They’re old, they’re established and they face accusations of corruption. But now they’re also out of power.
The July 21 snap parliamentary elections have decimated the ranks of old-guard politicians. Analysts say that such a replacement of the old guard by new faces is unprecedented in Ukraine’s independent history. Indeed, most of the new lawmakers have never been in parliament before.
“This is the continuation of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s electoral revolution,” political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko told the Kyiv Post. “This is a result of the president’s popularity and the population’s frustration with (old-guard) politicians.”
However, some of Ukraine’s most toxic politicians still managed to get into the new parliament.
The Kyiv Post has broken down the most prominent and controversial individuals who got re-elected and also those who did not.
Elected
Viktor Medvedchuk, No. 3 on the list of the pro-Russian Opposition Platform For Life party, is arguably the most controversial politician in the new Rada. He has long enjoyed a close relationship with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
Several of Medvedchuk’s closest allies also got into the Rada as part of the Opposition Platform For Life’s list. They include Vasyl Nimchenko, Taras Kozak, Grigory Surkis and Nestor Shufrich.
Andriy Kholodov, No. 22 on Zelensky’s Servant of the People party’s list, also has a personal link to Medvedchuk. In June 2018, Oksana Marchenko, Medvedchuk’s wife, became a godmother of Kholodov’s son. Medvedchuk was at the ceremony, too. Kholodov did not respond to a request for comment.
Vadym Stolar is No. 11 on the Opposition Platform’s list. He used to be a member of ex-President Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine and ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions. Then, he switched his allegiance to ex-President Petro Poroshenko, only to go for the pro-Russian Opposition Platform five years later.
Ukrainian media have labeled him the “de facto mayor of Kyiv” due to his influence in the city. Mayor Vitali Klitschko denied that Stolar influences him. Stolar has been linked to several controversial construction projects in the capital, as well as a scheme that allegedly defrauded hundreds of homebuyers during the mid-2000s.
Stolar did not respond to a request for comment.
Ilya Kyva, No. 34 on the Opposition Platform For Life’s list, used to express staunchly anti-Kremlin and nationalistic views. He was a top official of the Right Sector nationalist party after the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution. Surprisingly, this did not prevent him from joining Ukraine’s most pro-Russian party and allying himself with Putin’s right-hand man Medvedchuk.
In 2016, he called for “destroying” Yanukovych’s Chief of Staff Serhiy Lovochkin, who is currently No. 5 on Opposition Platform, Kyva’s new party. Kyva said Lovochkin represented the Kremlin’s “fifth column” in Ukraine.
He also said in one interview that he would make the people of the Donbas — the region partially occupied by Russia — love Ukraine “by force” if necessary. His new party’s stance on the war in Donbas is the opposite.
Kyva, a former advisor to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and head of the Interior Ministry’s labor union, has also been involved in numerous scandals. These include his conviction for bribery, homophobic posts on Facebook, threats of violence against anti-corruption activists and refusal to be vetted and take a polygraph test when he was a top police official.
Some notorious ex-allies of Yanukovych were also elected on the list of the Opposition Platform For Life. These include Renat Kuzmin, who was a deputy prosecutor general under Yanukovych; Yanukovych’s Chief of Staff Lyovochkin; Yanukovych’s Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko; as well as Vadym Rabinovych, Natalya Korolevska and Serhiy Dunayev. Pro-Russian politician Vadym Novynsky was elected in a single-member district in Mariupol.
Ex-President Petro Poroshenko, No. 1 on the European Solidarity party’s list, and his allies face numerous corruption investigations. The allies include Ihor Kononenko, Oleksandr Hranovsky, Oleh Hladkovskyi, Roman Nasirov, Borys Lozhkin, Valeria Gontareva, Oleksiy Filatov and others. They deny the accusations of wrongdoing. Of Poroshenko allies, only Kononenko and Hranovsky ran for parliament, and they were not elected.
The State Investigation Bureau has opened at least 11 criminal cases involving Poroshenko, according to its Chief, Roman Truba. Poroshenko argued that the criminal cases against him were a politically motivated part of the parliamentary election campaign ahead of the July 21 vote.
On July 11, the State Investigation Bureau issued a summons to Poroshenko to be questioned on July 17. The questioning concerns a money laundering investigation involving Poroshenko’s sale of the Rybalsky Kuznya shipyard to businessman Serhiy Tigipko in 2018.
Poroshenko did not come, saying he was busy with the election campaign. He was summoned again for July 25.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is also investigating Poroshenko in a corruption case involving Dmytro Kryuchkov, the CEO of power company Energomerezha. He testified in April that Poroshenko and his top ally Kononenko had received 50 to 70 percent of the income from energy corruption schemes. Both have denied the accusations.
Yaroslav Dubnevych, a lawmaker from Poroshenko’s Bloc, won in a single-member district in Lviv, running as an independent.
He and his brother Bohdan, who was not re-elected to the Rada, losing the race in his district, are being investigated over alleged embezzlement while supplying equipment to Ukraine’s state railway monopoly Ukrzaliznytsya. The Dubnevych brothers are also under investigation for allegedly embezzling natural gas worth Hr 1.4 billion at state oil and gas monopoly Naftogaz Ukrainy. They have denied the accusations.
Oleksiy Goncharenko, also a lawmaker from the Poroshenko Bloc, won in a single-member district in Odesa Oblast as an independent.
Goncharenko used to express pro-Russian views, called for making Russian a state language and lashed out at Ukrainian nationalists. He also used to be a vehement supporter of Yanukovych and even created a faction called “Yanukovych’s Regions” in the Odesa city council in 2007.
During the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution, Goncharenko did a U-turn. He left the Party of Regions, joined the Poroshenko Bloc and became a vocal supporter of Poroshenko. He also abandoned his pro-Russian views and became a critic of the Kremlin.
Goncharenko told the Kyiv Post he had changed his views because Russia started its war against Ukraine, and not for political reasons.
Goncharenko is known for his often scandalous behavior, and for getting into fights. In 2017, he famously painted the word “Nein” on the fragment of the Berlin Wall installed near the German embassy in Kyiv. This way, he protested the ambassador suggesting that elections can be held in the Russia-occupied Donbas.
Some controversial local heavyweights also got elected. These include Viktor Baloga in Zakarpattia Oblast, Oles Dovgiy in Kirovograd Oblast and Andriy Derkach in Sumy Oblast.
Those not elected
Vitaly Khomutynnik, a former member of Yanukovych’s Party of Regions and its offshoot, the Vidrodzhennya (Revival) faction, ran on the list of the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc. However, the party did not get past the 5-percent threshold to enter parliament, receiving just 3.23 percent of the vote.
Khomutynnik has been accused of being a gray cardinal behind various customs corruption schemes. He denied these accusations.
In 2015, the Ukrainian News information agency took a photo of a Viber conversation in the Rada between Khomutynnik and then-Odesa Oblast Governor Ihor Palytsya about payoffs at customs.
Khomutynnik was investigated over alleged tax evasion in 2017. However, later the Prosecutor General’s Office closed the case. He denied the allegations.
According to a 2016 investigation by the Novoye Vremya magazine, Khomutynnyk owned a private yacht and a plane worth a total of $40 million through offshore companies and did not include them in his asset declarations.
Some other controversial ex-members of the Party of Regions lost in single-member districts.
These include millionaire Vyacheslav Boguslaev, ex-lawmakers Olena Bondarenko and Dmytro Dobkin, Yanukovych’s Infrastructure Minister Boris Kolesnikov and pro-Russian politician Serhiy Medvedchuk, the brother of Opposition Platform leader Viktor Medvedchuk.
Meanwhile, lawmaker Yevhen Murayev, ex-Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Oleksandr Vilkul, Kharkiv Mayor Gennady Kernes, Odesa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov and ex-Kharkiv Oblast Governor Mykhailo Dobkin ran on the list of the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc. However, the party failed to accrue the necessary votes.
Several influential allies of Trukhanov also lost in Odesa Oblast. These include Oleksandr Presman, Serhiy Kivalov, Dmytro Holubov, Anton Kisse and Anatoly Urbansky.
Holubov and Urbansky were members of the Poroshenko Bloc in the Rada, while Presman and Kisse were members of the Party of Regions and Vidrodzhennya.
Holubov has been investigated by the United States over alleged cybercrimes, including credit card fraud, and was wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI. He denies these accusations.
Kivalov, an influential ex-ally of Yanukovych, lost in Odesa’s 135th district. He has been a lawmaker from the same district since 1998 and has also been accused of pulling the strings of courts in Odesa and other regions, which he denies.
Kivalov was also the head of the Central Election Commission in 2004, when the Supreme Court ruled that there had been voting fraud in the presidential election and canceled Viktor Yanukovych’s victory. Viktor Yushchenko was then elected president as a result of the Orange Revolution.
Oleksandr Hranovsky, a controversial ex-member of the former Poroshenko Bloc, lost in district No. 169 in Kharkiv.
Hranovsky, who was endorsed by Kharkiv Mayor Gennady Kernes, was known as another gray cardinal under Poroshenko and accused of influencing judges, prosecutors and security officials. Hranovsky has always denied influencing law enforcement.
Ihor Kononenko, an ex-member of former President Poroshenko’s Bloc and his right-hand man, was defeated in a Kyiv Oblast district. Kononenko is under investigation in numerous corruption cases, although he has denied all accusations of wrongdoing.
He has also been accused of buying votes on behalf of Poroshenko in the run-up to the April 21 presidential election and on his own behalf in the July 21 parliamentary election. The police have opened an investigation into the latest vote-buying claims. Poroshenko denies any involvement.
Oleksandr Tretyakov, who was a member of Poroshenko’s Bloc in the previous Rada, lost in a Kyiv district. He controls Ukrainian National Lottery, a firm that has monopolized the country’s lottery and gambling business, according to the Kyiv Post’s sources, the Nashi Hroshi investigative journalism program and Agiya Zagrebelska, a former member of the Anti-Monopoly Committee. Tretyakov has denied owning the lottery business.
Serhiy Pashynsky, a former lawmaker from ex-Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front, lost in a Zhytomyr Oblast district.
Pashynsky and his associate Serhiy Tyshchenko have been investigated over the alleged theft of oil products. They deny the accusations of wrongdoing.
Investigative journalists have also called Pashynsky, the chairman of the previous Rada’s defense committee, a beneficiary of various corrupt schemes in the defense sector, which he always denied.
According to a 2018 investigation by the Novoye Vremya magazine, Pashynsky was behind a scheme to embezzle funds during the purchase of infantry fighting vehicles. Pashynsky denied the accusations and filed a libel lawsuit against the magazine. A Ukrainian court rejected it last year.
In 2015, the top executives of confectionary factory Zhytomyrsky Lasoshchi accused Pashynsky of attempts to illegally take over their company, which he denied.
Pashynsky’s long-time associate, ex-People’s Front lawmaker Tetiana Chornovol, also lost this election. She ran on the list of Poroshenko’s European Solidarity but was not high enough on the ticket to get through.
Other controversial politicians who lost include ex-Poroshenko Bloc lawmaker Borys Rozenblat, a suspect in a graft case, populist Radical Party leader Oleh Lyashko and Kherson Oblast’s Deputy Governor Yevhen Ryshchuk.
Ryshchuk has been accused of involvement in the 2018 murder of anti-corruption whistleblower and local official Kateryna Gandiuk, a crime with an enormous public resonance in Ukraine. He denied the accusations.
