Vladimir Buryak
For a little less than six months, Zaporozhye has been living with a new mayor, Vladimir Viktorovich Buryak. Who would doubt that an industrial city would “choose” an exemplary factory worker-engineer from the Zaporizhstal iron and steel plant as its leader. But another question is: did people choose at all?
It is no secret that Vladimir Buryak is closely connected with Rinat Akhmetov, who transported the main remaining assets of the SCM group to Zaporozhye and controls the main factories of the city, and the income of the new mayor is 2.2 million hryvnia per year.
A candidate from nowhere
Let’s start with the fact that in the 2015 election race there were so many billboards depicting a certain Vladimir Buryak (the surname was fertile ground for bloggers) in Zaporozhye that it was confusing. Literally overnight, the city was transformed: Buryak looked at residents from everywhere, and this is not counting the articles on the pages of the Industrial Zaporozhye newspaper, free for pensioners, and program reports on all local channels about the good deeds of this person. One question hung in the air – who is Mr. Buryak?
And now the time has come to get acquainted: Vladimir Buryak is a self-nominated candidate for the post of mayor of Zaporozhye and part-time director of engineering (a modern analogue of an ordinary engineer) at the Zaporizhstal plant. Until 2015, Vladimir Viktorovich was not involved in politics and was far from the media.
In general, his public biography is rather stingy. Skelet.Info it is known that the current mayor was born in 1965 in the Dnepropetrovsk region. Graduated from the Dneprodzerzhinsk Industrial Institute (1982-1987) with a degree in metal forming. After studying, he got a job as a metallurgical engineer at Zaporizhstal. After 3 years he became a senior mill foreman, after 7 years he took the position of deputy director for production – head of the production department. By the way, this entire industrial career was built under Vitaly Satsky, the permanent head of the board and general director of Zaporizhstal OJSC. In 2012, Buryak rose to the position of director of engineering. This happened when the plant was acquired by Rinat Akhmetov, or rather, the code of the industrial giant was “gifted” to the oligarch by Viktor Yanukovych. And then two people came to the fore – Rostislav Shurma, general director of the plant and former deputy of the Donetsk regional council from the Party of Regions, and Vladimir Buryak (note, he was not removed like the old Satsky cadre). On the other hand, well, shouldn’t Rinat Leonidovich himself supervise the work of the factory workers? So, these two governors introduced a strict system of fines (failure to comply with the norm – a fine, being late from lunch – a fine, if you don’t like something – a fine in the form of dismissal). In addition, in the first year of their “reign”, about 30% of Zaporizhstal members were fired.
Buryak in the hospital
So 2015 quietly approached, and with it the elections. Of course, Akhmetov, who is directly related to the Opposition Bloc party, needs to gain a foothold in such an important region as Zaporozhye and compete with Igor Kolomoisky. This can only be done by coming to power. Putting Shurma at the helm of the city was risky and dangerous, especially since his reputation, to put it mildly, is not very good. So the choice falls on Vladimir Buryak. He is given the image of a “social candidate for mayor” and the corresponding slogan “the strength of Zaporozhye is the people.” By the way, Viktor Yanukovych ran for elections in 2011 with a similar slogan “Ukraine for the people.” So the new is the well-forgotten old.
fresh Buryak
By the way, Buryak in every possible way wanted to disavow his affiliation with this political force, positioning himself as an “independent candidate.” But de facto everyone understands that he represents the interests of the “Opposition Bloc.” If we assume that Oppoblok is a joint-stock company, then the supervisory board is represented by Rinat Akhmetov, the owner of Zaporizhstal. Therefore, talking about the “independence” of Vladimir Buryak is at least ridiculous.
Buryak’s headquarters spent 12 million 626 thousand UAH on the elections. Of these, 3 million 750 thousand are the mayor’s own. Another 8 million 876 thousand UAH. Patrons donated to the self-nominated candidate. And it seems we know who these people are.
Vladimir Buryak bribes voters
Thus, Vladimir Buryak won the first and second rounds of local elections. In the last round he received 58.48% of the votes.
Criminal cases
Before Vladimir Buryak had time to enjoy the position of mayor, two criminal cases were opened against him. As part of the first, he is suspected of violating Art. 172 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Law enforcement agencies believe that he illegally fired Valery Bezlepkin, director of the department of housing and communal services of the Zaporozhye City Council. The City Council denied these accusations; it seems that Bezlepkin was fired according to all standards, but the fact remains.
By the way, the story with Valery Bezlepkin has been going on for a long time. The official headed the Housing and Communal Services Department in 2014 after the “empire” of the city “supervisor” Evgeniy Anisimov fell (Read more about Evgeny Anisimov in the article Evgeny Anisimov. The criminal “Observer” of Zaporozhye returns). Bezlepkin was immediately included among the people of the new “observer of the region” Andrei Alyosha. But the official immediately disowned all connections with Alyosha and called all Zaporozhye politicians corrupt. After this, a confrontation began, which Bezlepkin withstood – he managed to be on sick leave for almost a year. True, according to Skelet.Info, With the arrival of a new head, I couldn’t resist.
If the case goes to trial and Buryak is found guilty, he will face correctional labor for up to two years with a ban on holding the position of mayor for up to 3 years.
In the second case, Buryak is a defendant, like many officials of the Zaporizhstal metallurgical plant. The Prosecutor General’s Office says that the company has not paid its share in the development of engineering, transport and social infrastructure in Zaporozhye. Because of this, the city budget lost 15 million UAH. However, in this case, Buryak states that he did not sign any papers regarding Zaporizhstal’s share in the development of the city’s infrastructure.
Million incomes
Vladimir Buryak does not hide his income. As an honest official, he indicated his earnings for 2014 in his declaration. When it became available to the public, Zaporozhye residents were shocked. It turned out that the chief engineer of Zaporizhstal earned 2 million 287 thousand 154 hryvnia in a year. Almost the entire amount is salary. If you do the math, it turns out that Vladimir Viktorovich receives 190 thousand hryvnia per month. That is, 40 times more than the average factory worker.
—
Family members – wife, daughter, son-in-law earned 88.9 thousand hryvnia.
Buryak has 4 land plots and 2 apartments. Family members have 2 more apartments.
As for cars, the mayor owns a 2011 Toyita Land Cruiser, a 1978 LUAZ, a Brig B350 boat and two trailers.
Buryak’s family members own a 2013 Toyota Avensis and a 2006 Audi AG.
As a result
Now Zaporozhye, the main industrial city of Ukraine, is under the control of the Opposition Bloc and Rinat Akhmetov, who dreams of turning it into a second Donetsk. Whether Vladimir Buryak will help the oligarch or really prove that he does not support any party, time will tell.
And it’s interesting how Mr. Akhmetov came to an agreement with the Armenian mafia of Zaporozhye in the person of Artashes Sargsyan (friend Armen Sargsyan – “Armen Gorlovsky” and Yuri Ivanyushchenko – “Yura Enakievsky”) and looking from them, the owner of TM “Khortitsa”, Evgeniy Chernyak, more about whom you can read in the material Evgeny Chernyak. “Vodka king” of all Ukraine
Arina Dmitrieva, for Skelet.Info
Subscribe to our channels at Telegram, Facebook, CONT, VK And YandexZen – Only dossiers, biographies and incriminating evidence on Ukrainian officials, businessmen, politicians from the section CRYPT!
