stars from the sky. In the media you can find allegations that he allegedly worked in “units for combating organized crime” from the very beginning. But this is not so, because the first such unit (6th department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs) appeared in the Dnepropetrovsk region only in 1986, and the Organized Crime Control Department was created only in 1988. And according to sources Skelet.InfoNikolai Astion came to work in the regional Organized Crime Control Department only in the early 90s. And with someone’s help, he quickly made a good career for himself: already in 1995, he became deputy head of the Dnepropetrovsk Organized Crime Control Department, and in 1997 he headed it, becoming friends with the new head of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs, Yuri Smirnov (future Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs).

Over the years of work in the Dnepropetrovsk Organized Crime Control Department, Astion personally became acquainted with all the local “authorities” and made several “protégés” among them.

Moreover, this was expressed not only in the fact that they were constantly pulled out of the pre-trial detention center, closing cases and “losing” evidence. Just in the mid-90s, the Dnepropetrovsk region was engulfed in a massive “criminal pestilence”, dozens of “authorities” and “foremen” were killed or blown up, and after this big “cleansing”, only those organized crime groups remained operating in the region whose leaders had patrons and friends in Ministry of Internal Affairs or authorities.

Among Astion’s “criminal friends” of that time, they named, first of all, Sergei Oleinik (thief in law Umka), Alexander Petrovsky-Nalekreshvili, known as “Narika”, and his “foreman” Mikhail Koshlyak. We can say that this trio survived in the 90s and then became the main “authorities” of the Dnieper, largely thanks to Nikolai Astion! And, judging by the fact that later the son of the ex-chief of the Organized Crime Control Department and the daughter of a criminal “authority” got married, blessed by their parents, their friendship was very strong. They said that it was Astion who convinced Koshlyak, then still young but very promising, to legalize his “brigade” under the guise of a sports club and a private security company, and then helped him peacefully gain independence from the Narika organized crime group. However, over time, Nalekreshvili himself became a “respected businessman”, a friend of President Poroshenko and a devout “Thomas-bearer”.

In 2000, Yuri Smirnov was transferred to the capital, to the position of head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kyiv. He took Nikolai Astion with him, appointing him head of the Kyiv Organized Crime Control Department and raising him to the rank of major general. A year later, Kuchma made Smirnov Minister of Internal Affairs, and Astion worked carefree under his “roof” until the summer of 2003.

During these three years, he was remembered only for his possible involvement in a number of high-profile contract killings – Astion seemed to have brought the “criminal pestilence virus” with him to the capital! Moreover, it was about the murder of not only the “authorities”, but also the journalist Georgy Gongadze. Former employee of the Kyiv Organized Crime Control Department Igor Goncharov, later arrested as the leader of “werewolf gangs“, claimed that Kuchma asked Yuri Kravchenko to “deal with” Gongadze, and he, through Smirnov, entrusted the execution to Nikolai Astion, who allegedly recruited several employees of the Organized Crime Control Department for this. But here’s the bad luck: the talkative Goncharov was killed in August 2003 in the prison hospital, framing his death as a stroke. Moreover, literally at the same time, Smirnov was removed from the post of minister, and Astion was exiled to head the Organized Crime Control Department in the Sumy region. Agree that it was like covering your tracks. It was not for nothing that they said that the main “werewolf” in the Kiev Organized Crime Control Department was not Goncharov, who was “appointed” as the last one, but Astion.

But the story of Nikolai Astion’s involvement in the murder of Gongadze did not end there.

His “toxic” reputation caused sidelong glances in Sumy, and immediately after the first round of the 2004 elections, Governor Vladimir Shcherban insisted on the dismissal of Astion (at the level of the Sumy Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs). However, Astion found intercessors in Kyiv, and a month later he was restored to office. Then in 2005, when Yushchenko, who became president, decided to forcefully bring the Gongadze case to an end, information has appearedthat the ex-chief of the capital’s Organized Crime Control Department, Nikolai Astion, was arrested, and the wanted Alexey Pukach (who became the main accused in this case) went to the cell with him. However, a refutation soon came out, and Astion even gave a special interview in which he called the accusations against him an absurd revenge for his professional work. So Pukach alone had to take the rap for everyone!

And Nikolai Astion, using the protection of unknown patrons, continued to lead the Sumy Organized Crime Control Department until 2007, and then headed the tax police in the region. In 2008-2010, he moved to head the tax police in Zaporozhye, then he was returned to Sumy. But this was the end of his career as a tax policeman, and in 2011 Astion again began to lead the Organized Crime Control Department – now in the Kherson region. However, he led so badly, actually slowing down all the work of the Organized Crime Control Department (which had completely stopped catching bandits), that caused anger leadership of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs. Therefore, Astion soon retired to manage his extensive business, created with corrupt proceeds.

Vasily Astion. Son-in-law of “authority”

With such a father, Vasily Astion, of course, from childhood did not have to experience any need or problems. He even almost followed in his footsteps, graduating from the Kyiv National Academy of Internal Affairs in 2002 – just when dad headed the capital’s Organized Crime Control Department and could provide his son with good grades and tests. However, it is unlikely that we were talking about a family dynasty; it’s just that Vasily Astion received a higher legal education at the academy, at the same time avoiding military service. Having received his diploma and abandoned his shoulder straps on the mezzanine, he preferred to engage in the family business, investing his father’s money in some enterprises and “squeezing out” others with his father’s help. When Nikolai Astion left the service and lost his “left income,” it was raiding that became the main engine for expanding their business. And it really gained momentum after Vasily Astion married Ekaterina Koshlyak, the daughter of the Dnepropetrovsk “authority” Mikhail Koshlyak. He rose, as we noted above, not without the help of his father, the exterminator Nikolai Astion!

Mikhail Anatolyevich Koshlyak was born on February 27, 1970 in Dnepropetrovsk, where he graduated from the Chemical-Mechanical College in 1989. Even then, Koshlyak, who had been involved in judo since childhood, contacted the growing organized crime group Alexander Nalekreshvili (Narika), which consisted of athletes. At first they were spinning thimbles at the Ozerka market, then they got involved in racketeering. Narik’s organized crime group “worked” very seriously: no drinking and drugs, no “bullying”, and it also tried to have good relations with the police whenever possible (according to rumors circulating around the city, Narik himself was generally a “KGB mole”). Apparently, this is why Nikolai Astion, who became its curator, liked this group. However, he was not the only one, since Nalekreshvili also actively made connections in the local authorities (sources Skelet.Info they claimed that he reached Pavel Lazarenko himself when he was governor), and also made a lot of contributions to the Jewish community “Chabad” of Dnepropetrovsk, where he met very influential and wealthy Jews of the city. Nalekreshvili owes a lot to Chabad, although later he pretended to be Orthodox and even became a “Thomas-bearer” with Poroshenko. It should be noted that not only Narik was later drawn to the church: his friend from his youth and accomplice in the gangster business Bogdan Gulyamov (Bodya) became the rector of the temple!

In 1991, Mikhail Koshlyak entered the Institute of Physical Culture, after which he became a judo coach at children’s and youth sports school No. 6. Where he not only taught teenagers quite well (and Koshlyak is a really good judo player and coach), but also selected from their number is new personnel for the criminal world. Koshlyak divided these “militants” into two groups. The best and most reliable were recruited as employees of the Leon private security company, given official work and serious tasks – these were professionals. But more flighty and overly frisky young people were used as a semi-criminal “militia” for one-time actions – later, people like them received the nickname “titushki”.

So Koshlyak from a “foreman” actually turned into the “captain” of the power wing of the Narik organized crime group. During the transformation of this organized crime group, Koshlyak gained independence and, having listened to Astion’s wise advice, did not get involved in the “war of authorities”, but began to specialize in security services, offering them to others. His main client was the Privat group, which Koshlyak reached through Gennady Korban. Over time, private security company “Leon” began to be called the private army “Privat”.

Koshlyak’s people performed a variety of functions for the “Privatovites”: they reliably guarded Kolomoisky’s enterprises and offices, seized other people’s businesses and real estate for Korban, participated in provocations for Boris Filatov http://skelet.info/boris-filatov-rejder-lzhec-xam /. Their participation in the war for the Ozerka market is known, which ended in 2006 with the murder of criminal businessman Maxim Kurochkin (Max Besheny). And another tradition of Dnepropetrovsk has become to invite “Koshlyakovites” as arbitrators or guarantors for various kinds of negotiations and “arrows,” including openly bandit ones. In addition, long before the ATO, Leon hired former military personnel and employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who had experience in handling weapons, and even better, participating in combat operations. Officially, such specialists became collectors – but who knows what other work they could do!

CONTINUED: Vasily Astion: a family union of corruption and crime. PART 2

Mikhail Shpolyansky, Skelet.Info

Subscribe to our channels at Telegram, Facebook, CONT, VK And YandexZen – only dossiers, biographies and compromising evidence on Ukrainian officials, businessmen, politicians from the section CRYPT!