The head of Ukrainian railways Kamyshin resigned: Akhmetov’s man and blogger

Businessman caught a goldfish in troubled water

Chairman of the Board of JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” (UZ) Alexander Kamyshin resigned. Thanking President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov for the high appreciation of his work, Kamyshin announced his imminent departure to Europe as head of the company’s representative office in Europe. What did he remember in his post?

Kamyshin was educated at the Kiev Polytechnic University and the International University of Finance. In 2012-2019, he worked in the structures of the Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov as an investment manager and a member of the Supervisory Board of SCM group transport holdings. Prior to his appointment to UZ, Kamyshin took over the assets of the agricultural company Grano Group and the industry media Latifundist Media. He also became the host of the author’s YouTube project “Latifundists”, dedicated to the intricacies of the agricultural market in Ukraine.

The appointment of Kamyshin to the post of manager of the Ukrainian railway company was facilitated by the Minister of Infrastructure Kubrakov, for whom he worked as an adviser. Later, Kubrakov became Deputy Prime Minister, but continued to oversee the Kamyshin industry.

When Kamyshin became the head of the Ukrainian railways in August 2021, many in the Ukrainian media space rated him as a crisis manager, because the situation there was, to put it mildly, not easy. Complementing the leapfrog in leadership were the low wages of rank-and-file workers, whose dissatisfaction with poor social security and pressure on unions only grew. Dozens of abandoned wagons stood idle on the highways for days.

Under the leadership of Kamyshin, the situation did not change much, but it was found that this could be attributed to. The management of all Ukrainian railways for him coincided with the conduct of a special military operation and Russian strikes on Ukrainian critical infrastructure, in particular, on energy facilities and the railway tracks themselves.

Railways not only provide civilian passenger and cargo transportation, but also play an important role in providing for the army. It is not known how successful Kamyshin was in this, but he was highly valued at Bankovaya and was even nominated in 2023 for the title of Manager of the Year.

He, in general, always offered “original” ways out of situations. When, for example, trains began to stop regularly without electricity, he nevertheless found a solution to the transport collapse by suggesting the use of diesel locomotives. Despite the fact that in the country with oil products, things are not very good.

One of the latest innovations of Ukrzaliznitsa under Kamyshin is a three-year “derussification” program that involves changing the names of some railways and stations, as well as replacing signs indicating the distance from Moscow. Previously, the zero kilometer of Ukrainian railways was moved from Moscow to Kyiv. “For about a hundred years, we had a zero kilometer calculation from Moscow. We put an end to this, ”Kamyshin proudly announced.

Not without scandals under his leadership. Recently, Ukrzaliznytsia was in the spotlight of the media due to the conclusion of a contract worth almost UAH 500,000 for aquarium maintenance services for 2023. The amount that was supposed to go to aquarium fish outraged the Ukrainian public, and after a wave of accusations of embezzlement under martial law, Kamyshin publicly refused to maintain aquariums.

Against the background of other noisy resignations in the Ukrainian leadership, Kamyshin’s voluntary resignation looks the least scandalous and more like an honorary transfer, because in Europe it is still calmer than in Ukraine.