“Where were you when the system was becoming like this?”: Shpyliovyi addressed Fedorov

Kostyantyn Shpyliovyi addressed Mykhailo Fedorov after his public appeal. In his post, Shpyliovyi stated that for two months his team studied Fedorov’s activity, entourage, and connections, and urged the politician to publicly answer a number of questions.

Kostyantyn Shpyliovyi, who calls himself the head of a detective agency, published an appeal to Mykhailo Fedorov. According to him, the trigger was a video address by the official that thousands watched the day before.

Shpyliovyi noted that he watched the address “differently,” because, in his words, the last two months his team systematically studied Fedorov’s activity, his entourage, connections, decisions, and the histories of people who have been associated with him over the years.

“That is why I listened not only to what you said. I also listened to what you kept silent about. And after two months of this work we know more about your political and administrative biography than most of those who watched this video yesterday,” wrote Shpyliovyi.

He also mentioned Fedorov’s work in the Ukrainian government from 2019 year and emphasized that he was deputy prime minister and minister.

“From 2019 year you did not look at the Ukrainian government from the window. You were inside. Deputy prime minister. Minister. One of the people whom this power trusted the most. So the question is not what happened with the system. Mykhailo, where were you when the system became like this?”—the appeal says.

Separately, Shpyliovyi urged Fedorov to answer questions about the work of companies connected with his close circle and with state structures.

“If today we are already talking about personal loyalty, friends’ interests, and state money, also tell us about Konotopets. Calmly. Like grown-ups,” he said.

Next Shpyliovyi posed a series of questions about possible state contracts:

“Which companies connected to your inner circle worked with the state during the war? Which received contracts? On what terms? Who made the decisions?”

At the same time he noted that in the absence of violations the published figures could strengthen the official’s position.

“Because friendship is a private matter. A state contract is a public matter,” wrote Shpyliovyi.

In his appeal he also sharply evaluated Fedorov’s political image, comparing him to American entrepreneur Elon Musk and Ukrainian politicians Petro Poroshenko and Mikheil Saakashvili.

“Mykhailo, you could have become Ukraine’s Elon Musk. Instead you became Petro Poroshenko, with a touch of former Mikheil Saakashvili’s eccentricity. What a pity,” the post says.

Separately, Shpyliovyi urged Fedorov to specify whom exactly he considers representatives of the “old system.”

“You speak of the ‘old system.’ Name the surnames,” he wrote.

According to Shpyliovyi, accountability for decisions should be personal and not shifted onto the abstract notion of the “system.”

At the end of the address he suggested that Fedorov publicly formulate his own accountability for his period in government:

“I have been in government since 2019 year. Here is what I personally answer for.”

Shpyliovyi closed the post with:

“The hardest thing for a politician is not to respond to an opponent. The hardest thing is to respond to one’s own biography. The government rarely fears the opposition. The government fears its own biography much more.”

Also read: the head of the tax committee called Fedorov’s activity in the gambling sector a “criminal group.”