People's Deputy Nikolai Tishchenko has been on the pages of the media for the last couple of weeks, wandering from one high-profile scandal to another. At the end of July, Tishchenko fought with call centers, and then it turned out that this was a racket familiar to the people’s deputy. In September, the people's deputy made a fool of himself again - having failed the vote on opening declarations for people's deputies, he boasted on camera that he supposedly had nothing to hide from voters. the media counted 3 million worth of outfits and bags from the people’s deputy’s wife alone The most recent case is the scandal with the tender for the National Police, which, by a strange coincidence, was won by a relative of Tishchenko’s long-term assistant.
But the people’s deputy is no stranger to this, and Tishchenko has so far gotten away with all these tricks. One thing is clear: Tishchenko became a people’s deputy solely by chance, and, as practice shows, he is absolutely unworthy of the mandate.
The crazy youth of Kolya Obolonsky
If you go to Wikipedia or the website of the Servant of the People party, you can see that in 2019 Nikolai Tishchenko was elected as a people’s deputy in the Svyatoshinsky district of Kiev and received the coveted mandate of a lawmaker. We can safely say that the change of district for a man who grew up and became a “foreman” of one of the most famous criminal racketeering groups in Kyiv is not accidental.
After all, many residents of the Obolonsky district of the capital still remember the judoka Kolya Tishchenko, who from a young age was none other than one of the foremen of “Bori Solokha” (Boris Savlokhov) - one of the most powerful racketeers in Kyiv. In those years, the current people's deputy Nikolai Tishchenko “drove” around the city in a then rare Ford Mondeo, responded to the nickname “ Kolya Obolonsky ” and rubbed off on the Kiev markets, collecting tribute from sellers.
By the way, an interesting fact. Despite her status as a restaurateur, successful businessman, TV presenter and people's deputy, Nikolai Tishchenko's mother cannot boast of the attention of her influential son. Just like 25 years ago, anyone can see her every day in the vicinity of the market near the Minskaya metro station on Obolon, where an elderly woman sells consumer goods. Evil tongues say that People's Deputy Tishchenko quarreled with his loved ones many years ago, but in any case this does not do him any honor.
However, the times of “Koli Obolonsky” are long gone - Nikolai Nikolaevich Tishchenko is now a full-fledged people’s deputy. And it seems that his favorite pastime is to expose his party, getting into scandals worse than each other.
An ass for voters, a restaurant for the elite and a fight club in the Rada
The scandals that Tishchenko got into were not an accident, but a whole system. Many of them have already been forgotten, but are worth recalling.
For example, a story from 2020. Then, already being a people's deputy, Nikolai Tishchenko ran for mayor of Kyiv. But instead of working with voters, the politician showed his butt to the camera to the music of Ukrainian and foreign performers, accompanied by boisterous laughter.
Needless to say, such work with the electorate did not bring any results to the people’s deputy.
A year later, the coronavirus epidemic occurred, and while decent citizens were sitting at home and observing the mask and glove regime, People’s Deputy Tishchenko decided that since he was a deputy, he could pass laws, but he was not obliged to implement them.
And therefore, in the Velor restaurant, owned by Tishchenko, the country’s political elite continued to enjoy life. When the media fanned the scandal, “Velur” tried to weakly fight back, appealing to the KSCA protocol, but when it turned out that the protocol was outdated, they tried to hush up the matter. Tishchenko himself did not even bother to answer the journalists’ questions properly. “I can’t [comment]. That’s all,” is all that the people’s deputy could squeeze out of himself.
But after a couple of months, Tishchenko took up his old ways. In April 2021, during the coronavirus epidemic, Verkhovna Rada deputy Nikolai Tishchenko threw a noisy party . True, not for myself - for my wife. Then the media wrote that in addition to violating quarantine rules, Tishchenko also set off deafening fireworks, which had been prohibited in the capital for a long time. And although at that time a prominent party functionary of the Servant of the People, David Arakhamia, stated that Tishchenko should be punished, Nikolai again came out unscathed.
Perhaps, in order to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of fellow party members, Nikolai remembered his past as a judoka; in September 2021, right in the hall of the Verkhovna Rada, he clashed with non-factional deputy Geo Leros. “Kolya Obolonsky” simply forcibly pulled Leros from the podium when he criticized President Zelensky in his speech.
Body armor and Thai voyage and wife's business
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians voluntarily went to defend their country, People’s Deputy Tishchenko also did not lag behind. True, in my own way. Firstly, Nikolai took the sonorous call sign “Titan”, which is strange, considering that “Kotleta” and “Obolonsky” would have made him more recognizable. Secondly, Nikolai did not go to war.
As his wife Alla Baranovskaya said in an interview with blogger Ramina Eshakzai, Tishchenko cannot fight “at zero” because, they say, the law prohibits him. The people's deputy's wife recalled that Ukraine has a parliamentary-presidential form of government, and according to the law on mobilization, people's deputies of Ukraine cannot be called up for military service.
True, it is not very clear how people’s deputies Vladimir Vyatrovich from “European Solidarity”, or Tishchenko’s colleagues from the “Golos” faction Roman Kostenko and Roman Lozinsky were able to go to the front, despite the “prohibitions”. Nikolai Tishchenko’s wife did not explain this, but stated that her husband “has been to dangerous places.”
“My husband has been on a huge number of business trips, where it is now very dangerous. It is always important for him to come to our guys, and there are always scandals at home. He is not afraid of war and being in dangerous places,” Alla said, but did not specify exactly what dangerous places her husband goes to.
By the way, Tishchenko’s wife also deserves attention. She owns two beauty salons, participates in her husband's restaurant business and literally bathes in luxury.
As reported in the media , Alla regularly posts photographs on social networks in which her everyday outfits cost 300 thousand hryvnia. And her entire collection is estimated at three million hryvnia.
Alla Baranovskaya is right about one thing. Where her husband is, there is always a scandal. For example, in June 2022, journalists from “Slidstvo.info” told how the call sign “Titan” decided to help the capital’s terrorist defense with body armor and even brought several pieces to the fighters. The politician did not fail to talk about help.
Thus, in his post on social networks, Tishchenko reported : “We handed over food and armor to our defenders. My wife and her assistants literally brought these armored armor to Ukraine, which proved that our women are the coolest in the world.”
But they all turned out to be absolutely unsuitable for use, and they were made almost 40 years ago.
Before the Ukrainians had time to forget about the scandal with the armored vehicles, Nikolai Tishchenko reminded himself. Suddenly, in January 2023, he found himself not just anywhere, but in Thailand .
It is noteworthy that this happened exactly after President Zelensky prohibited politicians and officials from leaving the country for personal reasons.
Yes, Tishchenko tried very unconvincingly to save face by declaring that in Thailand he met with representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora. But no one believed him.
Call centers and questionable tenders
After such a tour, Tishchenko was expectedly expelled from the faction in parliament and from the Servant of the People party. But the experienced politician and businessman did not give up. It seems that Nikolai Tishchenko decided to remember the dashing 90s, his “brigade” past and began to squeeze call centers under himself. Naturally, everything was done under the noble guise of fighting the enemies of the country. They say that all these call centers work for Russia and their work must be stopped in every possible way.
Just a few days after Tishchenko’s loudly announced crusade against call centers, audio recordings appeared in the media, from which it became clear that Tishchenko simply wants to protect the business and have a share of it. In the audio recordings, a man with a voice similar to that of People’s Deputy Tishchenko discusses in detail the creation of a scheme for how to make money from call centers, promises to resolve cases at all levels, and negotiate with the courts and security forces.
Tishchenko, who, among other things, recruited the famous former “titushka” and now a deputy of the regional council, estimated his services at monthly payments of several million dollars. At them, Tishchenko promised to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine and build patriotic youth recreation camps. After the recordings were made public, the people's deputy categorically denied their veracity.
In order to blur the scandalous trail of the “Tishchenko tapes,” the people’s deputy tried to return to political work and vote diligently. However, here too Nikolai distinguished himself and was caught in hypocrisy.
After parliament voted to resume declaring the property of people’s deputies, Nikolai Tishchenko immediately reported on social networks .
“We voted for the renewal of declarations. We have nothing to hide from society,” Tishchenko said, but forgot to mention that the register would be opened in a year, and Tishchenko himself voted “against.”
The most recent story with the participation of People’s Deputy Tishchenko, which was dug up by journalists, is about how the brother of the People’s Deputy’s assistant won a multimillion-dollar tender from the National Police.
A certain Bogdan Zaginay won the tender from the National Police. The subject of the purchase is cameras in the amount of UAH 6.778 million. And this is 2.5 million UAH higher than their market price. And this is not the first time Zaginai has served the National Police. As journalist Vitaly Glagola suggests, Zaginai manages to repeatedly win tenders, not thanks to competitive offers, but because he is the brother of Yulia Zaginai, who works as an assistant to Nikolai Tishchenko on a voluntary basis. Previously, she worked as a hostess administrator at Tishchenko’s “Safe” restaurant, and in 2020 she ran for deputy of the Kiev City Council, but was unsuccessful.
The good news is that after information about the suspicious tender was made public, the auction was cancelled. On the bad side, one can only guess what else will surprise voters while still people's deputy Nikolai Tishchenko and when his parliamentary mandate will finally be taken away.
