Vladimir Kistion: secrets of the “Vinnitsa courtyard”. PART 1

Ukrainians overpay for gas, heating and electricity by 3-4 times their real cost, but there seems to be a stamp of silence on this topic. Behind the Rotterdam formula and gas schemes are not only the Donetsk and Dnepropetrovsk oligarchs, but also the power of the “Vinnitsa” ones, who created these schemes and now protect and cover them in every possible way. And one of the key roles in this belonged to the almost invisible ex-Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Kistion, who has extensive experience behind him in the “utility scam”…

Vladimir Kistion. The team of their youth

Kistion Vladimir Evseevich was born on May 31, 1965 in the village of Dolzhok, Yampolsky district, Vinnytsia region. Having conscientiously served in the army, he entered the Odessa Civil Engineering Institute (now the State Academy of Construction and Architecture) to major in water supply and sewerage, which was quite unusual for a rural guy. But this choice determined his entire future career, from plumber to deputy prime minister.

In 1989, Kistion returned to his homeland and went to work at the water utility of the Yampol district center. A year later, a young specialist headed this enterprise. This abnormally rapid growth was associated with certain family ties of Vladimir Kistion: some sources Skelet.Info they claimed that his father-in-law helped him, others that his uncle. But Kistion, like other “Vinnytsia” people, carefully hides both his past and his connections.

Through their efforts, since 2006, the Vinnytsia region has turned into an information ghetto of the “totalitarian Kuchmism” model; according to available Skelet.Info information, then even local forums were thoroughly cleared of any incriminating evidence on the “fathers” of the city and region. Moreover, in the Vinnitsa team, the person responsible for extinguishing public outrage was Alexander Reva, then another deputy of the Vinnitsa mayor of Groysman, and today another minister of the Groysman government. He did his best: if in 2008 Vinnitsa residents almost entered into hand-to-hand combat with the city authorities, then by 2014 Vinnitsa became a blank spot on the map of socio-political discontent in Ukraine. Discontent, of course, existed, but Vinnytsia residents were no longer allowed to express it freely and openly, not on command, and not in a specified direction – and only propagandists of “overcame” and “reach” of the local authorities had the right to speak. Then, after the second Maidan, the “Vinnitsa” people transferred this experience to the whole of Ukraine.

The formation of the current Vinnytsia clan, also called the “Vinnytsia mafia,” began at the turn of the century (even millennia), and its backbone was the Vinnytsia “families” that actively participated in the overthrow of the Vinnytsia mayor Dmitry Dvorkis (1992-2000). They even tried to kill him: on November 23, 1999, an assassination attempt was made on Dvorkis, carried out, according to sources from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, by killers from the Lvov organized crime group of Vladimir Didukh (Vova Morda). However, political intrigues, influence on the city and regional councils of Vinnitsa, and trips of the “walkers” to President Kuchma himself turned out to be more effective. By the way, among these “walkers” was young Petro Poroshenko, who with his father Alexey Poroshenko had great business interests in the Vinnytsia region.

Then, in the late 90s, a kind of triangle of contradictions between Poroshenko, Medvedchuk and Dworkis even formed. It is worth remembering that in 1998, people’s deputy Petro Poroshenko was a member of the SDPU (u) faction, but during the struggle of his servants for the place closest to the throne, he fell out with Viktor Medvedchuk. So, Medvedchuk supported Dvorkis, persuading Kuchma to appoint him chairman of the Vinnytsia Regional State Administration (while retaining the post of mayor), and the Poroshenko family supported the anti-Dvorkis opposition – among whom was the owner of the Vinnytsia Yunost market, Boris Groysman (father of the future prime minister).

In 2000, Vladimir Vakhovsky (died in 2013), the local “father of privatization”, but an extremely dependent figure, was elected as the new mayor of Vinnytsia. It is interesting that at that time journalist Georgy Gongadze worked at Vakhovsky’s election headquarters (in fact, at the headquarters of the forming “Vinnitsa” clan), and he did this allegedly at the request of Kuchma’s inner circle. So, after sitting in the mayor’s chair for only two years, Vakhovsky voluntarily gave it up in the next elections to Alexander Dombrovsky, the former first secretary of the city committee of the LKSMU, one of the most active Vinnitsa businessmen, who stood at the origins of the creation of the Vinnitsa clan.

In the future, he became the governor of Vinnytsia (2005-2010), was twice elected to the Verkhovna Rada, and joined the BPP faction. Dombrovsky is called one of the oldest political associates of Petro Poroshenko, although their business relationship still remains a secret. However, Dombrovsky is one of the richest residents of Vinnytsia, and his capital is surrounded by numerous corruption scandals.

In 2001, Dombrovsky was still only a deputy of the City Council. However, he had enormous influence both on the mayor of Vokhovsky, who ruled at the will of the formed clan, like a boyar king, and on the governor Yuri Ivanov and the chairman of the regional council Igor Kaletnik (the future chief customs officer of Ukraine, the head of an entire corrupt familyA). And, according to sources Skelet.Infoit was Dombrovsky who pulled Vladimir Kistion out of Yampolsk “for… drunk”, brought him to the regional center and lobbied for his appointment as head of Vinnitsavodokanal. From that moment on, the Vinnitsa stage of Kistion’s life began, in which he rose not just to a big boss, but also became one of the “fathers of the mafia.”

Fathers of the communal mafia

Was there not a single prominent specialist in Vinnitsa itself capable of heading the water utility? This question still remains open. According to information from various sources Skelet.InfoVladimir Kistion owed his new career rise not to any of his merits or even connections, but to another scam of the “Vinnitsa” people, who needed a kind of zits-chairman. And this is what happened: back in 1996-97, when the flexible Vladimir Vakhovsky worked as chairman of the regional State Property Fund, and then as deputy governor of Anatoly Matvienko (Dombrovsky’s business partner), the phased “privatization” of the Vinnitsa lamp plant began, where -5 thousand townspeople worked (it was there that the electronic game “Wolf”, popular in the USSR, was produced catches eggs”). The plant was diligently ruined for several years, and then they decided to put it into utility debt.

So, when Kistion was appointed head of Vinnitsavodokanal, the following scam was carried out. The plant was sued for 17 million hryvnia in debt for utilities, most of which was put up by the water utility – which sharply increased its tariffs and did not agree to deferments.

Then, like two people from a casket, the owners of the Crimean Aspect LLC, Vitaly Khramov and Andrey Medyakov, appeared, offering to repay this debt in exchange for shares and property of the plant (workshops, warehouses and almost 36 hectares of territory with its own park). On the basis of the plant, they created CJSC Lamp Plant and LLC Vinnitsa Glass Container Plant, which never developed and closed in 2007. And a year later, when Kistion went to work in the city council as a deputy to the city mayor (Vladimir Groysman), the lamp plant officially ceased to exist – it was declared bankrupt. Now its ruins are slowly being dismantled for building materials and metal.

Such stories allow us to examine the structure of the “Vinnitsa clan”. The direct perpetrators of all sorts of scams (Vladimir Kistion, Reva, Vakhovsky) were figures dependent on several influential business families (Dombrovsky, Groysman), and they, in turn, are associated with families that occupied a high position in Kyiv (Poroshenko, Matvienko). Of course, “Vinnytsia” are not limited to the named surnames. In addition, the “Vinnytsia clan” is not united, it consists of “neighboring families” who have their own puppets in different positions, their own “godfathers” in the law enforcement agencies of the region and their own “roof” in Kyiv. But in this case, Vladimir Kistion and Reva are people of the Groysman family clan, and the Groysmans have always been associated with the Poroshenko family. Pyotr Alekseevich stood up and brought the Groysman family clan to Kyiv! But why exactly Groysman, and not, say, Dombrovsky? They say that this has to do with the long-standing close relationship between the heads of their families.

However, Dombrovsky and his people on Bankova are also not forgotten. For example, Dombrovsky’s man is called Miroslav Prodan, the former deputy of the notorious Roman Nasirov, now acting instead of him. Head of the State Fiscal Service. Moreover, Vladimir Kistion was also Dombrovsky’s creature for a long time, until he assigned him to Vladimir Groysman’s deputy. So he can still remain Dombrovsky’s man in the Groysman family.

So, Vladimir Kistion coped with the assigned tasks so diligently that he remained with the management of Vinnitsavodokanal until 2008 – then he was promoted. But his only “reforms” in this post were regular increases in tariffs, the imposition of water meters on city residents (and payments for their verification), and completely confidential information about the real cost of wastewater treatment. However, the latter is inherent in almost all water utilities in Ukraine. However, only in Vinnitsa were public utilities nicknamed by local residents the “municipal mafia,” one of the “fathers” of which was called Vladimir Kistion. And it was not only about manipulations with tariffs and millions of hryvnias that sank into the depths of the Vinnitsa sewer system.

For example, in 2008, the Vinnitsa Vodokanal did a good job of cheating with the land it owned: it took part of the territory (environmental protection zone) out of use, and then, through the city council and mayor Vladimir Groysman, distributed land for development. From that scam, Kistion himself received a very decent house “as a souvenir,” which stands out sharply against the background of the surrounding buildings.

But this was the most natural scam: the fact is that the plot under the house was allocated to Yuriy Pindyk, a simple driver of the Vinnitsa City Council. Pindik’s daughter, Lyudmila Lysyuk, received a plot nearby. And one could only be happy for the steering wheel worker, who spent his whole life driving the bosses’ asses, if not for one oddity. If her own house was built on the Lysyuk plot, then on the Pindika plot the house was built by Vladimir Kistion, registering it in the name of his son. At the same time, Pindik himself claims that he allegedly sold his plot – he just doesn’t remember when, to whom and for how much (it turns out that drivers not only have hemorrhoids, but also sclerosis!), although this plot is still listed as his in the registers and cadastres. This is how the best people of the “Vinnitsa team” skillfully pretend to live on one salary: their son’s house, and the plot under it is completely someone else’s. No prosecutor’s office will undermine!

By the way, speaking of construction, it is worth remembering that one of the most active developers of Vinnitsa was Alexander Dombrovsky: first when he was mayor of the city (2002-2005), and then as governor of the region (2005-2010). Construction was not always carried out by his companies, but Dombrovsky often had shares in others, sometimes reaching up to 50%. In return, he provided a full “service”, starting with the allocation of land and resolving any issues, and also provided various “discounts”. One of these “discounts” was the supply of water supply and sewerage without delays and additional “surcharges” – which was achieved by Dombrovsky’s call to the head of the water utility Kistion.

Same with Skelet.Info There is information that when he was the head of Vinnitsavodokanal, Vladimir Kistion helped Dombrovsky bankrupt and literally plunder the former chemical plant, destroy the once famous Vinnitsa shoe factory (the Sky Park shopping center was made from it), and also resolve some issues related to expansion in the region of the network of poultry farms “Nasha Ryaba”, in which Dombrovsky had (perhaps still has) his share.

And so, in 2008, while still the governor of the region, Dombrovsky appointed his protégé Kistion as his deputy (first acting, then acting), and since 2011, the first deputy mayor – who since 2006 has been Vladimir Groysman. It seems that the Groysman family had no objections to this, since in 2005, when he left for the governorship, Dombrovsky actually handed over his mayor’s chair to Groysman Jr., for which purpose serious intrigues and a real coup were staged in the city council. Such are the traditions of “Vinnytsia-style democracy” that raise great doubts about the possibility of fair presidential elections in 2019!

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

CONTINUED: Vladimir Kistion: secrets of the “Vinnitsa courtyard”. PART 2

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