Generals of Baloga

Generals of Baloga

The Baloga clan, like the Lytvyn family, also received a share of control over the state's security agencies under the overall leadership of Poroshenko.

Our Money reported how the Lytvyn brothers, from the start of the war with Russia, significantly strengthened their positions in the Ministry of Defense with generals from the Border Guard Service, headed by Mykola Lytvyn. However, the Lytvyns at least had prepared starting positions – full control over that same Border Guard Service, representation in the army in the person of Petro Lytvyn, and leadership of the parliamentary national security committee by Volodymyr Lytvyn.

By contrast, Viktor Baloga’s Transcarpathian group until recently could not boast of its people in high positions at the Ministry of Defense. The war changed everything.

Minister of Defense of Ukraine

In 3 July the Rada decided to support Poroshenko’s submission to appoint Valeriy Heletey as Minister of Defense of Ukraine. The public and experts were surprised why, of all people, the head of the country’s defense ministry—when the country is in a state of de facto war—would be appointed a twice chief bodyguard of high officials with long conscript service in the First Chief Directorate of the KGB of the USSR and a purely police background.

A product of Baloga’s patronage, UBOZ police colonel Valeriy Heletey in 2006 year went to work for the Presidential Secretariat headed by Baloga and immediately received the rank of police major general. In 2007 year, after heading the State Guard Administration (UDO), Heletey received not a special police rank but the military rank of major general. That same year he received lieutenant general, and in 2008 year – colonel general.

From the histories of Heletey’s participation in combat actions during his first command of the UDO one can recall perhaps only the confrontation between his UDO officers and the Berkut led by Vasyl Tsushko. In that epic battle at the Prosecutor General’s Office the UDO officers were thoroughly defeated, Heletey’s jacket was torn, and Tsushko, who thereby “saved Ukraine,” briefly received the post of Minister of Economy during Yanukovych’s presidency and from December 2010 until 26 March of this year headed the costly Antimonopoly Committee.

Heletey’s star waned after Baloga’s dismissal from the Presidential Secretariat in May 2009 year. From that time until today he worked in banking at Mykhailo Hrinshpon’s Avant-Bank.

His blood brother, Volodymyr Heletey, meanwhile served in the police in Zakarpattia as deputy head of the local UBOZ. There is information that Volodymyr Heletey now already performs the duties of head of the Zakarpattia SBU regional office. In a region where there is no one who hasn’t heard of Baloga and the smuggling with which the SBU must, among other things, contend.

And a little less than a year ago Volodymyr’s daughter and Valeriy Heletey’s niece, Edita, married Viktor Baloga’s eldest son Andriy, officially joining the police and the Transcarpathian business-official families.

Leasing a military airfield during the war

Heletey’s second brief return to the UDO occurred in March of this year. There is one event that links both of Heletey’s tenures in the UDO and went almost unnoticed.

It concerns the transfer into 49-year lease to private structures of the property of the neglected military airfield “Uzyne,” which began back in 2009 year—in the midst of the war between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko.

BYuT deputies accused Heletey and Baloga of organizing the removal of the Uzyne airfield from state administration; in the Soviet era this airfield was an extremely powerful strategic aviation base. For some reason this airfield in 2005 year was transferred to the management of the UDO on the balance sheet of the State Enterprise “Ukrainian Center for Training Guards.”

In the competition for the right to a 49-year lease of the airfield, organized by the State Property Fund in 2009 year at the request of the UDO subordinate to Heletey, the previously unknown Ltd. “East-West Transport Group” and Ltd. “Uzyne Trans” won. Baloga’s and Heletey’s opponents said that these firms’ victory allegedly occurred with direct assistance from Baloga and Heletey. Supposedly, they had designs on 762,7 hectares of land under the former military facility 60 kilometers from Kyiv.

The founders of East-West Transport Group were Volodymyr Pasika, Yuriy Struk and the Ltd. “Cargo Service Ukraine” of Serhiy Remniov and Davyd Sariya, son-in-law of Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz;

The founders of Uzyne Trans were Ltd. “Ukrinvestforum” and SE “LD-Ukraine.” The owners of the first, through a chain of founders, were Yuriy Lytvynenko, Volodymyr Brunko, Canadian Yevhen Kogan and the American firm Angj Group Corp. LD-Ukraine is a subsidiary of the London firm Leo Developments Limited.

On Tymoshenko’s instruction that same 2009 year the State Property Fund halted the signing of the airfield lease, after which a multiyear legal battle began between the competition winner and the SPFU.

And now, in the midst of hostilities in Donbas, the situation is such that the right to lease the military airfield this year is indeed being granted to those same Ltd. East-West Transport Group and Ltd. Uzyne-Trans. Although the Fund filed a cassation appeal to the Higher Economic Court, after the first court victories of the private firms the Ministry of Defense announced the restoration of neglected military airfields. The Uzyne airfield, of course, is not on the list for restoration.

And no movements by Defense Minister Heletey, who advises preparing for a Great Patriotic War, in the direction of returning the Uzyne airfield to the army have been found.

Junior prosecutor turned SBU officer

In addition to the head of the defense ministry, Baloga managed to promote another valuable cadre to the top defense power echelons.

This concerns the recently appointed Chief Military Prosecutor Anatoliy Matios. From now on, oversight of compliance with the law by all military formations without exception will be carried out by the younger brother of Yushchenko’s favorite writer and UDAR deputy Mariya Matios.

Anatoliy Matios began his career in the prosecutor’s office in 1997 year and by 2007 year had risen to head of a department of the Kyiv prosecutor’s office. From there he was dismissed, but in 2008 year he suddenly received the rank of major general and headed the Lviv SBU regional administration. That same year, immediately after the arrest of the judge-caroler Ihor Zvarych, Matios was transferred to lead the Odesa SBU regional office.

In May 2009 year, following Baloga’s resignation, Matios was dismissed from his leadership position in the Odesa SBU and transferred to the SBU central apparatus as first deputy of the Main Directorate “K.” A year later Matios’s SBU career ended.

In 2010 year Matios headed the electoral list for Baloga’s One Center to the Lviv Regional Council, however, he did not receive a deputy’s mandate. Instead he became deputy head of the Main Control Department of President Viktor Yanukovych’s Administration, which was headed by Serhiy Lyovochkin.

And already under Poroshenko, from 27 August, Matios received the highest post overseeing all military formations of Ukraine.

So far the only truly high-profile achievement of Matios in his new post has been the detention and arrest of Battalion Prykarpattia commander Viktor Komar on charges of military crimes – desertion, disobedience in a combat situation, connected with the unit’s abandonment of its positions. Moreover, according to official NSDC information, the battalion abandoned its positions by order of the Chief of the General Staff.

However, from the military prosecutors there are no complaints heard against figures such as Colonel General Petro Lytvyn (under the tags “desertion” and “treason”). And mentioning the Uzyne airport is even considered bad form.

So for now we note another fact: not only Lytvyn and his people, but also Baloga and his friends are doing just fine. Recall the cable-television firm Ekran, which we already mentioned in the article about the Lytvyn generals. For a long time the owners of that company were representatives of the business group of the current president Petro Poroshenko, the son of the former speaker Ivan Lytvyn and Ivan Romaniuk, a Transcarpathian businessman and partner of Baloga’s Barva.

Volodymyr Lyutyi, for Our Money