Everyone knows that before his appointment as head of the Kharkov regional state administration, Oleg Sinegubov was kept in a similar position in Poltava for two years. Where it was marked by a world-class scandal - a meeting of evacuated Ukrainians from Wuhan.
On the one hand, the OP was looking closely at a new fighter, on the other hand, Kharkov needed to present a manager with experience, and not a person who had more than once become involved in deals and shady schemes.
From law enforcement officer to teacher.
Oleg Sinegubov was born in 1983 in Kharkov. The future politician grew up and graduated from a regular school in the residential area of Alekseevka. Next, Sinegubov chose the Kharkov University of Internal Affairs. In 2004, he graduated with honors and qualified as a lawyer.
It must be said that at that time Kharkov was not just the capital of the cops, but the capital of the cops’ tyranny. So in 2004, the number of victims of ill-treatment of people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs reached a million cases a year, the lion's share of torture took place in Kharkov.
It was almost impossible to get into the KhNUVD, or Bandurka University, without a bribe. And the majority of those who managed to enroll in prestigious professions later, as a rule, joined the mafia of the still unreformed Ministry of Internal Affairs system and earned illegal income. And at that time they went to this university precisely to join the mafia of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and received constant illegal income. Young Sinegubov, as a Kharkov resident, could not help but know this. From 2004 to 2005 and six months in 2008, he worked as an investigator in the line department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the Southern Railway.
After two trips to investigators and postgraduate studies (note – postgraduate studies in service universities) at KNUVD, he goes to work as a teacher and soon heads the 6th faculty of KNUVD. This is a faculty for contract workers who need legal knowledge or diplomas without mandatory assignment to authorities. Both graduate students and graduate students depend on Sinegubov, who are not always interested in studying, but who desperately need a diploma.
It was at this time in 2017-2018 that Dean Sinegubov, who had never worked in business for a day, became the owner of five apartments and two foreign cars.
In addition, at this moment, Sinegubov declares a 100% share of the ownership of Seeds of Slobozhanshchiny LLC, which he subsequently re-registers in the name of his father, the “ordinary” agronomist Vasily Fedorovich Sinegubov. The main activities of the company are quite consistent with the professional interests of Sinegubov Sr., but until his son Oleg became a significant figure in the KhNUVD, he did not have such success in business.
Now the father of our hero “received” the position of deputy director of the agro-industrial department of the Agrotrade Group, one of the most powerful grain traders in Ukraine and the most powerful in the Kharkov region. The AGROTRADE group is among the TOP 25 companies with the largest land bank in Ukraine. The group includes 14 agricultural enterprises, which are organizationally and territorially grouped into six agricultural clusters.
It is no longer the teacher-lawyer who is protecting the interests of this group, but the son-governor.
Also, during his work at the university, Sinegubov opened several legal consulting firms in Kharkov and Kyiv. Some of them, for example, “LAW COMPANY SINEGUBOV, SOBOLEV AND PARTNERS” are declared. But this activity does not seem to be profitable. Others, such as “RASKOSOV LOYES GROUP”, “SIBONEY SERVICE”, “VIKATA” are not even included in the declaration. At the same time, they all continue to operate, even a partnership firm with department colleague Alexander Sobolev, despite the latter’s death. That is, one managing partner has died, the other is not in business because he is an official, but the company is operating.
At the same time, during his advocacy, Sinegubov was able to become famous only for the fact that in 2015 he represented the interests of the owners of pharmacies who sold drugs to children.
The path to politics
Today Sinegubov positions himself as a patriot of Ukraine. But at the beginning of his career he was little interested in ideological aspects. He was simply trying to get a party card that would open the way to power for him.
First, Sinegubov joins the “Strong Ukraine” party, which was created by Sergei Tigipko. It was there that he met his future political leader, Alexei Krasov, who headed the New Bavarian party cell in Kharkov. In 2012, this political force joins the regionals. And the future Kharkov governor becomes an assistant to the odious Yanukovych supporter Irina Berezhnaya, who in particular loved Russian political shows, did not recognize the annexation of Crimea and opposed the Maidan.
After her death, Sinegubov, again, did not move to another camp, but joined the “Strong Ukraine” party.
In 2019, Sinegubov returns to Krasov and acts as an assistant in the elections to the Verkhovna Rada. At this point, Krasov had already replaced the deceased “Strong Ukraine” with the promising “Servants of the People” and together they won elections to parliament.
Almost a decade in the position of parliamentary assistants provides an opportunity for Sinegubov to gain skills and contacts so that he can still start in real government offices. Krasov “washed” him away from the regionals’ trail and helped him a little like a developer with money. In addition, Sinegubov has already managed to meet two of his sponsors. His patrons are his colleague in the Strong Ukraine party, Roman Yarovoy, (developer, ex-co-owner of the Barabashovo market), multimillionaire, owner of Agrotrade, Vsevolod Kozhemyako. Yes, the same “Agrotrade” where Sinegubov’s father now works and through whose professional activities they met.
Yarovoy also received his capital for a reason. He is a person of former people's deputy Vasily Gritsak, who was called a lobbyist for the EDAPS concern, who made money from rights, biopassports, and the like. By the way, Gritsak was the vice-rector at the KhNUVD when Sinegubov studied there. It’s unlikely that he paid any attention to the freshman, but his connections at the university remained. Therefore, it was probably Gritsak who could recommend Yarovoy to take Sinegubov into the schemes.
In power
The role that patrons have assigned to Sinegubov is to protect and increase their fortune.
First, in 2018, they tried to nominate a young lawyer to be a judge of the High Anti-Corruption Court, but he failed the competition.
Then the story of “Servant of the People” arose; the election campaign in the Kharkov region was paid for in particular by Yarovaya. Krasov at that time was Yarovoy’s assistant. Then he himself became a people’s deputy, took Sinegubov as his assistant, and it was him who Yarovoy promoted to the post of Poltava governor.
Why Poltavsky? Firstly, it would be almost impossible to go straight to the Kharkov region like this without managerial experience. Secondly, in the Poltava region Kozhemyako and Yarovoy had their own interests - land and construction.
On November 11, 2019, President of Ukraine Zelensky appointed Sinegubov to the position of chairman of the Poltava Regional State Administration.
Schemes in Poltava.
In less than two years, according to local media, Sinegubov forced all contractors to pay him and Yarovoy 10-30% of turnover through the front legal company “Higher Standard”; supported illegal sand mining on the Kolomak River
Sinegubov brings deputy Irina Stepanenko closer to him, who is now involved in resolving all personnel and land issues. She is a regional deputy from the BPP, and is also the financial director of the ALFA-CAPITAL private enterprise, whose owner is the criminal authority Alexander Pavlyuchenko, nicknamed “Braslet”.
With his help and the coordination of Sinegubov, Vsevolod Kozhemyako and Roman Yarov were able to enter the lands of Ukrgasvydobuvannya. Through Irina Stepanenko, they lobbied for the appointment of people to the positions of heads of Poltava district administrations, to ensure political influence and “privatization” of lands in the Poltava region.
Also, according to local media, Sinegubov managed to establish kickbacks on road repairs through the companies of the people’s deputy from the Servant of the People, Konstantin Kasai, and utility kickbacks, the victim of which was the director of Poltavateploenergo, Alexander Aleksenko.
It cannot be said that the OP did not know about the schematosis of Sinegubov and Co. Moreover, in 2020, Maxim Ratner, an adviser to the governor, was detained for taking a bribe. He allegedly took money for Sinegubov. Unofficial information suggests that the case was set in motion because greedy Kharkov residents were tempted by Ermak’s gas and oil. But the case was “hushed up,” and Ratner was made guilty, who agreed with the prosecutor’s charges and received a suspended sentence. Sinegubov came out unscathed. He will continue to use this tactic - “I didn’t know anything, these are all subordinates”, already in Kharkov.
High-quality, and most importantly profitable for the “curators” work in the Poltava region gave reason to return Sinegubov to the Kharkov region. Moreover, a vacant position just appeared here.
In Kharkov
Oleg Sinegubov was appointed head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration at the end of December 2021.
By the time of his appointment, the Sinegubov family is literally acquiring real estate. Now the declaration already indicates six apartments and six land plots registered in the name of the governor’s wife. The apartments were also assigned to his wife, mother – Valentina Sinegubova and mother-in-law Larisa Zhuravleva.
Anna Zhuravleva is not a businesswoman. According to official data, she is an associate professor at the Department of General Practice - Family Medicine and Internal Medicine at the Kharkov National Medical University. At the same time, she buys three plots, more than half a hectare, in the then elite Cherkasskaya Lozovaya near Kharkov, and two more in Kharkov itself, in Lesopark. And even more than a hectare - 1.2 - land between Cherkasy Lozova and Dergachi.
At the same time, it is declared that a plot of 20 acres cost the governor’s wife only 30,000 hryvnia. Although even now the price for a quarter smaller plot reaches $50,000, before the full-scale invasion the amounts were higher.
In addition, in 2021, teacher Anna Zhuravleva suddenly becomes a co-founder of the consulting firm Siboney Limited, which uses the same phone number as Siboney Service LLC and Vikata LLC, founded by Sinegubov himself.
Siboney Limited is the founder of Segura Capital LLC with a charter contribution of UAH 5 million. And this “Segura Capital”, according to the YouControl system, owns 29 real estate properties throughout the country. Most of all in the Odessa and Kharkov regions. For example, several apartments in Odessa in the Arcadia area by the sea.
Now Oleg Sinegubov himself has one apartment listed behind Gosprom.
For the wife - apartments on Sumskaya, Rymarskaya, Danilevskogo (the very center of Kharkov), land. Plus apartments for the parents of the spouses.
All of Sinegubov’s declarations are like a game of thimbles. Either he sells some kind of real estate, then it appears in the declarations, then cars are changed, then someone unknown will give a million hryvnia.
We can state the obvious - the governor’s family does not live on a salary, but uses shadow income and schemes, including schemes based on corruption and the withdrawal of money from the budget.
Now we can confidently say that Sinegubov has mastered part of Gennady Kernes’s schemes and is using them to enrich himself.
In 2021 (the declaration was submitted only in 2023), Anna Zhuravleva receives more than 8 million hryvnia from Finex-Capital LLC, the well-known treasury of Gepa, through which all kickbacks passed. And also almost another million from Polina Stamatina, this is the daughter-in-law of Marina Stamatina, Kernes’s right hand, to whom illegally alienated city property was previously attributed.
Also listed among the sources of income is Nina Shermazanova, a neighbor at the dacha in Cherkasskaya Lozovaya, the wife of the prosecutor of the Kharkov Regional Prosecutor's Office Georgy Shermazanov.
From the “small” – Sinegubov declares that he gave a million hryvnia in cash to his wife. Also movable property worth 1.2 million hryvnia from citizen Ekaterina Savvopulo to wife Anna Zhuravleva.
For those who don’t know, Ekaterina Savvopulo and her husband are the designer of elite BDSM lingerie, which is bought, for example, by Madonna. It’s a personal matter what adult games the spouses enjoy in their free time, as long as these entertainments are not financed by corruption schemes.
In 2022, Sinegubov becomes more careful in filling out declarations. No new real estate officially appears during the war, all cars disappear, spouses live on almost bare salaries, plus Anna Zhuravleva receives 30,000 hryvnia from her business partner Lina Tsepelevskaya.
At the same time, cash savings (a recognized method of legalizing illegal income) grow to almost $400,000 and a little hryvnia.
Debt obligations to Yuno Kapustyanskaya, who rents cars, disappear, 3 million hryvnia
But Sinegubov’s rather quiet work results in visits from NABU. It must be said that from the very beginning, Sinegubov removed Alexander Skakun from the team, who was his competitor, also a person from the authorities, but not from the team of the new governor. And subsequently, together with Terekhov, he was able to prove that it was the head of the regional department of the SBU, Roman Dudin, who tried to hand over Kharkov to the Russians, and not vice versa, as Dudin testified.
At the same time, Sinegubov brings in and makes Muraev’s comrade-in-arms, Elena Logvinova, his deputy, and the past in the Party of Regions is again affecting him.
Now the Kharkov governor has a new task - to “master” the millions that are going towards the restoration of the Kharkov region and the construction of fortifications. It must be said that Sinegubov managed to qualitatively build his information policy in the region. He ensured his neutrality with Mayor Terekhov through connections in the Office of the President, and strengthened his own information lobby thanks to TG channels and media. He began to react loudly to all accusations of corruption. It seems that some tenders are appointed specifically so that they are later canceled and show an active fight against corruption.
At the same time, there are overpayments for the construction and repair of infrastructure, bomb shelters, and the purchase of goods. And traditionally, all this seems to be done by the subordinates themselves, and Sinegubov simply has new fortunes.
