Gerasimov Artur Vladimirovich
Official biography
Co-Chairman of the European Solidarity faction in the Verkhovna Rada of the IX convocation Born on August 23, 1972, in Reshetylivka, Poltava region.
- 1994 — 1997 — Deputy Director of the Ukrainian Marketing Group;
- 1996 — Member of the Ukrainian Marketing Association;
- 1997 — 1999 — Director of the Ukrainian Marketing Group Company;
- 1999 — 2014 — Ukrainian Marketing Group — General Director;
- Since 27.11.2014 — Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine — Member of Parliament of Ukraine of the VIII convocation.
- Since May 30, 2016 — Representative of the President in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Education
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, 1995, Faculty of Sociology and Psychology;
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, 1997, Faculty of Sociology and Psychology. Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, 1997, postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Sociology and Psychology.
Family
Wife — Natalia Bukhalova. Works at Ukrainian Marketing Group.
The couple has five children — daughters Kateryna and Maria, and sons Oleksandr, Heorhii, and Danylo.
Compromise
The scandal of assignment and revocation of diplomatic rank
On May 18, 2019, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, on the recommendation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, promoted Gerasymov to the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine. The assignment of high diplomatic rank to politicians from the presidential coalition (including Gerasymov) drew criticism from the diplomatic corps.
Career diplomats (including the Ambassador of Ukraine to Italy, Yevhen Perelyhin) stated that “the assignment of high-level diplomatic ranks to people who are not members of the diplomatic corps is unprofessional and morally reprehensible.” There were also doubts about the legality of this decision. it was appealed to the District Administrative Court of Kyiv.
On September 11, 2019, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared Petro Poroshenko’s decree “issued without any grounds”. In February 2020, Artur Herasymov filed a lawsuit against President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, demanding that this decree be declared unlawful.
Scandals
Artur Gerasymov has long claimed to be close to Poroshenko. Back in the 2012 elections in his constituency, he claimed in his campaign materials that Petro Poroshenko supported his candidacy.
In the 2014 snap parliamentary elections, Gerasymov did not have to run in his constituency. He was elected to the parliament on the list of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and is now a member of the presidential faction in the parliament.
In the president’s team, Artur Gerasimov became responsible for Donetsk region, where his name has also been associated with several major scandals in recent years. Gerasymov was accused of selling elections in a number of majority districts in 2014, as well as selling city party organizations of the BPP to local oligarchs willing to pay for party positions.
Earlier, Politeka wrote that the head of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction had been in contact with the DNR militants. The militant himself spoke about the ties between the head of the presidential party, Artur Gerasimov, and the militant Igor Bezler “Besa”.
«MP Artur Herasymov was almost unanimously elected as the new head of the BPP faction in the Rada. Here is the dilemma — should I congratulate him or not? It’s like when I was his head of the Security Service in 2012. Artur, even though he was afraid of Armen Sargsyan, spent the night at my house, telling me about the inner workings of the Verkhovna Rada on the balcony in the evenings. We went to Yalta together to attend an economic forum. We even spent the night in the same hotel room,» Bezler wrote on social media.
The information that Bezler worked for Gerasimov was commented on by the Vice Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Iryna Gerashchenko. According to her, the main thing is that Gerasimov “remains a patriot.”
“During the war, many people showed their true rotten guts. The main thing is that Arthur is a patriot and a Ukrainian. And he is a very successful head of our delegation to the OSCE,” the MP said.
On March 12, during a speech from the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, MP from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc Artur Herasymov played an audio recording on his phone of Yulia Tymoshenko and Ihor Kolomoisky allegedly talking. Gerasimov’s action caused a scandalous reaction among members of parliament, especially among members of the Batkivshchyna party.
On the audio recording, two people whose voices sound very similar to those of Yulia Tymoshenko and Ihor Kolomoisky can be heard talking. In the recording, Tymoshenko allegedly congratulates Kolomoisky on his birthday and emphasizes that Kolomoisky “knows how to be a true friend and a true partner in all the most important matters.”
Gerasymov sold the district to Yefimov
Some sources even suspected Gerasymov of corruption: he allegedly took “rewards” for appointing heads of city party organizations of Solidarnist (this status automatically provided seats in city councils) and for distributing candidates in the parliamentary elections in constituencies — for example, the 48th constituency (Kramatorsk), according to informed sources, was “sold” to Maksym Yefimov, and the 53rd (Vuhlehirsk) to Oleh Nedava.
Conflict in the Mariupol BPP
Another scandal involving Gerasymov’s name was reported by “Fourth Estate” last year, on the eve of the local elections. A high-profile conflict arose in the Mariupol city organization of the BPP, whose former head, Serhiy Nesterov, accused Artur Herasymov of selling the organization to local businessman Yuriy Ternavsky.
This scandal involved Artur Gerasimov’s familiar assistant, Yevhen Tatarchuk, who, together with Igor Bezler, attacked Vladimir Vseolkin in Horlivka. Sergei Nesterov said that Tatarchuk threatened him and recorded his threats on a dictaphone. Tatarchuk is also recognizable in this video, which was filmed by journalists of Hromadske TV Donbassa. It is also worth noting that a similar story happened in Sloviansk, where, on the initiative of Artur Gerasimov and Oleh Nedava, the acting mayor of Sloviansk, Ukrainian patriot and longtime ideological opponent of the Party of Regions, Oleh Zontov, was removed from his post. Ukrainska Pravda wrote about this in detail in its publication.
President Poroshenko probably had very good reasons for appointing a person with such a background as his representative in the Verkhovna Rada. Apparently, Artur Gerasymov’s business qualities are so high that the guarantor is not even embarrassed by his obvious connection to Yuriy Yenakiyevsky. It can be assumed that Gerasimov and Poroshenko have some kind of joint business, but no evidence of this has been found so far. But one way or another, everything is going to lead to the fact that Gerasimov’s name will soon be on a par with the names of other odious members of Poroshenko’s entourage — Kononenko, Berezenko and Granovsky.
A follower of Sergei Shakhov
Gerasimov first gained fame in 2012 when he ran for the Verkhovna Rada in the majority district #51 in Horlivka. In this city, Gerasymov ran as a representative of the “Sergei Shakhov team,” an odious businessman from Stakhanov, Luhansk Oblast. Members of Shakhov’s team handed out special “membership cards” to voters in their districts, which resembled Soviet party cards. To receive such a booklet, it was enough to show a residence permit. Each booklet contained 30 tear-off coupons, each of which, in turn, could be “cashed in” for 50 UAH. Having received such a ticket, the voter had to come with it to the rallies of Shakhov’s team and exchange the tear-off coupons for money from the “controllers”. The scheme worked very effectively. Thanks to it, many people always came to the rallies of Shakhov’s team members, although the team members themselves were mostly unknown to anyone. The distribution of money was called “material assistance” by the “Shakhov team”.
Artur Gerasymov and another representative of Shakhov’s team in Horlivka, Kyiv businessman Volodymyr Piddubnyi, who ran in the neighboring 52nd majority district, were unknown strangers to the city. However, people were very fond of the candidates’ “red books” and “coupons.” That’s why Piddubnyi and Gerasymov’s speeches were popular. Information about how members of Shakhov’s team bought voters in different cities of Donbas can be found in abundance today using any Internet search engine.
According to the Gorlovka.ua website, the total number of recipients of “material assistance” in constituencies 51 and 52 reached 20,000 people. However, this ultimately did not help Gerasymov and Piddubnyi win, as both of them took only second place in their respective constituencies. In 2012, it was impossible to win for the Party of Regions in Donbas.
Declaration
In 2017, Artur Herasymov spent 375 thousand hryvnias on education. This is stated in the MP’s income declaration published on the NACP website.
By the way, the cost of education was higher than the entire annual family income. In 2017, Gerasimov declared UAH 247 thousand in salary, while Gerasimov’s wife declared UAH 54 thousand.
Gerasymov’s family also declared two apartments in Kyiv, Opel Vectra and BMW X5 cars, and two garages.
Savings in bank accounts are not listed in the declaration. The family keeps 2.78 million hryvnias, 83 thousand dollars, and 22 thousand euros in cash.
The MP and his wife declared 2 Breguet watches, as well as Chopard and IWC watches.
Summary
All politicians look alike. The same schemes, the same actions. Gerasymov is no exception. Bribing voters, corruption, expensive cars, jewelry, real estate. Everything is like everyone else. And of course, all his actions are not punishable. After all, Arthur is Poroshenko’s right-hand man.