Orbits of Vadym Stolar: whom the former regional and "gray cardinal" of Kyiv is leading to the Verkhovna Rada

Orbits of Vadym Stolar: whom the former regional and "gray cardinal" of Kyiv is leading to the Verkhovna Rada

For the past five years, politician and entrepreneur Vadym Stolar has been called the "gray cardinal" of Kyiv. Although all this time he was an unpublic figure without an official position, the media often mentioned his name.

Ukrainska Pravda, citing sources, reported that Stolar ran the BPP election headquarters in Kyiv. Media also noted that the politician organized Mayor Vitali Klitschko’s work, planned his business meetings, and influenced decisions. He also appointed the necessary people to responsible positions in the capital.

Now people from Stolar’s team are on the party lists of both former regionals and former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. In addition, single-member constituency candidates will test their chances in Kyiv’s districts.

Stolar himself refused direct work with voters in Obolon, where he tried several times to enter the Rada, and will likely get into parliament via the party list. He is No.11 on the "Opposition Platform — For Life" list and has decent chances of becoming an MP, since about 11% of voters are ready to vote for the party. Thus the top twenty could quite possibly receive parliamentary mandates.

Rukh CHESNO analyzes party lists and has already identified about a dozen candidates who have various ties to Vadym Stolar.

But before listing members of Stolar’s team on party lists, let us recall what this person is remembered by Kyiv residents for.

Developer from Obolon — No. 11 on the "For Life" list

Vadym Stolar is a former people’s deputy and a member of the Party of Regions (2010–2012 years). In 2012 he ran for the Verkhovna Rada of the VII convocation as an independent in single-member constituency No.217 in Obolon in Kyiv (Obolon is the politician’s native district, where he spent his childhood), but lost to the Batkivshchyna candidate Oleksandr Bryhynets.

During the Maidan, namely in the winter and spring of 2014, Stolar headed the patronage service of the head of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA).

Stolar is associated with the early-2000s "Elita-Center" fraud and the scandalous construction of a trade-and-office center on Bohdan Khmelnytsky Street, 7 (now the Museum of the History of Kyiv).

In 2017 journalists spotted Vadym Stolar on a private plane from Naples together with Mayor Vitali Klitschko and people’s deputy Maksym Mykytas. A year earlier, in July 2016, journalists managed to record Stolar arriving by charter with another well-known Kyiv developer — Ihor Kushnir.

In February 2019, the outlet Nashi Hroshi claimed that Stolar and partners would build a high-rise right on the parking lot near the Palace "Ukraine" — the company Ukrzhytlobud, which is linked to Stolar, received permission from the KCSA to build a multifunctional complex in the city’s historic part.

For the past five years Vadym Stolar has been called the "gray cardinal of Kyiv," allegedly ruling the city not by the elected mayor but by his unpublic associate.

During the elections in 2015, Stolar brought several of his deputies into the Kyiv City Council.

Among them are Nataliya Prykhodko, who was subordinate to Stolar during his time in the patronage service, and Liudmyla Kostenko, who is connected to the businessman’s family. A connection can also be traced between the developer and Kyiv deputy Vladyslav Mykhailenko. Stolar and Mykhailenko had reception offices in Obolon at the same address.

However, Stolar’s influence extended beyond the capital. In December last year, journalists reported that three times in three months they witnessed businessman Stolar visiting the Presidential Administration, each time attempting to hide the visit. Later, the PA assured: Poroshenko did not meet with Stolar.

In Medvedchuk’s company

Now, besides Stolar himself, several of his people are running to the Verkhovna Rada with the "Opposition Platform — For Life" party.

For example, Dmytro Isaienko (No.15) is considered close to him.

This person spent almost his entire life in government positions: until 2007 he worked at the Ministry of Defense, including as head of the Central Specialized Construction Administration, and in 2007–2015 he was deputy minister of regional development, construction and housing and communal services of Ukraine.

Isaienko also served as a deputy of the Kyiv City Council, where in 2006 he was elected from the party list of Oleksandr Pabat’s "Civic Activists of Kyiv." Media report how Isaienko transferred Ministry of Defense sites into the ownership of the Kyiv City Council, and Oleksandr Pabat, through Kyiv Council decisions, provided allied construction corporations with land plots for subsequent development. A company close to Isaienko, UNR PIB, in 2011–2012 won multi-million tenders for the expansion of the presidential residence Synyhora in the village of Huta, Ivano-Frankivsk region.

For an official, Isaienko is quite a wealthy person. In his declaration for 2013 he indicated income of 20,49 million UAH. In addition, journalists found that Isaienko lives in an estate in the prestigious Kozyn settlement, which is 25 km from Kyiv.

He is also known for obtaining ATO participant status while serving as deputy minister of housing and communal services to avoid lustration. He later told journalists that for three months, risking his life, he managed construction of military fortifications. After the scandal in the Verkhovna Rada, Isaienko lost his position.

Since 2015, Isaienko has been vice president of the Confederation of Builders of Ukraine.

By Stolar’s quota to parliament also goes the first deputy head of the permanent Kyiv City Council commission on urban planning and land relations, Ihor Kisilov (No.18).

In 2015 he ran and was elected in constituency 118 of the Shevchenkivskyi district from the party "Yednist."

In 2016 an absent-card vote in the Kyiv Council by Kisilov was cast by an aide of his colleague from the "Yednist" faction, Kostiantyn Yalovyi. In the city council, where a sensor button is implemented, this caused a major scandal and forced deputies to re-vote on most issues.

No.26 on the "Opposition Platform — For Life" list is Nataliya Prykhodko.

She has worked with Vadym Stolar for years.

First, from 2010 to 2012, when Vadym Stolar was a people’s deputy, Prykhodko worked in the apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, i.e., she was his assistant.

Second, in the winter–spring of 2014 she was deputy head of the KCSA patronage service. At that time it was headed by Vadym Stolar (this was during Volodymyr Makeyenko’s chairmanship of the KCSA).

Third, since 2014 she was deputy head of the administration — head of the organizational and document support department of the Kyiv city mayor’s office, and in the autumn of 2015 Prykhodko became a Kyiv City Council deputy (she still belongs to the "Solidarity" faction), winning in an Obolon constituency that is part of the area where Stolar ran in 2012.

During her Kyiv City Council campaign she probably believed voters could be bought with cotton candy and cutlets, so she treated children and held parties for adults, and also reopened sports and children’s playgrounds that the former regional once equipped.

While serving as a deputy she actively cooperated with residents of the constituency: she painted their benches, created small parks and even paid out financial assistance. She was also a frequent guest at Secondary School No.252, located within her district.

Before the presidential elections Prykhodko’s activists campaigned for Petro Poroshenko.

No.34 is Mykhailo Nakonechnyi, former head of Kyiv’s "Zelenbud." He served from August 2016 and in April 27 2018 was dismissed at his own request. But the real reason for his dismissal is said to be numerous criminal proceedings against officials of Kyivzelenbud.

He was once an aide to MP Viktor Pylypyshyn of the Party of Regions.

Poroshenko’s company

On Petro Poroshenko’s "European Solidarity" list there are at least three people close to Vadym Stolar. These are Iryna Nikorak and Serhiy Alekseiev. Also expected to run in single-member constituency No.217 is Liudmyla Kostenko, who is also close to Stolar.

Serhiy Alekseiev is No.20 on the list. He is a current convocation people’s deputy from BPP-Solidarity, a button-pressing MP, and a subject of anti-corruption investigations: he did not declare a contribution in favor of the party, and his firm also appeared in proceedings concerning tax evasion and embezzlement of property entrusted to officials.

It is known that Alekseiev is a good friend of the Klitschko brothers. Since 2011 he has been president of the public organization "Fan Club of the Klitschko Brothers."

Earlier Alekseiev owned the law firm "Alekseiev, Boyarchukov & Partners."

Alekseiev may be connected to Stolar through Klitschko. In addition, MP Viktor Chumak has spoken about the connection.

Iryna Nikorak — No. 26 — is also connected to Stolar.

Since 2014 she has been a paid assistant-consultant to people’s deputy of the VIII convocation Oleksandr Prysyazhniuk ("People’s Front" faction). In October 2015 she ran for the city council and was elected from constituency 64 of the Obolon district as a non-party candidate from BPP "Solidarity." She is now a member of the permanent Kyiv City Council commission on budget and socio-economic development.

The connection to Vadym Stolar can be traced by two points.

First, Nikorak is married to Emil Solovyov.

According to open sources, Solovyov worked and works in the construction sector. He manages and managed several companies, including KAN Development, which built the residential quarter "Faina Town."

Emil Solovyov was also listed as an assistant-consultant to people’s deputies, including the VI convocation deputy Vadym Stolar.

Second, as a city deputy Nikorak now has a public reception office in the same premises with other deputies influenced by Vadym Stolar — Nataliya Prykhodko, Liudmyla Kostenko, Vladyslav Mykhailenko.

In constituency No.217 the incumbent Kyiv City Council deputy Liudmyla Kostenko is expected to run.

Kostenko is known for entering the Kyiv City Council in 2014 from the Radical Party of Oleh Liashko, becoming secretary of the permanent commission on family, youth and sports, and then in 2015 she ran from "Solidarity."

During her campaign Kostenko, like Prykhodko, opened playgrounds that, at the request of local residents who collected signatures, had been installed by then-deputy Vadym Stolar with the logo of his public organization. Sometimes organizers did not even have time to replace the entrance signs before the opening — so they remained with the logo of Vadym Stolar’s foundation — people with raised hands.

She recently attended the European Solidarity congress. In the photo — she is next to Iryna Nikorak.

chesno.org