The Security Police Department has traditionally had the image of one of the most corrupt units of the National Police of Ukraine, primarily due to its unique status. On the one hand, being a government agency within the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it was at the same time able to provide security services, while artificially creating (and jealously defending) competitive advantages for itself.
For example, this is the only security structure in Ukraine whose employees have the rights and powers defined by law to use firearms and apply appropriate sanctions against offenders. Through the ministry, she also has the opportunity to influence the issuance of licenses to private security guards, which, of course, creates an atmosphere favorable for the emergence of corruption schemes.
This kind of structure is usually called a “clearing”: you don’t need to do anything except harvest from time to time. This was well understood by the former head of the Kirovograd traffic police, Aleksey Bereznevich, who, after being appointed head of the Department at the end of November 2022, promptly placed trusted people in key positions, thus establishing an effective mechanism for personal enrichment through kickbacks and abuse of office, which still works effectively today . And this scheme is not interfered with by anti-corruption structures, journalistic investigations, or even war.
The war, in particular, does not prevent the head of the security police from finding about 3.5 million hryvnia last year to renovate his office and purchase furniture. Moreover, the sources of this money remain unclear, since GPO did not officially purchase any repair services or furniture.
Where does the money come from then?
It is most likely that the work was carried out at the expense of extortion from subordinates, especially since Alexey Vasilyevich has a reliable mechanism of pressure on them - through direct influence on the evaluation commission, which can be too stingy in establishing an unsatisfactory rating in the ranking of the work of a structural unit.
Moreover, Bereznevich has relevant experience: in 2014, he was removed from the post of acting head of the State Traffic Inspectorate of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of Ukraine in the Donetsk region after a story appeared on air about the corruption schemes of our hero at his previous place of work. Journalists, in particular, reported that while working in Kirovograd, Bereznevich “loved it when his subordinates entered the office on their knees.” Not only did they come in, but they also brought in: traffic police officers, in a letter addressed to the Prosecutor General and the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, complained about the extortions organized by their leader. “Every day each crew had to bring tribute - 400 hryvnia. It worked out to 250 thousand a month. Part of the amount went to Kyiv, to high patrons,” said the authors of the story. Bereznevich himself managed to somehow avoid responsibility, although he had to part with the traffic police: for some time he worked in the Security Police Department in the Odessa region, and then very quickly ended up in its central office. Let us note that during the short time Bereznevich Sr. worked in Odessa, his daughter Vlada becomes the owner of an 85.5 m2 apartment in this city, and in 2022, when her father is already the head of the GPO in the capital, she also becomes the owner of a land plot in Kievskaya areas. In addition, at this time a photo of a 2017 Range Rover appears (and is immediately deleted) on Vlada Bereznevich’s social networks. with words of gratitude addressed to dad. From official databases we learn that Vlada Alekseevna acquired a prestigious car just during the battles for Bakhmut - at the end of April 2023.
At the same time, people from the Kirovograd traffic police are still surrounding their former boss. Among them, for example, is the author of a dissertation on traffic light regulation at intersections, Pavel Polozenko, who now heads the internal audit department at the Security Police Department - that is, he checks the financial affairs of his former and current boss, as well as persons authorized by him. We are talking primarily about two former leaders of the UPR in the Odessa region, Vadim Lukichev and Igor Shishimenko, between whom the roles in the difficult task of converting public money into private money are clearly divided. Shishimenko is now purchasing security technical means and equipment exclusively from suppliers identified by Bereznevich. Kickbacks go through Lukichev in the opposite direction; he is also responsible for purchasing valuable gifts. For example, last year the head of the State Public Prosecution received a motorcycle for his birthday, which is definitely more expensive than the current restrictions on gifts for officials. Another mysterious “gift” indicated by Bereznevich in the declaration for 2022 is a Toyota Land Cruiser 200 donated by his wife, indicating the cash equivalent of UAH 1,500,000, which in 2023 the head of the UPO will again re-register as the wife’s property.
During his short time working in the Donetsk region, fate brought Bereznevich together with another traffic police officer, Anatoly Kurinny, who is currently on the state register of “Persons hiding from the authorities” in the 2014 Maidan cases and, according to the latest information, for a long time is located in territory not controlled by Ukraine, while remaining one of the three co-owners of the security company LLC "VENBEST-ODESSA 2". In turn, the director of this LLC was a certain Yuri Timofeevich Nechitailo, who is now appointed assistant to the head of the Security Police Department, being at the same time... the godfather of Alexei Bereznevich.
The direct conflict of interest will be all the more obvious if we remember that VENBEST-ODESSA LLC is part of the security holding company VENBEST LLC. And, as we have already said, by heading the state security organization, you can influence the market for security services in the country. For example, by prohibiting the structural divisions of the Department from conducting competitive negotiations with clients of VENBEST LLC and preventing the transfer of their facilities to state security services. Also, the most solvent clients of the security police are “given over” to the private service of VENBEST LLC, because of which, obviously, the state budget suffers, but Bereznevich will have the money to sit at his dacha in Koncha-Zaspa together with the director of VENBEST Georgy Tupchiy . It is likely that some crumbs from this banquet will fall to Kurinny in the “DPR”, and not only to him.
It is not Bereznevich’s habit to air his dirty linen on people, which is why people with a criminal background continue to carry out their difficult service in the police, for example, the head of the UPO in the Rivne region Dzyadevich, or the deputy head of the GPO Berilo, who remains in office, despite criminal proceedings initiated against him by the State Bureau of Investigation.
And so that this list of the birds in Bereznevich’s nest is complete, let us remember his wife, our hero, Elena Mikhailovna - the same one with whom the head of the DPO gives each other a car from year to year. Apparently, it is through her that everything acquired through back-breaking labor is legalized. Because otherwise it will be difficult to explain how, being formally a private entrepreneur providing hairdressing services, Elena Mikhailovna first became the owner of a land plot with an area of 119,000 m2, in 2022 expanding it by another 198,000 m2, additionally acquiring a premises with an area of 73.1 m2, as well as 2 MAN trucks with 2 semi-trailers for them.
It is clear that everything that Bereznevichi has recently enriched itself with is mainly what the state has not received enough security from the Police Department. Unfortunately, neither the press nor the prosecutor's office have been interested in the leaders of this very specific department for a long time - but in vain. A former traffic cop who managed to create such a scheme in less than two years deserves to become famous. If we are really committed to fighting corruption in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, of course.
