Odessa of the era of baboons
All Odessa mayors for 25 years. Levels of city government, shadow structures and gray cardinals of Odessa. About two Odessa-Chechen wars, the invasion of Caucasians, drugs and Saakashvili. About compromises with Kolomoisky, Poroshenko and even the devil. About betrayal, death and money. And that the plague came to Odessa three times. Small, big and now - about all this to the PolitNavigator observer Valentin Filippov says a famous Odessa political strategist, science fiction writer and simply an influential person Lev Vershinin.
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Valentin Filippov: I greet a man whose acquaintance has no longer become an aggravating circumstance, but a serious crime in Ukraine. You can pay well for meeting someone... I know this, it scares me. Leo, hello.
Lev Vershinin: Greetings.
Valentin Filippov: Looking at what is happening in our native Odessa, all these dances around Gennady Trukhanov or the dances of Trukhanov himself far from Odessa, what does this all mean? That the contract with the devil does not work? That it has an end date of some kind?
Lev Vershinin: If you start a conversation about Odessa, this conversation must begin a long time ago, from the times in which I lived, in which I acted, in which I more or less understand. And, in principle, this will be a very big and detailed saga. This saga, however, has already been written, but, you know, Mom is such a city. Due to historical circumstances and reasons, it has one peculiarity. She has an extra layer of power. There is official power. I can’t say what it was like during the Soviet Union, to be honest, I was young, I didn’t think about it, the party authorities, they seemed to be in control of everything. But after, in the so-called era of independence, well, you know, one day Ukraine declared itself independent, I remember almost all the mayors of Odessa, starting with Chernega, Simonenko, of course.
That is, this entire series took place before my eyes. I personally fought and fought with some people, I was friends with others, and I simply supported others. And any, any mayor of Odessa, and they were different... they were faceless, they were bright, bright negatively, bright positively, but any mayor of Odessa and, by the way, any governor of Odessa, right down to the most forgotten Varangians, were forced to reckon with the fact that in Odessa, besides the official power, and besides the semi-official power, that is, the power of business, which in one way or another lobbies for its groups with access to Kyiv...
A classic example is Seryozha Kivalov, a figure close to zero in himself, but due to his acquaintances and cunning, and, of course, family connections, he knew how to connect various lobbying groups with access to Kyiv. For some reason, he was considered one of the masters of Odessa, although in fact he was just a rich man who was taken advantage of. There has always been an additional level of power in Odessa. Roughly speaking, this is the power of Odessa money, which, in all cases, was Odessa money. They paid tribute to the official authorities, they did not claim any kind of officialdom, but they were Odessa. And what is characteristic is that there were never Varangians among them.
I foresee the question, am I talking about criminality? I'm not talking about criminality. In general, I think that criminality is a rather relative concept. Why? Because if someone kills, racketeers, deals in drugs, well, I don’t know, chases weapons, girls, this, that, fifth or tenth, but drugs in the first place - this is criminality and it is advisable to let such people be used up. But if people make money by circumventing the crazy laws that the crazy government puts on them, then this is not criminality. This is also a business if it does not harm anyone. And these people... No, of course they cannot do without criminality. You are young, you don’t remember the first and second Odessa Chechen wars.
Valentin Filippov: Why am I so young? I remember evrything.
Lev Vershinin: Do you remember. And I know how they walked. I saw people die. Do you remember Viktor Pavlovich?
Valentin Filippov: Surely.
Lev Vershinin: A complex person, a very complex person. But his word “As long as I am alive and my friends are alive, the Caucasus and drugs will not come to Odessa” was kept. And it was not they who fled overseas, but Stoyanov who fled overseas, who introduced drugs into Odessa. And they are not Chechens, but they are Chechens. But, as you know, Viktor Pavlovich died. But he turned out to have quite good, reliable successors of a much higher level in terms of coverage of the situation than he did. Viktor Pavlovich was a very Odessa man; his successors, we will not name their names, thought in much broader categories. So, what is characteristic of this category of people? They think about Odessa, they are Odessa residents. They don't care what happens outside the confines of this city.
Valentin Filippov: Okay, where are these people now?
Lev Vershinin: Wait, let me finish. We started a saga, and a saga is a long one.
Valentin Filippov: Oh, maybe there won't be enough space.
Lev Vershinin: Well, then I’ll shut up, and let those who are interested cry.
Valentin Filippov: No, there is no need to remain silent.
Lev Vershinin: Here. These people are generally apolitical. They are interested in peace in Odessa, so that Odessa residents have their share of the city’s income, they are even ready to feed the townspeople, which Trukhanov is trying to do one way or another. But they never turn against the authorities. During the well-known events of 2014-2015, in 2014, they tried to somehow take their own special position, anti-baboon, but seeing that Moscow was not going to fight them, they said: “Oh, so? So go to hell, all of you,” and concluded a series of deals, with Benya, with Poroshenko, with others. By the way, with whom they have never concluded a contract, it is with Avakov and Turchinov. It was a waste of time.
And in this series of transactions, they defended Odessa after blood had been shed and people had burned. They did not allow a repetition. A series of compromises, the subtlest, most difficult compromises allowed them to maintain control, to prevent strangers from entering Odessa. And strangers climbed, strangers climbed terribly. By the way, to say right away, the appointment of Mishiko was a huge retreat on this front. Apparently for ordinary Odessa residents, for you, you journalist, you are nosy and you are informed, it is apparently no secret to you that Mishiko’s appointment was closely linked to the influx into Odessa of Caucasian thieves in law, Caucasian shadow workers, closely associated with the former Mishinos, how to say, police officials and others. And at some point Odessa really found itself under the Caucasus. Tied, of course, to a pipe, but what in this world is not tied to a pipe? It’s tied to drugs, you probably know, maybe from hearsay, what was going on in these night bars under Misha, this didn’t happen even in the worst years. But it was such a partial defeat. People retreated, people regained positions. And now it’s time to move on to the figure of Trukhanov.
I know Gennady, I can’t say that it’s that close, we’ve never been friends, but we know each other. I respect him, both as an officer (the concept of honor is far from alien to him) and as an athlete (he is a fighter). Well, his whole glorious journey, so to speak: from an ordinary security guard, well, a retired captain was hungry, his family needed to be fed, when I, excuse me, guarded the first paid parking lots, preparing my dissertation at night. It was such a time. So, a man, only because step by step he proved that he has brains, conscience, loyalty to friends and love for Odessa, moved from a retired captain, a security guard to a mayor and a deputy, is already trustworthy in himself. He never had anything to do with serious business, for which he was valued. You always need an undeniable figure. How is Trukhanov? Now, put it up and examine it from all sides, under a microscope, under a telescope. Trukhanov is clean. You can only lie to Trukhanov, throw dirt, come up with fake stories, make some kind of screams, these baboon dances, but Trukhanov is clean from all sides, you can’t find fault with him, for which they were appreciated.
At some point, he became a leading PR figure for a layer of Odessa businessmen who cared primarily about Odessa. The absolute purity and manifest apoliticality of Gennady, multiplied by the enormous connections of those people who stood behind him and helped him, were a huge force. But they are really targeting Odessa. Odessa is being targeted very strongly and, unfortunately, such a beautiful option as Palitsa, for example, do you remember this one?
Valentin Filippov: Yes Yes
Lev Vershinin: When a person came who was essentially not political. There was a condition when negotiations were going on with Benya, Benya was told: “Benya, if you want Odessa” ... and there were higher graters, they came to him, who most of all wanted to just become one of his own in Odessa, to enter the Odessa business without milking anyone. And with him, although he came from somewhere, although he was a rare stinker, with him as a person and, by the way, an independent businessman, a common language was found with him and these were, by the way, not the worst times for Odessa.
Valentin Filippov: Wait, Leo, maybe I’m not flying that high... You say “wonderful times.” Sorry, you think that it’s 14, that Palitsa has nothing to do with it at all, right? But in general, this year will go down in history as one of the most terrible years for Odessa.
Lev Vershinin: Wait... Naturally, because the city had to be intimidated, intimidated. I will now say one very short thing that cannot be detailed, so to speak... In short, very briefly: Odessa was betrayed twice in 2014. And if once because of confusion, I mean the May situation. Because of the great confusion there, too, one can place responsibility on some local forces that did not find a common language, and at this time Kyiv dealt a very harsh and specific blow. By the way, no one expected this. One of the most influential people in Odessa at that time almost lost his daughter in those events, and when he told me... his eldest daughter from his first marriage... and he told me that if something had happened to my little one in that house, Odessa would I washed my face with blood. Knowing this man, I would believe him.
Valentin Filippov: And I have a question: “What, until they start burning their daughters, won’t they wash themselves with blood?”
Lev Vershinin: You did not understand. The fact is that there was wild confusion there. There it is possible in the May events, well, what happened exactly like that is that the baboons were not kicked out, they were not driven away, there is wild confusion there, which is a separate discussion. But then it was, excuse me, it was summer. When decent people and their representatives in one of the northern cities walked through the highest offices and before my eyes, the most influential of them, leaving this office, said: “Leva, why did you bring me here? They want us to move forward, and they will think about it. Mark my words, nothing will work out.” And when on October 5th they gave up... suddenly they canceled the project, after which people began to be grabbed, they told me, “Well, excuse me, we will negotiate with Benya specifically.” Let's go. And let’s just remember with a second of silence those residents of Odessa who died in May, albeit out of stupidity, and who then, in October, died out of meanness. And those who tried to think about Odessa and got a short-term cancer due to nervousness, from which they died, later. Because of this, it is very difficult for Odessa now. Let's remember them. ...
Let's move on. So here it is. In today's situation, it is very difficult for Trukhanov. If earlier there were at least two people behind him who knew how to resolve any issues, because we won’t talk about them with their contacts in Europe, in the States, or about Moscow, even such monsters as, say, Avakov were really afraid of them, and he really took them into account and Benya, although Benya is fearless, and he was afraid of them, today they are not there. They died, they just died. And Gena is alone. His team is around him, but there are no such individuals. Gena has to be an individual, and Gena is a captain, you know?
Gena is a wonderful performer, Gena is from Odessa to the core, although he was not born in Odessa, but you know, this happens. You can come and become an Odessaite much more than some Ostashko, whose ancestors have been in Odessa cemeteries since the 18th century, and he himself is Lvov, ProLvov shit, sorry.
And naturally, they are digging near Odessa, Odessa is a tasty piece for everyone. For Americans, because it’s a port, because it’s a base, because it’s a pipe. For Kyiv people who really want to put their paw on. For Caucasians who really want to restore their positions. And, naturally, there is pressure on Gena, and I don’t know whether Gena will resist, despite the fact that he is an ideal figure of consent. He will politically play with anyone as long as Odessa is not plundered like Ukraine. I would compare him to Gepa in this sense. In general, Gepa is at a much higher level, Gepa is at the level of those people who previously stood behind Gena, until Gena remained at the forefront. Now they are hunting Gena, they are hunting him stupidly, head-on, I look at this story with the beating of Sternenko, who is alive only because he is considered dirt. Well, that's what he is.
Valentin Filippov: Maybe that’s why such Sternenkos appear, because no one… is afraid to appear
Lev Vershinin: Look, what do you mean it’s not scary? Ukraine, today, is the time of baboons. These baboons have no real influence. The only one of them who has a serious perspective, I mean Andrei Evgenievich Biletsky, he is not a baboon, far from a baboon. And baboons are expendable. Some time will pass and they will begin to be judged. But now they are needed. What should these little stubbles do? Beat them? So this is useful for baboons. “It’s more ferocious to be a patriot.” Kill them? What for?
Valentin Filippov: So that their ranks do not swell.
Lev Vershinin: So they will be replenished. While there are rural youth who consider themselves residents of Odessa, charismatic, half-starved, “who was nothing will become everything,” “say Moscow, talk Russia,” “come bourgeois, I’ll gouge out your eye.” This is scale, they will appear. What should we do with them? They can only be done at the system level. No matter what happens in Ukraine, sooner or later they will be infected. To kill the baboons in principle... in a day, in two... and Ukraine is given up. That's it, let's go. It will be very bad there. But, in the sense in which we said, forget it, they gave it away.
Valentin Filippov: It's not working yet. I can’t psychologically.
Lev Vershinin: Well, I can’t reconcile myself psychologically.
Valentin Filippov: Tell me, over all these years, 25 years of Ukraine, how many mayors we have had, I noticed that in addition to Gurvits, who was very worried about supporting his beloved, he even practically created sects, all our other mayors avoided popular support and any organizations that could come to the rescue. As for Bodelan, Simonenko, Chernega, Kostusev, Trukhanov, the same thing, I have the impression that all the mayors of Odessa not only did not try to create such support for themselves among the population, they were even afraid of it and tried with all their might to destroy it if it existed.
In 2010, the same Kostusev managed to quickly disperse a very large potential. Including the information pool, it’s easy to destroy and Trukhanov took part in all this, so that there would be no resource to protect themselves. And now... You say everything correctly, they wanted to save Odessa, the same Trukhanov is fighting alone... But at the same time, he did everything so as not to rely on the support of Odessa residents. That is, if the people of Odessa elected him, then today that “cotton” Odessa will not go for him. “Odessa Parliament of Ukraine” will be remembered forever. And the hung walls of glory opposite the opera house won’t forgive him either, they don’t ask for much.
Lev Vershinin: Listen, let's do it this way. I know everyone you named, except Trukhanov, very closely. Hurwitz happened and grew up before my eyes in the full sense of the word. If you know, on the opening day of the first session of the Odessa City Council elected in 94, I was the only person who came to the podium and said: “Congratulations, dear fellow citizens, a criminal fascist coup took place in our city.” I was in 98, when there were well-known events, when Gurvits was suddenly really elected, well, simply because he was fed up with Kiev pressure... people from Gurvits came to me and said: “Well, what about Lev? What now? You see, Odessa is being destroyed.” I said, “Yes, now I will help the man,” and for two months I tore for Hurwitz. Do you remember me as a young man with a sword, how I rushed with a katana at these comrades with shields. Let's do it this way. You can't mix them like that. Kostusev also tried to create support. Alyosha, with whom I walked shoulder to shoulder for many years and whom I later tried to help, seeing all his shortcomings. The shortcomings there are colossal. Do you know what Kostusev’s main flaw is?
Valentin Filippov: Well, tell me.
Lev Vershinin: The most, the most, the most important. Just imagine, such a homely boy, careful, fearful, very motherly, very grandmotherly. He had a brave and strong dad, who, unfortunately, died very early. The boy sits, surrounded by books about adventures, about strong people, reads these books and wants to be like that. But the boy grows up, the boy grows into a man, let’s say, very cautious by nature. But somewhere in this adult man that boy lives, and from time to time he shouts “Yes, I...!”
Valentin Filippov: Yes
Lev Vershinin: But when faced with life, he timidly hides. He has huge flaws, but let's at least think about this boy who is inside this adult. Hurwitz has no advantages. Hurwitz is a man without a soul, absolutely without a soul. A person to whom the worst thing you can do so that he will ever take revenge on you is to do him a good deed. He will remember and take revenge. I don’t know why this is so, but of those people who really helped him, he took terrible revenge on everyone. And only Vorokhaev was simply framed.
Valentin Filippov: But then I took him to work
Lev Vershinin: Well, naturally, he took it, because he needed a person who knew Odessa like the back of his hand, who knew how to get along with people, who was absolutely non-political... but where could Tolik go? This was the problem... So, Hurwitz was afraid of the people. He was not afraid to go out to the people, and Kostusev was not afraid and Simonenko was not afraid to go out to the people. But he did not understand, in general, what a people was. That’s why he created these quasi-organizations, noisy organizations, why pro-Ukrainian? So this is what the course was like. In fact, Kostusev tried to create. Back in 1994, he created our Odessa Civil Forum, which did a lot of things. But Kostusev was always afraid to take a step forward, so he did not find a common language with Gena Kushnarev, because Gena was a fighter. But this is already a thing of the past.
Well, then, excuse me, Gurvits relied not on the public, but on prominent Ukrainian activists, whom Odessa never liked, but they had money and were loud. Trukhanov. So to speak. The people whose company I revere understood the need for direct support from the masses. They didn’t know how to do this; they had a very closed life all their lives. Closed in every sense. But they understood, they were smarter than any CIS politician, except, perhaps, Nursultan Abishevich and Alexander Grigorievich. They tried to do this and if you know, I came to Odessa in 2011, when Kostusev was already very bad and it was clear that Yanukovych was eating him up and it was only possible to save...
Valentin Filippov: Money
Lev Vershinin: No, not even money. He was not so greedy for small money, but what? Lyosha could not do anything, but the group... The great difference between Lyosha was that one could never be attached to him from a monetary point of view. He didn't steal! They brought it to him and he was also a good economist, and he properly processed this money that came from nowhere. But Kostusev never put his hands into the city budget. Some people brought him income. He could have found the suitcase under the door.
Valentin Filippov: Well, as far as I know, the main conflict with Kiev was that at the end of the year it was necessary to make a contribution, but for some reason... he didn’t have it.
Lev Vershinin: It didn’t turn out. But he found it, there were simply other people of interest. Okay, let's not. Alyosha is good.
Valentin Filippov: Yes, I don’t argue, I was his assistant for three years.
Lev Vershinin: Well, so you know. Compared to everyone else, Alyosha is still good. It’s a sin to offend Alyosha.
Valentin Filippov: Yes Yes.
Lev Vershinin: I arrived in October '11 and I left at the end of January '12. And it was already clear that it was impossible to save him, because it was necessary to create a broad social movement, revive the Civil Forum, go into confrontation, not, God forbid, with Yanukovych, but with certain people. The fact is that in Yanukovych’s group everything was not so simple. He said: “Yes, what are you doing? It's a monolith." And I: “What monolith? Who is the politician? You are a politician. I came in from the street, I came from Spain.” “No, what are you talking about, this is a monolith”... And Gena... Gena is trying to play by the rules that have now been created. Perlyna, this and that. Gena can be understood in principle. Let's say he relies on confrontation. And in Ukraine now the moment of confrontation is very strong. There are “pro-Russian sentiments, enemies” here and there. And so they shout. As long as a couple of people were alive, he could consult. But there are none. Moreover, after their departure, Gena in certain circles became simply Gena, and not part of a group that knew how to impose its interests. I think he will be squeezed out. Is this good for Odessa? This is very bad for Odessa. Well, what could be good for Odessa? Nothing anymore.
Valentin Filippov: Well, unfortunately, yes.
Lev Vershinin: What is your primary education?
Valentin Filippov: Civil engineer, plumber.
Lev Vershinin: Wonderful. At one time, a very smart civil engineer explained to me... Well, I don’t know what strength of materials is, but he knew. He drew me a graph, not even a graph, I don’t know what you techies have there, a diagram, I don’t know. And he told me “Leva, understand, physics is life. Nothing can escape physics. Look: the line goes up and up and up, reaches some point and either breaks off or makes a sharp jump up.” The situation, this frosty situation, it cannot always be. It must end either with a sharp upward leap, for which I personally do not see the social conditions, or with a bummer. But any failure is the beginning of something new. Any death, and civilization is dying before our eyes, let’s face it, sprouts something new. And this is something that cannot but rejoice, because life goes on.
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