It is sometimes interesting to read comments at the end of articles on Ukrainian websites, particularly those articles concerning the assassination of Yevhen Shcherban in November 1996. Ukrainian authorities are now trying to pin his killing onto Yulia Tymoshenko.
Below are things, often unsubstantiated, that commentators say. [Some of them even claim to have been familiar to the business machinations of that period].
Tymoshenko's company had been given permission to sell a huge quantity of gas in the Ukrainian market. Approval must have been granted at the very highest level in Ukraine and Russia. At the time she was a successful businesswoman but had little involvement in politics, so she did not control these processes.
Every smart businessman knew that selling gas on credit to big, cash-strapped industrial plants in Eastern Ukraine would become a mechanism for amassing great wealth during a period of widespread privatisation. After more that a decade and a half, many records of business transactions from that period are no longer available, so many details of what went on are unclear.
In June 22 1996, six months before his assassination at Donetsk airport, Yevhen Shcherban, according to one report, allegedly survived a car bomb in Debaltseve, a highly criminalised town about 40 miles east of Donetsk. He was most aware his life was at risk - prominent businessmen/gangsters were being killed almost every month.
After this Shcherban apparently left Ukraine for several months and had allegedly attended the Atlanta Olympic games in July/August 1996 with Volodymyr Shcherban. The day before his killing that November he had attended the silver jubilee party of legendary crooner Yosyp Kobzon in Moscow.
There he also met US citizen Paul Tatum, who Shcherban had helped financially during the former's litigation at the Stockholm Court of Arbitration.
Tatum and Shcherban had known one another since 1992. The 'Aton' company where Shcherban had been deputy director, received a $50 million credit line guaranteed by the Government of Ukraine. This money was never returned, and the debt eventually settled by GoU. 'Aton's CEO, Markulov disappeared, and Shcherban took over running the outfit.
Tatum was killed in Moscow a few hours after Shcherban flew back to Donetsk in a private jet, to be shot with his wife as they disembarked from the plane. Their killers were dressed as airport security staff and escaped practically unhindered after the crime took place.
Shcherban's sons claim law enforcement officers turned up, astonishingly, only after a huge one hour delay; and where more interested in getting their hands on their father's briefcase, rather than apprehending the killers.
Only a well-funded, professional network could have tracked Shcherban for the period he was out of the country, and organise such a high-profile, spectacular and brazen assassination.
This all suggests the likely involvement of 'Volodymyrska' [SBU headquarters is at no 33, Volodymyrska Street]. Russian FSB involvement is also frequently mentioned.
Showing posts with label Yevhen Shcherban. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yevhen Shcherban. Show all posts
Monday, May 06, 2013
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
Yevhen Shcherban's sons hint bent cops were involved in their father's murder
Forbes.ua have posted an interview with the sons of Yevhen Shcherban, who was murdered with his wife in 1996. Shcherban may have been the richest man in Ukraine at the time of his death. Yulia Tymoshenko is being linked to these murders.
Below are portions of the sons' responses:
"Everything [all the business interests] that has been created by my father, collapsed in just over 8 months [after his death]... I was at the airport with my father when he was shot. Police arrived at the scene of a murder only after an hour, whereas [his] office was surrounded and documents seized faster. [What a] paradoxical situation. It was obvious that a well thought out and organized plan had been implemented. We are trying to sort out who and what sort of people had anything to do with this."
Also,
"State organs were very closely involved in this [threatening us]. A seizure of documents took place - which was very peculiar. At the airport, after the murder, over the body of my father, the first question I was asked was: "Where's the briefcase with the documents." The group of investigators who turned up included the heads of oblast departments of the Security Service, the Interior Ministry, the organised crime fighting agency, and head of the transport prosecutor's office. But they were primarily interested in our father's documents, rather than the details of the murder."
Ruslan admits that the recent fatal hunting accident, [where, its seems one of his friends fired his rifle, the bullet ricochetting from a tree to kill another friend], actually did take place. But he denies that he was blackmailed to issue any statement linking Tymoshenko and Lazarenko for the murder of their father.
The sons just say they are not accusing anyone of their father's murder, but only declared at the press conference a month after the hunting accident they had merely requested law enforcement agencies to check out any possible involvement of Lazarenko and Tymoshenko in the murder of their parents.
They say they have 'no beef' with one of their late father's associates, Rinat Akhmetov.
The sons say they only managed to retain 5% of their late father's assets. They say that they know a lot more that they are prepared to reveal at the moment...
They give no hint that Tymoshenko may have benefitted financially from the 'carve-up' of their father's assets.
[The actions of Ukrainian law enforcement officers is far from unique. E.g . in the case of Hermitage Capital Management, corrupt Russian law enforcement officers allegedly stole corporate registration documents and company seals of various holding companies. They then defrauded the Russian state of hundreds of millions of dollars tax paid by those companies. Pre-dated documents offering "proof" of transfer of ownership, or changes in ownership, or pre-dated 'IOU's, for presentation before a shady court, can easily be created.]
But Shcherban's sons give little hint who was behind all of this dirty business...I guess they are using every trick to take advantage of the situation and try and recover as much of their late father's assets as possible...if anyone gets hurt or suffers an injustice, so what?
Hard to believe that after a shooting at an international airport it took police one hour to arrive, no?
p.s. Important statement by European People's Party on Tymoshenko ruling here
Below are portions of the sons' responses:
"Everything [all the business interests] that has been created by my father, collapsed in just over 8 months [after his death]... I was at the airport with my father when he was shot. Police arrived at the scene of a murder only after an hour, whereas [his] office was surrounded and documents seized faster. [What a] paradoxical situation. It was obvious that a well thought out and organized plan had been implemented. We are trying to sort out who and what sort of people had anything to do with this."
Also,
"State organs were very closely involved in this [threatening us]. A seizure of documents took place - which was very peculiar. At the airport, after the murder, over the body of my father, the first question I was asked was: "Where's the briefcase with the documents." The group of investigators who turned up included the heads of oblast departments of the Security Service, the Interior Ministry, the organised crime fighting agency, and head of the transport prosecutor's office. But they were primarily interested in our father's documents, rather than the details of the murder."
Ruslan admits that the recent fatal hunting accident, [where, its seems one of his friends fired his rifle, the bullet ricochetting from a tree to kill another friend], actually did take place. But he denies that he was blackmailed to issue any statement linking Tymoshenko and Lazarenko for the murder of their father.
The sons just say they are not accusing anyone of their father's murder, but only declared at the press conference a month after the hunting accident they had merely requested law enforcement agencies to check out any possible involvement of Lazarenko and Tymoshenko in the murder of their parents.
They say they have 'no beef' with one of their late father's associates, Rinat Akhmetov.
The sons say they only managed to retain 5% of their late father's assets. They say that they know a lot more that they are prepared to reveal at the moment...
They give no hint that Tymoshenko may have benefitted financially from the 'carve-up' of their father's assets.
[The actions of Ukrainian law enforcement officers is far from unique. E.g . in the case of Hermitage Capital Management, corrupt Russian law enforcement officers allegedly stole corporate registration documents and company seals of various holding companies. They then defrauded the Russian state of hundreds of millions of dollars tax paid by those companies. Pre-dated documents offering "proof" of transfer of ownership, or changes in ownership, or pre-dated 'IOU's, for presentation before a shady court, can easily be created.]
But Shcherban's sons give little hint who was behind all of this dirty business...I guess they are using every trick to take advantage of the situation and try and recover as much of their late father's assets as possible...if anyone gets hurt or suffers an injustice, so what?
Hard to believe that after a shooting at an international airport it took police one hour to arrive, no?
p.s. Important statement by European People's Party on Tymoshenko ruling here
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Kuchma and Lazarenko 'did in' Shcherban?
Forbes.ua run the second part of an interview with one of the late Yevhen Shcherban's closest business associates from the early nineties, Yuriy Dedukh.
He accuses president Kuchma and Pavlo Lazarenko of commissioning the assassination of Yevhen Shcherban..but says Shcherban he 'had no beef' with Tymoshenko..
He claims Volodymyr Shcherban, who recently testified in pre-trial hearings in the case, was 'in on the hit' and even 'phoned people in the USA to inform them about plans to 'do in' Yevhen Shcherban.
Volodymyr Shcherban left Ukraine after the killing, only to return after two years....and be appointed regional governor of Sumy oblast.
Didukh says: "Volodya Shcherban 'sold' Zhenya [Shcherban]." [the appointment as governor being the reward for this..]
According to Dedukh, 'Special forces' did the dirty deed...Yevhen Kushnir, another Donetsk businessman/gangster was framed for the Shcherban killing and for many others. [It is unlikely a profession hitman would ever arrange such a spectacular killing as that which took place at Donetsk airport in November 1996 - a high-security, hig risk environment.]
Dedukh claims the murder of Paul Tatum, a US citizen which took place in Moscow on the same day as Shcherban's killing, was coincidental - they were not linked. [Hmmm..]
Some of Dedukh's answers are clearly evasive - he does not give any hint who may have tried to kill him [and Shcherban's son] a year after his father's Shcherban's killing..But he does say that criminal investigators tipped him off that it may have been Rinat Akhmetov, but then when he later met Akhmetov personally, Akhmetov complained that these same criminal investigators told him Dedukh had fingered Akhmetov for the assassination attempt, in other words criminal investigators were trying to artificially set up a serious conflict between them.
People such as Dedukh do not give up such information out of altruism. It is quite possible that some very rich people are embarrassed by the raking over of the Shcherban murder....and narratives such as Dedukh's perhaps help the mud to stick elsewhere.. but a lot of unanswered questions still remain..
And the case against Tymoshenko is looking ever weaker, strengthening the view that she is the victim of 'selective use of justice'.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Money paid to Shcherban's killer came from bank owned by PoRs member?
The 'Ukrainska Pravda' interview with Hennadiy Moskal, which I mentioned in my previous blog has been mentioned by the 'Ostrov.org' site.
Here is a precis of what they pick out of the interview:
One of the pieces of 'hard evidence' which, according to prosecutor's, connect Tymoshenko to the murder of Yevhen Scherban, are bank statements that supposedly prove his killers had received money from the bank accounts of ex-premier Pavlo Lazarenko and Yulia Tymoshenko.
Gennady Moskal, a former police general, says that according to his informers the payment statements revealed so far are incomplete and do not show the entire chain of cash transfers.
According to Moskal, there are documents that some investigators took awat with them when they left their employment. These documents show a very different picture.
"The monies were paid out from the internal income of one of Ukraine's commercial structures ... I do not want to reveal the bank the initial payment was transferred from..and the money then went further.. then further," - said the deputy.
When asked which this bank it was, Mr. Moskal said evasively: "A Ukrainian bank." He noted that the bank belongs to: "The one who today is in the Party of Regions."
OK, the authorities will claim this is disorientation...but one thing is for sure. Bank statements are retained and do exist. There were very big amounts of cash being transferred all over the place...some by large corporations and institutions.
There are paper trails...company accounts out there. Hundreds of investigators worked on solving the failed assassination attempt on Pavlo Lazarenko and the killing of Yevhen Shcherban immediately after these events took place. Moskal says the country's security services are now 'very leaky'..More information will certainly enter the public domain soon and the Shcherban murder case will be even less credible that it is now.
p.s. a former close business partner of Yevhen Shcherban's, Vladimir Karatun, says, in a Forbes.ua interview, that "IUD was created to work in conjunction with UESU"
He says IUD could not, on their own, supply gas to the Donetsk oblast.
"..an agreement was reached according to which IUD and UESU would supply gas to all industrial enterprises engaged in the Donetsk region"
He also states the murdered Shcherban knew Ahat Bragin well, and he had a "close, tight, good relationship" with Rinat Akhmetov.
Strange then that Akhmetov invited Tymoshenko and even warmly greeting her, when the Donbas Arena football stadium was opened a few years ago. Would he have done this had he suspected her of ordering the killing of his close business associate, Yevhen Shcherban?
Here is a precis of what they pick out of the interview:
One of the pieces of 'hard evidence' which, according to prosecutor's, connect Tymoshenko to the murder of Yevhen Scherban, are bank statements that supposedly prove his killers had received money from the bank accounts of ex-premier Pavlo Lazarenko and Yulia Tymoshenko.
Gennady Moskal, a former police general, says that according to his informers the payment statements revealed so far are incomplete and do not show the entire chain of cash transfers.
According to Moskal, there are documents that some investigators took awat with them when they left their employment. These documents show a very different picture.
"The monies were paid out from the internal income of one of Ukraine's commercial structures ... I do not want to reveal the bank the initial payment was transferred from..and the money then went further.. then further," - said the deputy.
When asked which this bank it was, Mr. Moskal said evasively: "A Ukrainian bank." He noted that the bank belongs to: "The one who today is in the Party of Regions."
OK, the authorities will claim this is disorientation...but one thing is for sure. Bank statements are retained and do exist. There were very big amounts of cash being transferred all over the place...some by large corporations and institutions.
There are paper trails...company accounts out there. Hundreds of investigators worked on solving the failed assassination attempt on Pavlo Lazarenko and the killing of Yevhen Shcherban immediately after these events took place. Moskal says the country's security services are now 'very leaky'..More information will certainly enter the public domain soon and the Shcherban murder case will be even less credible that it is now.
p.s. a former close business partner of Yevhen Shcherban's, Vladimir Karatun, says, in a Forbes.ua interview, that "IUD was created to work in conjunction with UESU"
He says IUD could not, on their own, supply gas to the Donetsk oblast.
"..an agreement was reached according to which IUD and UESU would supply gas to all industrial enterprises engaged in the Donetsk region"
He also states the murdered Shcherban knew Ahat Bragin well, and he had a "close, tight, good relationship" with Rinat Akhmetov.
Strange then that Akhmetov invited Tymoshenko and even warmly greeting her, when the Donbas Arena football stadium was opened a few years ago. Would he have done this had he suspected her of ordering the killing of his close business associate, Yevhen Shcherban?
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Witnesses in Yevhen Shcherban pre-trial hearings may have been involved in his murder?
One of my favourite characters in Ukrainian politics is a high-profile opposition politician with unrivalled experience in the country's crime-fighting agencies, Hennadiy Moskal. This straight-talking man is respected and perhaps feared, because knows 'everything about everyone'...
He recently gave an extensive and revealing interview to 'Ukrainska Pravda'.
His comments to the killing of Yevhen Shcherban in November 1996 are worthy of serious consideration.
He gives short shrift to the first two witnesses who gave evidence in the pre-trial hearings into this sensational murder case . As I've posted previously, the first witness, Maryinkov had close business interests with highly placed criminal investigators - he was also the 'armourer' for a criminal gang. His so-called evidence cannot be treated seriously.
The second, Zaitsev, is similarly unreliable - he had a host of criminal cases hanging over his head.
Prosecutors are trying to lump Lazarenko and Tymoshenko 'into one whole'. Moskal rightly explains she was a just a smart businesswoman, whilst he was a powerful regional politician and a highly placed state official - PM, no less. There was a total mismatch in terms of the power each could wield.
These two witnesses Maryinkov and Zaitsev claim they were ordered to remain silent by previous prosecutor-generals about Tymoshenko's now-alleged involvement in the Yevhen Shcherban murder - hence for over a decade and a half her name never figured in any investigation - until now.
If this is true then surely these prosecutors from the mid nineties and early noughties should be brought to account for allegedly suppressing evidence and interfering with the investigation into one of the highest profile murders in the country's history, says Moskal.
Tymoshenko was a hostile opposition leader for many years prior to the Orange Revolution...if there was a case against her, this would have been the time when it would have surfaced.
Moskal also claims that from his sources, the third witness at the pre-trial hearing, Volodymyr Shcherban, governor of Donetsk oblast at the time when Yehven Scherban was murdered, was the prime suspect in the attempted assassination of Pavlo Lazarenko in July 1996. Lazarenko had been appointed PM by president Kuchma just a few weeks prior to this.
Lazarenko was being driven to Kyiv's airport on his way to Donetsk when his car was blown up. He survived and flew to the city later that day, his clothes allegedly still covered in blood...
Moskal claims that once Lazarenko was out of favour Kuchma 'pulled the plug' on the massive investigation on the attempt on Lazarenko's life.
In his evidence, witness Volodymyr Shcherban revealed that a few days before Yevhen Scherban's death, he and his namesake met up. Yevhen told Volydymyr that someone was trying to kill him. As regional governor, Volodymyr would have had immediate access to the head of police, security services, prosecutors...even a hot-line to the president himself. But what did Volodymyr say to the victim - the most important businessman in Ukraine at that time? He said: "Why don't you just fly to America, until all this blows over..." perhaps even knowing that Yevhen would do no such thing. Why did the regional governor not tighten security around Yevhen Shcherban, or at least order a watchful eye to be placed over him?
As I have stated many times, after his death Yevhen Shcherban's assets were very quickly 'divvied up' between his so-called friends and business associates. In the case of Volodymyr Shcherban in a matter of days....
p.s. Moskal's official website here
[More to follow on this interview later]
He recently gave an extensive and revealing interview to 'Ukrainska Pravda'.
His comments to the killing of Yevhen Shcherban in November 1996 are worthy of serious consideration.
He gives short shrift to the first two witnesses who gave evidence in the pre-trial hearings into this sensational murder case . As I've posted previously, the first witness, Maryinkov had close business interests with highly placed criminal investigators - he was also the 'armourer' for a criminal gang. His so-called evidence cannot be treated seriously.
The second, Zaitsev, is similarly unreliable - he had a host of criminal cases hanging over his head.
Prosecutors are trying to lump Lazarenko and Tymoshenko 'into one whole'. Moskal rightly explains she was a just a smart businesswoman, whilst he was a powerful regional politician and a highly placed state official - PM, no less. There was a total mismatch in terms of the power each could wield.
These two witnesses Maryinkov and Zaitsev claim they were ordered to remain silent by previous prosecutor-generals about Tymoshenko's now-alleged involvement in the Yevhen Shcherban murder - hence for over a decade and a half her name never figured in any investigation - until now.
If this is true then surely these prosecutors from the mid nineties and early noughties should be brought to account for allegedly suppressing evidence and interfering with the investigation into one of the highest profile murders in the country's history, says Moskal.
Tymoshenko was a hostile opposition leader for many years prior to the Orange Revolution...if there was a case against her, this would have been the time when it would have surfaced.
Moskal also claims that from his sources, the third witness at the pre-trial hearing, Volodymyr Shcherban, governor of Donetsk oblast at the time when Yehven Scherban was murdered, was the prime suspect in the attempted assassination of Pavlo Lazarenko in July 1996. Lazarenko had been appointed PM by president Kuchma just a few weeks prior to this.
Lazarenko was being driven to Kyiv's airport on his way to Donetsk when his car was blown up. He survived and flew to the city later that day, his clothes allegedly still covered in blood...
Moskal claims that once Lazarenko was out of favour Kuchma 'pulled the plug' on the massive investigation on the attempt on Lazarenko's life.
In his evidence, witness Volodymyr Shcherban revealed that a few days before Yevhen Scherban's death, he and his namesake met up. Yevhen told Volydymyr that someone was trying to kill him. As regional governor, Volodymyr would have had immediate access to the head of police, security services, prosecutors...even a hot-line to the president himself. But what did Volodymyr say to the victim - the most important businessman in Ukraine at that time? He said: "Why don't you just fly to America, until all this blows over..." perhaps even knowing that Yevhen would do no such thing. Why did the regional governor not tighten security around Yevhen Shcherban, or at least order a watchful eye to be placed over him?
As I have stated many times, after his death Yevhen Shcherban's assets were very quickly 'divvied up' between his so-called friends and business associates. In the case of Volodymyr Shcherban in a matter of days....
p.s. Moskal's official website here
[More to follow on this interview later]
Thursday, March 21, 2013
PoR deputies as cynical as ever [updated]
The cynicism of PoR parliamentary deputies is breathtaking.
After many weeks of struggle by the opposition, kicking and screaming PoR deputies finally agreed to stop the 20 year-old anti-constitutional practice of multiple voting in the parliamentary plenum chamber.
But as soon as they get back what do they do? They carry on doing it. In one of many instances recorded, yesterday Tetyana Bakhtyeyeva voted for former minister for infrastructure, the minister responsible for Euro 2012, thuggish Boris Kolesnikov.
True to form, when opposition MPs assistants challenged Kolesnikov about this he tried to assault one of them, grabbing one of them by his jacket lapels.
Other Regionals whose cards "voted" without their holders being present included Serhiy Kivalov, and Pavlo Lebedev.
The former is head of the parliamentary committee on judiciary matters, no less. He also holds a whole host a high positions connected with legal affairs.
The latter is the current minister of defence.
Yulia Tymoshenko's legal councillor, Serhiy Vlasenko was unceremoniously kicked out of parliament a few days ago for allegedly having one a** on two chairs, which even provoked an extraordinary debate in the European Parliament. This despite Vlasenko's claims that he had informed appropriate authorities he no longer worked in the legal profession.
When Lebedev "votes" in parliament and at the same time unconstitutionally holds a position in the cabinet of ministers this does not seem to count. Selective use of justice or what?
In Ukraine the law exists only to crush the ruling party's enemies.
I imagine most European leaders when they watch such antics are thinking: "How can we disentangle ourselves from these habitual petty thieves, cheapskate swindlers and liars with minimum loss of face?
p.s. Forbes.ua run the first part of an interesting interview with Yuriy Didukh - a business partner of Yevhen Shcherban's, who was of course, murdered at Donetsk airport in November 1996. Yulia Tymoshenko will probably be tried for this crime at some point in the future.
Dedukh [or Didukh] has featured in F.N. in previous blogs
In the Forbes interview Dedukh claims the swath of killings of Donetsk businessmen commenced just after Leonid Kuchma became president in 1994. He claims it was president Kuchma [and Pavlo Lazarenko] and special forces under his control who were responsible for them, and it was they who organized the murder of his business partner Yevhen Shcherban.
Akhat Bragin's murder was part of this 'zachystka'.
Maybe more on this later from your blogger when another portion of the interview is published.....
No explanation so far for the attempt on Pavlo Lazarenko's life shortly after he became PM though...or why Kuchma did not finish off the job in Donetsk but rather promoted Yanukovych?...And there certainly were many high-profile killing before 1994 too of course.
The relationship between organised crime and law enforcement agencies was considered to be symbiotic in the early and mid nineties in the Donbas region, so special forces may well have been involved in many of the high profile killings. Virtually no perpetrators were ever caught or charged.
Before entering politics Kuchma had been design engineer at the high-tech Yuzhmash, building space rockets. He later held the position of the company's general director - hardly a criminal background. Contrast this with the murky past and 'black holes' in the biographies of the Shcherban's, Bragin's and Yanukovych's of this world.
And, ultimately. who eventually benefited from these killings when everything settled down?
"The Truth is a precious thing and must be protected by a bodyguard of lies" -- Sir Winston Churchill
p.p.s. Regionals are still cheating in parliament - playing musical chairs - voting for their colleagues. If they were children they would have their wrists slapped - as grown ups the deserve a hefty kick up the a**. What a disgrace...
Monday, March 18, 2013
Cui bono?
The influential 'Frankfurter Allgemeine' have run a story - 'Yulia Tymoshenko - the dark side of power' on the background to the Shcherban murder trial.
Their [google-translated] conclusion which I've tidied up:
"Political" dividend went to Yanukovych
In contrast, after Schtscherban's death the biggest part of his business, "went to representatives of the current government."
So Rinat Akhmetov, the head of the football club Shakhtar Donetsk, and now the richest man by far in Ukraine could only make his ascent in Donbas after the end of Schtscherban.
His former political agent, the current President Yanukovych, could only in 1997 become governor [of Donbas], after Schtscherban was no longer alive. Thus, according to Tymoshenko's defender, the "economic dividend" of the bloody deed, after 1996, went to Akhmetov and the "political dividend" went to Yanukovych.
Later, when this duo had consolidated power in the Donbas, several accomplices to the murder died under unclear circumstances - one of them in a prison in Donetsk.
Serhiy Vlasenko [Tymoshenko's lawyer] points out that at that time not only was Yanukovych governor there, but the current chief prosecutor in the case, the prosecutor general, Viktor Pschonka and his deputy Renat Kuzmin had key positions in Donetsk judiciary.
p.s. Even president Yanukovych's top legal advisor on judicial reform, Andriy Portnov, perhaps out of sheer embarrassment, says the evidence presented so far in pre-trial hearings, all of which is based on hearsay from the mouths of the long-departed, is worthless.
The case is turning out to be a big 'own goal' [maybe not an inappropriate metaphor] for Yanukovych, his cronies, and the entire Ukrainian system of law enforcement. And this is before the European Court of Human Rights pass their judgement on the previous trials of Tymoshenko and Lutsenko...
p.p.s. Nice photo taken, I believe, during the opening of the Shakhtar Donetsk stadium - from an article entitled: 'Innocent victim of the regime..'
Their [google-translated] conclusion which I've tidied up:
"Political" dividend went to Yanukovych
In contrast, after Schtscherban's death the biggest part of his business, "went to representatives of the current government."
So Rinat Akhmetov, the head of the football club Shakhtar Donetsk, and now the richest man by far in Ukraine could only make his ascent in Donbas after the end of Schtscherban.
His former political agent, the current President Yanukovych, could only in 1997 become governor [of Donbas], after Schtscherban was no longer alive. Thus, according to Tymoshenko's defender, the "economic dividend" of the bloody deed, after 1996, went to Akhmetov and the "political dividend" went to Yanukovych.
Later, when this duo had consolidated power in the Donbas, several accomplices to the murder died under unclear circumstances - one of them in a prison in Donetsk.
Serhiy Vlasenko [Tymoshenko's lawyer] points out that at that time not only was Yanukovych governor there, but the current chief prosecutor in the case, the prosecutor general, Viktor Pschonka and his deputy Renat Kuzmin had key positions in Donetsk judiciary.
p.s. Even president Yanukovych's top legal advisor on judicial reform, Andriy Portnov, perhaps out of sheer embarrassment, says the evidence presented so far in pre-trial hearings, all of which is based on hearsay from the mouths of the long-departed, is worthless.
The case is turning out to be a big 'own goal' [maybe not an inappropriate metaphor] for Yanukovych, his cronies, and the entire Ukrainian system of law enforcement. And this is before the European Court of Human Rights pass their judgement on the previous trials of Tymoshenko and Lutsenko...
p.p.s. Nice photo taken, I believe, during the opening of the Shakhtar Donetsk stadium - from an article entitled: 'Innocent victim of the regime..'
Saturday, March 09, 2013
Donetski grabbed Shcherban's assets just a fast as they could
In my previous blog quoting information provided by Tetyana Chornovol, I wrote how Volodymyr Shcherban and Yevhen Shcherban had been close business associates. But a couple of months or so before Yevhen's assassination in November 1996, they fell out because Yevhen had switched his support in the upcoming presidential elections from Volodymyr... to Yevhen Marchuk.
Two days after Yevhen Shcherban and his wife's assassination at Donetsk airport, Voldymyr Shcherban's son quite disgracefully withdrew over $2 million from a US business account of a company run by Yevhen's wife Nadia Nikitin - money to which the Shcherban's two orphaned boys may well have had good claim to.
This callous action was an indicator of what was to come.
Eventually the two boys were taken under the wing of another business partner of the late Shcherban's, one Yuriy Dedukh [or Didukh].
Meanwhile the vast portion of their late father's assets, [who was probably the richest man in Ukraine at that time], were being divided up with unseemly haste between his so-called friends and partners in Donbas with little thought of making sure the late Yevhen's inheritors received their rightful share.
Dedukh's name had earlier been linked by law enforcement agencies with the activites of and Estonian firm 'Kolser' through which Yevhen Shcherban laundered money.
Dedukh allegedly had close ties with the first founder of "Shcherban's Aton", Igor Markulov and with a US citizen Paul Tetum who helped Markulov and Shcherban to secure a $50 million loan guaranteed by the Ukrainian government for "Aton". Tatum was with Shcherban in Moscow for pop singer Yosyp Kobzon's birthday party, where they had a very agreeable meeting. Just after this both were shot dead - Shcherban was killed in the Donetsk airport, and Tatum in Moscow - both on the same day.
Dedukh and Yevhen Shcherban's son, Yevhen Jr. eventually came back to Donetsk, probably to salvage what they could of the remains of the late Yevhen Shcherban's assests; but on 22nd September 1997 the vehicle in which they were travelling was shot up, and a bodyguard killed.
A highly placed police general announced in a newspaper article: "Had Dedukh not appeared there would not have been even one similar shooting in the oblast. You judge, in 1994 there were over 20 such shootings; this year, just three. More such ordered hits will not take place this year: Dedukh has gone from Donbas." What starker warning could there be: Don't come back, or else....
The police general was correct in one matter. By this time the cycle of killings that wreaked havoc in the region through the middle of the decade had ended. The governor was now Viktor Yanukovych, and Rinat Akhmetov was undisputed 'king of Donbas'. Lazarenko was in political opposition and Tymoshenko in parliament developing a political career.
In a 'Dzerkalo Tyzhnya interview' days after the assassination attempt on Dedukh and Yevhen Jr. the latter was asked: Who of the current politicians in the Donetsk oblast, ex-governor Volodymyr Shcherban, mayor of Donetsk [current VR speaker Volodymyr Rybak] or today's governor [Yanukovych] supported you in those days [following the death of your father]?
He replies: "Nobody..Basically it was [just] dad's business friends."
The logical conclusion is: those who carved up Yevhen Shcherban's assets did so ruthlessly, greedily and just as fast as they could, and to hell with his remaining family.
In the same interview Yevhen Jr. was asked: 'There is an opinion that your father prevented the penetration of structures from Dnipropetrovsk into the Donetsk territory. Could you confirm this?"
He replies: "I don't think that there was any obstacle to structures from Dnipropetrovsk. On the contrary, it was a case of uniting efforts.."
He confirmed the view that by the time of his death, Yevhen Shcherban and Lazarenko and Tymoshenko had a good working relationship. Certainly no motive for killing his father Yevhen...
p.s. A final thought. Who would attempt a spectacular assassination attempt inside a heavily guarded, high security environment, such as an airport?
The story above does in no way prove 'Donetski' were responsible for Yevhen Shcherban's killing - but it gives an insight into the rapacious and lawless business culture that existed, particularly in that region. It seems that it was they who benefited most from the 'carve-up' of Shcherban's vast wealth...
'Donetski', the same individuals, now dominate contemporary Ukrainian politics, law enforcement agencies and judiciary...
The current Shcherban murder trial is a banal attempt to cleanse the past and at the same time destroy president Yanukovych's deadliest foe.
Two days after Yevhen Shcherban and his wife's assassination at Donetsk airport, Voldymyr Shcherban's son quite disgracefully withdrew over $2 million from a US business account of a company run by Yevhen's wife Nadia Nikitin - money to which the Shcherban's two orphaned boys may well have had good claim to.
This callous action was an indicator of what was to come.
Eventually the two boys were taken under the wing of another business partner of the late Shcherban's, one Yuriy Dedukh [or Didukh].
Meanwhile the vast portion of their late father's assets, [who was probably the richest man in Ukraine at that time], were being divided up with unseemly haste between his so-called friends and partners in Donbas with little thought of making sure the late Yevhen's inheritors received their rightful share.
Dedukh's name had earlier been linked by law enforcement agencies with the activites of and Estonian firm 'Kolser' through which Yevhen Shcherban laundered money.
Dedukh allegedly had close ties with the first founder of "Shcherban's Aton", Igor Markulov and with a US citizen Paul Tetum who helped Markulov and Shcherban to secure a $50 million loan guaranteed by the Ukrainian government for "Aton". Tatum was with Shcherban in Moscow for pop singer Yosyp Kobzon's birthday party, where they had a very agreeable meeting. Just after this both were shot dead - Shcherban was killed in the Donetsk airport, and Tatum in Moscow - both on the same day.
Dedukh and Yevhen Shcherban's son, Yevhen Jr. eventually came back to Donetsk, probably to salvage what they could of the remains of the late Yevhen Shcherban's assests; but on 22nd September 1997 the vehicle in which they were travelling was shot up, and a bodyguard killed.
A highly placed police general announced in a newspaper article: "Had Dedukh not appeared there would not have been even one similar shooting in the oblast. You judge, in 1994 there were over 20 such shootings; this year, just three. More such ordered hits will not take place this year: Dedukh has gone from Donbas." What starker warning could there be: Don't come back, or else....
The police general was correct in one matter. By this time the cycle of killings that wreaked havoc in the region through the middle of the decade had ended. The governor was now Viktor Yanukovych, and Rinat Akhmetov was undisputed 'king of Donbas'. Lazarenko was in political opposition and Tymoshenko in parliament developing a political career.
In a 'Dzerkalo Tyzhnya interview' days after the assassination attempt on Dedukh and Yevhen Jr. the latter was asked: Who of the current politicians in the Donetsk oblast, ex-governor Volodymyr Shcherban, mayor of Donetsk [current VR speaker Volodymyr Rybak] or today's governor [Yanukovych] supported you in those days [following the death of your father]?
He replies: "Nobody..Basically it was [just] dad's business friends."
The logical conclusion is: those who carved up Yevhen Shcherban's assets did so ruthlessly, greedily and just as fast as they could, and to hell with his remaining family.
In the same interview Yevhen Jr. was asked: 'There is an opinion that your father prevented the penetration of structures from Dnipropetrovsk into the Donetsk territory. Could you confirm this?"
He replies: "I don't think that there was any obstacle to structures from Dnipropetrovsk. On the contrary, it was a case of uniting efforts.."
He confirmed the view that by the time of his death, Yevhen Shcherban and Lazarenko and Tymoshenko had a good working relationship. Certainly no motive for killing his father Yevhen...
p.s. A final thought. Who would attempt a spectacular assassination attempt inside a heavily guarded, high security environment, such as an airport?
The story above does in no way prove 'Donetski' were responsible for Yevhen Shcherban's killing - but it gives an insight into the rapacious and lawless business culture that existed, particularly in that region. It seems that it was they who benefited most from the 'carve-up' of Shcherban's vast wealth...
'Donetski', the same individuals, now dominate contemporary Ukrainian politics, law enforcement agencies and judiciary...
The current Shcherban murder trial is a banal attempt to cleanse the past and at the same time destroy president Yanukovych's deadliest foe.
More evidence on Shcherban murder
An new witness, Olelksandra Kuzel, appeared on Thursday in the Yevhen murder pretrial hearing.
Prosecutors allege his killing at Donetsk airport on 3 November 1996 was commissioned by former PM's Tymoshenko and Lazarenko.
Shcherban's wife was also shot dead during the assassination of her husband
Kuzel provides more evidence of the absurdity of the case.
On the eve of the vote in Parliament to appoint Lazarenko PM, held on 28 May 1996, Scherban urged members of his parliamentary faction, "Social Market Choice" to support the candidacy of Lazarenko. "Our faction voted in full for Lazarenko. Without Shcherban's command our faction would not have done this because so many were against it."
As I have mentioned many times in my previous blogs, Lazarenko, and Tymoshenko, by the start of that year were on good terms with Yevhen Shcherban. By the end of 1995 gas supply contracts had been signed. In January 1996 Shcherban had invited Tymoshenko and her husband to his grand birthday party.
The death of Shcherban provided no benefit to Tymoshenko's UESU. Quite the opposite, the company lost the one person who represented their interests in the Donbas who had the power to fend off criminal attacks on their mutual gas business.
In a tv interview, Kuzhel also points the finger at one man who may have benefited from the death of Shcherban - her predecessor witness at the pre-trial hearings - Volodymyr Shcherban.
Volodymyr and Yevhen had been close business partners. Yevhen, possibly the richest many in Ukraine at that time, had intended to support Volodymyr's candidature in the 1998 presidential elections, but later switched in favour of former PM Yevhen Marchuk, making him leader of his party, much to Volodymyr's displeasure.
Two days after Yevhen and his wife's killing, Volodymyr's son Artem took over $2 million out of a US business account of a company run by Yevhen's wife Nadia Nikitin. He could not wait to even sit down with the Shcherban's two orphaned boys, Rusland and Yevhen Jr. to decide how their parents assets were to be divided up.
Kuzhel recalls how Volodymyr Shcherban proposed to formalize the custody of Yevhen Shcherban's children, but they refused his offer. Eventually a business partner of the late Shcherban's, Yuriy Dedukh, was appointed their guardian. A few months after this, in September 1997, Dedukh and the elder Shcherban son, Ruslan survived and assassination attempt in which a bodyguard was killed.
Luckily, with the help of an old friend of their father's, legendary singer Yosef Kobzon, the orphaned children did manage to hold on to a small fraction of their late parents' assets.
Kuzel also believes that the death of Shcherban provided big political dividends to Viktor Medvedchuk (then leader of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united)).
"After the murder of Yevhen Shcherban, his political fraction 'Social Market Choice' disintegrated. Before this it had been a very powerful group, as was [Shcherban's] Liberal Party. After some time, Medvedchuk's positions began strengthening and Yevhen Marchuk, who previously served in our party, went over to them," said Kuzhel.
Tetyana Chornovil, in her latest blog, gives much information on Volodymyr Shcherban and his involvement with namesake Yevhen, and how the latter's children were all but abandoned by their father's most powerful associates, including by the-then oblast governor, Viktor Yanukovych, and by current parliamentary speaker, and the-then mayor of Donetsk Volodymyr Rybak. [Maybe more on this later..]
Prosecutors allege his killing at Donetsk airport on 3 November 1996 was commissioned by former PM's Tymoshenko and Lazarenko.
Shcherban's wife was also shot dead during the assassination of her husband
Kuzel provides more evidence of the absurdity of the case.
On the eve of the vote in Parliament to appoint Lazarenko PM, held on 28 May 1996, Scherban urged members of his parliamentary faction, "Social Market Choice" to support the candidacy of Lazarenko. "Our faction voted in full for Lazarenko. Without Shcherban's command our faction would not have done this because so many were against it."
As I have mentioned many times in my previous blogs, Lazarenko, and Tymoshenko, by the start of that year were on good terms with Yevhen Shcherban. By the end of 1995 gas supply contracts had been signed. In January 1996 Shcherban had invited Tymoshenko and her husband to his grand birthday party.
The death of Shcherban provided no benefit to Tymoshenko's UESU. Quite the opposite, the company lost the one person who represented their interests in the Donbas who had the power to fend off criminal attacks on their mutual gas business.
In a tv interview, Kuzhel also points the finger at one man who may have benefited from the death of Shcherban - her predecessor witness at the pre-trial hearings - Volodymyr Shcherban.
Volodymyr and Yevhen had been close business partners. Yevhen, possibly the richest many in Ukraine at that time, had intended to support Volodymyr's candidature in the 1998 presidential elections, but later switched in favour of former PM Yevhen Marchuk, making him leader of his party, much to Volodymyr's displeasure.
Two days after Yevhen and his wife's killing, Volodymyr's son Artem took over $2 million out of a US business account of a company run by Yevhen's wife Nadia Nikitin. He could not wait to even sit down with the Shcherban's two orphaned boys, Rusland and Yevhen Jr. to decide how their parents assets were to be divided up.
Kuzhel recalls how Volodymyr Shcherban proposed to formalize the custody of Yevhen Shcherban's children, but they refused his offer. Eventually a business partner of the late Shcherban's, Yuriy Dedukh, was appointed their guardian. A few months after this, in September 1997, Dedukh and the elder Shcherban son, Ruslan survived and assassination attempt in which a bodyguard was killed.
Luckily, with the help of an old friend of their father's, legendary singer Yosef Kobzon, the orphaned children did manage to hold on to a small fraction of their late parents' assets.
Kuzel also believes that the death of Shcherban provided big political dividends to Viktor Medvedchuk (then leader of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united)).
"After the murder of Yevhen Shcherban, his political fraction 'Social Market Choice' disintegrated. Before this it had been a very powerful group, as was [Shcherban's] Liberal Party. After some time, Medvedchuk's positions began strengthening and Yevhen Marchuk, who previously served in our party, went over to them," said Kuzhel.
Tetyana Chornovil, in her latest blog, gives much information on Volodymyr Shcherban and his involvement with namesake Yevhen, and how the latter's children were all but abandoned by their father's most powerful associates, including by the-then oblast governor, Viktor Yanukovych, and by current parliamentary speaker, and the-then mayor of Donetsk Volodymyr Rybak. [Maybe more on this later..]
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Shcherban had no problems with Lazarenko
A television video of an interview with Yevhen Shcherban recorded just a few months before his murder has come to light.
Shcherban speaks highly of Lazarenko: "Pavlo Lazarenko has taken his rightful place (on becoming appointed prime minister). He is a 'top man' [khazyain], he has demonstrated success in his own [Dnipropetrovsk] region. This is a worthy person who has taken up an appropriate position. A man has come to power who shares our views." Doesn't sound like a man who felt under threat from Lazarenko...
Germany has taken its gloves off and carpeted Ukraine's ambassador to Berlin after Ukrainian authorities stepped up the pressure on Yulia Tymoshenko's defence councillor, parliamentary deputy Sergey Vlasenko.
According to Frankfurter Allgemeinde. the German Foreign Ministry and the Office of the Federal Chancellor believe: "Ukraine can forget about the much desired association agreement with the EU, if the issue with Tymoshenko's detention is not solved".
This is hardly surprising. The witness testifying in Monday's pretrial hearings in to Yevhen Shcherban's murder, Volodymyr Shcherban, may well be being blackmailed to provide false evidence against Tymoshenko.
In January 2002 he was under investigation by a parliamentary committee for illegal appropriation of property in Sumy, where he was governor. He also allegedly rigged communal heating charges and electricity charges in the town. He was also accused of filling law enforcement agencies there with his own people from Donetsk. This case is falling apart at the seams already. Ukraine's judiciary is daily providing more evidence of its incompetence, and that it is a tool of political oppression.
Shcherban speaks highly of Lazarenko: "Pavlo Lazarenko has taken his rightful place (on becoming appointed prime minister). He is a 'top man' [khazyain], he has demonstrated success in his own [Dnipropetrovsk] region. This is a worthy person who has taken up an appropriate position. A man has come to power who shares our views." Doesn't sound like a man who felt under threat from Lazarenko...
Germany has taken its gloves off and carpeted Ukraine's ambassador to Berlin after Ukrainian authorities stepped up the pressure on Yulia Tymoshenko's defence councillor, parliamentary deputy Sergey Vlasenko.
According to Frankfurter Allgemeinde. the German Foreign Ministry and the Office of the Federal Chancellor believe: "Ukraine can forget about the much desired association agreement with the EU, if the issue with Tymoshenko's detention is not solved".
This is hardly surprising. The witness testifying in Monday's pretrial hearings in to Yevhen Shcherban's murder, Volodymyr Shcherban, may well be being blackmailed to provide false evidence against Tymoshenko.
In January 2002 he was under investigation by a parliamentary committee for illegal appropriation of property in Sumy, where he was governor. He also allegedly rigged communal heating charges and electricity charges in the town. He was also accused of filling law enforcement agencies there with his own people from Donetsk. This case is falling apart at the seams already. Ukraine's judiciary is daily providing more evidence of its incompetence, and that it is a tool of political oppression.
Sunday, March 03, 2013
Shcherban's murder - a Russian connection?
Several days ago Kyryl Kostenko, the mayor of Crimean seaside town Simeyiz, was shot dead.
In recent times, the mayors of other Crimea seaside towns - those of Novofedorivka, Malyi Mayak, and Vesele had all been assassinated or have died in peculiar circumstances. All their deaths were most likely connected to conflicts surrounding 'land distribution', and are a reminder of continuing lawlessness in Ukraine, where conflicts between 'criminal businessmen' are still from time to time resolved through the barrel of a gun.
The apogee of such lawlessness was the period of the early/mid nineties in Donbas. The current authorities are now trying to blame former PM Yulia Tymoshenko with one of the most most prominent murders of that time - that of Yevhen Shcherban.
Unbiassed observers such as Yulia Mostova in Dzerkalo Tyzhnya offers several possible versions for Shcherban's untimely end which has been manipulated by politicians to discredit their political or business opponents, be it Pavlo Lazarenko, Leonid Kuchma, former political high-flyer Yevhen Marchuk, oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, and so on. Most of these theories have major defect - lacks of motive and lack of any substantive evidence.
Tetyana Chornovol, in her latest well-researched Ukrainska Pravda blog proposes another, very credible scenario. It helps explain recollections made to your blogger by people familiar with Eastern Ukraine about the tangible fear of Russian businessmen there, and also the mutual hatred felt between two parts of the steel town and port of Mariupol.
Her account also helps logically explain the chronology of the killings that took place in 1995 and 1996.
Tetyana Chornovol questions why the next witness in the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko, Volodymyr Shcherban [and many others] never mention gas war between The Industrial Union of Donbas' [IUD] and rival gas trader "Itera".
Volodymyr Shcherban [about whom I have previously written], together with Yevhen Shcherban, and mafia capo Ahat Bragin controlled the economic, political and criminal life of the region as a team. Volymyr Shcherban provided a 'roof' for illegal activities in the region - this was noted in contemporary official reports in Kyiv.
These three began co-operating soon after the declaration of Ukrainian independence. On November 10 1992 prominent Donetsk businessman/mafia boss Yanosh Kranz, was shot dead. Akhat Bragin, his biggest rival, was suspected of commissioning the killing. Among the places regularly visited at that tine by Bragin, according to police records, where the offices of the "Aton" corporation whose co-founder was Yevhen Shcherban, and offices of the "Ukraina" department store run by Volodymyr Shcherban.
In the next few years, the trio had become wealthiest people in the region. Volodymyr Scherban won the elections for governor, and Yevhen Shcherban had formed a large faction in the Verkhovna Rada. Bragin, unsurprisingly, kept out of sight whilst still pulling the strings.
In early 1996 Yevhen Shcherban declared the next president of Ukraine would be a protege of Donbas - Volodymyr Shcherban. But by the summer of 1996 their relationship cooled considerably because Yevhen Shcherban had changed his position on his favoured presidential candidate, he decided to bet on Yevhen Marchuk [much to the disconcertment of the-then president Kuchma, who saw Marchuk as a major rival].
Volodymyr Shcherban's message when he appears a a witness in the Shcherban murder trial will be simple and clear - the motive for the murder Shcherban was the gas war with UESU - ie. with Lazarenko and Tymoshenko. But this flies in the face of evidence - by the end of 1995, and during summer 1996, UESU was already working constructively with IUD - the latter had become the gas monopolist in the Donetsk region. [IUD was the brainchild Shcherban, Akhmetov, Haiduk, and Momot]. By late 1995 UESU sold gas to IUD which in turn, supplied Donetsk companies, charging a small mark-up for themselves. Importantly, IUD could benefit from their strong position in the region by demanding barter payment for gas - products which they could 'turn around' themselves to make huge profits. If their customers failed to pay for gas, part or all of their assets could be grabbed by IUD in lieu of payment..
And it was Lazarenko's initiative that enabled the "Donetski" to create their gas monopoly.Until that time the gas market in Donetsk region was dominated by the Russian companies: "Gazprom" and "Itera". When Lazarenko and the-then Prime Minister Yevhen Marchuk agreed the new scheme of gas supply, the smarter heads in Donetsk realized this would give them a chance to create a monopoly under the government umbrella, enabling them to take full control of the gas market in the region.
How this was done was described in a newspaper interview given by the mayor of Mariupol, Mikhailo Pozhivanov who claimed Yevhen Shcherban even made death threats to secure the gas business of factories in his town.
Volodymyr Shcherban in February 12, 1996, signed a decree stating the only mediator between wholesale importers of natural gas and enterprises of the Donetsk region was the be IUD.
"Itera" fought for every company by offering a lower price and blackmailing directors, e.g. by withholding essential products from certain companies.
By early 1996, the Russians tried to organise a mutiny among the "red factory directors" of Donbas. "Itera" started negotiations with individual heads of Donbas companies who were willing to break contracts with IUD. In March 1996, "Itera" appointed Donbas specialist Alexander Shvedchenko as its head in Ukraine. He was a man who had had close ties with the, by-then late Akhat Bragin.
Bragin had been blown up at the Shakhtar stadium in October 1995. But it has to be remembered Rinat Akhmetov, Bragin's right hand man, by then had also a big stake in IUD.
Ahat Bragin and Shvedchenko both loved sport: Bragin supported "Shakhtar" football team and Shvedchenko a basketball team with the same name. Shvedchenko had a stake in the central market of Donetsk, which had been 'overseen' by Bragin; he also owned companies that imported then exotic fruits, bananas, oranges etc. His partner in this business were Sergei Roman and [later PM Azarov's former deputy] Boris Kolesnikov.
In 1996, there were no official successors to Bragin's empire following his murder. Alexander Shvedchenko may have thought the crown could be his if he used "Itera" as a lever. "Itera", according to Russian media were close to influential criminal circles in Russia. Bragin had in previous years almost destroyed the power of mafia from other parts of the former Soviet Union in his own 'backyard', but after his death perhaps the Russians thought they had the chance of restoring their influence with the help of someone who could be a potential heir to Bragin's crown.
In March 1996, three weeks after starting to work as the chief Ukrainian representative of "Itera", Shvedchenko was shot dead. His partner Sergei Roman fled abroad and was also soon killed.
Lucky for him, the third and sole remaining partner of the Roman-Shvedchenko-Kolesnikov trio, was able to convince Rinat Akhmetov of his fidelity....
At the time of the murder of Shvedchenko it was not only the "Donetski" who were engaged in a war with "Itera" - so where the "Dnipropetrovski".
"Itera", which had ties to "Gazprom" has started to block the supplies of gas from "Gazprom" to "UESU." But the Ukrainian side has a powerful weapon too - "Gazprom" were desperate for large diameter pipes for pipelines which were made exclusively at the Khartsyzsk Pipe Plant in Donbas.
To increase the output of pipes at Khartsyzsk, Shcherban and Lazarenko worked to unite the Mariupol Azovstal plant with the neighbouring Mariupol Illich plant - these would provide more raw material for pipemaking. However, the management at "Azovstal" was against such an association. The head of "Azovstal", Alexander Bulanda even asked state security services for protection, as his life was under threat. In early June the deputy director of Azovstal, Fedor Buzhan was killed in a car smash. On June 13, the day of the funeral, Pavlo Lazarenko, by then prime minister, signed a decree to merge the steel giants. This was another example of Lazarenko - Yevhen Shcherban co-operation.
However, the author of this scheme, Alexander Momot, did not witness this victory. On May 16 1996 Momot was shot dead in the centre of Donetsk on his doorstep.
Volodymyr Shcherban today argues that Momot was killed on the orders of Tymoshenko and Lazarenko but can give no motive for this.
Chornovol describes how, when in Kyiv, top people from Donetsk would stay and dine at a ship-restaurant-sauna, the "Poseidon", moored near the Paton bridge over the Dnipro river. [Years later, in 2005 the ship was burned out.]
In 1996 it had been one of the favorite haunts for 'Donetski' because the ship had a Donetsk owner, and was very convenient to use. It even boasted several luxury hotel rooms.
A few days before his death, Alexander Momot met the head of "Itera", Igor Makarov, on board the ship. The meeting was also attended by Vitaliy Haiduk [who later was a close and trusted associate of Yulia Tymoshenko.]
Yevhan Scherban was supposed to attend too but he refused at the last moment to demonstrate his disdain toward the head of "Itera". The conversation on "Poseidon" was very bad tempered and rude. Momot was particularly animated and cursed at Makarov. According to criminal codes, this sort of thing was unacceptable. Igor Makarov, according to Russian sources, had been linked to top Russian underworld leaders. Less than a week after this conversation, Alexander Momot was buried.
Shortly before his death Momot had told a journalist that writing stories on the gas market in Ukraine was dangerous. "There are forces, including those in Russia, who want to grasp this market for themselves, to use the convoluted situation with payments for gas for their own interests," said Momot to the journalist.
After the death of Momot, Lazarenko quickly settled his differences with Itera who paid him off. But the Donbas war with Itera continued
During the spring of 1996, "Itera" started worked with Victor Pinchuk's industrial group. Pinchuk later became son-in-law of president Kuchma, so it is not surprising that the investigation into the murder of Shcherban dried up.
Volodymyr Shcherban started to spend more time abroad after Momot's death. For many, many months Rinat Akhmetov virtually never left his private 'Lux' estate situated in the Donetsk Botanical Garden. Yevhen Shcherban tried to leave for the U.S. but did not because his son Ruslan had been refused a visa. [BTW, Ruslan to this day allegedly employs a phalanx of bodyguards. The had been an attempt on the life of his brother, Yevhen jr, in September 1997, almost a year after the death of his father at Donetsk airport.]
A former deputy parliamentary deputy, Anatoliy Motspan says on September 20 1996 he was approached by Yevhen Shcherban in order to give the Parliamentary Committee set up to fight corruption some incriminating material on the head of "Azovstal", Alexander Bulanda.
Throughout 1996 Alexander Bulanda had taken a highly negative attitude towards Sherban and made great efforts to wriggle out of the IUD gas diktats. His position was to try a get "Azovstal" to return to supplies of gas direct from Russia from which the company had benefited prior to 1996.
Anatoly Motspan said that Yevhen Shcherban introduced him to Serhiy Taruta, who was supposed to explain the documents. "But just don't tell the committee his name," warned Shcherban, "because they will kill him."
"I asked him [Yevhen Shcherban] what were his relationships with Lazarenko like", said Motspan "He told me: like this, and shown me a thumbs up."
Shortly before the murder of Yevhen Scherban, Alexandra Kuzhel [an old time acquainatance of his] met Shcherban at Borispol airport.
"He was flying to Donetsk. I reminded him that he was going to hand me, as a member of the parliamentary commission studying the energy market of Ukraine, documents regarding Itera's criminal behaviour. "He told me: I won't do this - I want you to live. "
Yevhen Shcherban was shot dead with other victims when his private aircraft landed at Donetsk airport having flown from Moscow. It is quite possible his killers had been tipped of when his plane took off. The killers were led by Vladimir Bolotskikh, a Russian.
p.s. IMO Tetyana Chornovol's scenario 'ticks more boxes' that most of the others proposed in this dirty business...It describes how this series of murders were connected to one another.
Where does Tymoshenko figure in all of this? .At the time of Yevhen Shcherban's death she was already actively campaigning for the V.R. - she successfully entered parliament just a few weeks after the killing, and resigned from UESU.
In recent times, the mayors of other Crimea seaside towns - those of Novofedorivka, Malyi Mayak, and Vesele had all been assassinated or have died in peculiar circumstances. All their deaths were most likely connected to conflicts surrounding 'land distribution', and are a reminder of continuing lawlessness in Ukraine, where conflicts between 'criminal businessmen' are still from time to time resolved through the barrel of a gun.
The apogee of such lawlessness was the period of the early/mid nineties in Donbas. The current authorities are now trying to blame former PM Yulia Tymoshenko with one of the most most prominent murders of that time - that of Yevhen Shcherban.
Unbiassed observers such as Yulia Mostova in Dzerkalo Tyzhnya offers several possible versions for Shcherban's untimely end which has been manipulated by politicians to discredit their political or business opponents, be it Pavlo Lazarenko, Leonid Kuchma, former political high-flyer Yevhen Marchuk, oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, and so on. Most of these theories have major defect - lacks of motive and lack of any substantive evidence.
Tetyana Chornovol, in her latest well-researched Ukrainska Pravda blog proposes another, very credible scenario. It helps explain recollections made to your blogger by people familiar with Eastern Ukraine about the tangible fear of Russian businessmen there, and also the mutual hatred felt between two parts of the steel town and port of Mariupol.
Her account also helps logically explain the chronology of the killings that took place in 1995 and 1996.
Tetyana Chornovol questions why the next witness in the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko, Volodymyr Shcherban [and many others] never mention gas war between The Industrial Union of Donbas' [IUD] and rival gas trader "Itera".
Volodymyr Shcherban [about whom I have previously written], together with Yevhen Shcherban, and mafia capo Ahat Bragin controlled the economic, political and criminal life of the region as a team. Volymyr Shcherban provided a 'roof' for illegal activities in the region - this was noted in contemporary official reports in Kyiv.
These three began co-operating soon after the declaration of Ukrainian independence. On November 10 1992 prominent Donetsk businessman/mafia boss Yanosh Kranz, was shot dead. Akhat Bragin, his biggest rival, was suspected of commissioning the killing. Among the places regularly visited at that tine by Bragin, according to police records, where the offices of the "Aton" corporation whose co-founder was Yevhen Shcherban, and offices of the "Ukraina" department store run by Volodymyr Shcherban.
In the next few years, the trio had become wealthiest people in the region. Volodymyr Scherban won the elections for governor, and Yevhen Shcherban had formed a large faction in the Verkhovna Rada. Bragin, unsurprisingly, kept out of sight whilst still pulling the strings.
In early 1996 Yevhen Shcherban declared the next president of Ukraine would be a protege of Donbas - Volodymyr Shcherban. But by the summer of 1996 their relationship cooled considerably because Yevhen Shcherban had changed his position on his favoured presidential candidate, he decided to bet on Yevhen Marchuk [much to the disconcertment of the-then president Kuchma, who saw Marchuk as a major rival].
Volodymyr Shcherban's message when he appears a a witness in the Shcherban murder trial will be simple and clear - the motive for the murder Shcherban was the gas war with UESU - ie. with Lazarenko and Tymoshenko. But this flies in the face of evidence - by the end of 1995, and during summer 1996, UESU was already working constructively with IUD - the latter had become the gas monopolist in the Donetsk region. [IUD was the brainchild Shcherban, Akhmetov, Haiduk, and Momot]. By late 1995 UESU sold gas to IUD which in turn, supplied Donetsk companies, charging a small mark-up for themselves. Importantly, IUD could benefit from their strong position in the region by demanding barter payment for gas - products which they could 'turn around' themselves to make huge profits. If their customers failed to pay for gas, part or all of their assets could be grabbed by IUD in lieu of payment..
And it was Lazarenko's initiative that enabled the "Donetski" to create their gas monopoly.Until that time the gas market in Donetsk region was dominated by the Russian companies: "Gazprom" and "Itera". When Lazarenko and the-then Prime Minister Yevhen Marchuk agreed the new scheme of gas supply, the smarter heads in Donetsk realized this would give them a chance to create a monopoly under the government umbrella, enabling them to take full control of the gas market in the region.
How this was done was described in a newspaper interview given by the mayor of Mariupol, Mikhailo Pozhivanov who claimed Yevhen Shcherban even made death threats to secure the gas business of factories in his town.
Volodymyr Shcherban in February 12, 1996, signed a decree stating the only mediator between wholesale importers of natural gas and enterprises of the Donetsk region was the be IUD.
"Itera" fought for every company by offering a lower price and blackmailing directors, e.g. by withholding essential products from certain companies.
By early 1996, the Russians tried to organise a mutiny among the "red factory directors" of Donbas. "Itera" started negotiations with individual heads of Donbas companies who were willing to break contracts with IUD. In March 1996, "Itera" appointed Donbas specialist Alexander Shvedchenko as its head in Ukraine. He was a man who had had close ties with the, by-then late Akhat Bragin.
Bragin had been blown up at the Shakhtar stadium in October 1995. But it has to be remembered Rinat Akhmetov, Bragin's right hand man, by then had also a big stake in IUD.
Ahat Bragin and Shvedchenko both loved sport: Bragin supported "Shakhtar" football team and Shvedchenko a basketball team with the same name. Shvedchenko had a stake in the central market of Donetsk, which had been 'overseen' by Bragin; he also owned companies that imported then exotic fruits, bananas, oranges etc. His partner in this business were Sergei Roman and [later PM Azarov's former deputy] Boris Kolesnikov.
In 1996, there were no official successors to Bragin's empire following his murder. Alexander Shvedchenko may have thought the crown could be his if he used "Itera" as a lever. "Itera", according to Russian media were close to influential criminal circles in Russia. Bragin had in previous years almost destroyed the power of mafia from other parts of the former Soviet Union in his own 'backyard', but after his death perhaps the Russians thought they had the chance of restoring their influence with the help of someone who could be a potential heir to Bragin's crown.
In March 1996, three weeks after starting to work as the chief Ukrainian representative of "Itera", Shvedchenko was shot dead. His partner Sergei Roman fled abroad and was also soon killed.
Lucky for him, the third and sole remaining partner of the Roman-Shvedchenko-Kolesnikov trio, was able to convince Rinat Akhmetov of his fidelity....
At the time of the murder of Shvedchenko it was not only the "Donetski" who were engaged in a war with "Itera" - so where the "Dnipropetrovski".
"Itera", which had ties to "Gazprom" has started to block the supplies of gas from "Gazprom" to "UESU." But the Ukrainian side has a powerful weapon too - "Gazprom" were desperate for large diameter pipes for pipelines which were made exclusively at the Khartsyzsk Pipe Plant in Donbas.
To increase the output of pipes at Khartsyzsk, Shcherban and Lazarenko worked to unite the Mariupol Azovstal plant with the neighbouring Mariupol Illich plant - these would provide more raw material for pipemaking. However, the management at "Azovstal" was against such an association. The head of "Azovstal", Alexander Bulanda even asked state security services for protection, as his life was under threat. In early June the deputy director of Azovstal, Fedor Buzhan was killed in a car smash. On June 13, the day of the funeral, Pavlo Lazarenko, by then prime minister, signed a decree to merge the steel giants. This was another example of Lazarenko - Yevhen Shcherban co-operation.
However, the author of this scheme, Alexander Momot, did not witness this victory. On May 16 1996 Momot was shot dead in the centre of Donetsk on his doorstep.
Volodymyr Shcherban today argues that Momot was killed on the orders of Tymoshenko and Lazarenko but can give no motive for this.
Chornovol describes how, when in Kyiv, top people from Donetsk would stay and dine at a ship-restaurant-sauna, the "Poseidon", moored near the Paton bridge over the Dnipro river. [Years later, in 2005 the ship was burned out.]
In 1996 it had been one of the favorite haunts for 'Donetski' because the ship had a Donetsk owner, and was very convenient to use. It even boasted several luxury hotel rooms.
A few days before his death, Alexander Momot met the head of "Itera", Igor Makarov, on board the ship. The meeting was also attended by Vitaliy Haiduk [who later was a close and trusted associate of Yulia Tymoshenko.]
Yevhan Scherban was supposed to attend too but he refused at the last moment to demonstrate his disdain toward the head of "Itera". The conversation on "Poseidon" was very bad tempered and rude. Momot was particularly animated and cursed at Makarov. According to criminal codes, this sort of thing was unacceptable. Igor Makarov, according to Russian sources, had been linked to top Russian underworld leaders. Less than a week after this conversation, Alexander Momot was buried.
Shortly before his death Momot had told a journalist that writing stories on the gas market in Ukraine was dangerous. "There are forces, including those in Russia, who want to grasp this market for themselves, to use the convoluted situation with payments for gas for their own interests," said Momot to the journalist.
After the death of Momot, Lazarenko quickly settled his differences with Itera who paid him off. But the Donbas war with Itera continued
During the spring of 1996, "Itera" started worked with Victor Pinchuk's industrial group. Pinchuk later became son-in-law of president Kuchma, so it is not surprising that the investigation into the murder of Shcherban dried up.
Volodymyr Shcherban started to spend more time abroad after Momot's death. For many, many months Rinat Akhmetov virtually never left his private 'Lux' estate situated in the Donetsk Botanical Garden. Yevhen Shcherban tried to leave for the U.S. but did not because his son Ruslan had been refused a visa. [BTW, Ruslan to this day allegedly employs a phalanx of bodyguards. The had been an attempt on the life of his brother, Yevhen jr, in September 1997, almost a year after the death of his father at Donetsk airport.]
A former deputy parliamentary deputy, Anatoliy Motspan says on September 20 1996 he was approached by Yevhen Shcherban in order to give the Parliamentary Committee set up to fight corruption some incriminating material on the head of "Azovstal", Alexander Bulanda.
Throughout 1996 Alexander Bulanda had taken a highly negative attitude towards Sherban and made great efforts to wriggle out of the IUD gas diktats. His position was to try a get "Azovstal" to return to supplies of gas direct from Russia from which the company had benefited prior to 1996.
Anatoly Motspan said that Yevhen Shcherban introduced him to Serhiy Taruta, who was supposed to explain the documents. "But just don't tell the committee his name," warned Shcherban, "because they will kill him."
"I asked him [Yevhen Shcherban] what were his relationships with Lazarenko like", said Motspan "He told me: like this, and shown me a thumbs up."
Shortly before the murder of Yevhen Scherban, Alexandra Kuzhel [an old time acquainatance of his] met Shcherban at Borispol airport.
"He was flying to Donetsk. I reminded him that he was going to hand me, as a member of the parliamentary commission studying the energy market of Ukraine, documents regarding Itera's criminal behaviour. "He told me: I won't do this - I want you to live. "
Yevhen Shcherban was shot dead with other victims when his private aircraft landed at Donetsk airport having flown from Moscow. It is quite possible his killers had been tipped of when his plane took off. The killers were led by Vladimir Bolotskikh, a Russian.
p.s. IMO Tetyana Chornovol's scenario 'ticks more boxes' that most of the others proposed in this dirty business...It describes how this series of murders were connected to one another.
Where does Tymoshenko figure in all of this? .At the time of Yevhen Shcherban's death she was already actively campaigning for the V.R. - she successfully entered parliament just a few weeks after the killing, and resigned from UESU.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Case against Tymoshenko convinces no one
Some details of the Shcherban murder case with which the Ukrainian prosecutor's office intend to charge Yulia Tymoshenko with have come to light. The evidence so far presented is highly circumstantial and is based almost entirely on hearsay; there are many unanswered questions, and the evidence would probably not be deemed sufficient to bring such a case to court in most democratic countries.
If the intention of proceeding with the case is to convince western governments and observers of Tymoshenko's culpability, it will fail.
The Ukrainian prosecutor's office already has highly disreputable, if not to say laughable reputation. I posted about this in an earlier blog.
European Court of Human Rights may well be critical of the Ukrainian judicial system and its law enforcement agencies, when they present their judgements on the treatment of Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuriy Lutsenko in other cases in the next few months.
I would suggest the narrative described today by Tymoshenko of events in the Donbas region in the mid-nineties, a portion of which I've translated below, is the one generally accepted in the west.
"Yevhen Shcherban was one of five founders of ISD, [Industrial Union of Donbas], which owned hundreds of businesses illegally privatised in the 90's. Apart from Shcherban, the [other] owners of ISD were Alexander Momot, Akhat Bragin and Rinat Akhmetov.
A fifth, shadow co-owner of the ISD corporation was a young politician - Viktor Yanukovych, who is now president of Ukraine. Shcherban was the undisputed leader of this group, and also deputy leader of the Liberal Party of Ukraine. Within a short time three owners ISD corporation were tragically murdered. Shcherban and Momot were shot dead in Donetsk, and Akhat Bragin blown up at the Shakhtar stadium. The entire ISD corporation, then estimated to have a value of billions of U.S, dollars, was transferred to Yanukovych and Akhmetov.
After the tragic murder of Scherban, Yanukovych could be appointed governor of Donetsk region. The leaders of the gang that killed Scherban were immediately eliminated in the Donetsk corrective penitentiary, over which current prosecutors Kuzmin and Pshonka had oversight.
The kind of internecine criminal disputes that existed in the Donetsk region in the 90's, were not seen in any other region in Ukraine.
Yuriy Lutsenko, when he became the Minister of the Interior in 2005, exhumed more than 30 corpses of businessmen, judges, lawyers, investigators and others which had been liquidated in Donetsk in the 90's...Then, [president] Yushchenko ordered Lutsenko to stop digging up any more slag heaps in the Donetsk region..."
The west will not be convinced by the latest accusations against Tymoshenko. The aim of Ukrainian officials is primarily to discredit her before the Ukrainian electorate and prevent her taking an active part in Ukrainian politics ever again. Meanwhile the country's leaders' credibility abroad is plummeting to ever lower depths.
If the intention of proceeding with the case is to convince western governments and observers of Tymoshenko's culpability, it will fail.
The Ukrainian prosecutor's office already has highly disreputable, if not to say laughable reputation. I posted about this in an earlier blog.
European Court of Human Rights may well be critical of the Ukrainian judicial system and its law enforcement agencies, when they present their judgements on the treatment of Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuriy Lutsenko in other cases in the next few months.
I would suggest the narrative described today by Tymoshenko of events in the Donbas region in the mid-nineties, a portion of which I've translated below, is the one generally accepted in the west.
"Yevhen Shcherban was one of five founders of ISD, [Industrial Union of Donbas], which owned hundreds of businesses illegally privatised in the 90's. Apart from Shcherban, the [other] owners of ISD were Alexander Momot, Akhat Bragin and Rinat Akhmetov.
A fifth, shadow co-owner of the ISD corporation was a young politician - Viktor Yanukovych, who is now president of Ukraine. Shcherban was the undisputed leader of this group, and also deputy leader of the Liberal Party of Ukraine. Within a short time three owners ISD corporation were tragically murdered. Shcherban and Momot were shot dead in Donetsk, and Akhat Bragin blown up at the Shakhtar stadium. The entire ISD corporation, then estimated to have a value of billions of U.S, dollars, was transferred to Yanukovych and Akhmetov.
After the tragic murder of Scherban, Yanukovych could be appointed governor of Donetsk region. The leaders of the gang that killed Scherban were immediately eliminated in the Donetsk corrective penitentiary, over which current prosecutors Kuzmin and Pshonka had oversight.
The kind of internecine criminal disputes that existed in the Donetsk region in the 90's, were not seen in any other region in Ukraine.
Yuriy Lutsenko, when he became the Minister of the Interior in 2005, exhumed more than 30 corpses of businessmen, judges, lawyers, investigators and others which had been liquidated in Donetsk in the 90's...Then, [president] Yushchenko ordered Lutsenko to stop digging up any more slag heaps in the Donetsk region..."
The west will not be convinced by the latest accusations against Tymoshenko. The aim of Ukrainian officials is primarily to discredit her before the Ukrainian electorate and prevent her taking an active part in Ukrainian politics ever again. Meanwhile the country's leaders' credibility abroad is plummeting to ever lower depths.
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