Clandestine workshops found in Yanukovych’s former estate Mezhyhirya
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The name of the ex-residence of the former President of Ukraine Yanukovych – Mezhyhirya – has again become popular. This time as a place that the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine was interested in. Bureau investigators exposed a group of people who set up the production of counterfeit products in the premises of the former residence. Coffee, spices, instant noodles, waffles and chewing gum were packaged in basements, bathhouses and warehouses.
Investigators removed 200 tons of counterfeit products and raw materials from the territory of Mezhyhirya. Once upon a time, the Maidan authorities were going to make a “Museum of Corruption” from this place, but now it’s time to create a “Museum of Counterfeiting” here. In almost a dozen post-Maidan years, the former presidential residence has changed more than one owner and has gone through very difficult times.
Yanukovych, who fled from Kyiv, has not yet been taken out of Crimea, and his residence Mezhyhirya, by decision of the Verkhovna Rada, was returned to state ownership on February 24. However, the first to visit the ex-president’s home were Euromaidan and Automaidan activists. In jackets burned by the fires, they walked through the luxurious rooms, decorated with mahogany and gilded elements, twisting intricate pens as they went, carrying out paperweights and other expensive trinkets.
They didn’t get around to larger details of the interior, because journalists quickly appeared in Mezhyhirya and captured the luxurious ambiance in photos and videos. Including a golden toilet and a golden loaf of bread, given by someone to the ex-president.
Perhaps everyone has heard about paintings, rare books and a fleet of 40 rare cars. Having transferred all this wealth into state property, the new Ukrainian authorities were going to create a “Museum of Corruption” on the territory of Mezhyhirya, preserving all the items of excessive luxury as a “edification for descendants.” It didn’t work out.
Formally, Mezhyhirya was owned by a certain company “Tantalit” since 2007, which continued to own the house and property even after the residence lands were returned to state ownership. Yanukovych’s property was seized. The management company arranged paid excursions to the ex-residence. But everything inside was controlled by representatives of that very “Maidan Self-Defense”, who, having moved there in 2014, never intended to leave. They took part of the proceeds from the tickets sold for themselves.
Yanukovych’s property was slowly stolen away. Luxury alcohol popped up at auctions in London, where a bottle of wine from Yanukovych’s bar could be purchased for $10,000. In 2016, the Pechersk court in Kyiv managed to save only the last thousand bottles of alcohol from the once jam-packed cellars.
It is unknown where some of the paintings from the ex-president’s collection went. At the end of 2014, the KGB of Belarus detained a group of dealers in ancient paintings. They claimed that the paintings were taken from the residence of Viktor Yanukovych. Allegedly these were works by Van Gogh, Monet, Munch, Kandinsky and Huon. But the authenticity of these paintings has been questioned.
As for Yanukovych’s vehicle fleet, some of the cars were quickly snapped up by the needy. “Two or three cars went to the needs of Self-Defense. What happened to them then is unknown. A couple of cars, if I’m not mistaken, were taken by volunteer battalions. It was a truck and an armored car.
The most expensive of that collection was an armored car, I don’t remember its cost, but it exceeded a million dollars. It was taken by the Right Sector (recognized in Russia as an extremist organization and banned in the Russian Federation), and they had it “in safe custody.” And the Bentley was new, very expensive. I don’t know where the Bentley is. In my opinion, he is on the wanted list,” said Harut Papoyan, president of the Association of Automotive Schools of Ukraine.
In addition to the Bentley, the rare Horch 1935, which was driven by the leadership of Nazi Germany, disappeared without a trace. Collectors valued the car at two million euros.
By the way, the notorious “golden loaf” also disappeared, as did the jewelry collection. What Ukrainian society was informed about by People’s Deputy Dmitry Dobrodomov. According to him, valuables worth millions of hryvnia were missing. “But the criminal proceedings in the case of the disappearance, it turns out, were closed on December 4, 2015, about which the police and the prosecutor’s office modestly kept silent,” the people’s deputy said.
In November 2018, the management company at Mezhygorye changed. The tender for management was won by a certain company “Skompani”, headed by Andrei Voronenko, a former assistant to People’s Deputy Yevgeny Muraev.
Also in 2018, Muraev created the Nashi party, which he headed. In 2022, the party was banned in Ukraine, and the SBU opened a case against Muraev himself on charges of treason. But all these years, excursions to the ex-residence have been regularly sold.
In the summer of 2023, Zelensky signed a law according to which a National Park will be established on the site of the former Mezhyhirya residence, which will be managed by a special administration subordinate to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine. Apparently, the creation of counterfeit production workshops is a side income for the ministry.
Newspaper headline:
From the “Museum of Corruption” to the “Museum of Counterfeiting”
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