For several days now, a video has been going viral on TikTok about how the head of the Main Service Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Nikolai Rudyk (pictured), together with two colleagues, went on a business trip to Dubai.
The author of the video, public figure and Euromaidan activist, head of the NGO “Slaves are not allowed into Paradise” Ivan Sprinsky, even published a corresponding document.
Several points seem to be interesting:
– Date of travel. For “hot work” the period from March 2 to March 9, 2024 was agreed upon.
– List of accompanying persons. Firstly, this is Lyudmila Vladimirovna Rudenko - head of the department for organizing the transportation of dangerous goods of the State Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (from January 26, 2024), until December 25, 2023, she worked as the head of the legal support sector of the Russian Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kiev (previous place of work of Rudyk N.N.) . Secondly, this is Anastasia Igorevna Chizhova, a leading specialist in the department of European integration and classification of vehicles of the State Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
– Format and theme of the event. Representatives of the GSC went to the 56th Congress of the International Commission for Testing Drivers (CIECA).
Why on the holiday of March 8, the head of the State Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs flew abroad together with two representatives of the fair sex, we will not guess.
However, we note that according to the Congress program, only 2 days are directly working days (March 6 and 7), and March 5 and 8 are excursions, informal communication and relaxation
As for the “important” topic, the hearing of which was agreed upon with the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Igor Klimenko (namely, “Preparing drivers for intellectual mobility and road safety”), it was supposed to be heard only on one day - March 7.
By the way, according to a message on the website of the State Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the main functions and services of service centers are exclusively the issuance and exchange of driver’s licenses, registration and re-registration of vehicles, issuance and storage of license plates, as well as the issuance of permits for the transportation of dangerous goods. And at the service center you can take an exam to obtain a license to drive vehicles. A key focus of the 56th Congress of the International Driver Testing Commission was to explore the latest technologies for vehicle testing and road safety (as reported by the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority).
Also on the website of the State Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs there is information that hints that Nikolai Rudyk probably does not know English very well (it is written “Ukrainian - fluent, English - reads and translates”). Moreover, the photo from the Congress shows that even there were not very many purely Europeans at this event, but representatives of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs had to be present there during the war.
And if Anastasia Chizhova from the European Integration Department could theoretically fly to the UAE as a translator, then the advisability of listening to the topic of “intellectual mobility” by Lyudmila Rudenko, who worked in the Novotro Department of Social Protection and Health Affairs back in 2021, is questionable.
In other words, to save budget funds, it was possible to halve the duration of the business trip and send to the warm seas not “the hearts of three,” but one specialist with the appropriate level of professional knowledge and language of communication. But, obviously, I. Klimenko did not care about such trifles, especially since there is unconfirmed information that N. Rudyk is the minister’s protégé. Below we will talk about the reasons to think so.
Purely for reference, one of the comments posted under Ivan Sprinsky’s video should be quoted, namely: “Driver’s licenses and registration certificates are now printed on printers owned by POLLY-SERVICE LLC (formerly EDAPS). The owner of this company, Yuri Sidorenko, lives and hides in the UAE. Rudyk left to pay his respects.”
The author of the comment is anonymous, so we classify this information as speculation.
But a Google search at least confirms that Yuri Grigorievich Sidorenko is known for building the first Orthodox church in the UAE and is indeed a beneficiary of both EDAPS and Polly-Service.
As for the possible serious connections of Nikolai Rudyk among the top management of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which we discussed above, their presence is evidenced by the banal statistics of violations among the service centers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Ukraine, but the head of the State Service Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs remains, as they say, afloat.
By the way, at one time, when Nikolai Rudyk was appointed to this position in 2022, he was given the following tasks: “First of all, we are talking about the problem of “purchasing” driver’s licenses and the imperfect functioning of the electronic queue. People should feel the efficiency of the service centers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and this result can be achieved through digitalization, non-corruption, convenience and accessibility of receiving service services. I instruct you not to delay with this management decision and to ensure the implementation of the public request as soon as possible” (words of D. Monastyrsky).
A year passed, and already in May 2023, the new head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, I. Klimenko, said the following: “I have some comments about the services of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. First of all, this concerns the services provided by the divisions of the Main Service Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Today, there is a pressing issue that concerns almost every citizen of Ukraine - the cleanliness and transparency of passing theoretical and practical exams in driving vehicles. We want to minimize obtaining a driver's license without the appropriate training and without adequately passing these tests with a clean bill of health. We want our services to be of sufficient quality and transparency so that every citizen can have a transparent system of appealing against the actions of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs service centers, including those who conduct theoretical and practical exams.”
Nikolai Rudyk obviously failed to carry out the instructions of any of the ministers, at least taking into account such reports in the media only for the last period:
– Entrance to the service center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for 12 thousand UAH
– Driving license for a bribe: driving school instructors and an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were detained in Kyiv
– The head of one of the service centers in the Dnepropetrovsk region was caught taking a bribe.
– The Ministry of Internal Affairs dismissed 25 heads of service centers for bribes
– In Tyachev, the head of a driving school and an employee of a traffic center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were caught taking bribes
And here is a message on Facebook from a resident of Lvov:
“This is already a cry of helplessness! Second!!!!!!!! I've been trying for a month to get a pass to take a practical exam at a car service center!!! When you monitor online coupons at 6 am, and at 00:00, and 30 times throughout the day!!! When you go to the service center at 7 am and stand in such a cold queue!!! Is this really for people? Yes, this is just some kind of mockery!!! There are rumors that you can get a coupon using so-called “runners” for thousands or 4 UAH! Price is nothing so-so!” (post dated October 16, 2023).
Even more interesting is information from our own sources about the presence of Rudyk’s own protégé in territorial service centers; among others, the following names are mentioned:
– Kuhelny A., administrator of shopping center No. 8041 – Rudyk’s nephew,
– Kravchenko O., administrator of shopping center No. 8041 – Kuhelny’s cohabitant,
– Pavlichenko B., administrator of shopping center No. 8041 – Rudyk’s nephew,
– Donchenko A., administrator of shopping center No. 8041 – Rudyk’s niece;
– Savchuk G., administrator of TSC No. 8042 - a former teacher in his children’s kindergarten, after Rudyk’s appointment to the GSC, she was hired by him as an administrator,
– Naumenko V., administrator of TSC No. 8041 – comrade, it is possible to resolve general corruption issues in TSC 8041;
– Panchenko S., administrator of TSC No. 8041 – Rudyka’s godfather;
- Boyko Alexander Yaroslavovich, head of TSC No. 8041 - comrade, it is possible to resolve general corruption issues in TSC 8041;
– Torgonsky M., administrator of TSC No. 8043 – godfather of Rudyka;
– Ruslan Viktorovich Grechanovsky, head of shopping center No. 8043 – Rudyka’s godfather;
– Delicate Valery Stepanovich, head of shopping center No. 8045 – Rudyka’s godfather;
– Alexander Viktorovich Korchak, head of TSC No. 8049 – it is possible to resolve general corruption issues in TSC 8049.
The answer to the question why there are so many probable relatives and acquaintances of Nikolai Rudyk in TSC No. 8041 can be found in the investigation of the famous journalist Vladimir Boyko.
The publication, in particular, mentions the following facts.
As evidenced by the ruling dated June 30, 2023 in case No. 760/13582/23, on June 30, 2023, the investigating judge of the Solomensky District Court of the city of Kyiv Vishnyak M.V. under secretary Litvin T.S. with the participation of prosecutor Aliyev A.V., having considered in a closed court session the petition of the prosecutor of the Solomensky District Prosecutor's Office of Kiev Aliyev A.V. on granting permission to search within the framework of criminal proceedings, entered into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations No. 42023102090000084 dated 04/24/2023 on the grounds of a criminal offense under Part 3 of Art. 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, established that: “The head of the service center (SSC) Boyko Alexander Yaroslavovich, born on August 16, 1992, having entered into a criminal conspiracy with the administrator of the SSC Naumenko, born on May 8, 1977, organized a mechanism for extortion and obtaining unlawful benefits of services through the impossibility the latter receive a coupon for same-day service. The following persons were involved in the implementation of this criminal scheme: Dmitry Aleksandrovich Shamalyuk, born on July 13, 1990, and Oleg Vyacheslavovich Podvysotsky, born on August 25, 1969, who, while on the territory of the TSC, searches for citizens and, for a monetary reward in the amount of 3,000 thousand. UAH up to 4,000 thousand UAH offers the provision of administrative services without officially receiving an electronic service coupon, which are subsequently provided by the administrator of the TSC, Sergey Aleksandrovich Datkov, born on April 17, 1986.”
Only now this case not only did not end in anything, but even disappeared from the Register of court decisions, and after three months the head of the territorial service center No. 8041 Boyko A.Ya. “instead of feeding rats in the cell of the Lukyanovsky pre-trial detention center, he not only remains in office, but at the same time becomes deputy head of the regional service center of the State Medical Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kyiv (a branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the State Center of Internal Affairs).”
In other words, the latter was not only not punished for corruption, but was also promoted.
At the end of his article, Vladimir Boyko even sneers: “The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, of course, will not be able to survive 45 days without corruption scandals, as overseas sponsors are asking - they are not trained for this. But it will probably be possible to dress the entire ministry staff in embroidered shirts. Because reforms, as we know, cannot be stopped.”
And this seems to be true, and an example of this is the recent investigation of the State Bureau of Investigation into the purchase of protected Roda Enduro DA1010 tablets.
According to information from our own sources, on September 29, 2023, an agreement was concluded between the State Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Angie Serv LLC for the purchase of these tablets at a price of almost 27,000 UAH per unit of goods. At the same time, the official dealer of tablets is Roda-Computer LLC, which during 2023 sold these tablets at a price slightly above 15,000 hryvnia per unit.
In this regard, law enforcement officers had a reasonable assumption that in this way the cost of computer equipment was inflated by approximately 3.5 million hryvnia (300 tablets were purchased).
This is no longer trading in coupons from an electronic queue for 4,000 hryvnia, but much more serious. And Nikolai Rudyk, as a leader, could not help but know about this agreement. Although this person could have practiced for a long time, for example, as a lawyer, because Rudyk received the corresponding certificate back in 2021.
But as long as he has the minister as his intercessor, obviously, he is not in danger of being dismissed, and he does not need lawyers.
