Elena Duma and “Gulliver”

Recently, scandals have not subsided around the Asset Development and Management Agency (ARMA). For weeks, the information space has been stormy with reports of strange coincidences between the interests of fugitive traitors, such as Medvedchuk, and the inaction (or maybe precisely the activity) of the head of the department, Elena Duma. A new episode was the story of the fugitive ex-minister Alexander Klimenko.

The media wrote about how Elena Duma found herself at the center of a scandal due to the fact that thanks to her actions, or rather inaction, Ukraine almost lost the yacht of ex-traitor Medvedchuk, and the latter was one step away from getting his property back.

Some observers said that the Duma almost deliberately acted in favor of Medvedchuk, although most are inclined to think that this was just official negligence. Law enforcement officers should have sorted it out. But to the question of who benefits from not selling the yacht, there is only one answer – Medvedchuk. Just like the lack of expert assessments of his collections - I already wrote about this here.

Now ARMA is trying with all its might to take control of the capital's CFK Gulliver. Let me remind you that there is a real corporate war going on around this asset. Many have already written about this.

From the latter, a petition appeared on the Cabinet of Ministers website asking to nationalize the Gulliver business center and place a rehabilitation center for veterans in it. As it turned out, such a petition was initiated by the people of the former minister of the Yanukovych era, Alexander Klimenko, who, like Medvedchuk, is suspected of treason. And the sensitive topic about the rehabilitation center was simply cynically used. According to our information, the real goal of Klimenko’s agents is to take control of a complex in the center of the capital through a front company.

The game takes place at different levels and is sometimes quite subtle - through the motivation of “bureaucratic slowness”, inaction or, on the contrary, active intervention in favor of the potential beneficiary.

Investigators claim that the head of ARMA, Elena Duma, is not only drawn into this game, but is also one of the leading players. Her department is key in managing the assets of traitors and collaborators. According to her job function, she cannot be outside this game.

Some bloggers have already accused the Duma of using its official position to ensure the transfer of CFK Gulliver to the management of structures associated with Klimenko. It is usually easiest to disguise such actions as “protection of state interests.”

I don’t yet undertake to evaluate the level of cooperation between ARMA and Klimenko’s team. There are still some unanswered questions. However, given the previous cases of Elena Duma, especially with Medvedchuk’s property, fair concerns arise. Is Elena Duma really acting in the interests of the state, or is she playing along with her former clients?

Let me remind you that a year ago Transparency International Ukraine stated that the appointment of Elena Duma could put an end to ARMA. The public also assumed that Elena Duma had contacts with Oleg Kulinich, the ex-head of the Crimean department of the SBU, suspected of treason, promoting his interests in the Chernihiv region. She also participated in a joint press conference in 2019 with Sam Kislin, a financial donor to Rudolph Giuliani, which was aimed at discrediting US presidential candidate Joe Biden.

The Duma then rejected accusations of political bias and lack of proper qualifications. But among anti-corruption officials, investigators and Western diplomats, these denials were not believed.

The yacht and Medvedchuk’s collections, “Gulliver” and the strange inactivity of ARMA clearly reinforce this mistrust.