Tandem Kostrzhevskyi and Zakorchemnyi: How political opportunists survive during the war

Tandem Kostrzhevskyi and Zakorchemnyi: How political opportunists survive during the war

Oleh Zakorchemnyi, one of the most talented Kyiv personalities with a dubious reputation, is conquering new heights. From emptying the pockets of seriously ill cancer patients, he moved to the status of a shadow manager of strategic state objects. It was Denys Kostrzhevskyi (Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kyiv Airport), who fled from the horrors of war 11 days before it began to the Mediterranean coast, who in October 2022, at the Ukrainian consulate in Malaga (Spain), handed over business and property management rights to him exclusively. However, not all schemes of Oleh are successful, but he has started quite well indeed.

A young lawyer, who knows how to gain trust, began his career with a simple temptation. However, he successfully tempted not just any woman, but the daughter of Ukraine’s first Health Minister Yuriy Spizhenko. Yuriy was a very authoritative figure: an oncologist, a talented scientist, an academician, a Verkhovna Rada deputy, the head of the Pharmaceutical Association, and the president of the oncology and radiosurgery center "Cyberclinic Spizhenko." A desirable match for a young lawyer. For such a chance, the young specialist, having married, decided to change his surname and proudly called himself Oleh Spizhenko. He started calling his father-in-law "dad."

Undoubtedly, this fact brought Spizhenko (Zakorchemnyi) certain bonuses in life. He joined the family business of an influential person. He began gradually building connections in the medical field and politics. He absorbed all the necessary and useful people like a sponge. After his father-in-law’s death, he headed the family business. But to stay afloat, people of this type always need to be close to someone more authoritative. And after the Maidan in 2014, this guide for Spizhenko (Zakorchemnyi) became the newly appointed Minister of Health Oleh Musiy. Although the political career of the organizer of the Euromaidan medical service faded as quickly as it flared up. He served as a minister for a little over half a year, and on October 1, 2014, by Cabinet decision, Oleh Musiy was dismissed.

Musiy managed to stay afloat for some time. He was elected to the Verkhovna Rada by a majoritarian district, and Spizhenko (Zakorchemnyi) became his assistant on a public basis. He squeezed the maximum out of his connections. Oleh Orestovych frequently visited parliamentary corridors, and not in vain. This allowed him to get closer to Oleksandr Sayenko. Another at that time successful lawyer who came out of Serhiy Lyovochkin’s circle. Sayenko was then the head of the apparatus of the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Hroysman.

Hroysman becomes the Prime Minister, and the creative leader of modernity Oleksandr Sayenko moves into the seat of Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers. New horizons open up, prospects become less foggy, and Oleh Spizhenko (Zakorchemnyi) quickly shifts from one fading star to "warm up" in the rays of a new one’s fame. Feel the difference: he was some assistant of a Verkhovna Rada deputy on a public basis, and he became, no more no less – an extraordinary and plenipotentiary advisor to the Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers.

Having received the mandate in the Cabinet, Oleh Spizhenko (Zakorchemnyi) once again became close to key figures in the ministry relevant to his family business. Malicious tongues said that he almost settled in the Ministry of Health, in the reception of the first deputy minister. It was probably then that Zakorchemnyi-Spizhenko began developing a plan to "seize" the Cancer Institute, which had quite "tasty" assets on its balance sheet: expensive land in the capital, new buildings, and overseas modern equipment.

But the hat turned out not to be to Sanky’s size. The young creative person prepared the ground, sowed the field, but others reaped the harvest. This often happens, at the most inopportune moment, more impudent and experienced ones appear. But even from a wretched sheep, there is a tuft of wool. Oleh Zakorchemnyi managed to gain access to the monitoring of solvent and operable cancer patients for redirection to the Spizhenko Clinic.

And new grand plans began forming in the lawyer’s mind. Why not seat my wife Natasha in the Minister of Health’s chair? I’m almost the advisor to Hroysman himself. History is silent on whether this perspective was really considered, or whether under the influence at social gatherings Oleh Orestovych could not hold his tongue and blabbed too much. Business loves silence. This time, Spizhenko (Zakorchemnyi) sowed a storm. He brought a flurry of criticism and negativity regarding his wife. Eventually, Nataliya did not become a minister.

The creative lawyer Spizhenko (Zakorchemnyi) thinks in a peculiar – unconventional – way. New plans are brewing in his head. Should I not marry off my old wife again? Who first came up with this brilliant idea – Oleh or Nataliya, or maybe both at once? Nataliya was not destined to become a minister, but in the end, the dream almost came true. She became the wife of the Minister of Health. Oleh Orestovych reverted to his maiden name, Zakorchemnyi. He himself married a young female doctor. However, he maintained ties with his former wife and son-in-law, but everyone remained with their own interests. Friendship is friendship, but tobacco is separate. Zakorchemnyi was asked to leave the Spizhenko family business, but they promised not to forget him.

And indeed, they did not forget. The ink on the decree appointing the new Minister of Health had not yet dried, yet on the very day of this event, a medical company "Bestzdrav" was registered in the suburbs of Odesa with a charter capital of 1.5 million hryvnias. The sole founder of the company is the newly appointed minister Nataliya Stepanova (Spizhenko), and the director of the firm is the "predecessor" of the minister, Oleh Zakorchemnyi (Spizhenko).

Zakorchemnyi realized that nothing could be cooked with his former wife anymore and began to look for a new strong shoulder. This shoulder turned out to be Denys Kostrzhevskyi. On November 12, 2020, the "Medical Center ‘DOC LIFE’" LLC was registered, whose ultimate beneficiary is Denys Kostrzhevskyi. Oleh Zakorchemnyi becomes the head of the company and the authorized person, and his new wife – Nataliya Skyzha-Zakorchemna – is appointed as the chief doctor of the "DOC LIFE" clinic.

Oleh Orestovych’s exciting life seems to suggest that success always accompanies him. He could always remain within the orbit of influential people. But that’s one side of the coin; if you look from another, Zakorchemnyi acts like a transitional "black mark." Everything he touches soon declines. This was the case with the business of the influential father-in-law Yuriy Spizhenko, which the son-in-law began managing after his death. And all he touches soon lose their influence, disappear into political oblivion – forgotten: Musiy, Sayenko, Kostrzhevskyi...

Who will be the next "victim" of Oleh Zakorchemnyi-Spizhenko?

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