Ilya Kiva: from a pre-trial detention center to a colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, from the Right Sector to the Opposition Platform for Life. Part two

We are publishing the second part of our most interesting dossier on the deputy from the Opposition Platform for Life Ilya Kivu. With the first part, you can familiarize link.

Maidan and Right Sector

Kiva's path to the Ministry of Internal Affairs lay through the "Right Sector", in which he ended up thanks to the second Maidan. Winter 2013-2014 many Ukrainians offended by the authorities and law enforcement agencies went to protests in Kyiv to show themselves as political opposition to the regime, and not just remain corrupt officials and bandits. Ilya Kiva also went there, becoming its active participant, and far from being an ordinary one, who was admitted to places where mere mortal "activists" were not allowed to go. Later Kiva I told journalists that the premises in the “headquarters of the Euromaidan” (in the House of Trade Unions) “were soaked with cognac and expensive caviar” and that the drunken Poroshenko, barely moving his tongue, walked there.

Ilya Kiva on the second Maidan (near the barricade on Institutskaya)

Kiva immediately joined the Right Sector, and as soon as the second Maidan ended, he immediately returned to Poltava, where he headed its regional branch. According to the testimony of the Poltava "right-wingers", Kiva was simply appointed the main one, introducing him to the Poltava people as an ally of Yarosh. Indeed, soon Yarosh made Kiva his assistant and authorized representative, as well as the coordinator of the Right Sector - East. Why such a high level of trust? Former "brothers" of Kiva later toldthat in March 2014, Kiva was extorting money from businessmen and farmers in the Poltava, Lugansk and Kharkiv regions, taking those who were intractable into the forest. Perhaps, in this way Yarosh's "cash desk" was replenished.

It is worth noting that at that time all kinds of criminal elements and even entire organized crime groups often joined the ranks of the Right Sector and other right-wing organizations, using the image of “patriots” for their impunity and even just lawlessness. As a result, the “ideological” members of the organizations were criminalized, and the bandits were imbued with the “concepts” of Russophobia and Nazism, so it was very difficult to “separate the goats from the sheep” afterwards.

At the head of the Poltava "Right Sector" Kiva showed themselves on March 23, 2014, when they went to Lokhvitsa in order to "by order of Yarosh, protect the section of the transit gas pipeline from Russian saboteurs." However, Alfa-Shchit private security company, which guarded the gas condensate field located in the area and the Regal Petroleum enterprise for its production and processing (owned by Vadim Novinsky), stated that, in fact, the "right-wing" Kiva arrived for a raider capture. In any case, the “Lokhvitsky business trip” was considered a failure: uninvited guests drove away militia. As for the gas pipeline, three months later it still exploded, but the causes of the incident remained undisclosed.

Members of the Poltava "Right Sector", spring 2014

On March 25, 2014, members of the Poltava "Right Sector" were going to picket the local Ministry of Internal Affairs, protesting against the actions of the police in Lokhvitsa, and also because of the death in Rivne Sasha Bilogo. Shortly before the start of the action, the UBOP detained Ilya Kiva and several of his associates, from whom the police confiscated the Vulkan hunting carbine belonging to Kiva and "forgotten" by him in the hotel room, which is a semi-automatic version of the ACSM. It was because of him that Tatyana Zhabot raised the question of how such a serious weapon ended up in the hands of a person with a psychopathic disorder.

However, after a few hours, the detainees were released, after which Kiva gave an interview in which he told a lot of interesting things. In particular, answering the question of journalists about his criminal record, he liedthat she was not there, and he “perceived his arrest as a reprisal for his harsh position against the political system in the country, of which I did not want to be a part.” And, trying to portray himself as an “old fighter against the regime”, Kiva inadvertently admitted that he had brought with him to the “Right Sector” members of the public organization “Liberation”, which he founded and headed (as well as fund of the same name). Kiva said that it was "liberation from Yanukovych", but in fact, "Liberation" was engaged in the rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents. That is, it is not difficult to guess what kind of personnel Kiva replenished the ranks of the "Right Sector"!

Battalion "Poltavashchyna"

In May 2014, in the Poltava region, the active creation of the so-called. volunteer companies and battalions as part of the patrol service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Seeing new opportunities in this, Ilya Kiva cooled down to the Right Sector DUK project (which did not have an official status and a “roof” in power), and became eager to lead one of these battalions. From that moment on, his friendship with Avakov began, without whose approval such battalions could not receive official status.

Kiva and Avakov

On July 27, 2014, a “special purpose patrol police company” called “Mirny” was created, and on August 6, officially approved by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which was headed by Ilya Kiva. The information circulated in the media that this was a whole battalion was “somewhat exaggerated”, as was the fact that “Mirny” allegedly consisted of half of the policemen, in particular, employees of the Poltava “Berkut”. This company was not going to participate in the ATO either: like most other similar units, it planned to guard the deep rear, control important facilities and catch "Russian saboteurs."

However, then the situation changed. On September 5, by Avakov's decree, the Mirny company, together with the Kremenchug police company, merged into the Poltava battalion (already working in the near rear of the ATO zone) with the formation of a new battalion of the patrol service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs "Poltavashchyna", whose commander was appointed Ilya Kiva, assigning him a major . By the way, at first they wanted a lieutenant, but then they decided not to skimp.

This caused violent dissatisfaction of some Poltava fighters. Regular police officers were indignant at the fact that they would be commanded by a previously convicted person - although not all Ukrainian media reported this. It is worth noting that before the appointment of Kiva as a battalion commander, the Oktyabrsky District Court of Poltava promptly reviewed his case, passed a sentence under a different one, changing the difficult article, and immediately granted amnesty to him (after all, the previous sentence forbade him to hold positions in the civil service until December 2014), however, she herself the conviction was expunged only at the end of the year. Other members of the battalion expressed concern that the newly minted major Kiva had no combat experience and had never even served in the army before. They even picketed the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and some of them wrote rapports. Therefore, the battalion recovered to the Donbass with a delay, only at the end of September, and even then only partially.

Nevertheless, the uprising in the battalion continued: on September 30, fifty of its fighters applied to the prosecutor's office, and on October 1, 40 fighters (all police officers) went to Kyiv to picket the Ministry of Internal Affairs demanding the dismissal of Kiva. In response, the head of the regional Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs He pledged punish them for arbitrariness. And Kiva explained the rebellion in the battalion ... by his fight against alcoholism among the personnel. At the same time, he сказал journalists that fastened drunken subordinates to poles for two days - that is, subjected them to torture and humiliation.

As a result, at the end of October 2014, the rebellious Poltavashchyna battalion was disbanded. Instead, the former Poltava battalion was restored, which included employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and civilian volunteers with a clean biography. But Kiva, although he was fired, managed to please (or become useful) Avakov so much that he prepared an appointment for him: the construction of defensive lines in the rear (near Berdyansk). On what it was possible to "cut" a lot of budget allocations.

Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs

On December 10, 2014, immediately after the repayment of his criminal record, Kiva received a new high position from Avakov: the deputy head of the Donetsk Regional Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who oversees the work of checkpoints and coordinates the volunteer battalions. Checkpoint control implied "protection" of all smuggling passing through them. What, according to the officers of the 28th separate brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was Kiva doing:

“We stood at the Bugasy checkpoint, detained two trucks with smuggling in January 2015, Kiva immediately called, deputy Dmitry Lubinets arrived to recapture the trucks. To avoid conflict, we called in the Kyiv-2 battalion and SBU officers.”

In this position, Kiva also got into public scandals several times. For example, he wrote on Facebook that he would have shot civilians crossing the demarcation line (the flow of civilians from uncontrolled territories and back was very large). When Kiva defected to the Opposition Platform for Life in 2019, he was reminded of these words, having hung billboards in Odessa with his quotes.

Kiva also frequented Artemovsk (now Bakhmut), where he made a strong friendship with a local semi-criminal businessman Vladimir Ivankov, also known as the "authority" named Vova Ushastik. And despite the fact that Ivankova blamed in financing the separatists, Kiva became so close to him that in the summer of 2015 they together presented the public organization “All-Ukrainian Union of ATO Veterans” in Poltava.

On January 22, 2015, the battle for Debaltseve began, which ended for the Ukrainian side in a shameful defeat (although it had 4 months to prepare), retreat and the signing of the second Minsk agreement. On February 3, Ilya Kiva arrived in Debaltseve, where, in front of the camera, he put two dozen old women in a "pazik" and took them to Artemovsk - calling it "the successful evacuation of the civilian population of Debaltseve." For which, three days later, by decree of Avakov, he was awarded the extraordinary rank of lieutenant colonel.

In May 2015, Avakov awarded Kiva with a Fort-17 signature pistol (and then also Stechkin), and on June 25 he transferred him to Kherson, appointing him to the post of deputy head of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs and head of the “National Defense Headquarters”. There, Kiva first “distinguished himself” by threatening to use force against truckers who were trying to drive their cargoes of perishable products through the so-called. "civil blockade of Crimea" organized by activists of the "Mejlis", "National Corps" and "Right Sector". In particular, Kiva stated that the organizers of the blockade would be supported not only by the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs, but also by the Kherson battalion, ready “for any action.” At the same time, although Kiva recognized the actions of the blockers as illegal, he justified them by "fighting the occupation of the peninsula."

However, the matter did not go off with threats alone: ​​one of the drivers of Kiva personally beat and took away all the documents from him, about which he wrote in a statement addressed to the head of the UVB of the region. Kiva only “joked” in response to this, telling reporters: “If I beat the driver, he would have died by now". For the heroic reflection of the "aggression" of truck drivers and other similar merits, in August 2015, Avakov awarded Kiva the extraordinary rank of colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Kiva in shape

In October 2015, Avakov again elevated and literally brought Kiva closer to him: he summoned him to the capital and appointed him head of the newly created Department for Combating Drug Crime of the National Police of Ukraine (which replaced OBNON). However, when in November all the same participants in the “blockade of Crimea” blew up several power transmission poles (creating a problem for Firtash’s “Titan”), in Kyiv they looked at it differently and the “order” from Avakov changed. Kiva was rushed to the isthmus with a special mission to clear access to the blown-up supports for repair crews. It was not possible to agree in a good way, and now the force applied against those whom, a couple of months ago, Kiva defended with such zeal from angry drivers.

Chief drug fighter

«I know what grass is, I can tell you about how cocaine affects”, - with this recognition, the head of the Department for Combating Drug Crime, Ilya Kiva shocked many Ukrainians. After all, just two months before this, Kiva publicly spoke out in favor of introducing criminal penalties for drug use! At the same time, he also insulted women, saying that “only a woman can lose control over herself. If a man loses, he turns into a woman, you understand.” In the West, such statements are considered as outrageous as racism and cost civil servants their careers.

If in his previous positions Kiva was at least somehow involved in business or “deeds”, then at the head of the Department for Combating Drug Crime, he devoted more time to squabbles and scandals, his own PR on social networks and constant participation in various TV shows, turning his work into a complete farce.

So, the war of Kiva with Masi Nayem (brother Mustafa Nayema), which he blamed the use of soft drugs and connections with the "pharmacological mafia". And once on the air of "Hromadsky Radio" Kiv saidwhich allows "extrajudicial punishment of criminals".

On one of the TV shows, Kiva invited two real drug addicts who are right in the studio, live prepared homemade drug "crocodile" (a very disgusting and dangerous thing). After this trick, many Ukrainians began to doubt the mental health of Colonel Kiva - and then he just provided the above-mentioned certificates to journalists. But these doubts intensified after Ilya Kivu photographed on the train from Kiev to Lvov with a pistol stuck just in his belt. In the same form, he later walked around Kyiv! Mistaking Kiva for some bandit, some passengers called the police.

Kiva with a gun

According to journalists, all these antics of Kiva were covered by Avakov, who deliberately pushed him against the head of the National Police, Khatia Dekanoidze (his immediate superior). Kiva literally teased Dekanoidze, provoking her into a “prejudiced attitude” towards himself. The reason was simple: the entire department of Kiva, including himself, had to be tested and re-certified - in which Kiva would simply fail in all respects (except for physical fitness). Being fired because of a conflict with the boss, and leaving the authorities without passing the recertification are two different things! In the end, in May 2016, Kiva was nevertheless fired.

Avakov's personal army

The now former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov, had many units that called him a personal army - take, for example, the same Azov. However, Ukrainians have not even heard of the existence of some. One of them was called "Life Safety" and was created in May 2016 and presented Kivoi a few days before his dismissal from the post of head of the Department of Combating Drug Crime. Coincidence? Perhaps not, and Kiv’s “clownish” behavior in this post was explained by the fact that he was well aware of his temporary status, and in the meantime he was seriously preparing precisely to head the “Safety of Life”, while remaining also an adviser to Avakov .

This organization worked under the patronage of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and was supposed to “socialize ATO veterans”, preparing personnel for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and at the same time helping to protect public order. Oh yes, Kiva has been doing this since his Liberation organization! And while still the chairman of the Union of ATO Veterans, he personally selected suitable personnel for Life Safety. Which has become a group of "elite titushki" sent to political actions, to conflicts between developers and civil activists, for raider seizures.

In some actions, where the actions of the “Safety of Life” were clearly criminal in nature, members of the organization acted “anonymously”. For example, when in September 2016 the confrontation under the Inter office ended with its arson, which was led by Kiva, then spoke out speculation that the unidentified men in camouflage may have been members of his Safety of Life. And is it just that Avakov’s other advisers, Gerashchenko and Shkiryak, then cynically statedthat Inter employees set themselves on fire? In the same way, Kiva's henchmen, who attacked the head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, wished to remain anonymous. Vitaly Shabunin.

Kiva is a socialist

In July 2017, Ilya Kiva, quite unexpectedly for everyone, announced that he had been elected leader of the Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU). However, already in September, the People's Deputy declared himself the leader of the SPU Sergey Kaplin - also a Poltava resident, and also famous with their outrageous antics. This was only the beginning of a protracted political scandal, which resulted in the struggle for the once popular party of henchmen Avakov (Kiva) and Levochkin (Kaplin). Decided to try to take over the electorate of the left parties, after the second Maidan, who is in melancholy and practically does not participate in the elections.

Kiva is a socialist

A little background: the split in the Socialist Party began back in 2011, when for the seat of its chairman, instead of the departed Vasily Tsushko, competed Alexander Moroz (won) and Nikolai Rudkovsky (lost and joined the Party of Regions). In 2012, Moroz also resigned and handed over leadership to his successor. Petru Ustenko. In 2014, after the collapse of the Party of Regions, Rudkovsky decided to return to the SPU: he held a "raider" extraordinary congress that elected him the new chairman of the SPU. Ustenko and his supporters did not recognize either this congress or the election of Rudbkovsky, both sides began to appeal against each other's actions in the courts and the Ministry of Justice. Thus, the party was already really split into two parts, each of which had its own "legitimate leader". After the unsuccessful elections of 2014, Rudkovsky left his “half” of the SPU, and Nikolai Sadovy was elected the new chairman instead. And in 2017, they got new chairmen: in July, Ustenko replaced Kiva, and in October, Sadovoy was replaced by Kaplin.

“Kiva and Avakov bought documents from Pyotr Ustenko, took the charter, made an illegal seal. They allegedly held a congress, at which there were 20 people from Avakov's entourage. Submitted documents to the Ministry of Justice. And Minister Petrenko, their man, ordered to make changes in a day and make Kivu the head", - So commented the election of Kiva as the head of the SPU, his opponent Sergey Kaplin.

However, according to another version, everything was “a trifle wrong.” Since, from the point of view of the law, the SPU of Petr Ustenko was more legitimate, he was “divorced” by Avakov and Kiva, offering to help resolve the issue in the Ministry of Justice. Why did they persuade Ustenko to accept Kiva into the party and hand him the documents “for re-registration”. And then they simply appointed Kiva as the new chairman of the SPU (leaving Ustenko the title of "party leader") and began to fill her political council with their people - gradually throwing out Ustenko's people. Ustenko, who began to resent, Kiva was expelled from the party, but he gathered his supporters, held his congress and expelled Kiva from the SPU. Thus, in 2018 there were already three “clones” of the SPU: under the leadership of Kiva, Kaplina and Ustenko.

Transition to HLE

The split and squabbles in the SPU did nothing to increase its popularity, nor did Ilya Kiva's presidency, then known as a violent right-wing radical prone to strange antics and scandalous statements. Therefore, no matter what plans Avakov built for the SPU, he never took advantage of it. And Ilya Kiva, unsuccessfully running for the SPU in the presidential elections of 2019, already on June 5 resigned as chairman of the party and announced his transfer to the Opposition Platform for Life, where he immediately received a passing place in the list (No. 34) in the parliamentary elections. What again greatly surprised many Ukrainians.

Kiva and Rabinovich

Everyone wondered how it happened that the former “right-winger”, the chairman of the “Union of ATO Veterans” and one of the people closest to Avakov, took and joined his political opponents, the “pro-Russian” Opposition Platform for Life? The national patriots still cannot forgive Kiva for this "betrayal"! However, only a very few asked a much more interesting question: why did Rabinovich, Boyko, and even more so Medvedchuk, need Kiva, a man with such an odious reputation, who until recently called for shooting their voters? Indeed, in terms of public policy, Kiva has become, rather, a loss-making acquisition for the HLE. The memory of his recent past in the ranks of the Right Sector is still fresh, as is the zealous service to Avakov, and Kiva's behavior spoils the party's conservative "pretty" image.

"Patriots for Life"

If we do not take into account the hypothesis of Avakov’s collusion with Rabinovich and his delegation of Kiva to the Opposition Platform for Life as his “observer”, the answer to this question is the public organization “All-Ukrainian movement against fascism “Patriots for life”. It was registered in July 2020 (and probably created earlier), and its founders are Ilya Kiva and Viktor Cherny.

Cherny, who is a people's deputy from the Opposition Platform for Life (No. 27 on the list), is practically unknown to Ukrainians. But in his biography you can find some interesting facts. For example, that he also once worked in consumer protection services - however, in Kyiv, and without interfering with Kiva in any way. But on the other hand, at least since 2002, Cherny has been closely associated with Viktor Medvedchuk. And in 2015, Cherny became the director of the Svarog security company (later renamed Storm). Among its co-founders are Andrey Martynov (assistant to MP Medvedchuk) and Ivan Boychenko (another member of the Opposition Platform for Life and a trusted person of Medvedchuk), and the company itself known as Viktor Medvedchuk's "personal guard", guarding his property and family.

Now everything is in a logical chain. Until 2014, Kiva was engaged in the rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents, and after the Maidan, Dmitry Yarosh and the Right Sector needed his experience and his people. Then the experience, connections and people of Kiva were in demand by Avakov - starting from the creation of the Poltava region battalion and the Union of ATO Veterans and ending with the Life Safety organization. And in 2019, it was needed by the HLE, where with the help of tame veterans and Kiva’s “titushki”, under the control of Medvedchuk’s personal guards, the party’s power wing was created – the Patriots for Life movement. Which very quickly came into conflict with the national radicals (the same Avakov "National Corps").

It seems that the question of why Kiva needed the HLE is now settled! However, another thing arises: to whom will Ilya Kiva offer his specific services next time?

Other scandals

In January 2020, in the Kiev restaurant "Mocha" there was hassle between Ilya Kiva, who dined there in the company of some respectable people and accompanied by guards, and the national radical Mikhail Maiman, who could not restrain himself from a caustic remark addressed to him. Kiva responded by slapping him, resulting in a brief brawl.

This story was continued in July 2021 in Turkey, at the expensive Rixos Sungate Hotel, where Kiva and Maiman met again. Their meeting went off without a fight, but after a while, unknown people allegedly attacked Maiman and broke his spine - which Kiva reported on his blog, not without gloating. However, the very next day, alive and healthy, Maiman posted a refutation, saying that Kiva allegedly sent bandits to kill him, but Maiman "agreed" with them. At the same time, they accused Kiva of organizing such high-profile crimes as shelling from grenade launchers the Kyiv restaurant "Leo" and a private house in the Boryspil district.

That is why many people take very seriously the threats from Ilya Kiva, which he throws quite often. Yes, Kiva threatened "cut into pieces and eat" people's deputy Andrey Motovilovets, "fill the face" of the person who asked him a question about the origin of the awards, "cut off the head" another passerby.

However, sometimes Kiva gets into scandals that are quite harmless to others. For example, for "masturbation" right in the session hall of the Rada. Laughter was also caused by his candidate thesis, which he prepared and defended by grossly forging data and signatures - which, in turn, raised the corresponding question of his receiving his higher educations ...

In general, the personality is very, very interesting, if not peculiar.