The Ukrainian Weekly 2013, No.37
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www.ukrweekly.com INSIDE: l Moscow seen as losing Ukraine, Belarus – page 3 l Svoboda celebrates its 120th anniversary – page 6 l Ukraine moves ahead in World Cup qualifiers – page 17 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXI No. 37 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2013 $1/$2 in Ukraine Media expose corruption with indirect links to Yatsenyuk by Zenon Zawada A tender to build the surgery building was won in February by two private companies – AMT Biznes and KYIV – Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the leader of the Kryvorizh indasterbud – both of which were without offic- Batkivshchyna parliamentary faction and chair of the par- es, telephone numbers, identifiable partners, or even legiti- ty’s political council, has been revealed by Ukrainian jour- mate sums of charter capital, the journalists’ report said. nalists to have indirect links to two corruption scandals. He All of these are signs of a “prokladka,” an intermediary denies any involvement in the schemes. individual or company set up to pad and distance the The first scandal involves Volodymyr Yatsenyuk, the sec- fraudulent entrepreneurs from the source of the corrup- ond cousin of Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who is allegedly involved tion, the report said. in a corrupt tender scandal in partnership with the The report revealed that prokladka firm AMT Biznes Yanukovych family that cost the state $125 million, the shares the same phone number as the Stailing law firm, Ukrayinska Pravda website reported on August 28. which controls Tantalit, the company which has registered The second scandal involves the TVi television network, the Mezhyhiria estate that allegedly has been illegally which became the target of a corporate raid in April that privatized by the Yanukovych family. the network’s former employees claim involved two The Stailing law firm also created a series of companies Batkivshchyna national deputies: mega-millionaire nuclear owned by Dr. Ihor Filipenko, a Donetsk native and former fuel broker Mykola Martynenko and veteran media execu- resident of Canada whom the report identified as having tive Mykola Kniazhytskyi. The former employees accuse “control of the multi-billion-hryvnia streams from state them of profiting from the illegal takeover. purchases in the interests of the [Yanukovych] family.” Arseniy Yatsenyuk has yet to suffer any political fallout As evidence, Ukrayinska Pravda published a list of sev- from the scandals, which are merely drops in the bucket of eral multimillion-dollar tenders won by Dr. Filipenko in the overall situation of rampant corruption in Ukraine, recent years. experts said. Yet the scandals may hurt his image as an hon- The report cities the Yanukovych family, as represented est politician worth fighting for in future political conflicts. by Dr. Filipenko, as being involved in the cardiovascular “There is no opposition when it comes to establishing rule surgery scandal center through their mutual link to the of law and battling corruption,” said Petro Oleshchuk, a polit- Stailing law firm, which shares the same phone number as ical science lecturer at Taras Shevchenko National University AMT Biznes. Vladimir Strumkovsky/UNIAN in Kyiv. “Its members were recruited in a way similar to the Mega-millionaire nuclear fuel broker Mykola As for Volodymyr Yatsenyuk, his connection to the alleg- government. Some of those in the opposition simply couldn’t Martynenko (left) and Arseniy Yatsenyuk, leader of the edly corrupt tender is through a company called BF Group, gain government posts that were influential enough. Clearly, Batkivshchyna parliamentary faction, are suspected by which is owned by Donetsk oligarch Leonid Yurushev, that explains society’s distrust of the opposition.” former TVi employees of being involved in the April whose wealth was estimated by Korrespondent magazine Regarding the first scandal, the missing $125 million raid on the television network. at $426 million in 2006. was supposed to be used to build what Prime Minister The report identifies Volodymyr Yatsenyuk as a BF Mykola Azarov deemed as “the most contemporary and the Knyshov told reporters Dmytro Hnap and Maria Usenko. Group partner until this spring, though a press release best cardiovascular surgery center in Ukraine.” The four administrators were Serhiy Shulhin, director of from the Batkivshchyna press service claimed he left the “It should be even better than all the centers that cur- the tender committee; a man identified as Sychevskyi, a company in 2010. rently operate in Europe,” he declared when visiting the tender committee member; and two others identified as BF Group built a customs terminal in a Kyiv Oblast vil- Amosov National Institute of Cardiovasuclar Surgery in Sizhuk and Kostenko. lage, situated on private land, that also serves as the official November 2012. Instead, the territory for the building “Not very competent people were chosen in that admin- registered address of Kryvorizhindasterbud, the second remains bare, and the funds are not accounted for, with the istration,” Mr. Knyshov told the two investigative journal- company involved in the surgical center tender. institute director himself admitting as much. ists. “Half of the budget’s project was earmarked for con- Volodymyr Yatsenyuk has several ties to Arseniy All of the four key administrators, who were responsible struction work, and the other half – about $62.5 million – Yatsenyuk, who has served as the Batkivshchyna party’s fig- for managing the construction, have quit their posts in the to buy equipment. But no one even asked us what appara- urehead since its founder, former Prime Minister Yulia capital construction department of the Academy of Medical tus we need. We can say that the equipment budget was Sciences of Ukraine, Amosov Institute Director Hennadiy drafted out of thin air.” (Continued on page 14) UCU opens state-of-the art university building LVIV – The Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) launched a brand new academic building in Lviv on September 3. The contemporary 43,000-square-foot edifice will accommodate students of UCU’s Institute of Leadership and Management, School of Bioethics, faculties of history and humanitarian, and the Lviv Business School (LvBS)as well as the busi- ness school’s Idea Lab. The brand new four-story building was designed by the award-winning U.S. firm Kallmann McKinnell & Wood Architects, a practice renowned for excellence in design Ukrainian Institute, London The Ukrainian Catholic University’s new 43,000-square-foot academic building in Lviv, which will house UCU’s Institute of (Continued on page 18) Leadership and Management, School of Bioethics, Historic and Humanitarian faculties and the Lviv Business School. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2013 No. 37 ANALYSIS Future of Russian Black Sea Fleet’s bases: Ukraine denies report of arms the Syrian conflict has recently been reaf- firmed by the Ukrainian president: we sup- KYIV – Ukraine did not supply or transited port a speedy end to bloodshed and advo- Novorossiysk versus Sevastopol military goods from Russia to Syria in 2012- cate for settling the conflict exclusively by 2013, the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry surface ships and submarines to the Black political and diplomatic means,” reads the by Maksym Bugriy has stated on September 10. “As for the arti- Sea Fleet would begin as early as 2014. statement. (Ukrinform) Eurasia Daily Monitor cle recently published in the U.S. newspaper During the next few years, the BSF would The Washington Post, headlined ‘Ukrainian Yanukovych addresses Parliament The Russian Navy has decided to deploy receive six diesel electric submarines and port eyed as analysts seek Syria’s arms three ships stationed at the base in six new frigates. It is unclear where the KYIV – In the new political season all source,’ the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Sevastopol on Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula new vessels would be based, but given the political forces represented in the Ministry responsibly states that military to its re-established Mediterranean flotilla. lack of Ukraine’s consent to modernize the Verkhovna Rada should find ways to collab- goods were not supplied or transited from In particular, on September 4, Moscow fleet in Sevastopol, they are likely to be orate and direct efforts to address impor- Russia through the territory of our country deployed the destroyer Smetliviy (http:// based in Novorossiysk (http://m.ria.ru/ tant issues for the state, President Viktor to Syria in 2012-2013,” reads the statement. www.interfax.ru/world/news.asp?id= interview/20130512/936811614.html). Yanukovych said on September 3 in his 326972). Some Sevastopol-based ships On May 18, Interfax quoted a representa- The statement also notes that Ukraine calls speech at the opening of the third session of actually sailed for the Mediterranean via tive of the Russian Ministry of Defense con- on other states to follow the same responsi- the Verkhovna Rada of the seventh convoca- Novorossiysk, Russia, including the radio- firming that because of the lack of Kyiv’s ble approach. The Washington Post, citing a tion. “The new political season begins, and I electronic intelligence ship Priazovye and consent, all new ships and aircraft, includ- report by C4ADS, a Washington-based non- hope that the second half of 2013 will be a the large landing ship Nikolay Filchenkov, ing a Mistral-class helicopter carrier built in profit group, wrote that Ukraine’s time of political understanding, coopera- which left Sevastopol “urgently” to pick up France and named Sevastopol, would be Oktyabrsk Port in the Mykolaiv region is tion, fruitful and timely decisions,” the presi- “special cargo” (http://www.newsru.com/ based in Novorossiysk (http://www.news- one of the key points on the path of Russian dent said, referring in particular to world/06sep2013/filjchenkov.html). ru.com/russia/18may2013/misstral.html). arms to Syria and a dozen other hot spots European integration and acceleration of Meanwhile, RIA Novosti (September 6) Novorossiysk has some advantages for on the planet.