Ukraine is a country of great talents and even greater opportunities for... well, let's say, a creative approach to the distribution of public funds. Here is a great example for you - the Ministry of Youth and Sports, which received as much as 11 billion hryvnias for 2023-2024. Impressive, isn't it? Of course, from this amount, as much as 2 billion was allocated for the preparation of athletes for the Olympic Games. And now, it is safe to say that each medal at these games will probably cost as much as a golden Oscar statuette. But don't worry - every titled or promising athlete has his own sponsor. So why waste money at all? This is just an opportunity to show the generosity of the state!
Here, for example, let's take for analysis a fresh representative of the sports elite - Acting Minister of Youth and Sports Matvyi Bidnyi. Just yesterday, a civil servant known to few people, today he is already taking care of the fate of our Olympic hopes. But before we fall into the sweet embrace of euphoria from this personnel achievement, let's dive into a small but tasty fact: Poor was appointed after the previous minister Vadym Gutzeit "voluntarily" resigned. Well, you know, voluntarily, as they say, under compulsion.
Yes, Gutzeit, who barely managed to sit in his ministerial chair, managed to "scandalize" himself by addressing the president of the International Olympic Committee. But not because he did something bad, no — he was just trying to bring representatives of the so-called "organizations" from the occupied territories back to the sport. This was probably his creative way of showing that sports are outside of politics. But for some reason, no one appreciated his noble intention, and within a month he was on the way out of the ministry.
And who replaced him? Matvii Bidnyi is the same one who yesterday was a "decent" deputy and held various positions since 2016. Well, almost a young and promising staff, if not for one "but".
Poor, who has been sitting on the schemes since 2020, was given full control over finances after Gutzeit's resignation. At the end of 2023, a conflict arose between Gutzeit and Bidny over the distribution of "kickbacks" for projects closed at the end of the year. These projects were initiated by Gutzeit, but the money for them was already spent by Bidny, who was not going to share with the former boss. A conflict arises. It would be an epic movie, if not for reality. On Gutzeit's side were his international connections (including business interests in Russia) and support of the Ukrainian underworld, while Bidny was supported by politicians associated with the Party of Regions, including Tatarov, who covered up his activities. The situation reached such a level that both turned to the Office of the President, but they were advised to find a compromise.
Sports training fees or "how to live on 20% of the declared amount"
And under Bidny's leadership, the Ministry of Youth and Sports turned into a creative laboratory for the development of corruption schemes. One of the most popular directions is training sessions and competitions. Here's the real picture for you: according to the documents - single rooms, three meals a day with a buffet. In practice - double rooms, portioned meals, and even better if it is three meals a day. The difference in money? That's right, it goes to "unforeseen expenses". And the best example is the championship of Ukraine in gymnastics. Stella Zakharova asked for 10 million hryvnias, but experts laugh - the real value is no more than 1.5 million. But how to spend the remaining 8.5 million is an art.
Another direction is the ordering of additional promotions. For example, Jamala's performance at the Olympic Games cost 10 thousand dollars. "So it's Jamala!" - you say. But here is the failure - Lady Gaga performed absolutely free. And how is it worse? I just probably didn't understand that it would be possible to earn a little. So what? In our time, you have to be more generous!
Matvii Bidny: political connections and family scandals
The poor man is not only a master in financial schemes, but also in choosing relatives. He, as it turned out, has quite interesting family connections that deserve attention. His wife, Victoria Dashutina, is the daughter of a well-known businessman and former deputy from the Party of Regions Hryhoriy Dashutin. Victoria lives in Slovenia, where she runs a family business. It was on her that the numerous property of the acting family was registered. the minister In the declarations, he also indicated family ties with Victoria Dashutina and joint property with the scandalous Hryhoriy Dashutin.
And now it's interesting: in June 2023, Dashutin was detained by law enforcement officers on charges of creating a criminal organization and aiding an aggressor state. According to the materials of the criminal case, the products of the Poltava Pipe Mechanical Plant and Dashutin's "VNDIkompressormash" were supplied to the Russian Federation and Belarus. The law enforcement officers found out that the industrial and innovation group of companies, which belongs to the family of former People's Deputy Dashutin, has been supplying Russian state enterprises with high-efficiency assemblies, aggregates and parts of pneumatic equipment since 2014. Compressors and compressor units produced by this group are important components for combat railway missile complexes 15P961 "Molodets", which are on combat duty as part of the strategic missile forces of the Russian Federation.
Victoria Dashutina is officially the owner of several companies, including SOLAR NSV LLC, DA 4 LLC, NIKMAS concern and KDRMZ JSC. All these companies are also owned by the Dashutin family , including Grigory Dashutin, Raisa Dashutin and Artem Dashutin.
Despite statements about Victoria's exit from the family business, data from platform show that she is still an active owner. And this means that the family ties of the Poor and the Dashutins remain strong, and this cannot but cause concern.
But that's not all. It turned out that Bidny's father-in-law had close ties with Russian military enterprises. During the first 16 months of the full-scale war, his enterprises supplied Russia with components worth more than 160 million hryvnias.
By the way, Bidny himself in the past was an assistant consultant to People's Deputy Andrii Portnov, former deputy head of President Yanukovych's administration. And although he assures that he has not been in contact with Portnov for a long time, the question here is whether it is possible to just take his word for it?
Conclusion: Sport is a business, not a pastime!
Of course, sport is serious. And if you have access to budget funds, it is also profitable! Unfortunately, against this background, the issues of sports development in Ukraine recede into the background. The main thing is that everyone gets their fate. And who knows, maybe in the future we will see even more such talented managers who will be able to make sports really "profitable". But no longer for the state or athletes, but for themselves, their loved ones.
