Amid the chaos caused by the ruling party in Parliament, the public has started to overlook the older politicians brought in by the same old leaders. However, sometimes their actions are so ridiculous that their names make it to the media.
Just a week ago, an experienced fighter supported by a long-standing politician leading the Batkivshchyna party, Oleg Leonidovich Meydich, made headlines. He serves as a People's Deputy of Ukraine for the Batkivshchyna party and also holds a key position in the parliamentary committee on agrarian policy and land relations.
He became embroiled in a controversy when his conversation, apparently with his daughter discussing her purchase of a handbag, was unintentionally made public:
It is common knowledge that Oleg Meidich's income is not solely from his deputy's salary, as he is the owner of the Kalinovsky Butter and Cheese Plant and several other businesses:
Furthermore, his personal income figures in his declaration are quite substantial:
Moreover, Meidich had high income even before being elected to the Rada, unlike most of his colleagues. So why the uproar from journalists? With the Meidich family earning ten million in 2020 (there is no declaration for 2021 yet), the amount of 8,500 euros doesn't seem as excessive to the average Ukrainian as it does to others.
The issue is that a person with a large income, serving as a People's Deputy of Ukraine and buying handbags worth a quarter of a million hryvnias, still sees fit to claim compensation from a struggling country for housing in the capital city…
According to his own accounts, he spends 20,000 hryvnia per month on rented housing. He consistently submits relevant documents to the parliamentary financial department, without hesitating to receive these meager payments in addition to his millions. It's all legal, but it feels out of sync with the image of a public defender that he, his party, and its leader strive to portray, when viewed alongside his declaration and expensive handbag purchase.
Turning to his declaration, let's briefly touch on what the People's Deputy of Ukraine Oleg Leonidovich Meydich declared.
He owns three land plots totaling 4,100 square meters in the Vinnitsa region, two houses (100 and 413.1 square meters) in Vinnitsa, a non-residential space of 1,390 square meters in the same location, and a 61.3 square meter apartment in the same city.
The financial assets of the Meidich family are impressive: $111,884, EUR 72,013, and 22,351,140 hryvnias, all in cash.
The deputy also possesses a remarkable collection of jewelry and watches, totaling eleven items:
We won't go through the whole declaration, but the curious could read it themselves. see here.
However, you have to agree that a person with such income, who buys handbags supposedly for his daughter for 8,500 euros, could easily reject 20,000 hryvnias in compensation for housing. Especially considering the constant speeches of his party colleagues, who love to cry about the fate of the poor and unfortunate “peresichny krayintsya.”
Furthermore, the wife of Oleg Leonidovich also leases an apartment in Kiev. Why she does not allow the people’s deputy to stay there during parliamentary sessions is not clear, but let this be their internal family matter.
Nevertheless, that’s not all. Because compared to the rest of Oleg Meydich's biography, the meager 20,000 hryvnias from the country’s budget are just trifles.
Because, as it turns out, Oleg Meidich is not quite Meidich. Before marriage, he went by the name Pogorelsky, but was better known in Vinnitsa as “Mongol”. An indirect confirmation of this information is that, according to the electronic declaration, Oleg Leonidovich Meidich is registered in the Vinnitsa region in a house owned by Leonid Iosifovich Pogorelsky.
And Meidich, previously known as Mongol, was involved in criminal activities.
“Mongol was arrested for possession of weapons and several other crimes. However, the judge decided to release him. I would like to ask the judge to help us locate him now. And this is not an isolated case when legality is implied by other criteria” – this is a comment by the then head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Vinnitsa region Vasily Dremlyuga to the Gorod newspaper No. 30 of July 20, 2005.
As you can see, the biography of Pogorelsky-Meidich-Mongol is very intriguing.
Although he could have remained Pogorelsky-Mongol, fate had other plans for him:
Instead of Mongol, his guard was killed.
It was during this time that Pogorelsky-Meidich decided to enter politics. In 2002, he ran for the Vinnitsa Regional Council as an independent candidate, but without success. In 2010, he tried again – this time with the Socialist Party of Ukraine, but still did not succeed.
Later, Meidich began collaborating with the VO “Batkivshchyna” and worked as an assistant to the people’s deputy from this party, Petro Gasyuk. In 2015, he ran for the Vinnitsa Regional Council from the “Fatherland” party and finally became a deputy. In the regional council, he headed the Batkivshchyna faction and was a member of the standing commission on the regulation of communal property and privatization.
In 2019, during the presidential elections, Meidich was a supporter of candidate Yulia Tymoshenko, and in the parliamentary elections, he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada of the 9th convocation in constituency No. 18 (Vinnytsia region) from the VO “Batkivshchyna” party.
As you can see, the turbulent past did not prevent either Alexander Moroz in the past or Yulia Timoshenko at present from accepting such a colorful person into their ranks.
Regarding the last parliamentary elections, it is said that Meidich was associated with the MHM owner Yuri Kosyuk, who strategically placed his people in different political groups and financially invested in their election campaigns. However, an interesting incident occurred with Meidich. More specifically, an incident occurred with a chicken that Kosyuk provided to his candidate to incentivize, let’s say, the voter.
Vinnitsa media it was reported that during the election campaign, Meidich did not deliver the chicken given out by Kosyuk to the voter in full:
As it turned out, Oleg Leonidovich instead of the prescribed 7 kilograms of chicken, allocated by Kosyuk for each voter, gave out only two. Where the rest went – you can guess.
So the story of compensation for the apartment is by no means the only one. And, on the other hand, knowing about 20 thousand hryvnias that Meidich does not hesitate to rip off from the state for housing that is completely unnecessary to him – remember that his wife, with whom Oleg Leonidovich has a joint business, rents an apartment in Kiev – information about chicken sold to the left, stolen from Kosyuk and not given to the voter.
The very morality of such “rations” is also very doubtful, but the morality of the person who rips these rations is no longer in doubt. Especially if you remember his declaration and tens of millions of hryvnias and dollars in cash.
Of course, against the background of “servants”, among which there are simply fantastic specimens, Oleg Meidich from “Batkivshchyna” is lost. But this is by no means because it differs from them for the better. It’s just that “servants” suppress “Batkivshchyna” quantitatively.
Marina Vorona
