Candidates for BES head: work with Arbuzov, scientific works with quotes from Tatarov and Russian Federation, - media. PHOTO
Among the 16 finalists for the new head of the Bureau of Economic Security, there are at least six with interesting backgrounds.
This is stated in the material of "Schemes", Censor.NET reports with reference to Radio Liberty.
Viktor Dubovyk, a candidate for the post of BES head, currently heads the Legal Policy Directorate of the OP.
Dubovyk's former boss is the now wanted former Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Serhii Arbuzov. Dubovyk worked as an adviser for him during the Revolution of Dignity. When Viktor Dubovyk was working as an adviser for Arbuzov, his father was the First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Vitalii Zakharchenko. According to journalists, the candidate's father received a Russian passport. Dubovyk claims that he has not communicated with his father for 15 years.
Ruslan Pakhomov was named by some media outlets as the main candidate for the post of BES director back in January 2025.
He has worked for many years in various senior positions at "Media Group Ukraine", the company whose ultimate beneficiary is Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov. Pakhomov also worked for the Ministry of Internal Affairs during Yanukovych's presidency as deputy head of the cybercrime department. Pakhomov denies any connection to Akhmetov.
The journalists also found out that in July 2022, "PrivatBank" had closed Ruslan Pakhomov's accounts. This happened after he had transferred UAH 13.5 million to his wife's company within two days. Pakhomov challenged this decision in court. According to the court register, the bank suspected possible legalisation, money laundering of funds of unknown origin. The company to which the funds were directed had only one employee and at the time had tax arrears, the court decision said.
Amil Azad Omarov is the head of the Shevchenkivskyi District Prosecutor's Office in Kharkiv.
He mentioned the name of the scholar Oleh Tatarov eight times in his research paper. Six of them were cited in the text of the dissertation and two more in the bibliography. In addition, based on the experience of foreign countries, a separate section was devoted to the Russian Federation. He defended his thesis in 2017. Omarov says that he used the experience of the Russian Federation for scientific comparison.
Mykhailo Burtovyi has been an NABU detective since 2019. Prior to that, he worked for the police of the Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv, and even earlier - for the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the same district.
In 2022, his research work was approved by Maksym Tsutskiridze, the head of the National Police investigation and a fellow countryman of Oleh Tatarov, with whom he had friendly relations. Burtovyi denies any personal ties to Tsutskiridze.
Ruslan Rachynskyi is currently working at the tax office in Kyiv region.
The title of the research paper that Rachynskyi defended in 2019 was "Legal Principles of Taxes and Fees Administration in Ukraine". In it, Rachynskyi referred, among other things, to the tax law of the Russian Federation.
The media write extensively about the candidate Ihor Shepetin: a combat officer, colonel of the SSU, former commander of the TDF battalion. According to his official biography, he is currently serving in the Security Service of Ukraine.
Even before the full-scale invasion, Shepetin was suing the SSU for his office apartment. According to the "Judicial Power" website, his lawyer was, among others, Andrii Portnov, a former deputy head of Yanukovych's administration. Shepetin claims that he does not know Portnov personally.
