Vasyl Petyovka: “Tsimbora” faction in the Verkhovna Rada. PART 1

Vasily Petevka

Despite all the political changes in Kyiv, the Transcarpathian region continues to remain the fiefdom of the corrupt criminal family clan Baloga-Petevka. Their people control local authorities, local law enforcement agencies and courts, local customs and smugglers, local bandits and radicals. The brothers themselves acquired a “family subscription” for lifelong membership in the Verkhovna Rada, where they have already spent several convocations fascinatingly, hiding from the law and creating their own shadow schemes. They are also participating in the current elections, running in the same majoritarian constituencies that they long ago privatized. And if they are elected again, this means that the notorious Transcarpathian “Tsimbora” mafia is truly immortal.

Viktor Ivanovich Baloga, his brothers Pavel Ivanovich Baloga and Ivan Ivanovich Baloga, his cousin Vasily Petevka – this is not a list of invitations to a family celebration, but a list of deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of the 8th convocation. There we will also find their old accomplice and “family friend” Mikhail Lanyo. Get all your relatives into parliament – in all of Ukraine, only one clan was capable of doing this! And all because these five, although scattered across different parliamentary associations, actually represent one faction called “Tsimbora”. This is how the local “Cosa Nostra” is called in Transcarpathia, the most influential family of which is headed by Viktor Baloga and his brothers. And his son, Andrei Viktorovich Baloga, has been the mayor of Mukachevo since 2015.

And now this family clan has gone to the polls again, again in majoritarian constituencies: No. 69 – Viktor Baloga, No. 70 – Ivan Baloga, No. 72 – Vasily Petevka, No. 73 – Pavel Baloga. Mikhail Lanyo initially stated that he would not participate in the 2019 elections, and even lost his 70th district to Ivan Baloga. But now his name is on the electoral list of the Opposition Bloc.

According to sources Skelet.Infothe reason for Lanyo’s throwing is his long-standing friction with the Balogh brothers, which sometimes reached the point of shooting (incident in July 2015). Which is not surprising, since for twenty years they have been sharing among themselves the legacy of the criminal “authorities” of the 90s, who brought them to big people.

“Comedian brothers”

Petevka Vasily Vasilyevich was born on January 30, 1967 in the village of Zavidovo, Mukachevo district, Transcarpathian region. In the same village, four years earlier, his cousin Victor Baloga was born. The brothers, like most politicians from this region, are born Rusyns. This ethnic group has been officially integrated into the Ukrainian people since 1944, and today, for Ruthenian self-identification, you can even get accused of “separatism incited by the Kremlin.” According to the testimony of friends of Petyovka and Baloga, in their youth they spoke Rusyn, that is, it is their native language, and this is very rare within the walls of the Verkhovna Rada and the offices of the Kyiv authorities. However, Baloga and Vasily Petevka, as you know, belong to the political camp of nationally-conscious patriots of Ukraine, and rarely remember their Rusynism. Baloha I even boasted once that it was he who persuaded President Yushchenko not to recognize the Rusyns as a separate ethnic group, “in order to avoid separatism.”

However, Arseniy Yatsenyuk in 2012 voiced a completely opposite version of the event and accused Baloga of supporting Rusyn nationalism and separatism. And according to the testimony of their friends, if things had gone differently for Baloga in the 90s and the 2000s, and he would have made a different political choice, then now he and his cousin Petyovka would be no less ardent “patriots” of the Rusyn movement.

But they still have everything ahead: for nothing, perhaps, Balogh through the hands of his protege Vasily Gubal formed a private army under the pretext of protecting Transcarpathia from an unknown aggressor! It was this army that staged a showdown with shooting in July 2015, when the “Right Sector” controlled by Baloga started a conflict with Lanyo’s people. Well, then these young men put on the “PS” chevrons, and who will they declare themselves to be next time – perhaps the “People’s Liberation Army of Carpathia”? The Balogh clan can return to the topic of separatism at any moment…

Vasyl Petyovka: “Tsimbora” faction in the Verkhovna Rada. PART 1

But let’s return to the youth of Vasily Petevka. Their relatives were “economic”, they were engaged in all kinds of “business” even before “perestroika”, so Vasily, after eight years of rural school, was sent to the Mukachevo Cooperative College (now the Mukachevo Trade and Economic College) to study as a commodity expert. This was slightly below the level of his cousin: in 1984, Viktor Baloga also received a diploma in merchandising, but at the Lviv Trade and Economic Institute (now a university), without being too lazy to get a secondary education before that. A few years later, his younger brother Ivan Baloga graduated from the same institute. Such is the family of commodity experts! And only the youngest of them, Pavel Baloga, graduated from Uzhgorod State University in 1999 with a degree in jurisprudence and went to work in the prosecutor’s office to cover up his relatives’ dirty business (he is the only one in the family who did not serve in the army). But he also became interested in smuggling, on which he seriously got burned – and his career as a prosecutor was put to an end.

Baloha today — Specifically, the brothers (more precisely, their parents) were interested in access to the “bins” of Soviet trade, where they could get hold of the deficit. And the one who controlled scarce goods at that time was much cooler than today’s businessmen. Hence the choice of profession: after all, commodity experts gradually turned into managers and directors.

After graduating from college, Petyovka worked for several months at the Verkhnekoropetsk consumer association of the regional consumer union. By the way, Verkhny Koropets is the birthplace of Valeriy Geletey, another Transcarpathian who has become a big man, and the son-in-law of Vasyl Durdynets. As is known, the old Soviet general Durdynets, who served as deputy minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Ukrainian SSR, and under Kuchma worked as deputy prime minister and head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, is considered one of the progenitors of the Transcarpathian “cymbora”. And his nephew Tiberiy Durdinets, who was appointed by his uncle to the leadership of the SBU, has been on the international wanted list for 10 years. The Durdinians did a lot for the rise of Baloga and Petyovka, and even more so that they would not suffer the deserved punishment.

Tiberiy Durdinets, wanted — Vasily Petevka served in the army in 1986-87 (according to some information, as a privateer like his cousin), after which he returned to his previous job. At the same time, Viktor Baloga became a senior merchandiser at the Mukachevo economic and trading base, receiving the nickname “comic guy” from his friends. The nickname is somewhat ambiguous, since in the old days this was the name given to people who did not have their own home and rented rooms.

The brothers immediately launched their business: scarce goods from warehouses were sold at bazaars with a large profit, part of which had to be given to the criminal “roof.” But this was only the beginning, because the brothers soon realized that the main “deposits” of the popular commodity were located abroad, which was just a stone’s throw away. The time was coming for big commerce and big things – so in the late 80s Vasily Petevka resigned from the Verkhnekoropetssky District Consumer Union, fictitiously got a job at the Mukachevo Cooperative College (which he had previously graduated from), and he himself became closely involved in the family business – which was initially shadowy and semi-criminal.

Bandit “Barva”

The history of the modern Mukachevo mafia begins, perhaps, with the criminal authority Viktor Kirch. His organized crime group began in Soviet times, from the local car market, imposing tribute on sellers and buyers of Lada cars, and then spread its influence to other bazaars. Soon, the Kirch organized crime group was joined by a “brigade” from Kushtanovitsa (a suburb of Mukachevo, then a very criminal area), headed by a young “authority” Mikhail Tokar, nicknamed Gesha. Unlike the “old convict” Kirch, Tokar was never in prison, but quickly earned respect in the criminal world of Transcarpathia.

Another important figure in Transcarpathian Tortuga was Ivan Yuryevich Dankanich, who always kept a low profile. The same age as Viktor Baloga, he was born in the village of Zagatye in the neighboring Irshavsky district, where Baloga went to school – and they studied there together. Their childhood friendship played a vital role in the future of the Baloga-Petevka family clan, since in the 80s Dankanich became a member of the famous Solntsevo organized crime group, headed by Sergei Mikhailov (Mikhas) and Semyon Mogilevich (Seva). On the list of this organized crime group Dankanich can be found at number 74.

So, Dankanich became the link between Solntsevsky and Mukachevo. This connection became very important for Mogilevich in the early 90s, when he moved to live and weave the web of his criminal schemes in Hungary, which borders the Mukachevo region of Transcarpathia. Important changes took place: Mogilevich took the Kirch organized crime group under his wing, offering him larger-scale cases than the racketeering of market traders and small-scale smuggling of gasoline and alcohol. For Mogilevich, who planned schemes on the scale of an entire continent, this region was the gateway between Europe and the CIS, and he relied on large-scale smuggling: cargo flows went all the way to Siberia, and timber, metals, fuel and other marketable raw materials flowed back through Europe. Since the late 90s, drugs have also been included in these schemes. “Mukachevo” had to ensure the uninterrupted operation of these gates, working in tandem with corrupt customs, police and local authorities. The immediate task of Kirch’s “brothers” was to protect cargo from other organized crime groups – and so he became the shadow master of the region.

With the collapse of the Union and the beginning of the era of a chaotic market, Viktor Baloga and his warehouse risked being left with almost nothing: except to rent out the premises and to survive on petty smuggling himself. But his childhood friend Dankanich came to his aid, putting in a word for him in front of Kirch and Tokar. And the “comedian” was accepted into the gangster schemes, to begin with, turning his warehouse into a transshipment base for smuggled and stolen goods. Then, in 1992, Victor Baloga created Rey-Promin LLC on the basis of his warehouse, becoming its director and taking Vasily Petevka as his deputy. The brothers’ relationship was stable: Viktor Baloga headed this semi-criminal family business, and Vasily Petevka, according to Skelet.Infowas his “black accountant” and manager.

Connected with other companies and joint ventures, Rey-Promin was part of the schemes through which the Kircha organized crime group smuggled goods and laundered dirty money. Victor Baloga, having become part of this group (in the status of a semi-criminal businessman), began to rapidly rise and pull his relatives with him: his brothers Ivan and Pavel, and his cousin Vasily.

In 1994, a new enterprise, Barva LLC (USREOU 20445649), was established, which later became the main holding of the Baloga-Petevka family empire. An interesting detail: in Old Rusyn, “barva” meant the uniform that the feudal lord issued to his servants and soldiers – and the Baloga family, we repeat, is precisely Rusyn-speaking. Therefore, the name of the company caused caustic jokes among local residents. It is also curious that the LLC was registered twice: first in March 1994, then again in May 1998. Over time, the composition of the founders also changed. Initially, they were: Victor Baloga, Ivan Baloga, Pavel Baloga, Oksana Baloga (Victor Baloga’s wife), Vasily Petevka and Ilya Tokar – the brother of Mikhail Tokar. Now its founders are Marina Petevka (wife of Vasily Petevka), Miroslava Tokar (wife of Ilya Tokar), as well as Mukachevo entrepreneurs Alexander Goryachkun and Vasily Popp.

After these registrations and re-registrations of “Barva”, high-profile murders took place in Mukachevo. First, Victor Kirch was killed by unknown killers, after which leadership over the local criminals was concentrated in the hands of Mikhail Tokar (Geshi). It is possible (as a version) that his “senior partner” Mogilevich was interested in replacing Kirch, but it was rumored that he only approved the liquidation of Kirch, which some people from Mukachevo insisted on. After this, Kirch was very quickly forgotten, so that there were almost no mentions of him in the media. And after his death, Baloga and Petyovka closed the Rey-Promin shop and switched to the development of Barva, in which the Tokari brothers invested. The new Mukachevo “supervisor” Gesha ruled harshly, but fairly, without “show-offs”, so he was respected by everyone. And yet, in December 1998, he was also killed, and this happened after a series of events that lead to deep reflection…

In the second half of the 90s, a whole wave of showdowns swept across Transcarpathia, in which people close to Baloga and Petyovka also took part. So, in 1996, Vasily Chepa, nicknamed “Vasya Restaurant” (future advisor to the governor of Baloga on culture), shot the criminal “authority” Mikhail Bryanik (from the Uzhgorod organized crime group Andriykanych) with a machine gun. And they didn’t even initiate a criminal case against him! By the way, the head of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs was then Gennady Moskal, whom some sources Skelet.Info were called involved in the liquidation of Victor Kirch and other criminal “authorities” of the region. At the same time, the media reported that Moskal then found mutual understanding with Baloga, and even sold through his “Barva” goods confiscated from “foreign” smugglers (not associated with the Geshi organized crime group), dividing the profit 50/50. It is worth noting that Gennady Moskal is very loves to manage precisely in the border regions – Transcarpathian and Lugansk, which are famous for their smuggling corridors. And he hasn’t changed his methods since the 90s: he stops the trucks of “foreign” smugglers and gives the green light to “his own”.

However, focusing on the figures of leaders, we must not forget about the importance of the middle management – which then included the deputy head of the Mukachevo Organized Crime Control Department Vladimir Geletey, who had the “glory” of the most corrupt and most “stupid” policeman in all of Transcarpathia (in terms of stupidity, he competes with his namesake by surname – Valery Geletea). The connections of Vladimir Geletey with the organized crime group of Kirch and Tokar were obvious, but they were carefully hidden: regular meetings were called an operational necessity, but there were no extra witnesses to their business relations left alive. For all his narrow-mindedness, Vladimir Geletey knew how to cover his tracks, and his brother Valery and the Durdintsov family covered him well.

In 1997, Mikhail Tokar poured 625 thousand dollars in cash into the development of Barva: he gave the money in Hungary, where he was on a business visit. However, later both Baloga and especially Petevka denied this fact in every possible way, claiming that they took out money for business development on credit from Prominvestbank. Sources claimed Skelet.Infothat Baloga and Petyovka simply “hidden away” Gesha’s share.

Journalists reported that by the beginning of 1998, Gesha had two main assistants: the holder of the main “cash office” of the organized crime group, Viktor Baloga, carried out shadow and legal business through “Barva”, where Vasily Petyovka worked hard, but Mikhail Lanyo, nicknamed “Blyuk” (his brother Ivan Lanyo is known as a petty “authority” nicknamed Donkey). Racketeering, showdowns, drugs – this is an incomplete list of what Lanyo earned his reputation with. And in 1998, he was also accused of murder. Then Mikhail Lanyo got into the car of the “authority” Ivan Viner (nickname Kozy), after which he was soon found shot dead in that very car. Lanyo was dragged through the investigation for three months, but then he was released. Since the mid-90s, Mikhail Lanyo was one of Viktor Baloga’s closest people (from among non-relatives); they did not always get along with each other – as during the events of 2015, when their people began to shoot at each other.

Lanyo — In the spring of 1998, Viktor Baloga, with the political support of Governor Ustich and the SDPU (o) and the criminal support of the organized crime group Gesha (behind whom Mogilevich loomed), was elected mayor of Mukachevo. However, for Gesha he remained a roguish “comedian”, whom Turner once punched in the face right in the mayor’s office. Perhaps the reason for their conflict was the money that Baloga “raised” from the “authority.”

At the same time, there was a large flood in the area (including due to the start of mass deforestation by Barva’s subsidiaries), and Leonid Kuchma himself arrived in Mukachevo, who, satisfied with the warm welcome, hinted to Baloga about a possible governorship (and also allocated money , which were stolen by Barva structures). Then many said that it was then that Baloga made the final decision to get rid of Gesha, who only began to hinder him – and allegedly, through Dankanich, he received the go-ahead from Mogilevich to do this.

And so on December 25, 1998, just before Christmas, Mikhail Tokar was shot at the gates of his own house, after which his empire was divided between Baloga and Lanyo – well, something was left to Ilya Tokar (a man without ambitions and not much intelligence). Baloga “grabbed” Gesha’s “treasury” for himself, primarily the Barva structures, all the flows of shadow and semi-legal business, all connections with the “cops” and government agencies. Lanyo got Gesha’s bandits and the criminal half of the business. And he has been controlling the smuggling corridor for twenty years with the help of his “athletes”, “titushki” and other scumbags, either creating common schemes with Baloga, or at odds with him.