The youngest candidate for MP turned out to be Kaletnik’s daughter. The CEC published the list of the “Opposition Bloc” party

The youngest candidate for MP turned out to be Kaletnik’s daughter. The CEC published the list of the “Opposition Bloc” party

The Central Election Commission published the list of the political party “Opposition Bloc.” 224 candidates for MPs were registered from this party.

The list of candidates for People’s Deputies in the early elections to the Verkhovna Rada from this political force was somewhat surprising.

In particular, the absence of Yefremov in the top ten (it should be noted that there is no candidate at number 10 on the list — ed.), but the presence of Okhendovskyi. This list includes 12 incumbent People’s Deputies. In position 34 is former CEC head Mykhailo Okhendovskyi, who was suspected of receiving more than $160 thousand in bribes in the case of the Party of Regions’ “black accounting.” At position 10 was supposed to be Oleksandr Yefremov.

But the CEC stated that this is impossible: the law allows candidates to be removed from a list approved at a congress, but does not allow adding new ones after the established date, in this case — after 10 June. At that congress, at number 10 was Volodymyr Pylypenko, a former Verkhovna Rada deputy (an ally of former Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration during Yanukovych’s time Andrii Portnov).

In the final list he is also absent. In the top ten are well-known pro-Russian politicians. The top spot goes to Yevheniy Murayev, in second place — Oleksandr Vilkul. The top three is rounded out by Hennadiy Kernes. Fourth — Hennadiy Trukhanov, fifth — Vadym Boychenko, sixth — Rostyslav Shurma, seventh — Bohdan Andriiv, eighth — Volodymyr Buriak, ninth — Anatoliy Vershyna, and closing the party’s top ten, though in eleventh place, is Vitaliy Khomutynnik. Vitaliy Khomutynnik and Yevheniy Heller (who ended up at position 12 on the list — ed.) — close associates of oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky — unexpectedly are going to the Rada on the party list, not through “nurtured” single-mandate districts.

It turns out that Kolomoisky’s close associates decided not to run in single-mandate districts. Another interesting fact: in sixteenth place on the list is Turkanova Vladyslava Ihorivna, born 1995. She will likely be the youngest MP of the new convocation of parliament, if, of course, the political force gains enough votes. But the point here is different.

Vladyslava Ihorivna Turkanova is the elder daughter of Ihor Kaletnik, First Vice-Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada in 2012–2014, who took part in the vote on the “dictatorial laws” on 16 January 2014. According to our information, last year Vladyslava changed her surname. Also registered for these early parliamentary elections is Hryhoriy Kaletnik, Ihor Kaletnik’s father. He intends to run for the Rada in single-mandate majoritarian district No. 18 in the Vinnytsia region. On the CEC website he is already registered as a candidate.

Kaletnik Hryhoriy Mykolayovych is an MP of several convocations who also participated in the adoption of the dictatorial laws on 16 January 2014, and was head of the Vinnytsia Regional Council and Regional State Administration in 1998–2005. Perhaps this is almost the only case when grandfather and granddaughter Kaletniks are running in elections at the same time. According to an insider, if a Kaletnik appears on the party list it is clearly a quota of Khomutynnik, who had joint schemes with Kaletnik at the customs service during his tenure as Director of the Department for Combating Customs Offenses of the State Customs Service of Ukraine (February 2005 – April 2005).