Venislavsky Fyodor Vladimirovich
Official biography
Representative of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (since June 3, 2019). Candidate of Law, Associate Professor. Specialist in state-building and human rights.
Place of birth. Education.
Born on May 16, 1969 in the village of Olyka, Kivertsi district, Volyn
Volyn region.
From 1987 to 1989, he served in the Soviet army and was discharged with the rank of sergeant.
In 1989 he entered the Kharkiv Law Institute, in 1994 he graduated with honors from the Ukrainian State Law Academy and entered the postgraduate program of the Ukrainian State Law Academy, Department of Constitutional Law of Ukraine.
Career. In 1986, he began his career in the village of Olyka as a construction worker on a collective farm.
In 1997, he completed his postgraduate studies and was sent to work as an assistant at the Department of Constitutional Law of Ukraine at the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law Academy of Ukraine.
In 2000, he defended his dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Law.
In 2003, he was appointed Associate Professor of the Department of Constitutional Law of Ukraine.
He participated in drafting legislation. He prepared opinions in cases that were in the proceedings of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
Lecturer at the Department of Constitutional Law of Ukraine at the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University.
He headed the Kharkiv Public Lustration Chamber.
He is the author and co-author of more than 100 scientific, methodological, scientific and journalistic works on the organization and functioning of public authorities in Ukraine, ensuring human and civil rights and freedoms.
Political career
He has repeatedly run for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. In 2002, for the first time as a self-nominated candidate, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada of the IV convocation in the 23rd constituency in Volyn region. He failed to become an MP.
In 2006, he represented the party “Forward, Ukraine!” and was 34th on the list of candidates. He ran for the Verkhovna Rada of the VII and VIII convocations as a self-nominated candidate, but also unsuccessfully.
In 2012, Venislavsky ran for parliament in the 181st constituency in Kharkiv region. At that time, he gained 11.12% of the vote, taking third place.
In the 2019 parliamentary elections, he was a candidate for MP from the Servant of the People party, No. 88 on the list. On July 21, 2019, he was elected a member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence.
Since June 3, 2019, he has been a representative of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
Family. Married, has two sons.
Personal information.
Fedor Vladimirovich can be found on the Russian social network VKontakte, which is banned in Ukraine.
It is also worth mentioning that, as a candidate for the People’s Deputy from the Servant of the People political party, Fedir Venislavskyi promised in his election program to demonopolize key industries. The program was registered on the CEC website on June 19, 2019. Based on the results of Venislavskyi’s work, unfortunately, his promise has not yet been fulfilled.
Relations with Artem Pshonka
According to sources in the PGO, Venislavsky, who was previously the deputy prosecutor of Volyn region, was personally appointed to this position by Artem Pshonka, the son of the former Prosecutor General, to collect money in corruption schemes.
Zelenskyi’s representative in the Constitutional Court Venislavskyi lobbies his brother for the prosecutor of Odesa region
Fedir Venislavskyi, the President’s representative to the Constitutional Court and a member of the Servant of the People party, is dragging Volodymyr Zelenskyi into a corruption scandal as well as a constitutional one.
As it turned out, Fedir Venislavsky, through his old friend Iryna Venediktova, who is now the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, is lobbying his younger brother Vadym to become the prosecutor of Odesa Oblast. In this regard, a major scandal is already brewing in Odesa. First of all, Vadym Venislavskyi was lustrated: during Yanukovych’s time, he held senior positions in the Volyn Region Prosecutor’s Office, but somehow, after his brother Fedir became a member of parliament from the Servant of the People party, only 5 years later, in 2019, the Kyiv District Court canceled the lustration of Vadym and ruled to reinstate him in his position and pay his salary in full.
Despite the fact that the Prosecutor General’s Office continues to appeal the court’s decision and is actually suing Venislavsky, Iryna Venediktova reinstated him in his job! And not just reinstated him, but first hired him to work in a high position in the PGO, and a month later sent him to «run» the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office, first as first deputy, and now with the prefix acting.
In connection with this scandalous violation of the law, protests began in Odesa immediately after Vadym Venislavskyi arrived to “work” in the city.
Zelensky’s representative to the CCU clashes with Prosecutor General Venediktova over his brother
The President’s representative to the Constitutional Court, Fedir Venislavskyi, has come into conflict with Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova. This year, he has shown an active interest in the department’s personnel policy, even though it is not his specialized topic. He even sent a number of MPs’ appeals to the Prosecutor General’s Office. Venediktova, in turn, claims that Venislavsky’s actions are a conflict of interest, as his brother works in the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
This was reported by the Judicial and Legal Newspaper.
Venislavsky sent both appeals to Venediktova’s office in the summer. In one of them, dated July 15, he asked why, despite the large-scale certification of prosecutors in 2019-2021, prosecutors still work in prosecutor’s offices who have not passed it. In addition, Zelenskyy’s representative in the CCU pointed out that last year many heads of prosecutor’s offices were reappointed to their own positions, while others were transferred or no decisions were made on them.
Therefore, Venislavsky asked Venediktova to answer questions about the grounds for selecting new heads of regional prosecutor’s offices and their certification. He was also interested in how many prosecutors who had passed the certification had not yet been appointed and whether they were receiving salaries.
Venislavskyi’s second appeal asks how many prosecutors who did not pass the certification were appointed in 2020-2021, and how many of them were not acting prosecutors at the time of their appointment.
In response to the inquiries, Venediktova sent a letter to the Speaker of the Rada, Dmytro Razumkov. In it, she stated that this year the Prosecutor General’s Office had received nine different requests from Venislavskyi.
According to the Prosecutor General, they began to arrive after she discussed the mistakes of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office at a meeting on January 29. At the time, Vadym Venislavskyi, the brother of Fedir Venislavskyi, was acting as its head. He is now the first deputy head of the regional prosecutor’s office.
In February, Serhiy Kostenko was appointed as the new head of the department. He was not evaluated because he had resigned from the agency before the reform began.
As for Vadym Venislavskyi, he was subject to lustration in 2014, but was reinstated in court two years ago. According to Venediktova, a specialized commission is currently considering a complaint about his improper performance of his duties.
Therefore, the Prosecutor General believes that the actions of Zelenskyy’s representative in the CCU show a conflict of interest and signs of violation of the anti-corruption law.
Activists demanded that Iryna Venediktova immediately dismiss Venislavskyi.
Political analyst Volodymyr Volia reported that his fellow countryman and senior comrade Ihor Palytsia was involved in the appointment of Venislavskyi.
Another interesting fact is that Vadym Venislavskyi was a co-owner of Spetskomuntekh. According to the Unified Register of Court Decisions, Spetskomuntekh is involved in criminal proceedings that have been conducted by the Lviv Territorial Department of the State Bureau of Investigation since December last year. The journalists wrote that only one court decision was found in this investigation, but when we follow the link, we are informed that this document has been deleted. Someone is obviously cleaning up all the dirt from the web.
Tupytskyi demands NABU to open a criminal case over non-payment of his salary
Constitutional Court judges Oleksandr Tupytskyi and Oleksandr Kasminin, who were dismissed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy in March, have filed a criminal complaint with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. They accuse Constitutional Court judge Serhiy Holovaty, Presidential Representative to the Constitutional Court Fedir Venislavsky, and State Bureau of Investigation investigator Artem Yablonsky of unlawful interference in their work.
The NABU statement said that on April 30, Holovaty issued an illegal order to ban the payment of salaries to Tupytsky and Kasminin, as well as to terminate their right to use official vehicles. He did this under pressure from Venislavsky and Yablonsky, who forced him to issue such an order with their requests.
Thus, Golovaty exceeded his authority, and Venislavsky and Yablonsky unlawfully interfered with the official activities of the CCU judges. The judges ask to open criminal proceedings in this regard.
Tupytskyi and Kasminin’s lawyer Rostyslav Kravets told Strana that the application was filed with the NABU, as the Bureau is investigating cases under Article 364 of the Criminal Code, “Excess of power or official authority.”
CCU judge Slidenko: I have been disgraced, my reputation has been destroyed. Forever
Constitutional Court Judge Ihor Slidenko, who was a speaker in the case concerning the constitutionality of a number of provisions of anti-corruption legislation, said that in August he received a letter from the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption regarding violations related to declaration and provided his explanations in writing. However, the NACP was not satisfied with them.
Constitutional Court Judge Ihor Slidenko said today at a briefing that the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption humiliated him by drawing up an administrative protocol related to his declaration.
According to the judge, 20 hours after the letter was sent by e-mail, he received a phone call and was informed that his explanations were unsatisfactory.
“The task was different — the task was to write me a protocol. And then Mr. [Presidential Representative to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Fedir] Venislavsky would boast about this protocol in front of the whole country. I was disgraced. My reputation was destroyed. Forever. In this country. Therefore, I am unlikely to stay here any longer,” Slidenko emphasized.
The media learned about the dissatisfaction of MPs from the Servant of the People party with the fact that the author of the idea to adopt the bill on oligarchs under a special procedure did not vote for it.
In a private chat, MPs from the Servant of the People faction expressed their indignation at the fact that the author of the idea to adopt the bill on oligarchs under a special procedure, MP Fedir Venislavsky, did not vote for it on September 23. A source in the faction told LB.ua.
The journalists noted that they had screenshots of the correspondence, but did not publish them.
“Fedir V., who is well acquainted with Fedir V., did not vote for the special procedure proposed by Fedir V. It’s scary,” one of the MPs wrote.
MPs were paid UAH 3 million in compensation for rent
In March of this year, 151 MPs were paid a total of UAH 2.93 million in housing compensation. The largest amount of compensation for housing, 38.3 thousand hryvnias each, was paid to members of the Servant of the People faction Dmytro Solomchuk, Fedir Venislavskyi, Maksym Tkachenko, Serhiy Koleboshyn, Volodymyr Hevko, a member of the Voice faction Natalia Pipa, and a member of the Dovira parliamentary group Robert Horvat.
In December 2020, 160 MPs were paid over UAH 7 million in housing compensation. In November 2020, 141 MPs were paid a total of over UAH 3 million in housing compensation.
We would like to remind you that Fedir Venislavskyi is a millionaire. Why a millionaire needs compensation for housing is the mystery of the century.
Saving the constitutional text
In 2019, a video was posted on Twitter where Fedir Venislavskyi said that elections are held on the established constitutional principles (which should be removed from the constitution), and a quote: “But I want to urge everyone to avoid speculation on this issue, because it is solely about saving the constitutional text.” This video caused a great deal of reaction among Twitter users, and judging by their comments, they had a negative attitude towards Venislavsky’s statements.
Assets and asset declaration
Despite his high assets (UAH 6.8 million), Venislavskyi is one of the MPs who rents housing for budgetary funds. The area of the rented apartment in Kyiv is fifty-five square meters. The question involuntarily arises: why does a millionaire MP need to receive compensation for rent?
In 2019, Fedir Volodymyrovych disclosed information about his movable and immovable property.
The MP has an apartment in Kharkiv with a total area of 141.8 square meters. In addition, he owns 33.34% of an apartment in Kharkiv with a total area of 59.7 square meters.
The MP declared a Mercedes G500 car made in 2001.
Venislavskyi also owns 70 shares in Teplovozoremontnyi Zavod PJSC.
Resume
Fyodor Venislavsky keeps trying to hide his brother’s corruption cases, as well as his own. But the references to previous cases still remain. In addition, the undeniable facts that Venislavsky openly lobbies for his brother’s interests are flooding the web. And the millions he has earned speak volumes.