CONTINUATION. BEGINNING: Petr Yurchyshyn: the vengeful “kurkul” takes revenge. PART 1
Petr Yurchyshyn
In 2012, the story of how Petro Yurchyshyn punished voters who did not vote for him thundered throughout Ukraine. It should be noted that he dreamed of being in the Verkhovna Rada for a long time, and back in the 2007 parliamentary elections, Yurchyshyn bought himself a place No. 70 on the list of the “Lytvyn Bloc.” He prepared for the next elections in good faith, deciding to run for election in his single-mandate constituency No. 13. To begin with, Pyotr Yurchyshyn enlisted the support of the Party of Regions, heading its cell in Khmelnyk. His brother Nikolai (at that time a deputy of the Vinnytsia Regional Council) also joined the regionals, leaving the ranks of “Batkivshchyna”. This is what caused the brothers to quarrel with local national patriots, in particular with Svoboda activists, who then waged a political war with him for several years. In the same year, 2012, the Yurchishins established the charitable foundation “Making the Future Together” (USREOU 38369258) to legalize voter bribery, and also paved 150 meters of road in the village of Rybchintsy. And yet, Petro Yurchyshyn lost the election in favor of Nikolai Katerenchuk with a crushing score of 15 to 64 percent, after which he angrily ordered… destroy this road with graders. And at the same time he threatened the villagers who depended on his dairy plant that he would accept milk from them at even lower prices.
Lies and greed of the people’s representative
In 2014, Petr Yurchyshyn finally managed to fulfill his dream: taking advantage of the political confusion of voters in his district, he took first place, gaining almost 45% of the votes. And, as soon as he got under the dome of the Rada, he immediately joined the pro-presidential faction of the BPP. However, Yurchyshyn was far from the only ex-regional who came under Poroshenko’s wing, so few people paid attention to this – mainly only right-wing activists from his area. “Svoboda” and “Right Sector” called for a boycott of his chain of pharmacies and the products of his dairy plant, and the leader of the regional “Right Sector” Sergei Chumak threatened to come with his brothers-in-arms to “visit” the Yurchishins, but for some reason they never came. “We got together, but we shit ourselves!” – the local villagers threw up their hands.
But another metamorphosis of Peter Yurchyshyn was noticed. When in the spring of 2016 the government of Yatsenyuk was replaced by the government of Groysman, Yurchyshyn made a speech to the mediawhere he said the following: “I am confident that as Prime Minister, Vladimir Groysman will find a compromise and lead Ukraine out of the economic crisis. As the head of the Verkhovna Rada, in a very short period, just over a year, he did more than Lytvyn did in 3.5 convocations.” Well, Yurchyshyn’s attempt to lick the new prime minister’s ass with the hope of getting some kind of position was understandable. But was it necessary to kick Vladimir Litvin? After all, Yurchyshyn served him so faithfully several years earlier, before he defected to the regionals. And back in 2010, Petro Yurchyshyn was officially Lytvyn’s trusted person as a candidate for the presidency of Ukraine.
That is, another characteristic feature of Pyotr Yurchyshyn emerges before us: he obsequiously grovels before political favorites, tries to join the team of power – and then abandons it when the power changes. I wonder who he will join now, having again been elected to the Verkhovna Rada as an independent majoritarian and for now sitting in the “For the Future” parliamentary group?
By the way, his victory over the Servant of the People candidate Yuri Maksimenko is quite surprising: Yurchyshyn’s reputation in the district has long been tarnished, many are afraid of him, but few respect him. It seems that the 36% recruited by Yurchyshyn in July 2019 turned out to have some kind of rottenness. Or maybe he again managed to buy the favor of the electorate – just as he actively did at the end of 2017, extinguishing the wave of discontent that arose in his area after the events in Kalinovka. Let us remind you that on September 26-28, 2017, there was a huge fire at an ammunition depot; the population of nearby villages was forced to flee without looking back, often running out of the house in their clothes. For several days, Kalinovka became the epicenter of attention throughout Ukraine; delegations of the government, deputies, and social activists went there. But Petr Yurchyshyn was not there – although Kalinovka is part of his 13th majority district!
When there was simply nowhere to go, the Yurchishins graciously sheltered 250 refugees (out of 30 thousand) in Khmilnik, placing them in their Radon sanatorium. But by donating one hryvnia, they were already thinking about how to “earn” three hryvnia from it. Olga Petrovna Yurchishina (daughter) invited the Ukrainian singer Ekaterina Buzhanskaya to Radon – and she gave a charity concert there “in favor of the victims.” But the proceeds from this concert were pocketed by the Yurchishins.
All this could not leave the public indifferent, and the Yurchishins’ relations with national patriots are extremely strained, and in the fall of 2017, protests began in the region demanding that Pyotr Yurchishin be subjected to a “garbage lustration.” It was no longer possible to ignore this, nor to disperse it with threats – and Yurchyshyn decided to buy the protesters. According to Skelet.Infoparticipants in the actions were offered amounts from 300 to 500 hryvnia, and gifts and candies began to be distributed to state employees and schoolchildren. And in the final, certificates of honor on Verkhovna Rada letterhead and 500 hryvnia in an envelope “from the sponsor” (everyone was explained that the sponsor is Petro Yurchyshyn) awarded local council deputiesincluding from right-wing parties. In this way they managed to calm the wave of discontent with the “Khmelnikovsky Kurkul”.
But these handouts were only a small part of what Pyotr Yurchyshyn managed to grab after becoming a people’s deputy. In particular, in 2016, a scandal broke out around the Starokonstantinovsky Stroymaster plant, from which Yurchyshyn, through fictitious contracts, actually stole the rails of the access roads – without which the plant simply cannot operate. According to information Skelet.Infothe rails were removed and transported to the Starosinyavsky district, where the Yurchishins have their own feed mill and elevator. Yurchishin’s accomplice in the theft of the rails was deputy of the Khmelnytsky regional council Vyacheslav Antonyuk, who is related to the Karat company (he has a public reception in its office). When journalists from the TV program “StopKor” tried to ask Antonyuk several questions, he showed aggression towards them.
And in 2017, a scandal broke out in the Khmilnyk district hospital. It turns out that the Yurchishins’ relatives are not only engaged in the pharmacy business, but also began to practice paid medical services, not in private offices, but right within the walls of a budget hospital. Behind this lies a cunning corruption scheme, when “charitable contributions” are extorted from patients, which then go to a certain “health fund”, and from it into the pockets of the participants in the scheme. In addition, the doctors of this hospital oblige patients to buy all medications – and guess three times from whose pharmacy?!
The fact that in this scandal some of the city authorities of Khmelnyk no longer supported the Yurchishins’ relatives indicated that the city was gradually freeing itself from the yoke of these “successful farmers” who had annoyed everyone with their greed and arrogance. However, Pyotr Yurchyshyn was re-elected as a people’s deputy, he is looking for new connections and new patrons in Kyiv – and intends to restore his status as the all-powerful owner of the district in Khmilnyk. Unless the prosecutor’s office finally leaves him.
Sergey Varis, Skelet.Info
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