After Shurma was appointed to the Office of the President as Ermak’s deputy, several journalists from the Ukrayinska Pravda publication vied with each other on various broadcasts to praise Rostislav: what a successful acquisition he was, and how difficult it was to persuade his wife to allow him to go into government service. It was as if the dollar millionaire really wanted to quit his business in order to receive 20-30 thousand UAH in the Office of the President. But my wife let me go.
Then, probably, the budgets for praise ran out and in the same “UP” they suddenly remembered how at the beginning of 20, Shurma wanted to get into Goncharuk’s government. The SBU then put a characterization on the President’s desk: “Overseer” of the Zaporozhye region from Rinat Akhmetov, involved in criminal cases of bribery of voters and theft of the city and regional budget, etc. To which Zelensky said to Shurma’s lobbyists: “Why are you giving me these corrupt officials?”
The appointment did not take place, but the lobbyists did not give up trying. At 21, Ermak took him on as a freelance adviser, and Zelensky signed an appointment to the supervisory board of Ukroboronprom. Later he received the position of Deputy of the Presidential Office and the economic sector of entire industries and enterprises began to fall into his sphere of influence. He completely controls the activities of Energy Minister German Galushchenko. Then he was given many nationalized assets, where he placed his people, such as: Motor Sich OJSC, Zaporozhye Transformer Plant, KrAZ, Sense Bank and a number of regional power companies. And since August 2023, he has been in conflict with the head of Naftogaz, Alexey Chernyshev, over an extremely interesting asset: Viktor Medvedchuk’s GLUSCO gas station network, which is now called U.GO. But to cover the whole topic, you need to start from the very beginning.
Biography of Rostislav Shurma
Although at first we will not even talk about him, but about his father, Igor Shurma. Because Rostislav Shurma is not a “self-made” manager or businessman. This is the product of agreements between Igor Shurma and the Medvedchuk brothers (yes, godfather #uyla has a brother).
Igor Shurma
Igor Shurma was a physician by training and by the collapse of the Soviet Union he held quite good positions in the nomenklatura - he headed the Lviv Regional Health Trade Union. Through several management positions in private companies, by 1996 he had formed an entire network of pharmacies, managed through the company Dekada-Lvov LLC. And since 1998, he took the position of head of the planning and personnel training department of the Lviv regional health care department.
The head of the tax office of the Lviv region since 1997 has been Sergei Medvedchuk. Who introduced Igor Shurma to his brother Viktor and in 1999 he joined the SDPU(o) party.
The influence and financial resources of the Medvedchuks opened all doors for the Shurma family. In 1999, Rostislav Shurma was sent to study not just anywhere, but to the elite Kiev-Mohyla Academy to major in economics and entrepreneurship. After graduation, he was immediately hired as a financial manager at the Ukrainian branch of Procter & Gamble. Then a position in the consulting company BCG and in 2006 he found himself in Metinvest of the oligarch Akhmetov, who was friendly to Medvedchuk. Where he received the position of financial director of the Makeevka Metallurgical Plant.
"Zaporizhstal"
Rostislav Shurma was not remembered until 2012. Until Akhmetov decided to acquire the large metallurgical plant “Zaporozhstal”, which also included “Zaporozhye ZhRK”, “Zaporozhogneupor” and “Zaporozhkoks”. Negotiations have been going on since 2010, and although agreements were reached with all shareholders and preliminary agreements were signed, some unnamed Russians intervened in the deal through the Russian state-owned Vnesheconombank. The deal was, of course, accompanied by Viktor Medvedchuk. Some unnamed Russians received 50% of the assets, and Metinvest admitted ownership of 49% and another 1% was received by “a certain group of unnamed investors,” behind which it is quite possible to assume Medvedchuk’s ears sticking out.
The question arose, how to manage such controversial assets? And the compromise figure was Rostislav Shurma, who already worked at Metinvest.
Party "Opposition Bloc" (future OPZZH).
After the Revolution of Dignity, the “regionals” decided to reformat. Akhmetov, owning a number of large enterprises in the region, decided to gain full control over it and Rostislav Shurma, whom Akhmetov for some reason continued to consider as his man, became the local head of the Opposition Bloc party. Generous financial injections and forced employees of enterprises did their job - Zaporozhye came under complete control, like most cities in the region.
Akhmetov believed that his “effective managers” would show good results and thus ensure good results for the party in the elections. But everything turned out to be completely different - Shurma placed his people in key positions and began plundering the region.
A wave of publications about corruption violations was considered the machinations of political competitors, until an investigation came out that Rostislav Shurma even stole from Akhmetov . Where we were talking about the purchase of ilmenite ore, which Ukrainian specialists adapted to increase the efficiency of steel smelting.
Rostislav Shurma, together with financial director Ruslan Bozhko, commercial director Vladimir Baida and head of the security service Tatyana Bushman, who were supposed to keep an eye on Shurma, organized their own purchases of ilmenite ore at inflated prices from a poorer deposit.
And those same “anonymous Russians” with Viktor Medvedchuk could have pushed them into this scheme and covered them up. The purchases were made jointly with the Slovak company Minerfin, which currently supplies rails to Ukrzaliznytsia at inflated prices .
Bozhko and Baida lost their positions at Zaporizhstal, but Shurma provided them with political positions. It was politically unprofitable to fire Shurma, but he no longer made any independent decisions at the plant. Yes, he didn’t really need it anymore.
All contracts and tenders, flows from utility companies in the Zaporozhye region flowed into the pocket of Shurma and his accomplices. Ruslan Bozhko purchased an office building where his company Astra Capital Group was formally located, but where directors of utility companies and deputies of local councils came to report.
Having control over deputies of local councils, they received huge amounts of real estate and land for literally pennies.
In Zaporozhye, Rostislav Shurma received a number of land plots and began construction of apartment buildings and parking lots, a plot for a supermarket, through pressure from deputies of the land commission, he forced the sale of an unfinished office building near Konstantin Grigorishin in the center of the year at a large discount. Rostislav Shurma registered most of the loot in his investment fund “Helios”.
In the region, he received a share in the Tokmak Solar Energy company of Pshonka’s accomplice and former SBU officer Alexander Repkin and a number of land plots to expand the business. Along the way, he opened his own companies in the field of solar energy:
- LLC "KD Energy 2" and LLC "Restorative Energy of Zaporozhye" - registered in the name of Shurma's brother Oleg
- PE “Natsprod”, whose station is mentioned on the corporate website among the “green” projects of Oleg Shurma and partners;
- Green Energy Tokmak LLC and Grandpower LLC LLC - co-owner is Ruslan Bozhko.
Who became the subjects of a journalistic investigation into receiving budget money after the occupation of generating capacities. https://izdato.net/news/politics/item/2534-na-zamenu-shmygalyu-gotovyat-korruptsionera-rostislava-shurmu-svyazannogo-s-viktorom-medvedchukom1
