Korban and Filatov: “Private armies” are a Kremlin myth subordinate to Avakov

Moscow - Kiev, July 11 (Navigator, Mikhail Stamm) - Gennady Korban, Kolomoisky’s closest partner and curator of “private armies”, in an interview with Novaya Gazeta, recognized the exceptional loyalty of the volunteer battalions “Dnepr”, “Donbass”, “Slobozhanshchina”, “Artemovsk” "Privat group, but insists that they are subordinate to Kyiv, not to him.

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«We have collective work, but there are personal directions,” says Korban about the management structure of the quasi-state “Privat”, whose headquarters are located in Dnepropetrovsk. – Filatov is involved in domestic politics and controls media support and so on, which is connected with public organizations. Oleinik oversees the law enforcement agencies, and I deal with the war, the apparatus, and the economy. War - the creation of battalions, obtaining weapons and ammunition. Military logistics, support, logistics, reconnaissance, coordination with the command of the Southern District.”

However, at the same time, Korban and Kolomoisky’s other deputy, Boris Filatov, insist that the Dnepr, Donbass, Slobozhanshchina, and Artemovsk battalions are “attached to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and subordinate to Avakov, whom, by the way, we consider an effective manager.” “We do not have any operational influence on them,” they assure.

“Private armies are a crazy name, this meme was invented by Russian propaganda and is used to scare the average person,” says Boris Filatov. “Understand that we entered the war when we were absolutely unprepared for it. There was no fuel in the tanks to drive, no one had ever fought, there were no exercises, equipment, body armor, just junk. And suddenly everything is for real,” Gennady Korban explains the mechanism for the emergence of volunteer battalions.

“They (volunteer battalions - editor's note) are exclusively loyal to us, not because they are in our pay,” Korban continues. – We are just patriots and share the same values. People want to protect their people, and we give them the opportunity. We were the original authors of the idea of ​​these volunteer battalions. The ancestors. We acted on the principle: if you are weak, pout, show strength. In the spring, we realized that there really was no army or special forces, the police were demoralized, the separatists were already attacking border villages, and in the Dnieper they wanted to seize the regional administration. And we proposed the idea to Avakov, he supported it, we quickly recruited guys, and it was an extremely effective scheme. But we do not have any private army to which we assign private tasks. They serve the country, the East and our region.”

The publication recalls that in a quartet with Igor Kolomoisky, Boris Filatov and Svyatoslav Oleynik, Korban is at the head of one of the largest oligarchic business empires in Ukraine. Korban became famous for his impeccable combinations of seizing property from the former “owner” of Dnepropetrovsk, Pavel Lazarenko, in favor of the quartet. And in recent months, he has even earned the title of “Robin Hood on the Dnieper” in the Ukrainian press for the absorption of the assets of Oleg Tsarev, who supported the separatists in the Donbass. Korban himself describes his area of ​​responsibility as “material and technical support for the war” (it is Korban who oversees the volunteer battalions fighting in Donbass) and operational management of the region.