BIHUSGATE, BUSINESS STRIKE, UMKA IS ON LOOSE
A stream about the high-profile events that surround us in domestic politics, in our rear. Domestic politics and the government’s war against journalists, a statement by business about a warning strike as a result of another criminal case, and information about the release of one of the previously detained thieves in law. Events that are simply impossible to ignore.
This does not mean that we forget about the frontline. No, we do not forget. Because war is the main context in which we all live every day.
But let's look at the internal politics and the government's war against journalists, the business's announcement of a warning strike as a result of another criminal case, and information about the release of previously detained thieves under sanctions.
Let's go through the steps. So that everyone understands at once, I'll explain once again. I am wearing a hoodie today. I will be broadcasting today in this hoodie, which was presented to me by my friends, soldiers of the Luftwaffe air reconnaissance unit of the 129th Territorial Defence Brigade of Kryvyi Rih. I want to thank them for this wonderful gift. I would like to thank our sponsors, the sponsors of Butusov+, who make it possible for us to broadcast more and more often. Today we have 1,783 sponsors who support our work. The number of sponsors is growing. I promise that we will think about formats. We will discuss issues again, and there will be broadcasts specifically for sponsors to discuss in more detail some topics that may be of concern to people who need more information, more in-depth, so that they can pay attention to the details.
I think we should start with the footage of another tragedy of war, a tragedy that happens every day, but it will be simply impossible to understand what is happening in the country without watching those images of Russian missile strikes on civilians in Ukrainian cities. It's just horrific footage. Direct hits by Russian missiles on a residential building. Of course, the Russians will say that this is just another military facility. But in reality, we see that this is just another attack on civilians. The killing of civilian Ukrainians, the destruction of people's homes and a significant number of dead people. Unfortunately. This is the main challenge of our time. These are the tragedies we see every day, the lives we lose every day. Only after watching this footage we will move on to the issues of our domestic policy. Because otherwise, I think... it is simply impossible to realise the gap between the terrible disaster that is happening in the country and the actions of the authorities, who, as we see, do not always think about what is happening in the war.
And now we are moving on to an event that in fact in Ukraine can cause, I think, one of the biggest political scandals not just of the time of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but in principle of all times in 32 years, 33 years of Ukraine's independence. I mean, this is just an unprecedented operation by law enforcement agencies against journalists.
BIHUSGATE
On 27 December, journalists from the well-known investigative journalism project, one of the leading Ukrainian and internationally respected media outlets, Bihus-info, gathered at a restaurant and hotel complex near Kyiv to conduct training and celebrate the New Year together. And, as it turned out, the day before, on 26 December, according to the testimony of the staff of the Ukrainian Village, the company checked into the exact rooms booked by Bihus.info journalists for one day. A group of 30 men, such powerful, serious and silent men, very similar to each other, who, under the guise of some kind of corporate event, clearly settled in groups in all these houses. They settled in, did something there. Then they left. The next day, journalists arrived. And on 9 January, a video of journalists and employees appeared on one of the little-known YouTube channels. Bihus.info employees who were at the event. And this video was accompanied by intercepted phone calls...
Everything is clear here. This is a live video that was recorded from certain points inside the room. You can clearly see that the cameras are in the middle of the room. The cameras are not some kind of surveillance of the restaurant. This is an interior room where people live. Women live there. There were a lot of girls among the staff. They settled there in private rooms. In each of these rooms, unknown people, this group of 30, put video cameras. And then a video was edited from these cameras to show that several employees from the big newsroom were using drugs. I think they were either smoking or snorting something. It's not noticeable, it's not visible. There are audio conversations attached to this video, where several employees discuss the use of certain substances, crystals, which they call MDM, some cigarettes. And this was a story in which these people are seen, and their names are indicated. That is, specifically identified employees, who are given a surname, a name, and their telephone conversations are attached. And this video is uploaded to the Internet on one of the little-known, small YouTube channels. At the same time, many channels on the Internet associated with the current government, with the "Servant of the People" party, immediately posted posts showing that this little-known channel is watched by a lot of supporters of the government. There are literally a couple of thousand of them. This is the Narodna Pravda channel. People appear on this channel, and suddenly everyone sees it. I even watched it, and for some reason, many MPs, servants of the people, instantly found this channel and wrote about it, for example, the famous athlete Zhan Beleniuk also wrote so ironically that he does not use drugs, he is a good man, but you see what journalists are like.
So, this is a story that speaks of a complete discredit - an attempt to discredit the journalists of Bihus.info - by demonstrating that, you see, there are people who use MDM among them. What are the consequences? No charges have been brought against Bihus.info journalists as a result of the video. That is, these are not hard drugs, they were not resold. People are using something for themselves. No one calls them in for questioning. No criminal case is announced. They are not told that they are, for example, witnesses or participants or accused in a trial or criminal case. Their status is not reported at all. Who are they? Why was this video made public? That's it. But we can see that this video is an operational shooting. The journalists of Bihus.info ask the question: what cameras were used to film this? It turns out that there are no cameras there. But the cameras could have been installed by those 30 silent men who had arrived the day before. And this is where a very important question begins. Obviously, these 30 unknown men are employees of one of Ukraine's law enforcement agencies. Who else could be doing this? These 30 law enforcement officers move in, conduct large-scale surveillance of a large group of journalists and... yes, this is illegal, because it requires a sanction, it requires a criminal case. But, okay, maybe they didn't know. Maybe they were confused. But. If the people who installed the cameras, who did this surveillance, did it by accident, they would not have edited the video. They could not have posted this video on the Internet so quickly, because it is the disclosure of covert investigative and search operations. According to the law, disclosure of such data is permissible only with the sanction of the prosecutor. We are not talking about any sanctions. This Narodna Pravda channel is registered to non-existent characters. It's a small channel. It was not made public by the prosecutor's office. It was not announced at a press conference, it was leaked on the Internet, which is a criminal offence in Ukraine.
It is also unclear who installed it. It is illegal without a sanction. This could not have been an accident, so audio recordings were also made of this video. And these audio recordings were made over a different period. That is, the surveillance and wiretapping took place for a long time. And the person who installed the video cameras had been recording audio for a long time and wiretapping phones. The journalists and editorial staff were bugged for a long time. And then he processed this entire array of audio and cut out the fragments of interest for editing. Could this be an accident? Could the law enforcement officers who set up the cameras, who came in such a crowd, set up these cameras, filmed the information, filmed the audio, edited it, posted it on the Internet on an anonymous channel, have done it by accident, not knowing who the journalists were? You can see in the video the names of the employees, right? So who put all this together? Someone knows all these personal details. Someone, these 30 men, after they recorded the journalists arriving for the training, then the women going to their room, changing, showering, going to bed - they watched it all carefully so as not to miss it: what if there was some kind of compromising information. They, these serious men, 30 people, a whole platoon at the front, 30 healthy infantrymen, they looked at the girls in the rear, examined them, looked for dirt, and then edited the story from what they liked. Some of them also edited it, brought it back and posted it on the Internet.
Is it possible that there is a coincidence here? Can we assume that those who set up the cameras, edited the footage and leaked it on purpose to discredit the journalists did not know that they were spying on the journalists? Did they not know that it is illegal to leak such edited materials on the Internet? Because if you see this as an offence, then you can't just announce it without a prosecutor's sanction. Everything must be in accordance with the law, these data of covert investigative actions must be made public only with the sanction of the prosecutor and the sanction of the court, and be attached to the trial. That is, a suspicion is made. The materials are submitted to the court. Preventive measures may be chosen. And then - then representatives of the law have the right to publish data on offences. Well, there is no offence here. There are no statements. There are no criminal cases. There is nothing. Just fragments of video are thrown out on the Internet. For everyone to see. And so that later the Servants of the People could make false claims: look, what bad journalists are. They criticise us, and among them, you see, there are those who smoke weed and even sniff something, some crystals. Uh-oh.
By the way, these conversations belong to two TV cameramen of Bihus.info, and I must say that immediately - instantly - as soon as the information about people using drugs became known to the management of Bihus.info management, Denys Bihus himself made a statement and immediately said that both operators, although there are no proceedings against them, no charges, no suspicions, no announcement of their involvement in any illegal activity, were immediately fired by Denys Bihus. And they are no longer employees of Bihus.info.
So, this video is now indeed a fact for initiating a criminal case. Even several. But these cases are no longer against journalists or employees. These are cases against those who did it. Against law enforcement officers.
At first, the authorities wanted to pretend that they did not notice the scandal. But the media, even the Financial Times, ran a front-page story on how Zelenskyy's information army was putting pressure on Ukrainian journalists. The main article during the war in one of the world's largest financial business publications. So now we have a very interesting situation.
At first, the authorities did not want to respond. Then, under public pressure, a few days later, President Zelenskyy made a very interesting statement.
In particular, the Security Service of Ukraine has launched an investigation into the fact of surveillance of journalists and will clarify all the circumstances. Any pressure on journalists is unacceptable.
Interesting information. 30 people enter the capital of Ukraine, set up a wiretap, a video, watch citizens, and leak the video. A few days pass, and the President of Ukraine still doesn't know who did it. Just look at this! How could this be? Maybe it was some kind of sabotage and reconnaissance group of the Russian Federation? How is this possible? A bunch of unknown people in the centre of the city, right in the heart of Ukraine, are not fighting during working hours, not catching spies, not catching, for example, drug lords who distribute drugs. Instead, they install video cameras in all the bedrooms of all the editorial staff, then watches what they do with themselves in their rooms, how they sleep, wash, go to the toilet. They watch everything. They edit the video. The video is not about the war. Not about the defence of Ukraine. But they are editing this, delivering the audio and airing it. And the president does not know who it is. So many days, and he doesn't know. And he says, 'Well, well, well, who is watching the journalists? Let the SSU investigate and find out. Because no one knows. There are 30 people here, and no one has told the president, apparently. I can't believe it. The president just - obviously, we can conclude from this statement by Volodymyr Zelenskyy that our law enforcement agencies have started to work very poorly. This statement was made in three days. They can't inform the president that these groups are driving around the centre of Kyiv in cars and installing cameras in hotels. It's strange, really. 30 people. It turns out that they cannot be identified.
There is such a thing as mobile phone billing. That is, all the people who come to Tsarskoye Selo in large numbers have... Ukrainian Village, I'm sorry, the other name of this hotel complex is Ukrainian Village. They have a mobile phone, and it shows where the person is moving, what coordinates they are using, what they are doing. This is at least the minimum. In addition, the surveillance cameras show the faces of these people. There are apps that allow you to instantly identify who was there. In addition, there are cameras in the car park that clearly observe what cars were there, what their licence plates are. These number plates can then be used to clearly check the Kyiv city surveillance system to see where these cars were moving, where they were going, where they stopped, who was sitting in them, where they went. All this is done in a couple of hours. To inform the president immediately. And President Zelenskyy's statement was made three days later. Somehow they are in no hurry to inform the president. He still doesn't know. I want to say that two weeks have passed since this scandalous operation against Ukrainian journalists was carried out by this as yet unknown security force. And still - still - the president ordered the SSU to investigate 10 days ago, and... two weeks later they are investigating. They still can't find out who these people are. Was it legal at all? Are these people not some kind of enemies? Maybe they are also some drug lords, a rival group? Maybe they are just drug addicts? Or are they really all these hucksters who sell amphetamine or MDM? Who are they? There is no information. The president is silent. Maybe the Security Service hasn't figured it out yet?
By the way, two criminal cases have been opened over this fact, i.e. illegal surveillance and illegal installation of listening devices, by the National Police and the Security Service of Ukraine. It turns out now that neither the National Police nor the Security Service have been able to establish in two weeks what kind of group of 30 people is running around Kyiv and installing video cameras in girls' bedrooms? Maybe it's a gang of perverts? Maybe some perverted maniacs who are stalking people? Or are they those who trade in some kind of information, and this is also some kind of criminal group collecting information about citizens in order to blackmail and discredit them? Because they can then install it in Volodymyr Zelenskyy's room or in the 95th district somewhere. This is a big state problem. These people need to be identified immediately. And they can't tell us for two weeks. What kind of inefficiency is this? Why are our law enforcement officers taking so long? Why are they so slow? Where is the phone billing that will show everything? Where is the analysis of video camera data? All the data from the surveillance cameras has been seized by the Security Service of Ukraine. What are the problems? Why are they taking so long? What's going on? At least give us some kind of signal, law enforcement, say there: the computer is busy, overloaded. Or volunteers, help us buy a computer because it's broken. Or give us a signal that you are with us, law enforcement. This is a crime. You should at least say where these people are from. Reassure the public, say that they are not Russians, they are not bandits. Or that they are bandits, they are Russians, we are on their trail. Where's the information? Two weeks later. So, a precedent has been set when an unknown large group of people illegally follows journalists without any sanctions. There are no sanctions. I want to tell you that there was a meeting of a group of journalists - this is a permanent group of journalists who are in touch with the Prosecutor General's Office. So, at a closed meeting with representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office, there was no information that there was any criminal case in which Bihus.info employees were monitored and videos from Bihus.info were posted - the Prosecutor General's Office has no such information. The General Prosecutor's Office does not confirm that there is a fact of an offence on the part of journalists, that the surveillance of them is legal. The Prosecutor General's Office does not have it. And for some reason, law enforcement officers themselves are in no hurry to say anything. There is complete silence. And a very shameful silence. And for some reason, the president does not make any remarks. This is a demonstration that the president is not in control of the situation. Volodymyr Zelensky, you are being set up. Unknown people are walking around, putting cameras on citizens, and you are not even told who they are. You have to raise the issue. You are the president. You have to give an order to those who are not in a hurry to investigate, why I have not been informed yet. You can fire those managers who do not give you immediate results. After all, you said that surveillance of journalists is unacceptable. You have to react. There is no reaction. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is silent. The Security Service of Ukraine does not comment. The National Police makes no comments. There is complete silence. The Office of the Prosecutor General is not aware of the situation.
WHO WAS FOLLOWING THE JOURNALISTS
And what are the conclusions, I want to tell you. Why are they silent? In fact, this situation does not seem to be one that cannot be solved. There are a large number of cameras installed throughout Kyiv. These cameras allow us to clearly see and control which cars left the Ukrainian Village and entered it on 26 December. And which ones came after 27 December, when unknown people also came to film the cameras. All this can be easily established. Then look at the phone billing and check who these people are. It's not difficult. Immediately after it happened, I was shocked by this savage case, which is absolutely... this does not happen in civilised democratic countries. It's just a terrible scandal. If this had happened in any country in Europe or America, where there is democracy and the rule of law, this would have been the main topic. It's a violation of citizens' rights. Just imagine. This is... let's use these examples to show which ones will be more accepted. The leadership of our law enforcement agencies, for example, Mr Tatarov, someone puts a video camera in his daughter's hotel room or bedroom, looking for dirt on her. And then they will edit some video and post it on the Internet. A daughter, a wife, a mother. It can be with Oleg Tatarov, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the SSU. Is this nice? Is this normal, do you think? It's illegal. You cannot do this. It is strictly prohibited by law. This is a criminal offence. For which there is criminal liability, prison. Removal from office. Dismissal. And they boasted about it in the networks, the authorities. They bragged about it, and many people close to the ruling party wrote off the posts. It will be interesting to see this now. And there is no reaction. So, I want to tell you, friends, that the authorities will not be able to hush up this situation, and it is not true to think that someone will keep quiet and forget about it. Information about these people will be found. I am also checking information from several sources so that I can clearly identify and prove who did it. I have this information. I immediately wrote on Facebook that we have people who can do this. It could be some central subordinate units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, perhaps the National Police or the State Bureau of Investigation, i.e. those who are close to the authorities, absolutely loyal people appointed there. But first of all, I also drew attention to the fact that we have a department for the protection of national statehood within the Security Service of Ukraine, which has a special department for supervising the media and journalists. This is their job. I thought that the first thing to do was to ask: is it you, by any chance? There is every reason to do so.
Who is in charge of the Department for the Protection of National Statehood? And this is Mr Semenchenko, who is very closely connected to the person who appointed him to the position. And let's see who appointed him. Oops! Presidential Decree No. 744 of 2019. On the appointment of Roman Yuriiovych Semenchenko as the Presidential Commissioner for Oversight of the Security Service of Ukraine. 11 October 2019. Why do I want to talk about this? Because, as we can see, Roman Semenchenko was one of the first security officials, heads of the SSU, appointed to the government on 11 October 2019. That is, he was a person who has the trust of President Zelenskyy, who works well, and President Zelenskyy highly appreciates the work of Roman Semenchenko. That is why let's look at the second decree. That is why, by Decree No. 741 of 2022, on 27 October 22, Roman Semenchenko was appointed head of the Department for the Protection of National Statehood of the Security Service of Ukraine. That is, a person who owes his career entirely to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was appointed to such a high position by two decrees. This is a position in the central office.
I want to say that this is a very rapid growth, staggering, from the bottom up. In 2013, under Yanukovych, Roman Semenchenko was appointed head of one of the regional SSU departments in Zhytomyr region. Despite lustration and the Maidan, he continued to work quietly under President Poroshenko. He also held positions in the apparatus in Dnipropetrovsk region. But after Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to power, Semenchenko's career took off. Suddenly, from the provincial head of one of the regional departments, he was immediately appointed by decree as the president's own commissioner in the Security Service. And he controls the SSU so well with Ivan Bakanov, that is, under Roman Semenchko, the Commissioner for Control of the SSU, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation appoints its agent Oleg Kulinich, who was controlled by Vladimir Sivkovich, as the head of the SSU's main department in Crimea. I am not quoting fiction here, but quoting the materials of an active criminal case of the State Bureau of Investigation. While Semenchenko was in control of the SSU, Naumov was promoted to the position of head of the Main Department of Internal Security. Vladimir Sivkovich and the 5th Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation are also agents. A Russian agent is appointed to the post. At the same time, Naumov is promoted to the rank of brigadier general, controls all corruption, takes control of all smuggling in Ukraine, and then, in a very shameful way for the state, General Namov, a brigadier general, flees Ukraine before the war, and in the company of a well-known smuggler, Alexander Akt, Naumov is detained in Serbia. Because he was carrying almost a million dollars in cash in his car, which Naumov had not declared. This is just an example. This is how Roman Semenchenko "well" controlled the Security Service with Ivan Bakanov in quotation marks. He obviously controlled so well, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy liked Semenchenko's control so much that after all these failures, he was hired and appointed to an even higher position in the Security Service of Ukraine. He was appointed head of the SZND. He was appointed immediately. That is, the head of the department in the central office. The main structure. A very interesting character. He has great confidence in Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He communicates very well with him personally. Why am I talking about this? His last name. Because the real issue here is that another criminal case is needed in the Bihus.info case.
WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO FIND OUT WHO DID IT
Why do we care who did it? Because, in fact, the main crime, according to the logic of covert investigative actions, was not committed by the employees who performed the task directly. If there is no abuse of power, this should be investigated. But 30 law enforcement officers could have appeared at the same time to install all these bugs and cameras in only one case. If the operation is authorised and an order is received. Otherwise, it is impossible to gather such a crowd. In the central office of the Department for the Protection of National Statehood, there are a few more people, of course. But such a number - you can simply say, for example, either in the central office of the State Tax Service or in the central office of the National Police - to gather 30 officers together, you need to seriously strain the entire department. This is not an ordinary operation. I can tell you that for sure. This means a major operation, a very dangerous enemy who can resist, put up counter-surveillance, surveillance. They are the ones who went up against big, serious people. And the main thing here is why we need to find out who these people are, identify them all, and this will be done - because there is an order for the operation. And this order is signed - this is the main element of criminal proceedings that needs to be exposed. This order must have the signature of the direct supervisor of these big bulls who are running after girls in Kyiv, spying on them, perverts. This is the first thing. And secondly, there is also a sanction. An operation involving such a number of officers must not only be signed by the head of a department or division, but must also be signed by high-ranking officials: deputy heads of law enforcement agencies or the head of a law enforcement agency himself. And then a very interesting situation arises.
We find someone from this crowd, and they have done everything to document and expose themselves. This person has to testify. He is a bandit, a criminal, or he was following an order. He says whose order he was following. We look at the sanction, who signed it, who drew it up. And these people go to prison. Because they didn't just conduct covert investigative actions unauthorised by the Prosecutor General's Office. They edited a video and posted it on the Internet, which means they disclosed data, at least violated official secrets during the war. At the very least. They disrupted, perhaps, we do not know, further law enforcement operations. They may have illegally obstructed the activities of journalists with their surveillance - we do not know how long they were watching the journalists, how they collected information. Then a big question arises as to how much time this department for the protection of national statehood during the war spends fighting Russian agents, and how much time it spends snooping around hotel rooms, collecting information about ordinary Ukrainian citizens. This raises the question of whether we have too many freeloaders in the central apparatus of law enforcement agencies, who wipe their pants while travelling around hotels doing unremarkable work, while the TCC is catching civilians in the streets who are quickly driven to training centres because there is a shortage of people on the front line, a shortage of fighters. There is a shortage of infantry. And here we have these big fools running around, pleasing their political clients with taxpayers' money. I think that when we identify the body that did this, and this can only be done with a clear evidence base, it will be such a shame. And then all the leaders will have to decide whether you gave the sanction. If you authorised it, you are criminals. And you have to go to court. And you have to say who gave you the order. Who asked you to do it. Which office asked you to monitor Ukrainian journalists. Whether you are engaged in war, defending the Motherland, or want to help the defendants in the anti-corruption investigations of Bihus.info discredit journalists to avoid responsibility.
APPEAL TO THE HEADS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES
And then I would like to personally address the Minister of Internal Affairs Klymenko and the Head of the Security Service Malyuk - decent honest leaders, we have no doubt that you want to perform your official duties in good faith. But here, this video is a direct violation of the laws of Ukraine. You don't support breaking the law, do you? The laws have not been cancelled, have they?
So if you support the laws, you have to immediately tell us who did it. Who are the 30 freeloaders who are driving cars around hotels and chasing girls instead of defending the country in such a terrible time. You have to say this, this is the first thing. At a press conference, in front of all the people. And then you have to detain those who did it, who gave the sanction, who edited the video, and put them on trial, as required by law. And all these people, no matter what rank these leaders are, are criminals. They should be held criminally liable, as provided by law. They should be dismissed from the civil service and, of course, the whole story should be condemned at the same time. Not in words, as the president says: surveillance of journalists is illegal. Of course, we all know this. The authorities should not tell us what is legal or illegal, but make decisions. For two weeks, you can't tell whether these are civil servants or not. Or it's a Russian sabotage group running around Kyiv. What kind of law enforcement agency is this? I want to tell you that the authorities know perfectly well that these are civil servants. I want to say that in the near future, I'm just sure that this information, after proper verification, should be made public. And I hope that the state, the authorities, will take the initiative and honestly put things in order in this case. The President will come forward and say: yes, I gave an order to look into it two weeks ago, I have looked into it, the situation is like this. Such-and-such managers authorised it, this one knew, that one didn't. He violated it, he didn't violate it. They will be detained. You will hear all the names in court. Go ahead. It will be legal. We are defending rights, the law. There is a war going on to protect the rights of Ukrainians to live on our land, to work on our land. This is only possible if the law works and the law is protected by the state. That's it.
This is the first topic. The main topic of this broadcast.
I get a lot of questions.
THE MAZEPA CASE
The second topic we have is the topic of persecution and the detention of businessman Igor Mazepa. He is one of the Ukrainian businessmen. The criminal case has received a lot of publicity. I'm talking about it not because, in fact, the story of Mazepa is very remarkable in itself, because the case is absolutely unique and transparent. This is absolutely not the case. We are talking about it now because this case has caused a great resonance in Ukrainian business. A large number of businessmen - I've seen this for the first time, to be honest - detain a businessman, he is sitting in jail, and today there was a court hearing and an appeal. A businessman is detained, and it's not the oligarchs or any politicians who are speaking in his favour, it's other businessmen. A large number of businessmen wrote their position on Facebook and condemned... no one talks about the case itself - the methods. The case in which the amount of damage caused to the state is set at UAH 7 million, Mazepa and his brother, who are detained for UAH 200 million, are granted bail. The case in which Mazepa is accused of leading a criminal group that seized land does not involve any government officials. How did he seize the land himself? It is state land, according to the logic of the investigation. And what did the officials do? It is also unclear. And there are a lot of procedural violations.
I think that if this case had happened on its own against the backdrop of a functioning judicial system in the country, I think there would have been no such resonance. But Mazepa's case caused a resonance, because in fact, these almost daily raids by law enforcement agencies on any type of business, this daily racketeering with tax invoices, blocking tax invoices, is felt by every entrepreneur in our country. Every single one of them. Without exception. Except for Kvartal-95. Everything is fine there. Of course, the tax authorities will not come there. And everyone else must suffer. According to the logic of our law enforcement agencies. And now there is a situation where there is an event that might not have caused a resonance in itself, but the methods used by the State Bureau of Investigation were such that every businessman, even those who do not have land problems, felt that they might be next. And this is the main theme of all other posts. It's no longer about someone saying that the investment climate has worsened. No. We are talking about only one thing. It's about the fact that today they came for him, tomorrow they will come for us. I'm talking about this because a very interesting precedent has emerged. A whole group of entrepreneurs, which is part of the so-called Manifest-42 group, more than 20 entrepreneurs representing medium-sized enterprises, no oligarchs, but a lot of manufacturing businesses, almost all manufacturing businesses, construction businesses, have asked the authorities to hold a meeting with them and explain why. Six months ago, President Zelenskyy said that pressure on business was unacceptable. Now he says that pressure on journalists is unacceptable. And six months ago, President Zelenskyy said that pressure on business was unacceptable, that it was impossible to intimidate business. And here we are.
I would like to remind you that a special working group was even set up there, headed by Oleh Tatarov, deputy head of the Presidential Office, who was supposed to deal with all the issues of entrepreneurs. And we can see that Tatarov worked in the same way as he did when he worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs under Yanukovych, solving everything according to the same scheme. Beat them even more, bend them over even more, and set bail 100 times higher. So that's the story. But this is a precedent.
Let's take a look at this meeting with the authorities. Forbes wrote that they listened to the rage of business for two hours. Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyredenko, Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Fedorov and Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk organised a meeting with two dozen entrepreneurs. One of the issues raised at the meeting was the abnormally high number of 500,000 open criminal cases. That is one case for every 30th able-bodied Ukrainian. There were a lot of proceedings.
The main thing that is important about this meeting is that it is actually a symptom, and in fact, as a result of this meeting, a group of entrepreneurs stated that if the pressure on entrepreneurs continues, if more acceptable legal decisions are not made in the Mazepa case, a large number of private Ukrainian enterprises will actually go on strike. Strikes during martial law in Ukraine are prohibited by law, but of course, there are other ways to put it. For example, businessmen have said that their companies will stop working for one day. They will stop working not to harm the state, but to draw the state's attention, to conduct normal business in the face of constant terror, extortion and racketeering by state law enforcement agencies, and it is absolutely impossible for businesses to operate like this. No investor will come to the country. Businesses will leave the country. And this is happening all the time. And not only because of Putin, because of these terrible Russian attacks, but because of this absolute greed and lawlessness of law enforcement agencies. That's the scary thing. That law enforcement agencies in Ukraine are destroying business in the same way as Russian missiles. This is a disaster for us. And it's worth saying that... I think it still had a great resonance. Because the bail for Igor Mazepa was reduced from UAH 700 million, which the prosecutors had set for him, to UAH 21 million, and the situation was such that entrepreneurs generally wanted to raise a lot of money for bail to release Mazepa. I think Mazepa will pay 21 million for himself on appeal. But this is the first time we can say that Ukrainian business has rallied not just under the threat of an external enemy, but under the threat of an internal enemy. And it is the state itself. The Ukrainian government itself. This is a terrible situation. The government has got to the point where Russian bombing cannot force them to stop working, and the Ukrainian government is forcing them to stop working for one day. It's just scary. Let's hope that at least such a signal will get through.
Unfortunately, President Zelenskyy has surrounded himself with a team from the Yanukovych era. Oleg Tatarov robbed and racketeered entrepreneurs as deputy head of the Main Investigation Department in Zakharchenko's Ministry of Internal Affairs. Zakharchenko, who is now a traitor and is hiding in Russia. He is doing the same thing now. Just as Andriy Portnov was then the deputy head of the Presidential Office and resolved all issues, so he is resolving them now. Everything there is absolutely under control. All his people are there. Everyone is working. The same judges, the same law enforcement officers and managers. And the same result. I think that if Zelenskyy thinks he can surround himself with Yanukovych's people for so long, he will soon become Yanukovych himself, because the president turns into the person he surrounds himself with. This is the story of every Ukrainian president. First, they surround themselves with inadequate people who offer simple solutions, easy solutions - to squeeze someone, to take money, to take property, to deprive someone of something, to take something away from someone. And then these single-celled people start to run everything. They are not capable of managing Ukraine's development. What about Tatarov? Tatarov is a man with the mindset of an amoeba, who has been thinking about only one thing all his life: to rob, divide, and line the pockets of himself and his bosses. He knows no other functions. That's why he made his career under Yanukovych. And now he is in charge of all law enforcement agencies in Ukraine. Despite the fact that there was a criminal case against him, I want to remind you, at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. He was involved in the theft of apartments built for the National Guard of Ukraine. But no one is interested in this. He should be lustrated. But no one is interested in that either.
Illegally appointed people are doing illegal things in Ukraine.
THIEVES IN THE LAW UMKA AND LASHA ARE OUT
And the last topic that is also worth mentioning. I went to the TV show and watched it, and strangely enough, I was very surprised by this story. It was about two well-known thieves in law. Two thieves in law, Serhiy Oliynyk, nicknamed Umka, and Lasha Jadvliani, nicknamed Lasha-Svan, have been released. They have no problems. They do not have a large bail. Umka and Lasha-Svan, according to the Obozrevatel and Dnipro Operativnyi, as we can see, on 22 January, preventive measures against them were to be considered, which were transferred to the Babushkinskyi District Court in the city of Dnipro. For some reason, the hearing was transferred from the Pechersk Court of Kyiv to Dnipro. For 13 months, Umka and Lasha-Svan were held in a pre-trial detention centre in the case of organising and holding a criminal assembly under Part 1 of Article 252 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. But due to some procedural reasons - some procedural reasons - something was not extended, something was not processed, something was not prepared, somehow - and the period of detention expired. Without any scandals, without any appeals from journalists, without any manifestos-42 two real criminal bosses Umka and Lasha-Svan are now on the sanctions lists signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The thieves in law, remember that loud decree - all thieves in law will now be thrown out of the country, sanctions will be imposed on them. Take it easy. 13 months in a detention centre. Now he is free. For some reason, the sanctions are gone, and for some reason, we squinted, they are gone. The criminal case doesn't hurt either. And here you see how they work. No need for bail, nothing. Everything is being resolved quietly. Everything is fine. And where are the 30 law enforcement officers from the yet unknown body? Why aren't they out here watching the thieves in law? Oh, they are not enough. All their efforts are spent on following journalists around hotels. They are not difficult to follow. They don't hide. If they are found to be in possession of weed, you can open a case, shoot a video, bring it to the Presidential Office and say: look, they are filming about you, and now - oops! And to make such a video, why haven't our law enforcement officers released videos of thieves in law? What are they doing? Do they manage to put a wiretap or a video camera in their place? Are they detained, are they kept in custody? Does anyone control this? Who is responsible for the fact that all the documents are not drawn up, the cases are not drawn up, the terms of detention are not extended. Who is responsible for this? Which law enforcement officer? Which manager? Maybe the president will also say this in his address? Or does he have to deal with it again? He should have sorted it out within a year. He issued the decree in 2022 year. But, Volodymyr Oleksandrovich, your decrees are not being implemented. The thieves in law, it turns out, are in Ukraine and they are doing well. That's the difference, friends. Unfortunately, crime feels very good. Because crime does not quarrel with the authorities. It doesn't criticise corruption schemes, but on the contrary, it is happy to participate in them and serve them. Criminals have no complaints about Tatarov. Tatarov is their best friend. All issues can be resolved. They do not come to Tatarov, do not seize his assets, do not block his companies. Neither Umka nor Lasha have any pledges of 700 million - there are no claims against them. It turns out that a billion in bail can be given to some entrepreneur, but thieves in law, sanctioned by a presidential decree, cannot be given anything. They can only be released. And even wave a hand.
Unfortunately, this is how we have a distorted system of relations in the government. This is the responsibility of the authorities. As long as the authorities remain shamefully cowardly silent, as long as all these leaders are afraid to say why you have 30 healthy law enforcement officers running after journalists and not after thieves in law, why they rob entrepreneurs and they are unable to establish the sources of funding for the mafia, we will have a weak government. Weak in the rear to the point where it is simply unable to organise normal resistance to the enemy. Because the priorities are not the same. The enemies are not the same. Our national statehood.
Friends, thank you for this broadcast. Thank you for your support. These are difficult topics. But if we want to win, if we want to respect the memory of those who died, the honour of those who continue to resist in this terrible war every day, we must defend rights and protect the truth. This is the core value that makes our victory and Ukraine's freedom inevitable. Glory to Ukraine.
