After the scandal with the purchase of products for the military from the Ministry of Defense, the media actively started talking about high-ranking official Alexander Liev. In particular, they remembered his pro-Russian views and statements
The head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center Vitaly Shabunin recalled the scandalous statements of the Defense Ministry official. Against the background of the latest procurement scandal, this post attracted a lot of attention. Channel 24 writes about this.
Is Liev involved in the Ministry of Defense scandal
Recall that at the end of January, Zerkalo Nedeli published a copy of the deal concluded on December 23 by the Ministry of Defense for catering services in 2023 for several military units. Its cost is 13.16 billion hryvnia.
At the same time, the journalists compared the prices of the deal with the prices for the same products in the Silpo chain of stores in a residential area of Kyiv. Prices for the most popular products purchased by the Ministry of Defense allegedly turned out to be 2-3 times higher.
After a high-profile scandal, the Ministry of Defense announced the resignation of the responsible deputy minister and head of the department. However, Shabunin emphasized one important detail.
Oleksandr Liev has been temporarily acting as the Department of Military-Technical Policy, Development of Arms and Military Equipment of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine since the summer of 2022. It is this department that performs the functions of a customer, that is, it purchases defense equipment in Ukraine,” he stressed.
What are Liev's responsibilities in the Ministry
On the website of the Ministry it is indicated that among the competences of the department reporting to Liev there are the following functions:
- purchase of weapons and military equipment (OVT);
- military-technical cooperation with foreign states and international organizations in the interests of equipping the Armed Forces of Ukraine with modern models of equipment;
- organization of research and development work on the development and modernization of weapons and military equipment.
According to Shabunin, within the framework of this responsibility, Alexander Liev supposedly has the authority to “sign the armed contracts of the Ministry of Defense.” Alexander Reznikov explained back in the summer of 2022 that the ministry was launching the Defense Procurement Agency, which should be responsible for importing military goods. “: what is known about Liev
Shabunin recalled the “dark past” of Alexander Liev, recalling several scandalous statements of the official. In particular, he recalled the years when Lev was Minister of Resorts and Tourism of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea under President Viktor Yanukovych.
So, in the fall of 2013, Alexander Liev said “I serve the fatherland!” after he received the “Imperial Order of St. Anna” in Simferopol. This is an award from Maria Romanova, head of the Russian Imperial House of the Romanovs' descendants. True, he subsequently deleted this message.
Shabunin recalled how on March 5, 2014, when Russian troops were already in Crimea and 11 days before the referendum rigged by Russia, Alexander Liyev, in an interview with the public, called on Kyiv to “hear Crimea”.
Then he also said that “the problem of Crimea” will be solved by “legalizing the referendum and holding it together with the Ukrainian authorities, whatever it may be, and expanding the powers of Crimea to the level of full-fledged autonomy.”
Liev also stated that the residents of Crimea were allegedly pressured by an “information flurry” that provoked a “feeling of fear” in them. The official said “that we are all mentally Russian”, despite the fact that many speak Ukrainian.
At the end of the interview, he said that “there are no enemies here”, and then freely entered “the premises of the Crimean government , which by that time was already controlled by the Russian military”.
Full interview with Liev: watch the video
Coordinated exhibition of pro-Russian pickets
The head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center also recalled how, in January 2006, Liev “coordinated an exhibition of pickets and checkpoints at lighthouses, which, according to the distribution of the Black Sea Fleet of the SSR, were supposed to go to Ukraine, but were illegally held by the Russian fleet.”
Shabunin repeatedly asks a number of questions about how Liev can now work in the Ministry of Defense.
Pro-Russian activists counteracted Ukrainian sailors who tried to enter the territory of lighthouses in Bolshaya Yalta, Feodosiya and near Genichesk – stressed Shabunin.
He also recalled that the picket was held under the slogan that Crimea is supposedly “the territory of the Ukrainian-Russian brotherhood.” Liev's political career
Alexander Liev, 47, was born in the Russian Republic of Komi.
Liev's career can be divided into several periods. It all started in the Crimea, in the mid-90s he worked as a mechanic in Armyansk at various commercial enterprises. In the early 2000s, he became the general director of Sivash Plant LLC in Krasnoperekopsk, after which he headed the board of Brom OJSC in the same city.
In 2005, he moved to Kyiv and became deputy director of the European Institute of Political Culture .
Followed by a period of work in Chernivtsi. In 2006-2009, he worked in senior positions in the apparatus of the Chernivtsi regional administration, served as deputy director of the State Enterprise Chernivtsi Regional Avtodor.
After that, he returned to Crimea, where he headed the Sevastopol territorial branch of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.
In 2010, Liev joined the Party of Regions, he became chairman of the Republican Committee of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea on water management construction and irrigated agriculture. He was also the Minister of Resorts and Tourism of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
The high-ranking official did not hide the fact that he supported Viktor Yanukovych in the presidential elections. After his flight, he said that he was disappointed with the fugitive president.
In 2014, he was appointed first deputy general director of the National Television and Radio Company of Ukraine Zurab Alasania.
According to Shabunin, this summer, Liev was appointed acting head of the department of military-technical policy, development of weapons and military equipment of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
In June 2022, he confirmed that he works in the Ministry of Defense and denied rumors that he was allegedly applying for the position of head of the Chernivtsi military unit instead of Sergey Osachuk.
