Pavlo Shevchenko – Vladyslav Kryklii’s Assistant in Shadow Schemes or Their Organizer?

Pavlo Shevchenko is Vladyslav Krykliy's puppet for shadow schemes or their organizer?

In league with former Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Krykliy, Pavlo Shevchenko is mentioned most often.

More precisely, Shevchenko is described as the person who generated ideas and controlled the activities of the so‑called “shadow office” of Krykliy, through which the latter essentially lost his portfolio.

The “shadow office” is an informal structure that, during Krykliy’s tenure as infrastructure minister, made all major decisions that the ministry would then stamp. Essentially, it was a corruption scheme earning money for the minister, tying together all questions within the ministry’s remit that could yield profit.

It is known that through this “office” permits for road transport were processed, shadow streams from “Ukrtransbazpeka” were distributed, tender schemes on railways were supervised, documents for sailors were processed through the State Maritime and River Transport Service (this scheme was exposed by the SBU in 2021 year), requests for renting premises owned by the ministry were resolved, certification of automotive gas equipment, international shipments, and so on up to infinity. In general – everything that could bring potential benefit and where a corruption component could be embedded.

And it was Pavlo Shevchenko who was named the real minister, indicating Krykliy which documents to sign and what decisions to make. And it was to Pavlo Shevchenko that well‑informed people came for “resolving issues.”

Strangely, very little is known about Pavlo Shevchenko himself. Which, again, speaks in his favor – smart people prefer to earn in the shadows and not stand out. There is no reliable image of Pavlo Shevchenko. There are several photos on the Internet claimed to show him, but the problem is that the people in them are different. This leads to quite interesting thoughts in our digital age.

What is known about Pavlo Shevchenko is that he worked in the MVS system, where he was a lawyer at the Main Service Center headed by Vladyslav Krykliy. Supposedly that is where the future leaders of the “shadow office” of the Ministry of Infrastructure met.

Love for various schemes brought them together, which Krykliy began to admire precisely when building the work of Service Centers: Vladyslav Krykliy – a rising star of corrupt schemes again rushing back into power?

Why Shevchenko did not hold an official position, at least as an advisor to Krykliy, is unknown. Perhaps because he is truly a smart person and anticipated all risks. What mechanism of influence on Vladyslav Krykliy, besides money, Pavlo Shevchenko has, is also unknown. But money is clearly not all, he dutifully carried out the orders of his “shadow boss” the Infrastructure Minister Krykliy.

Sources from Krykliy’s inner circle claimed that the minister’s obedience was because Shevchenko generated ideas about corrupt earnings and knew how to quickly understand the schemes by which ancestors in the ministry earned money and which they did not want to share with the new head.

It is Shevchenko who is credited with unraveling the tangle of corruption schemes in the scandalous “Ukrtransbezpeka,” where for several years a close associate of Andriy Parubiy – former Maidan commander Mykhailo Nonyak – could not be expelled. According to sources, Shevchenko allegedly immediately understood what Nonyak earned on, which allowed Krykliy to calmly dismiss all deputies of the notorious head without fear of losing experience.

Shevchenko is credited with resolving the situation with the Administration of Ukrainian Ports (AMP) where in autumn 2019 year a competition to fill the position of head was to be held. It seems Krykliy’s ally did not like his results and organized a repeat competition. As a result, the shadow streams flowing from AMP to Krykliy’s pocket were preserved.

Under Shevchenko’s influence, purchases by “Ukrzaliznytsia” also came under control. It was not easy, since the autonomy of Yevhen Kravtsov, dismissed in January 2020 year as head of the company, hindered unraveling how shadow schemes and streams on procurement worked. Moreover, the middle level resisted. Yet Ukrzaliznytsia managed to be brought under control.

Among smaller matters that Shevchenko was able to transfer under his competence, sources named mandatory certification of automotive gas equipment – from February 2020 year the procedure for re‑registering a car equipped with an LPG system significantly rose in price. Documents that previously were provided by installers of LPG for vehicle registration at the Service Centers of the MVS ended up illegal.

In Service Centers they began to require other documents, which would take longer and cost about 2500 – 3000 hryvnias. Previously everyone received Technical Expert Actes, which cost much less (about 230 hryvnias) and were issued for standard installations simply at service stations that converted cars to LPG. Formally, the reason for the new rules was that all laboratories 19 December 2019 year had expired the certificate of conformity for conducting expertise. And their authorized bodies did not rush to extend.

As you can see, all genius is simple. This is exactly what Pavlo Shevchenko smartly understood and applied. And under every decision was the signature of the Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy, who was eventually dismissed by the “servants” he eagerly served – Krykliy left for the post of minister from the deputies of “SN” (number 12 in the list).

However, the collaboration of the two young talents of corruption did not end there. They apparently still have patrons in the MVS system, from which they both came. It is known that Pavlo Shevchenko and Vladyslav Krykliy through intermediaries control at least two firms that regularly win tenders for procurement in the MVS. These are LLC “Svitlofor” (EDRPOU 32950656) and LLC “Avtovin” (38675581).

LLC “Avtovin” from 2016 year, i.e., from the moment Krykliy began supervising the work of the Service Centers of the MVS, began regularly winning tenders for supplying automotive equipment to various state structures.

The peak came when Krykliy took the post of Minister of Infrastructure, but even after his resignation “Avtovin” did not lose its positions – within six months 2022 year it had already received from the state more than 11 million hryvnias. And this is far from army vehicle supply; it is mainly communal equipment. In total over six years LLC “Avtovin” sold the country cars for more than 130 million hryvnias.

LLC “Svitlofor” supplies the MVS with various road signs:

As the chart shows, the most successful year for “Svitlofor” was also the “ministry” year – in 2020 year it received from the state almost 181 million. And there is no reason to complain about the rest – over these years the state paid the firm 665 million hryvnias.

Thus it is no surprise that Pavlo Shevchenko is called a very smart man. And it is certainly not a coincidence that he does not “shine” publicly, unlike his boss or, conversely, his puppet, Vladyslav Krykliy.

When considering the financial successes of the two firms mentioned above, note that they are under sanctions by the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, the European Union and the domestic NSDC for involvement in financing Russia’s war against our country:

In addition, they have an extremely controversial reputation in the media:

However, as is not surprising in our country, all these sanctions did not prevent the firms from receiving state orders. A possible answer to why these orders were so generously distributed by the “green” authorities could be that in Krykliy–Shevchenko’s shadow office, located in the Sofia business center near Sofia Square and the Bohdan Khmelnytsky Monument, was a frequent guest the head of the presidential faction Davyd Arakhamia.

Perhaps thanks to Arakhamia, the “servants” did not deprive their partners even after Krykliy’s resignation. Yes, the flows reduced somewhat – as the new minister also wants to eat and also owes someone for his appointment – but they decided not to offend the old, trusted corrupts.

Or perhaps the secret lies in the genius of the shadow minister Pavlo Shevchenko, who managed to build the schemes in such a way that it is simply impossible to remove him from them. And at the same time he kept the necessary documents that allow him to hold in his hands all those who ensured the flows passing through the “shadow office” – because it did not exist in a vacuum, not for nothing did Arakhamiya himself visit there? Moreover, it is not for nothing that the closest associate and comrade of Pavlo Shevchenko, Vladyslav Krykliy, who was driven from the post of minister precisely because of these schemes, was merely reprimanded a little by President Zelensky.