Cherniak Igor Yurievich
Official biography
Born on July 04, 1987, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.
Married to Iryna Volodymyrivna Cherniak, with whom he has a son, Nazar, and a daughter, Zlata. 2004 — graduated from Zaporizhzhia gymnasium No. 31.
Family.
Mother — Natalia Mykolaivna Torkut, Doctor of Philology, professor, lecturer at the university.
Father — Cherniak Yurii Ivanovych, Candidate of Philology, Head of the Research Laboratory at the University.
Sister — Yulia Cherniak, a student at the Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
Career
- 2006 — Founds Resting Plus LLC, a private company.
- 2007-2012 — worked as a legal consultant at Shkrebets & Partners
- 2008 — graduated from the National Law Academy named after Yaroslav the Wise. Y. Mudryi National Law Academy
- 2009 — graduated with a master’s degree from the same institution
- 2009 — internship at the Legal Support Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
- 2012-2018 — individual attorney-at-law practice
- 2014 — during the Revolution of Dignity, he founded the organization “Power of Help” and took an active part in the creation of the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center. In the same year, he made an attempt to run for parliament from the Samopomich party, but to no avail. He was a member of the public organization Automaidan-Kharkiv.
- 2015 — becomes a deputy of the Kharkiv City Council, a member of the Committee on Urban Development, Architecture and Land Relations.
- July 2018 — leaves the Samopomich party and becomes a managing partner of ACF PARTNERS.
- 2019 — runs for the Verkhovna Rada at number 10 on the list of Mikheil Saakashvili’s New Forces Movement, but again unsuccessfully.
- 2020 — runs for mayor of Kharkiv as a representative of Yulia Svitlychna’s team.
Like almost all typical representatives of the political elite, Cherniak chooses the process of personal enrichment as a motive for his actions. But the financial Olympus in the Kharkiv region is already occupied by certain financial and political groups that feel quite confident at the helm. Therefore, Cherniak has only the path of harsh and sometimes even immoral criticism of the Kharkiv authorities, and in particular of the late ex-mayor Kernes and his entourage.
Cherniak’s criticism of the authorities is not always groundless, but his motives remain the same: to gain access to decision-making and influence in the region. For this purpose, the activities of the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center and its head, Cherniak, as well as the Kharkiv center of the Samopomich party, are supervised and managed by oligarch Vsevolod Kozhemiak. This businessman aims to fill as many seats in the city council as possible with deputies loyal to him, which is why the situation is being shaken up.
During this cooperation between Kozhemiak and Cherniak, the latter managed to gain a scandalous reputation as a deputy who lobbies only for those cases that bring him personal benefit.
Cherniak’s decision to run for mayor of Kharkiv with the support of Yulia Svitlychna caused a mixed reaction online and led to a number of criticisms. The public perceived this step as an option for purely technical participation in the electoral process, with the aim of drawing away some of the pro-Ukrainian votes.
In the context of this situation, it is also worth considering the information that one of Cherniak’s puppeteers is also the head of the Kharkiv branch of the OPFL party, Ihor Rainin. Therefore, it should be understood that Cherniak will obediently follow the commands of the revanchist leadership of the OPFL in order to take a seat in the city council by any means.
In the summer of 2020, Cherniak was called to account by the Kharkiv City Council filing a lawsuit against Cherniak over his statement about the illegal construction of a land plot located at 69-A Peremohy Avenue in Kharkiv.
Cherniak recognized this as a fact of political persecution and pointed to the suppression of publicity, and once again accused the city authorities of “cutting” and “chopping up” the land.
Cherniak’s reason for leaving theSamopomichfaction was the low activity of its members and leadership in creating alternatives to the decisions made at the sessions, in his opinion.
The tension between Cherniak and the chairman of the city council was repeatedly reinforced by comments during the sessions. For example, during one of the sessions, after Cherniak abstained from voting for the renaming of a metro station, the mayor said: “The decision was made. One abstention. Again, Cherniak. Some kind of snake, b….↩”, to which Cherniak replied that ‘he is not a snake’, but that the voting button was malfunctioning.
Cherniak’s rhetoric, which is expressed in total criticism of the city authorities, in its official and public part is aimed at fighting for the rights of local residents, eradicating corruption and transparency in the actions of all authorities, so some Kharkiv residents sincerely trust the young lawyer and consider him a fighter for justice. It should also be noted that any attempts to oppose Cherniak’s criticism are perceived by him as direct rudeness and threats. This constant resonance ensures that Cherniak is always “in the public eye”.
However, a shallow study of Cherniak’s biography reveals that all his political bravado, struggle and «patriotism» have a concrete and substantial financial basis. As mentioned earlier, Cherniak speaks out harshly against the city’s leadership, but his statements do not remain on the margins of publicity, but are picked up and quoted by a number of local resources, including ATN. This news portal is associated with none other than the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Arsen Avakov, who was elected to parliament on the list of the People’s Front party, which suspiciously often votes in tandem with Samopomich. Another resource that supports Cherniak and criticizes local authorities is the online publication Kharkiv-Today, which, along with the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center, is a fiefdom of oligarch Kozhemiak, the founder of the Agrotrade group.
One of the situations where Cherniak failed to calculate the backlash was the case of his phenomenal knowledge of the latest Russian political propaganda materials. For example, an elderly journalist from the Kharkivski Izvestia newspaper had the misfortune to copy an article from the separatist resource Russian Spring while preparing a story about a military agreement between the UK and Ukraine. This coincidence was instantly detected by Cherniak, who accused the journalist of using pro-Russian sources, while demonstrating his personal high awareness of the content of Russian websites.
At the same time, the young politician systematically emphasizes his pro-Ukrainian position.
As a lawyer, Chernyak defended the interests of soldiers of the 92nd separate mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Svidro Oleksandr and Dolzhenko Pavlo, who were suspected of murdering a volunteer who was investigating smuggling activities in the ATO area, Galushchenko Andriy (call sign “Andrew”).
According to his 2018 declaration, Ihor Cherniak’s total income amounted to over UAH 800 thousand, most of which he received from his business activities. In addition, the MP had cash savings of over UAH 51 thousand, almost USD 11 thousand and EUR 5 thousand. Another almost UAH 30 thousand was in his bank account.
The official’s wife, who was on maternity leave, received UAH 10,000 in financial aid from the state, as well as UAH 1,000 she kept in bank accounts, and UAH 4,500 with USD 2,700 in cash.
Cherniak’s family owns three apartments, two of which are located in Kharkiv and one in Zaporizhzhia.
In 2019, Ihor Yuriiovych listedhimself as the owner of only a part of a 52.4-square-meter apartment in Zaporizhzhia, while his wife was the owner of apartments of 87.2 and 32.5 square meters in Kharkiv.
The family uses two cars — “MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER”, 2008 (cost about 150 thousand UAH) and “HYNDAI TUCSON”, 2012 (cost about 90 thousand UAH).
The politician’s income in 2019 amounted to over UAH 900 thousand. The Kharkiv resident received most of his earnings from entrepreneurial activities. His wife earned only UAH 42 thousand.
The family’s bank accounts contain UAH 16 thousand and EUR 1.6 thousand. They also keep 73 thousand UAH, 17.5 thousand dollars, 3.6 thousand dollars, 3.5 thousand Polish zlotys and 2 thousand Hungarian forints in cash.
In 2020, Cherniak ran for mayor of Kharkiv, as well as for deputy of the Kharkiv City Council under the number 3 slot from Yulia Svitlychna’s Bloc “Razom!”.
Shuster’s studio and the Ukraine 24 TV channel conducted an exit poll, according to which Cherniak, as a candidate for mayor, received 4.51% of the vote.
In response to this situation, Cherniak, who was a non-factional deputy before the official results of the local elections were announced, made a decision and made a statement that he refused to work in the Kharkiv City Council of the next convocation.
Cherniak is a member of the youth organization Ultras-Kharkiv.