Vasily Gulyaev. A wealthy peasant from Odessa, mayor of Chernomorsk

When it comes to ex-people’s deputy and mayor of Chenomorsk Vasily Gulyaev, one involuntarily recalls Valery Syutkin’s song “Of course, Vasya!” “Well, who doesn’t know him?” – the best rural head, who tore apart the lands of the Odessa region, a native of the “Family”, who quietly worked in the Rada. Millions have settled in his pockets, but this does not prevent the residents of his native village from loving and praising the people’s deputy.

He talks about how Vasily Gulyaev made millions on Odessa soil, ended up in the “Family”, deceived ordinary people and became the mayor of Chernomorsk Skelet.Info.

How they handed over a member of the “Family”

In September 2014 Petro Poroshenko called early parliamentary elections. For the henchmen of the fugitive Viktor Yanukovych in the regions, this was an excellent chance to jump into the last carriage of the train called new power. The “watchers” quickly got their bearings and moved over to the “right” people, exchanging their faces for supposedly “new” ones.

One of the bright springboards where the performance of an alleged change of power took place was electoral district No. 140 in the Odessa region. During the vote count, the entire composition of the local district committee was renewed there, and the victory was celebrated by the little-known self-nominated candidate Vasily Aleksandrovich Gulyaev. He is the chairman of the Youth Village Council, not associated with any political force, a colorful native of the outback, active and fair. It would seem that the “Family” has finally retreated, and honest people have come to the helm. However, digging deeper, it becomes clear that Gulyaev is a member of the Yanukovych and Co. clan, who successfully replaced the open supporters of the fugitive President.

During the time of Viktor Yanukovych’s order, the Odessa region was “watched” by a protege and close friend of Yura Ekanievsky (Ivanyushchenko) Ivan Ivanovich Avramova native of the “Enakievo”. Moreover, Avramov was called exclusively by his first name and patronymic. Ivan Ivanovich in the Odessa region, in a matter of months, crushed all the flows of smuggling entering the country through the Odessa, Ilyichevsk and Southern ports. For this purpose, “fashionable” brokerage firms were created, which, for a bribe, “passed” any cargo through customs – from cigarettes and alcohol to weapons and drugs. Of course, the “supervisor” did this not with his own hands, but with the help of the ex-governor of the Odessa region Eduard Matviychuk.

Ivan Ivanovich and Yura Enakievsky

After Yanukovych went cold, the young and daring “new government” decided to take over the smuggling business for itself, but Ivan Ivanovich did not give up. He became concerned about the problem and sent people to Kyiv who began to lobby his interests. So Eduard Matviychuk went to the capital. They planned to push him through the 140th electoral district in the elections. But as soon as the campaign preparations began and billboards with the governor decorated the city, it became clear that it would not pass, Matviychuk was so strongly associated with the previous government. Residents of Belyaevka, Ilyichevsk and Ovidiopol were categorical about the candidate. Then Ivan Ivanovich transferred Matviychuk to another district, and to the “needed” one, 140th, he found a replacement in the person of Vasily Gulyaev.

To protect himself, Mr. “inspector” demanded 30 hectares of land from Gulyaev. So Ivan Ivanovich broke even with the costs of the election campaign of the “right” candidate.

The nomination of Gulyaev was initiated by the Council of Chairmen of Village and Settlement Councils of the Ovidiopol District. The “observer” hid behind the local government in order to avert suspicion that the candidate belonged to any party or former government. They say that the candidate is exclusively popular. Few people knew that this structure had been “fed” by Ivan Ivanovich for many years and all officials danced to his tune.

And the most interesting point: the unknown Vasily Gulyaev was able to oust one of the most odious political figures in the country – David Zhvaniawho also ran in the long-suffering 140th District. Neither support from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc nor previous experience working in this district helped David Vazhaevich. Ivan Ivanovich launched powerful propaganda against Zhvania, forming in him the image of a protege of the Party of Regions. Thanks to her, the real representative of the “Family” took first place, gaining 29.2% of the votes, and Zhvania only came third.

Election results for the 140th district in Belyaevka

However, Zhvania did not want to accept the loss and began organizing rallies. The response from the Gulyaev-Avramov tandem was not long in coming. “Trusted people” came to the protests to defend the honor of the “Family.”

This video filmed the picketing of the district committee in Belyaevka. In the footage, starting from the 9th minute, certain Vladimir Pozonyuk and Oleg Neneka openly defend the interests of Gulyaev. The first supervised customs clearance of goods for brokerage firms of the Odessa “supervisor”, and the second was the nominal head of the structures involved in smuggling.

Vasily Gulyaev. From driver to businessman

Gulyaev Vasily Alexandrovich is a native Odessa resident. He was born on September 3, 1963 in the town of Aleksandrovka in the city of Ilyichevsk. His father worked as a fireman all his life, his mother worked on a collective farm. Soon the family moved to the village of Molodeznoye, where his future head grew up.

In 1980, Gulyaev graduated from the Alexandrovskaya secondary school and at the age of 17 entered Odessa Technical School No. 2, where he studied for only a year. In 1981-1983 he served as a conscript in the Armed Forces of the USSR.

After demobilization, Gulyaev got a job as a driver at an educational enterprise named after A.V. Trofimova. But, as you can see, it didn’t work out – the work was uninteresting and unpromising. Therefore, the young man returned to the ranks of the military. Since 1986, he entered military service. And not just anywhere, but to the group of Soviet troops in Germany, since 1989 – Western Group of Forces. Initially, Gulyaev was sent to Czechoslovakia. There he rose to the rank of ensign and was redeployed to Germany.

The period of service fell on a time of troubles, when a huge army organism was falling apart. Property worth millions of dollars was gradually stolen by the ton. Those who managed to grab a piece created entire empires. Vasily Gulyaev was among those who seized part of the sweet life in West Germany and came home with something in his wallet.

Only after returning from Germany in 1990, Vasily Aleksandrovich went into private business and became director of the joint Ukrainian-Turkish enterprise “NK and V”. The company began supplying cotton from Turkey. The goods came from abroad, were unloaded at the ports of Odessa and resold in Ukraine. However, Vasily Aleksandrovich likes to tell the heartbreaking story of his career take-off: he supposedly returned from Germany poor, got a job as a personal driver for a foreigner, with whom he later created an enterprise. Of course, the story seems very contrived. Gulyaev was engaged in business until 2005.

The best rural head and land trade

In 2006, Vasily Gulyaev for the first time decided to nominate his candidacy for the post of head of the village of Molodeznoye. He walked as a non-party candidate, behind whom stood the rural community. And he was an immediate success – among seven candidates he received more than 50% of the votes.

Let us note that Vasily Alexandrovich really did a lot for Molodezhny. With the arrival of Gulyaev, normal roads and lighting appeared in the outback, pipes were installed to supply water to the pump room, the sewage system was repaired, the problem with garbage was solved – waste was removed free of charge, kindergartens were reconstructed, etc. It is not surprising that the villagers were ready to carry their “savior” in their arms. However, few of them understood what Vasily Gulyaev was and how he profited from the villagers. But before that, a little statistics – formally, Molodezhny has about 3 thousand residents, but together with 16 horticultural societies there will be 10 thousand; The borders of the village, and in fact the land, amount to 2187.26 hectares – this is a hundred of virgin lands, which in the Odessa region costs tens of thousands of dollars per square meter. So, Gulyaev chose the ideal tactic: he gave people social benefits from the royal hand, and behind their backs he traded land as his personal asset.

Vasily Gulyaev

Skelet.Info talks about the most resonant cases of deprivation of the “golden” land of Odessa.

How people were fooled with “Veteran”

As soon as he sat down in the chair of the village head, Vasily Alexandrovich began to restore order. First of all, he took on the profitable cooperative of vegetable gardeners and gardeners “Veteran”, located on the sea coast near Ilyichevsk. The lands of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine were transferred to its composition back in 1991. At that time, land was not considered a commodity, and anyone could receive an allotment. That’s why people took the land and then abandoned it. According to the written agreement, people who did not take care of the site were expelled from the cooperative. A free piece of land was given to those who were in line for it. At that time, no one had any complaints against anyone.

In the early 2000s, “Veteran” began to have problems – corrupt officials became interested in it. They came up with various schemes to take away plots from their rightful owners and transfer them to the “right” people. When Gulyaev came to the helm, high hopes were placed on him. But Vasily Alexandrovich continued the corruption scheme and even expanded it. The first thing he did was fire the old land surveyor and appoint his assistant. And secondly, he began to look for those who had been deprived of land plots over all these years. Allegedly, this was done illegally, and their shares should be returned to the former owners. Moreover, Gulyaev promised that he would allow the privatization of the land and allow him to make money on it. This meant that people who had worked the land for many years, built dachas, paid dues, were openly driven away. For a minute, there were about 400 people on the list of deprived plots.

Vasily Aleksandrovich justified this whole scam by the fact that in 2002 a new land code came into law, and the land became the property of local territorial communities. Based on this, the Molodezhninsky village council obliges “Veteran” to enter into a land lease agreement, otherwise the cooperative could be left without “black gold” altogether. And this is 80 hectares of non-privatized land, near the sea, and for 5 thousand dollars per hundred; multiply yes by 80 hectares, taking into account that this is 2006. But it is impossible to conclude an agreement, since privatization is taking place on an individual basis and the size of the cooperative is constantly changing. Moreover, the village council writes to the prosecutor’s office and reports that people are being illegally deprived of their land. While the case was being considered, the village council began to deprive people of their legal plots. Members of “Veteran” go to court, but Gulyaev makes a knight’s move and invites a private lawyer to defend the interests of the village council. And the case itself goes to the “fed” judge Torchinskaya. The representative of Themis was clearly on the side of Vasily Alexandrovich. As a result, the village council, represented by Gulyaev, was given the opportunity to determine to whom the tasty plots of land should be given.

Missing lands of MinAPU

In 2007, Vasily Gulyaev, having settled into the chair of the village head, increased his appetite and reached state land. Then the Ministry of Agrarian Policy transferred a “small” plot of 130 hectares of the Trofimov research farm (the same one where young Gulyaev worked as a driver and ran away) to the balance of the Odessa State Agrarian University. But in fact, this land no longer existed; it was torn apart by the “hope” of the Gulyaev people. And the most interesting thing is how he did it – “only” he changed the boundaries of the village of Molodeznoye. Naturally, in order to make such a decision, he interested the “right” people and pushed the document through the Odessa Regional Council. And then the plots of the research farm were distributed for the construction of elite residential complexes “Central”, “City”, “Dolinsky” and “Uyutny”. Part of the land went under the industrial and warehouse zones “Khutorok”, “Zapadnaya” and “Promyshlennaya”. And now a little math: multiply 130 hectares by 20 thousand dollars – the cost of one hundred square meters of land by the sea in the Ovidiopol region in those years. We get a tidy sum. But the scam was discovered only in 2014. The Odessa District Administrative Court declared the land allocation of 130 hectares illegal. But then Vasily Gulyaev was already confidently sitting in the people’s deputy’s chair, and it was left to the “advocates” to sort out his machinations.

How the Ministry of Defense was fooled

In 2008, another resonant story happened with the Odessa land. The site, which belonged to the Ministry of Defense, was given into private hands. The businessmen received 1.53 hectares of real estate from the Yubileiny recreation center of the Voentorgservis concern, one of the two remaining, all the rest are located in occupied Crimea.

Recreation center Yubileinaya, the land of which was sold by Vasily Gulyaev

Residential buildings, utility buildings and structures began to be erected here. The story only came to light in 2016. Then the military prosecutor’s office of the Odessa garrison filed claims with the Ovidiopolsky District Court to invalidate state acts on the ownership of land plots. Representatives of the garrison demanded that the plots be returned to the defense department. During the investigation, it turned out that in 2006, the newly appointed village head Vasily Gulyaev signed papers on the transfer of this land into communal ownership, and two years later he divided it into shares and gave it to private individuals. And this despite the fact that on the plots there were buildings not of some village resident, but of the Ministry of Defense. Let us note that Vasily Alexandrovich’s actions blatantly violated Ukrainian legislation. According to the Land Code, land owned by the state is managed by the Cabinet of Ministers. Gulyaev transferred the land to the local council without permission, and then unilaterally gave it away, attaching a letter from the Minister of Defense dated 2004 to the papers.

The military prosecutor’s office assessed the scale of the village mayor’s activities. The cost of illegally alienated one and a half hectares of land is 3 million hryvnia. And this is the rate for 2008, when, let us recall, one hundred square meters of land by the sea reached 20 thousand dollars. And if we delve further into the calculations, we find that at the “pre-crisis” exchange rate, the village budget received an amount that was at least 5 times lower than the market one.

As it turned out, one and a half hectares is a small fraction of Vasily Alexandrovich’s scams with state land. The prosecutor’s office dug up another case of seizure of plots and transfer of them to private individuals or commercial enterprises. In 2015, the Ministry of Defense again filed a claim with the Odessa Economic Court of Appeal. 8.5 hectares of land were taken away from the department. It belonged to the same health complex “Yubileiny”. As it turned out, this site had already been leased for 49 years to a certain Simon LLC, and before that it was transferred to communal ownership. Simon LLC received a tidbit for carrying out bank protection work.

Vasily Gulyaev. A wealthy peasant from Odessa, mayor of Chernomorsk

The scam was carried out by Vasily Gulyaev, who signed the corresponding court decision. A very interesting point, but predictable: long-term leases are concluded at a price that is several times lower than it should be. We can guess whose pocket the real cost of the land went into.

Land for “our own”

Of course, all of the above examples are by no means an exhaustive list of land frauds performed by Vasily Gulyaev. For example, he transferred land plots to private firms for their needs. Skelet.Info It is known that 0.20 hectares have been released to Civicon LLC for the construction of a gas station. There was a trial regarding this case, and it turned out that the land did not belong to the Molodezhninsky village council, but to Ukrzaliznytsia

Despite all this, in 2010 Vasily Alexandrovich was elected to a second term by an absolute majority of votes. And a year later, the village of Molodeznoye received the title of the best village in Odessa region for the development of social infrastructure and landscaping of the territory. And Gulyaev himself was recognized as the best village chairman.

Very popular deputy Vasily Gulyaev

At the beginning of 2015, Vasily Gulyaev, who constantly boasted that he was a self-nominated candidate, “found” his political strength. He headed the Odessa regional organization of the Rebirth party.

Vasily Aleksandrovich ran for mayor of Ilyichevsk in the fall of 2015 from “Vidrodzhennya”.

But the city residents did not give Gulyaev a chance to take the seat of the mayor. He lost the election to the current mayor of Ilyichevsk Valery Khmelnyuk (37.42% of the votes against 52.74% for the old mayor).

Vladimir Grab, Gulyaev’s godfather

But the people’s deputy did not fall into despair, because the village of Molodeznoye remained under his control and … a new jackpot – the village of Velikodolinskoye, where his godfather Vladimir Grab reigns. A relative asked Vasily Alexandrovich for help to cover up land fraud, because Gulyaev ate the dog out of these scams. He is given excellent kickbacks for “protection protection”.

With the help of Vasily Aleksandrovich, the village of Velikodolinskoye lost 9.8447 hectares of arable land. In 2012, the village council gave this site to the Velikodolinskoye municipal enterprise for the construction of a residential microdistrict. The cost of the plot is 859,914 UAH. The construction of the new building was undertaken by Sfera LTD LLC. However, the money for the allotment never arrived in the KP account, but remained stuck in the pockets of Grab and Gulyaev. Another example – the Mariinsky residential complex in the Velikodolinskoye village put two houses into operation, but the village council did not receive a single penny of the developer’s obligatory share participation. And this, for a moment, is 4% of the total construction amount. Millions of dollars have settled in the hands of rural heads.

Grab and Gulyaev make money by repairing roads in the village, which are carried out on paper, but in fact they sprinkle the street surface with rubbish, which they take for free from a controlled company. And according to the documents, the building materials were purchased for a lot of money…

In the Rada, Vasily Gulyaev got comfortable and began to use parliamentary tools to the fullest. For example, when voting for the State Budget 2016, the people’s deputy “Vіdrozhennya” pressed buttons for himself, that guy and another one.

True, he managed to justify himself by saying that he had not yet fully understood the voting rules, after all, he was a simple village head for everything.

After Gulyaev was carried away by big politics, he completely forgot about Odessa and the villagers who so sacredly believed in his honesty. A striking example was the behavior of Vasily Alexandrovich during the scandal with the renaming of Ilyichevsk to Chernomorsk. Residents thought that Gulyaev would be the one to put in a word with the Verkhovna Rada that the city would not be decommunized. However, everyone’s favorite only distanced himself from this issue, because at that time he was busy – he participated in the development of a law on renaming the port city.

What did the best village leader Vasily Gulyaev gain?

Vasily Gulyaev not only sold the Odessa land, but also took it for himself. As a result, he turned out to be a large landowner. Skelet.Info reviewed Vasily Alexandrovich’s declarations for several years.

So, in 2013, Vasily Alexandrovich, judging by the declaration, of course, did not live below the poverty line, but he had to save a fair amount. He indicated that during the year he received 95.3 thousand hryvnia of total income, of which 84.1 were wages. Thus, Gulyaev worked for 7 thousand hryvnia per month. It’s a very small amount, as for the rural head of a promising village. He also owns an apartment of 51.3 square meters and a plot of land of 10,600 square meters. m. Almost like everyone else. In fact, these are several plots: one per 600 sq. m. m. (6 acres), the second for 10,000 sq. m. m. (100 acres!!!).

The most interesting thing is that all plots of land are located on the territory of the most prosperous village in Ukraine – in Molodezhny. The Gulyaev couple owns land plots: Vasily – two (with an area of ​​10,600 sq.m.), and Elena – with three (with an area of ​​more than 6,400 sq.m.).

Vasily Gulyaev. A wealthy peasant from Odessa, mayor of Chernomorsk

In 2014, Vasily Gulyaev earned 97 thousand hryvnia through honest work, and family members brought another 9.7 thousand. But it’s interesting that with such an income, Vasily Alexandrovich contributed 184,677 hryvnia of his own money to his election fund.

Vasily Gulyaev. A wealthy peasant from Odessa, mayor of Chernomorsk

In 2016, the income of the Gulyaev couple changed. Vasily Alexandrovich received a total income of 155.8 thousand hryvnia from his salary, and his wife received 10.3 thousand hryvnia from a lump sum benefit for the birth of a child. The deputy also kept 340 thousand hryvnia, 72 thousand dollars, 52 thousand euros, assets in precious metals in the amount of 230 thousand hryvnia, and his wife – 302 thousand hryvnia, 24 thousand dollars and 21 thousand euros.

Let us note that recently in the village of Aleksandrovka near Chernomorsk, unknown persons set fire to a bathhouse complex. According to available information, it belongs to People’s Deputy Gulyaev, but the politician himself denies this. He stated that the owners of the bathhouse were his acquaintances.

Arina Dmitrieva, for Skelet.Info

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