KHARKIV, Ukraine — Two of Ukraine’s most powerful mayors have joined forces to launch a new political party ahead of the July 21 parliamentary election.
The problem? They’re also two of the country’s most controversial city leaders, dogged by serious accusations of corruption, crime, and ties to ousted ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions.
Odesa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov and Kharkiv Mayor Gennady Kernes are both under investigation in several criminal cases. But they are also key local power brokers who hold sway over their respective cities — which are two biggest cities in the country after Kyiv. This gives them a distinct advantage in the election.
And they also have important connections. Billionaire oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky has admitted that he is consulting the new party, called Doveryai Delam (“Trust in Deeds”).
The party has distinctly pro-Russian rhetoric and targets voters in the Russian-speaking south and east of Ukraine, where Kharkiv and Odesa are the regional capitals. Moreover, it has announced its support for President Volodymyr Zelenskiy — who polled extremely well in these regions — likely in an attempt to catch a ride on his coattails.
Some even suggest that the mayors are trying to build a new version of Yanukovych’s old party of power.
New Party of Regions?
The new party was born on June 2 at a unification congress bringing together representatives of Kernes’ Vidrodzhennia (Revival) party and Trukhanov’s local Doveryai Delam party. Kernes and Trukhanov became co-chairs of the new party, which took Doveryai Delam’s name.
The new party builds on a local foundation. Vidrodzhennia and Doveryai Delam have been the domant factions in the Kharkiv and Odesa city councils, respectively. Vidrodzhennya also has a 25-member faction in Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada. It didn’t win the seats in the previous parliamentary elections as a party — instead, independent lawmakers joined the party after getting into parliament, and formed the faction.
Like the old Party of Regions, which promoted the regional interests of southeastern Ukraine, Kernes and Trukhanov’s new party claims to represent the interests of local self-government.
Its key members are mayors — including those of Uzhgorod and Kropyvnytsky — as well as regional and municipal lawmakers from different Ukrainian regions.
Political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko suggests that the new party will likely get parliamentary seats in single-member constituencies — especially in Kharkiv — during the July 21 election.
However, in some single-member districts, Doveryai Delam may lose to candidates backed by Zelenskiy, since the president’s support significantly increases chances for victory, Fesenko said.
However, the new party is unlikely to pass the 5-percent threshold to make it into the new parliament on party lists, he added.
Because of its pro-Russian rhetoric, Doveryai Delam is also expected to steal some votes from two other Russia-friendly groups: the Opposition Bloc and Opposition Platform Za Zhyttya (For Life).
These two parties, along with Vidrodzhennia, are offshoots of the defunct Party of Regions.
Kolomoisky’s influence
Of particular worry to some observers is the role of Kolomoisky. The oligarch has ties both to the mayors behind Doveryai Delam and actor-turned-president Zelenskiy, whose comedy shows previously aired on Kolomoisky’s 1+1 television channel.
In a May 23 interview, Kolomoisky told the Ukrainska Pravda news site that he was “consulting” on a new political project involving Kernes, Trukhanov, Vidrodzhennya lawmaker Vitaly Khomutynnyk and businessman Pavlo Fuks.
On June 2, Kernes said he had talked with Kolomoisky about the party but said the oligarch wasn’t funding it.
“Apparently Kolomoisky is interested in the emergence of good political projects in Ukraine,” Kernes said.
Kolomoisky has previously admitted supporting Kernes’ Vidrodzhennya party — yet not financially. He also told Ukrainska Pravda that Kernes’ new party, Dovaryai Delam, “has many rich people” in its ranks — implying they didn’t need his money.
Moreover, Kolomoisky and Trukhanov had a partnership back in 2014 and 2015, when the oligarch’s political ally, Ihor Palytsya, served as governor of Odesa Oblast, according to Vitaly Ustymenko, who leads the AutoMaidan anti-corruption group’s Odesa branch.
Support for Zelenskiy
Kernes has lavished praise on Zelenskiy. He said his new party would help Zelenskiy’s administration and would like to join the government coalition after the parliamentary election.
But analyst Fesenko sees that as improbable. He says that Zelenskiy’s Servant of the People party — which stands to receive the largest share of the vote, over 40 percent, according to multiple polls — will likely not form an official coalition with Doveryai Delam due to Kernes and Trukhanov’s controversial reputations. But the new party could informally back the coalition.
“The new president has embarked on a course of deoligarchization and (supporting) the rule of law. We welcome him in the same way as 73 percent of the population did,” Kernes said on June 2, referring to the percentage of the vote Zelenskiy received in the April 21 presidential runoff election.
Doveryai Delam has also opted for the green color associated with Zelenskiy in its advertising, although Trukhanov denied any links to the president’s campaign colors.
Criminal cases
Kernes and Trukhanov are wily political operators who were long viewed as pro-Russia. However, in the years after the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution, which ousted Yanukovych, they changed their tune.
Both backed the post-EuroMaidan government and received the support Poroshenko, who likely relied on them to maintain control over their respective cities.
Now, however, the two mayors have a different view of Poroshenko’s administration.
Despite supporting Poroshenko in the presidential campaign, on June 2, Kernes lashed out at the authorities who came to power after Ukraine’s 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.
“These are politicians who have created social pitfalls instead of social lifts over the past five years,” he said.
In another veiled reference to Poroshenko, Kernes also said that governors had become presidential tools and had been used to fabricate cases against mayors.
Kernes has been charged with kidnapping two EuroMaidan Revolution activists, torturing them and threatening to kill them in January 2014. He denies these accusations. In August, a Poltava court closed the kidnapping case. Kernes’ critics attribute the case’s closure to a deal with Poroshenko to support his re-election.
Kernes has also been investigated for allegedly embezzling up to Hr 15 billion ($557 million) by allocating land to fake cooperatives, but has not been officially charged in this case. Kernes has denied all accusations of wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, Trukhanov has been charged with embezzling Hr 100 million ($3.7 million) and with lying in his asset declarations, which he denies. He is also under investigation in several other corruption cases.
However, Trukhanov has been released without bail and has not been suspended from his job. An illicit enrichment case against him was closed in March.
Poroshenko has used criminal cases to keep Trukhanov and Kernes on a short leash, Fesenko said. The ex-president has denied using law enforcement to pressure the mayors.
“Poroshenko and (allied lawmaker Oleksandr) Hranovsky have helped Kernes to escape criminal punishment,” Fesenko said. “In exchange, Kernes backed Poroshenko in the presidential election.”
Kernes has admitted to inviting Hranovsky to Kharkiv to run for parliament in a single-member district. Hranovsky did not respond to a request for comment.
Shady background
Apart from the criminal cases, Trukhanov is also controversial because he and ally Alexander Angert were members of a mafia gang in the 1990s, according to an Italian police dossier. Moreover, documents published by Slidstvo.info show that Trukhanov owns a hidden network of offshore firms controlling companies that have received city contracts.
Meanwhile, the site of Russia’s Federal Tax Service shows that Trukhanov used to be a Russian citizen despite the ban on dual citizenship for Ukrainian officials. Trukhanov continuously denies having had Russian citizenship.
However, Trukhanov had two Russian passports until 2017, according to a decision by Russia’s Sergiyev Posad Court to annul his citizenship due to alleged procedural violations.
Pro-Russian party
Doveryai Delam appears to mostly be targeting pro-Russian voters.
Kernes sparked controversy on June 2 by calling for direct negotiations with Russia and suggesting that Ukraine apologize for its behavior during the war with Russia.
“We must first of all repent. We always accuse each other and never apologize,” he said.
Kernes also said that a law promoting the Ukrainian language, which was signed by Poroshenko in May, was a mistake, unconstitutional and “anti-Ukrainian.” He argued that it violated the rights of Russian-speakers.
Kernes also compared Doveryai Delam’s June 2 party convention to a separatist congress that he and then-Kharkiv Oblast Governor Mykhailo Dobkin organized in the same concert hall on Feb. 22, 2014 — the day Yanukovych was formally removed from office.
Participants in the Feb. 22 congress said they did not recognize the legitimacy of the post-EuroMaidan central authorities and announced plans to take over Ukraine’s southeastern regions.
“(Participants of the Feb. 22 congress) said that people needed to rely on self-government during anarchy and chaos in Kyiv,” Kernes said. “And God knows we were right.”
