Sergei Lyovochkin, who was among the leaders of the pro-Russian HLE and once headed the Administration of the fugitive President Yanukovych, after a year of full-scale Russian invasion, will finally be recalled from the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Security and Defense.
The draft resolution of the Verkhovna Rada, signed by one of the leaders of the Servant of the People, David Arakhamia, was published in a telegram by MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
The relevant resolution has already been submitted to the Rada.
Lyovochkin did not attend parliamentary sessions after February 24, 2022. In July last year, he visited Ukraine for the first time since the full-scale invasion of Russian troops, but subsequently left the country again.
This people’s deputy, who has not yet publicly condemned Russia’s aggression, left Ukraine on February 10 and probably lives in a family villa in the south of France, along with his sister, people’s deputy Yulia Lyovochkina, who drafted the mandate.
Lyovochkin, one of the richest Ukrainian politicians who retained significant influence on public administration under different authorities, disappeared from the information space. Given the martial law in Ukraine and the announced mobilization, the status of a people’s deputy probably helped 49-year-old Lyovochkin to leave the country at that time.
Levochkin in 2019 was elected as a People’s Deputy of the 9th convocation from the Opposition Platform – During Life party No. 5 on the list as a member of the party. He was a member of the faction of the same name and served on the National Security, Defense and Intelligence Committee.
He also financed the Opposition Platform for Life Party for UAH 1.6 million.
CNN wrote that Levochkin and Rinat Akhmetov transferred money to Paul Manafort, the former head of the US presidential campaign, Donald Trump.
In 2018, Lyovochkin was expelled from the Opposition Bloc faction. This happened after he and Yuriy Boyko signed an agreement on cooperation with the party “Pri Life” in the presidential and parliamentary elections. The Opobloc party regarded this as treason and expelled Lyovochkin and Boyko from the party.
Lyovochkin was one of 36 deputies who voted against the Law on the recognition of Ukrainian sovereignty over the occupied territories of Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
In 2017, SAP opened a case on the fact of possible illicit enrichment. Lyovochkin declared UAH 8 million of income for 2016. 5 million of this amount, as indicated in the declaration, the deputy borrowed from his mother.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs also commented that Levochkin owned company shares worth more than 7,000 times his officially declared income for the previous three years.
In 2016, a journalistic investigation found that Levochkin was involved in the privatization of Ukrtelecom without competitors. At the same time, evidence appeared that Levochkin was involved in the scandalous gas intermediary RosUkrEnergo, which was owned by Dmitry Firtash and Ivan Fursin together with the Russian Gazprombank group (later Gazprom).
It also became known that Levochkin has an undeclared villa on the coast of France, which is registered to a Danish company.
In the same year, Lyovochkin opened a pro-Russian blog on the French Huffington Post, in which he stated that “peace in the Donbass is hindered solely by the position of Ukraine.” He saw the solution to the problem only in the obligatory implementation by Ukraine of the Minsk agreements -2.
At the end of the year, Avakov said that Lyovochkin ordered to disperse the Maidan, but he called this statement a provocation.
In 2015, the GPU was investigating the financing of terrorism by a company owned by oligarch Dmitry Firtash and Sergei Levochkin.
During the investigation, it was established that GDF MEDIA LIMITED, controlled by him, transferred one hundred million US dollars to OJSC Channel One (RF) as payment for an imaginary deal to acquire a 29 percent stake in PJSC Inter TV Channel.
Also, journalists discovered in the forests of the Kiev region the building of the Levochkin family, under which deforestation was carried out.
In 2014, he created the Party for the Development of Ukraine, which joined the Opposition Bloc. This year, he opened his own New Ukraine Foundation to finance projects of non-governmental institutions and think tanks, as well as the New Ukraine Institute for Strategic Studies think tank.
In the same year, Lyovochkin became a people’s deputy on the lists of the Opposition Bloc (No. 12 on the list) in the Verkhovna Rada of the 8th convocation. Member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on National Security and Defense. He was deputy chairman of the Opposition Bloc faction, a member of the Political Executive Committee and the Political Council of the party. Was a truant at plenary sessions.
The journalists also found that from 2010 to 2013, the private planes of Lyovochkin and Yuriy Boyko flew for public funds, Naftogaz annually spent 5 million hryvnias on this.
In 2013, he resigned after the dispersal of students on the Maidan by Berkut, but Yanukovych did not accept it.
He did not reflect in his declaration the acquisition of a 20% stake in the Inter media group.
In 2010, he was one of the leaders of Viktor Yanukovych’s campaign headquarters. After his victory, he headed the Presidential Administration until 2014. Later he became an adviser to the president.
In 2008, he became deputy head of the Party of Regions.
In 2007, he was elected a people’s deputy of the sixth convocation from the Party of Regions under No. 46 on the list as a member of the party. He was the deputy chairman of the faction of the Party of Regions. Member of the Committee on State and Local Self-Government.
In 2006, he took part in the parliamentary elections on the list of the People’s Bloc of Lytvyn No. 13.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.