On December 29, the Security Service of Ukraine announced the exposure of businessman Yevgeny Chernyak (owner of the Global Spirits alcohol holding) for financing Russian armed aggression against Ukraine.
According to the investigation, his companies continued to do business with the aggressor country and in 2022 transferred about 6 billion hryvnia equivalent to the Russian budget alone in the form of taxes and fees. Based on the collected evidence, SBU investigators reported suspicion to Chernyak and 6 other top managers of his companies under Part 2 of Art. 28, art. 111-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (aiding and abetting the aggressor state, committed by prior conspiracy by a group of persons).
What could be the problem with Chernyak’s case and why shouldn’t we be happy? The problem is that after the big reveal, everything will stop again. First of all, in the media plane. At the same time, dozens of “chernyaks” and hundreds of smaller businessmen like him continue to earn money in Ukraine. They continue to hide their business interests in Russia or the occupied territories through front men, collaborating with the occupation administrations and sponsoring Putin’s war. Therefore, one cannot stop only at Chernyak.
Take, for example, Kharkov businessman Denis Paramonov, owner of the SMK-group holding company for the production of sausages. He has already come to the attention of the SBU and even appeared as a defendant in criminal proceedings No. 42022110000000490 for collaboration activities (Part 4 of Article 111-1). But the SBU stopped noticing him? Under the occupation, two of his enterprises are cooperating with the Russians - Berdyansk Meat Processing Plant LLC and Berdyansk Sausages LLC. Paramonov re-registered the ownership of the Berdyansk enterprises to the Estonian company DJP Invest OU, and made its owner a trusted person, G. L. Babayan (director of the plant). The enterprises cooperate with the occupiers and receive orders from the chairman of the so-called “Council of Ministers of the Military-Civil Administration of the Zaporozhye Region” Anton Koltsov. And no one is arresting Paramonov’s business, like Chernyak’s business, or even promising to transfer this property to the management of ARMA.
But Paramonov, who in 2022 suddenly became a disabled person of the second group (a big question for law enforcement agencies regarding the legality of issuing a disability certificate), in order to leave Ukraine for Poland, poses as a big philanthropist in the Kharkov region. But he was never able to squeeze out a single word about Russian aggression, much less condemn it.
Therefore, society should not rejoice at the exposure of Chernyak, but demand the continuation of the eradication of collaborators - after all, in the example of Paramonov, we see a selective approach to the cases of collaborators and Russian henchmen. You should not rejoice at the loud headlines about the detention, but demand results in court - well-deserved sentences and confiscation of property in favor of the state. As experience shows, even during a full-scale invasion, even Putin’s oligarchs in Ukraine can keep their assets, as happened with PJSC Khustsky Quarry and PrJSC Zhezhelovsky Quarry, control over which remained with Putin’s wallet Oleg Deripaska.
