Corrupt officials, brawlers and defenders of Russia: all this is about the current people's representatives who still represent the people of Ukraine and govern the country
Recently, journalists talked about truant people’s deputies who do not come to work in the Verkhovna Rada.
We will tell you about several scandalous people's representatives who, despite a toxic reputation, a corrupt background and openly pro-Russian views, still occupy leadership positions in parliamentary Committees, including sensitive ones from the point of view of national security.
It is not so easy to deprive a people's deputy of his mandate. But in order to recall him from the committee, the desire of the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada and the majority of deputies is sufficient.
Maryana Bezuglaya
Vice Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, Defense, and Intelligence, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Democratic Civilian Oversight and Oversight
Maryana Bezuglaya was never recalled from her position in the National Security Committee, although there were attempts and all the reasons for this - the Speaker of Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk twice refused to put the relevant resolution to a vote. The attempt to remove her from work on the Committee was preceded by the people’s deputy’s provocative behavior and her long-term discrediting of the then chief of staff Valery Zaluzhny, whom Bezuglaya accused of all the failures and “the lack of a plan for 2024.” Now the people's deputy is also attacking the renewed military command. Before that, she complained to the SBU about volunteers and proposed to take off the air almost the only independent broadcaster, Public. The deputy was accused of assisting the Russian IPSO and the death of the defenders due to the fact that she seemed to “highlight” their positions.
Andrei Kholodov, the “tobacco king,” the owner of a network of cigarette kiosks at public transport stops, helped Bezugla become the people’s choice. It was he who was one of those who selected candidates for deputies for the Servant of the People. Introducing her at headquarters, Kholodov seemed to call Bezuglaya a “resource girl.” In the Verkhovna Rada, the deputy was remembered for co-authoring two scandalous bills, which, fortunately, were withdrawn. One allowed commanders to kill subordinates. The second is to bring to criminal liability for “appropriation of state functions.”
According to the declarations, the deputy’s income tripled in 2023 – to UAH 1.4 million. More than half of the amount consists of compensation from the state budget, which she received for travel through the territory of Ukraine, rental housing, and reimbursement of expenses related to the exercise of parliamentary powers. In the declaration for 2022, the deputy noted an apartment in Kyiv with an area of 75.1 square meters. m for only 164 thousand UAH.
Oleg Seminsky
Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Housing and Communal Services
Before being elected as a deputy, he was engaged in business. He headed the gas production company Neftegazdobycha, the beneficial owner of which was people’s deputy Nestor Shufrich, now suspected of treason. Since then, the DBI has been investigating two criminal proceedings against Seminsky: he is charged with misappropriation of profits and property. He worked as Shufrich's assistant in three convocations of the Verkhovna Rada. He was also an assistant to the Socialist People's Deputy Nikolai Rudkovsky, who at one time flew on a charter with a top model to Paris for public funds.
Subsequently, Seminsky himself became a deputy and chose a similar lifestyle. After the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia, he purchased an apartment in Austria, where his son lives and studies. He also declared a jet ski, an ATV, a tricycle, a Toyota Camry, a million euros in a Liechtenstein bank and 17 companies that have the ultimate beneficiary. Some companies are registered in Cyprus, Central America and the British Virgin Islands.
In 2021, both Seminsky and Bezugla voted for the withdrawal of tenders worth UAH 40 billion per year from Prozorro. In the parliament hall, I was remembered for looking at Lexuses during meetings and conducting love correspondence with his mistress.
The scandalous Nikolai Tishchenko, described below, accused Seminsky of allegedly owning a call center working in the interests of Russia. It is up to the reader to decide how seriously to take this information.
Nikolay Tishchenko
Deputy Chairman of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee
An odious people's deputy, a former showman, occupies a leading position in an important parliamentary committee, despite the fact that he has nothing to do with infrastructure or transport. Unless we consider his relative as such, who was caught in a criminal case for wasting 140 million on the construction of the infamous metro to Vinogradar.
It is impossible to list all the scandals in which Tishchenko was involved during his work in the Verkhovna Rada. Therefore, let us remember his latest “achievements.” Tishchenko is called the “watcher” of Kiev from the Office of the President, which is headed by his godfather Andrey Ermak. In addition, information has repeatedly appeared in the media that the deputy’s relatives are thriving on tenders announced by the capital’s authorities. In addition to the above-mentioned relative and the metro to Vinogradar, his sister Yulia Tishchenko received more than 16 million UAH in a row from Kyiv utilities.
The people's deputy himself also does not live in poverty. Journalists have established his family's significant fortune and the use of expensive property, which in no way explains his official income. A considerable part is registered to Sergei Vakalchuk, the former head of Tishchenko’s restaurant “Velur”. In one day in the middle of the war, he became the owner of several properties worth more than a million dollars. Among the property there is also a minibus, which Tishchenko and his wife regularly use.
Grigory Mamka
Deputy Chairman of the Law Enforcement Committee
People's Deputy from the banned Opposition for Life, Honored Lawyer of Ukraine, who was involved in scandals long before his election as People's Deputy. In 2012, he was associated with a raider seizure of the Kotsyubinsky residential complex in the Kiev region. Mamka dissolved the working group from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which he headed, which dealt with the affairs of Ukrsotsbank and the fraud of the Yanukovych-era oligarch Sergei Kurchenko, stopping all criminal proceedings against him. He helped settle the affairs of the now former president of Kievgorstroy, Igor Kushnir, who bought his wife a villa in France and is climbing Everest, having a “certificate of disability.”
In 2015, he was fired from the National Police after failing the certification. The then head of the Odessa regional council, Mikheil Saakashvili, called Mamka “the pillar of the corrupt system of racketeering and interference in business in the old police.”
Mamka continued to protect oligarchs and embezzlers within the walls of the Verkhovna Rada. The amendment to the law tried to save hundreds of corrupt officials from punishment. In 2020, he became one of the initiators of a submission to the Constitutional Court on the compliance of a number of provisions of anti-corruption legislation with the Constitution. As a result, the Constitutional Court canceled liability for false declarations, and all cases regarding it were to be closed. The deputy actively defended his party boss Viktor Medvedchuk from arrest, and in 2023 introduced a bill allowing another representative of the Opposition for Life, Yuriy Boyko, to retain the title of “Hero of Ukraine.” Voted against opening declarations of deputies and officials.
Vasily Nimchenko
First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Legal Policy
A close ally of Putin’s godfather, Viktor Medvedchuk, a champion of the Russian language within the walls of parliament. He was a judge of the Constitutional Court: he gave permission to Leonid Kuchma to run for president for the third time in a row.
Elected to parliament from the banned pro-Russian OPZZH. After the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia was in no hurry to leave the faction, and did not express his attitude towards the actions of the occupiers. His assistant Alexander Zamirailo planned to become the Russian Gauleiter of the Cherkasy region, for which he received 5 years in prison.
He employed his daughter-in-law Marina Nimchenko as his assistant. He was one of the deputies who contributed to the recognition of anti-corruption legislation as unconstitutional and did not vote for the opening of declarations. In 2023, he declared a gold bar worth UAH 240,000 and a pension of UAH 161 thousand monthly.
Evgeniy Bragar
Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Freedom of Speech, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Adaptation of Ukrainian Legislation to the Law of the European Union, implementation of Ukraine’s international legal obligations in the field of European integration
Bragar was elected to the Rada as a 25-year-old graduate student at KNU, and has not distinguished himself in anything other than scandals in parliament. The author of the famous offer to a pensioner to sell her dog to pay for utilities actively fought for the Ukrainian language. He publicly stated that he did not consider Russia an enemy (but only Putin), and called for an end to government funding of films about war and military personnel.
He defended the driver of the Lutsk-Kyiv bus, who refused volunteers Yarina Chernoguz and Anastasia Confederat’s request to turn off the Russian TV series during the trip. Bragar then called the volunteers “girls of nationalist views,” and then also wrote a statement to the police against one of them, demanding that he be brought to criminal liability for “discrimination on linguistic grounds.”
He stated that he had a “sharply negative” attitude towards the law on the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language, together with other pro-Russian deputies proposed to cancel fines for refusal to provide services in Ukrainian and boasted of donations in support of the activities of the pro-Russian blogger Anatoly Shariy, who is now suspected of high treason and helped the FSB of the Russian Federation make staged videos of interrogations of Ukrainian prisoners.
In 2021, drove a Toyota Camry while probably under the influence of drugs. In May 2022, I switched to a more premium car – I purchased a Lexus.
