Some of the possessions revealed by Ukraine’s state officials in their asset declarations – the most detailed ever – have raised Ukrainians’ eyebrows.
It wasn’t just the amount of wealth that was surprising – although the 413 members of the Ukrainian parliament together hold a staggering Hr 12 billion ($480 million) in cash and bank deposits alone, never mind their numerous apartments, houses and cars.
It was that some of the belongings revealed by officials were just plain weird.
Most were listed under the “moveable items” category in the electronic declaration form – for items worth more than Hr 121,800 ($4,700).
One was a pitchfork, declared by Ukrainian lawmaker and Radical Party leader Oleh Lyashko. The agricultural implement is unlikely to have cost more than $4,700, so didn’t have to be declared, so Lyashko was probably just trying to make a point: the pitchfork has been the symbol of his party for years.
Lyashko’s right-hand man and another lawmaker from his party, Andriy Lozovyi, declared his party ticket – which places him second on his party’s list for election to parliament. He registered it as valuable property, along with expensive watches, a wine collection, more than 70 Orthodox icons, and a Byzantine reliquary cross, or Encolpion, containing a holy relic from the 13th century.
Andriy Kruglashov, a political analyst with the Chesno anti-corruption movement, said that by joking in their e-declarations, politicians were attempting to tamp down their fears about the process. They also wanted to shift people’s attention away from their wealth and the vast economic inequality in Ukraine, he said.
However, entering a pitchfork and a party ticket in the declarations was only partly a joke, Kruglashov believes.
“Lozovyi considers his party ticket an asset? He is right,” Kruglashov said. “What would this person earn, and where from, if it was not for this party ticket? The same with the pitchfork – it has brought the Radical Party several percent (of the vote during elections) and multimillion flows of money.”
Volodymyr Parasiuk, a EuroMaidan activist turned lawmaker, said in his e-declaration that he had been given a Samsung Gear watch as a present from Santa.
“But I can’t tell for sure, as I was sleeping,” he wrote in the explanation line, jokingly referring to the Ukrainian tradition of putting small presents under children’s pillows on the night before St. Nicholas’ Day on Dec. 19.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov declared his ownership of some intellectual property – “a screenplay in the form of BACKPACKS full of newspaper clippings: the sad story of lawmaker (Serhiy) Kaplin, who together with (Serhiy) Lyovochkin and (Mariya) Stolyarova was paid by the Russians for lying.”
Avakov was referring to a scandal that erupted in 2015, when a video posted on YouTube by an anonymous user showed a man, who the video’s authors claimed was Avakov’s son Oleksandr, talking to the former deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Chebotar about supplying the ministry with the backpacks. If genuine, the video would be evidence there were violations of state procurement procedures.
Oleksandr Avakov denied that the person in the video was him, while Arsen Avakov called the video a fairy-tale, co-authored by the opposition lawmakers Kaplin and Lyovochkin, and the Inter TV channel, where Stolyarova was head of the news service. Stolyarova, a Russian citizen, was later deported from Ukraine.
The e-declaration of Serhiy Melnychuk, a former commander of the Aidar volunteer battalion and now a lawmaker with the Volya Narodu group, also surprised Ukrainians, as it indicated that Melnychuk owned Hr 1 trillion ($3.9 billion) in hard cash – more cash than is actually circulating in Ukraine.
He later told reporters that he had declared this huge number intentionally – to “draw the attention of the international community to the fact that the e-declarations legalize corrupt money,” he was quoted as saying by BBC Ukraine. He promised to change the amount in his e-declaration, since officials have seven days to correct mistakes after the Oct. 30 filing deadline.
If Melnychuk doesn’t correct his mistake, he might face two years in prison for making a false declaration, says Vitaly Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s management board.
“Joking with the Criminal Code leads to jail,” Shabunin said.
Jokes aside
However, most officials took their e-declarations seriously and scrupulously listed their property. The lists of their possessions, however, differ dramatically from those of an average citizen of Ukraine, a country with a minimum salary of Hr 1,450 ($56) per month.
Fancy watches, handbags, pieces of antique furniture, jewelry, paintings, fur coats, and wine collections were commonly listed among officials’ most valuable possessions.
But many officials also listed collections of Orthodox icons in their e-declarations, and some have rare religious books from as early as 16th century.
For instance, Mykhailo Dobkin – a former ally of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and now a lawmaker with the Opposition Bloc faction – declared his ownership of a sanctuary lamp, which is a piece of religious paraphernalia for maintaining the Holy Flame.
Less religiously, Dobkin also has a collection of rifles, carbines, and a wine cellar.
Anatoliy Matviyenko, the deputy head of the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction, the biggest pro-presidential faction in parliament, declared he owned an entire church in Byrlivka village in Vinnytsia Oblast, 300 kilometers southwest from Kyiv.
According to Ukrainska Pravda, Matviyenko told reporters he had registered the church in his name so that he could later give it to the local community.
But while some of Ukraine’s officials’ possessions were sublime, others were ridiculous.
Interior Minister Avakov, among other things, declared an 18th century bead painting depicting “a horse on a blue background.”
Vitaliy Khomutynnyk, another former member of Yanukovych’s Party of Regions and now a lawmaker with Vidrodzhennya, owns a Volière de la Cour music box worth some $7,000.
A member of the Opposition Bloc, lawmaker Dmytro Shentsev, declared a collection of 170 samovars dating from the 9th-20th centuries.
And the most out-of-this-world possession was declared by Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov, who said he had a ticket for a suborbital space flight that he bought in 2009 from Richard Branson’s company Virgin Galactic.
Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]
