What we know about business of Gennadii Chastiakov, deceased assistant of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Investigations
Gennadii Chastiakov. Photo: Facebook

Assistant of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Gennadii Chastiakov, who died from the explosion of grenade near Kyiv on November 6, has been the supplier of fuel for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense from 2014. He had joint business with citizens of Belarus and Russia and has been a subject of journalist anticorruption investigations. We will present only facts as the Ukrainian society should be informed about them.

Gennadii Chastiakov died from the explosion of grenade when he celebrated his 39th anniversary in Chaiky village near Kyiv. According to the version of the National Police, Chastiakov received six grenades as the birthday gift. He pulled off the check of the grenade and, as an outcome, it exploded. 13 years old son of Chastiakov was wounded and hospitalized. The State Bureau of Investigations served the officer, who offered grenades to Chastiakov, with suspicion. He has been his colleague from the secretariat of assistants of the Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief. He argued that he told Chastiakov that grenades were real combat grenades. 

Grenades offered to Gennadii Chastiakov. Photo: UP

Gennadii Gennadiyovych Chastiakov was in Donetsk region on November 6, 1984. He graduated from Odessa Institute of Ground Forces and served in the 30th separate Novograd-Volynsky brigade. After retirement he started career in business.

Chastiakov has been the owner and manager of LLC «Avto City Service» until spring 2019. This company has been at the center of presumably corruption scandal in September 2014, uncovered by investigative TV program «Our Money» (BIHUS.INFO).

On May 12, 2014, «Avto City Service» signed the contract with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense for the supply of 5 225 tons of fuel for jet engines. The value of the contract has been 83,59 million UAH. The company has never signed similar contracts before and has never dealt with the fuel for jet engines.

More to that, the company seemed to be «paper» company as it did not have office and acting contact information. «Our Money» quoted Ukrainian renowned expert Sergii Kuun who suggested that the company did not supply the fuel at all. The company did not have sufficient financial resources or credit history to fulfill the contract during the acute phase of the Russian-Ukrainian war in Donbas in 2014.

Investigative journalists revealed that Tetyana Chastiakova, the wife of Gennadii Chastiakov, had joint business with daughters of Lieutenant General Mykhailo Kutsyn. Their company has been called private enterprise «Lviv-Sapfir».

At the time of scandal, Kutsyn has been the Head of the General Staff and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The enterprise has been officially registered in the building in Brukhovychi village (Zapashna street, 14). This building has been used for years «for receiving official delegations» as it has been a part of Lviv sanatorium owned by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. Mykhailo Kutsyn privatized the building and settled there with his family.

Lieutenant General Mykhailo Kutsyn. Photo: nato.mfa.gov.ua

In July 2014, Mykhailo Kutsyn has been dismissed from his positions in the Ministry of Defense. New senior management of the Ministry initiated and won several lawsuits to get back money paid to «Avto City Service». Overall, the company received seven enforcement actions to pay its debts to the Ministry. One of them has not been fulfilled yet.

Besides that, Gennadii Chastiakov has been beneficiary of tourist agency LLC «Buro turystychnykh teknologii» and founder of agricultural LLC «Pershe rancho» at the moment of his death. He has been also beneficiary of LLC «Kapital Bud Invest», founder of LLC «Trans petrol» and manager in LLC «Atlantik oil» and LLC «TEK Energy Trans».

Tetyana Chastiakova is co-founder of another company – LLC «Palyvno-energetychne kompania «Plutos» [Fuel energy company «Plutos»]. Her husband has been the manager of this company. Other co-founders include Russian citizen Armen Margaryan, Ukrainian citizens Vitalii Savchenko, Vyacheslav Novikov and Avagim Galstyan, former Deputy Head of the Main Department on Accommodation and Exploitation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As journalists of «Our Money» revealed, Avagim Galstyan has been involved into the dubious construction of hotel on the territory of factory «Artyom».

It is also worth noting the Tetyana Chastiakova has been a police officer. In 2019, she submitted her public asset declaration as the Deputy Commander of company of road police in Kyiv.  

However, it is not the end of story. Gennadii Chastiakov has been also the beneficiary of LLC «Joint Ukrainian-Belorussian enterprise «Belavtodor-Ukraine» at the moment of his death. This company pretends to be an official representative office of Belorussian governmental company  «Belavtodor». Its Belorussian founders are three branch companies of Belorussian «Belavtodor» and Belorussian unitary enterprise «Belzarubezhtorg». Its Ukrainian co-founder is LLC «Financial company «Finance-capital». Gennadii Chastiakov has been its founder and beneficiary… 

Machines of «Belavtodor» in Ukraine. Photo: Obozrevatel 

The company sub-contracted Belorussian companies to build and repair roads in Ukraine, in particular, within Ukrainian governmental program «Great construction». In 2020, the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in Ukraine publicly reported about their achievements. In 2019, Belorussian companies from Belorussian governmental «Belavtodor» (some of them have been co-founders of «Belavtodor-Ukraine») won 9 tenders to repair roads around Ukraine for 61 million USD.

However, the construction of roads was coupled with laundering of Ukrainian budgetary resources. In accordance with the Ukrainian Single State Register of Court Decisions, in 2020-21, Belorussian co-founders of «Belavtodor-Ukraine» received contracts from Ukrainian Road Maintenance Services to repair roads in Kyiv, Rivne and Zhytomyr regions for the amount of 0,7 billion UAH.

As the decision of Podil district court of Kyiv from 14.07.2022 states, some of this money was transferred to other companies, including LLC «FK «Finance-capital».

Now «Belavtodor-Ukraine» is bankrupted. It is involved into three enforcement actions as debtor. There are a number of court sessions about its indebtedness.