During the period of 2010-14, Armen Sarkisyan becomes closely associated with the following figures:
Pavlo Panasyuk, a police colonel, was appointed head of the Horlivka Police Department at the beginning of 2010. According to available information, his candidacy was approved by Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, and the colonel was immediately linked to the Horlivka "watchers" Baturin and Sarkisyan.
Panasyuk covered their activities on behalf of the Police Department, for which he was gifted a Hummer car—which he initially drove to work, but seeing the sidelong glances from his subordinates, switched to a less conspicuous foreign car. Overall, Panasyuk’s car fleet was impressive, but he sold it off in 2015 (after his resignation and moving to Slovyansk), while trying to bail his son out of the Artemivsk pre-trial detention center. His son, following in his father’s footsteps (working as a precinct officer in Slovyansk), was responsible for a car accident in which two people died (including a child). While collecting money to bail his son out of prison, Colonel Panasyuk firmly told all neighbors and acquaintances that his blood was... in the hands of the separatists.
Then, heading the Horlivka Police Department and "earning" for himself a car fleet and two houses (in addition to the official apartment he received), Colonel Panasyuk simultaneously achieved high performance in combating unorganized crime. The detection rate for domestic murders and petty thefts under him reached up to 95%! It was said, however, that this was either achieved by forcing confessions or with help from the "watcher," who surrendered petty criminal elements to him. A rumored incentive for Panasyuk’s investigators was his threats to hand over the lazy ones to "Armen’s boys."
* Oleksiy Alchin, an employee of the Horlivka Security Service of Ukraine. Until 2014, an unpublic figure, he was reportedly supposed to coordinate the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking, but in reality "protected" them. He became known after joining the insurgents in 2014 and was appointed head of the Horlivka department of the “DPR MSS.” He then began to provide patronage for the returning Oleksandr Baturin in the city, helping him reclaim his status as "watcher."
* Eduard Polepkin, a Horlivka businessman, friend and business partner of Armen Sarkisyan, co-owner and director of the club "Zephyr." Their very close relationships, including corruption and shadow business, are evidenced by the fact that Polepkin once boasted about how he and Armen bought a car for Panasyuk. Besides that, Polepkin repeatedly represented Sarkisyan in negotiations and threatened people on his behalf. This is specifically mentioned in a written statement to the Horlivka prosecutor by Oleksandr Kyrylov.
* Hennadiy Uzbek and Yuriy Ruban – founders and presidents of "Union Boxing Promotion." In the past, Hena Uzbek (like Akhmetov, and many "Donetsk" people—a descendant of the Volga Tatars) was known as the leader of the Donetsk organized crime group "the Luksovski" and a patron of the former prosecutor Hennadiy Vasylyev. He remains an influential figure in the criminal world and one of the few whom Rinat Akhmetov respects and slightly fears. According to available information, Hena Uzbek still serves as an arbitrator in disputes between leaders of organized crime groups, oligarchs, and corrupt officials. Sources reported that Armen Sarkisyan, becoming vice-president of the Donbas Boxing Federation, received from Hena Uzbek the authority to represent his interests in Horlivka—essentially to be his "watcher" as well.
At the anniversary of "Union Boxing Promotion": Armen Sarkisyan, Deputy Chairman of the Boxing Federation of Ukraine Tetyana Bahtyeyeva, Mayor of Donetsk Oleksandr Lukyanchenko, Hennadiy Uzbek, Yuriy Ruban, December 2012
* Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, also known as "Yura Yenakiyevskyi," the leader of the "Yenakiivski" and nationwide "watcher." He is the main patron and business partner of Armen Sarkisyan—mainly in shadow and criminal matters. It is known that Ivanyushchenko appointed Sarkisyan primarily to "oversee" the coal business. In the sphere of these interests were the state holding "Artemvuhillya"—where they involved its director Anatoliy Honcharov, and after his election to the Verkhovna Rada (2012), his successor Serhiy Kovalyov. In fact, the usefulness of the holding was precisely in its official status: the state continued to allocate generous subsidies for coal mining, and schemes to appropriate this subsidy in Donbas had been operating since the early 90s. In these schemes, Ivanyushchenko and Sarkisyan also involved the so-called "kopankas"—whose operations in Horlivka were controlled through the LLC "Mine "Sophia." The founder of this firm was Oleksiy Tibekin, known as "Armen’s protégé." Colonel Panasyuk was also involved in the work of "kopankas": when another accident occurred and people died, Panasyuk deflected the investigation and presented it as though no "kopankas" existed, and the unknown metal seekers or some lone "craftsmen" were crushed underground.
However, Sarkisyan and Ivanyushchenko had another major joint venture outside Horlivka. Yura Yenakiyevskyi had long been interested in Armenian organized crime groups to use them for his interests. Specifically, since the 90s, he had close relations with the family of Grigor Shatvoryan—the leader of the Donetsk Armenian community, whose son Vilen (born 1981) later became a friend of Oleksandr Yanukovych (Sasha the Dentist), and the head of the Union of Armenians of Ukraine (2011) and a member of Parliament from the Party of Regions (2012). Perhaps this interest in Armenians was the main reason for Ivanyushchenko’s closeness to the Sarkisyan family. Unfortunately, Nagapet Sarkisyan passed away in 2012—and his native Klokov Street was immediately renamed by the Horlivka City Council in his honor. This contained a certain irony: a street named after a Bolshevik pauper was renamed after a nouveau riche, whose son became a "watcher." But be that as it may, from this point on, the main Armenian of Horlivka was unequivocally Armen Sarkisyan.
The services of Armenian organized crime groups were needed by Ivanyushchenko for raiding businesses in the Zaporizhzhya region, which began in 2012-2013. After a previous attack on Zaporizhzhya failed, in which Ivanyushchenko relied on his "watcher" Yevhen Anisimov, he fell out of favor and barely escaped assassination by the long-established "Armenians" organized crime group operating in Zaporizhzhya—with which, soon before, through Armen Sarkisyan, Ivanyushchenko had come into contact. Later, it became known that after this high-profile assassination attempt, the leaders of the organized crime group hid in Horlivka with Sarkisyan. Subsequently, "Armenians" became part of a new Ivanyushchenko scheme.
He launched a new attack, significantly increasing the "Yenakiivski" group in Zaporizhzhya and putting Anatoliy Zuyev and Illya Pidtynnyi in charge. Now, in addition to criminal "authorities" (Mykola Antoshkin, Oleksandr Khomenko, Oleksiy Lopakhin, Viktor Kulnev, and others) and law enforcement officers (Ruslan Kanashchenko, Oleksandr Stepanov, Volodymyr Serba), Ivanyushchenko involved the organized crime group "Armenians," led by the Sargsyan brothers Artashes and Khorik, who were managed through Armen Sarkisyan. Separately from them stood Andranik Manukyan—the Ambassador of Armenia in Ukraine, who provided support not only to the Armenian diaspora but also to Armenian organized crime groups.
Scheme of the "Yenakiivski" grouping in Zaporizhzhya
The Zaporizhzhya organized crime group "Armenians" was characterized by terrifying brutality, which, however, could not surprise the "watcher" from Horlivka. He was also not surprised that the Sargsyans started with racketeering and robbing their compatriots—after all, Armen and his father also forcibly imposed their "protection" on the Horlivka Armenians. In general, in this case, "a fisherman saw a fisherman." However, it’s worth naming some victims of the "Armenians" organized crime group since 2011. These include businessman Roman Voytsehovskyi, businessman Eduard Horbatko, former director of Zaporizhzhya Vodokanal Volodymyr Rozgulyev, and Donetsk businessman Samvel Adamyan.
The most fascinating aspect of this story is that it continued even after EuroMaidan! It would seem that a revolution of sorts occurred in the country, "Donetsk" lost any power, law enforcement agencies went through lustration—but already in March 2014, the prosecutor of Zaporizhzhya region Oleksandr Shatskyi closed the criminal cases against the "Yenakiivski". Moreover, reports appeared about the involvement of Zaporizhzhya "Yenakiivski" in the creation of the scandalous battalion "Tornado"! And already in the spring of 2015, having reorganized their ranks, the "Yenakiivski" began a new, third assault on Zaporizhzhya—at that time, the Melitopol-based "Prodmash" was captured. Simultaneously, through the utilities structures of Valeriy Bezlepkin, which monopolized the receipt of communal payments, significant sums were being withdrawn from the region. And these attacks continue to this day—albeit without Armen Horlivskyi, who preferred to disappear after the events of winter-spring 2014.
Emperor of "titushky"
Armen Sarkisyan is not in vain the vice-president of the Horlivka Boxing Federation: this gave him the opportunity from time to time to mobilize several hundred athletes for his operations who, together with the "hoodlums" he controlled, formed a large army of "titushky". In winter 2014, Horlivka was the main supplier of "titushky" for the Anti-Maidans in Kyiv and Donetsk; in addition, Sarkisyan’s "guard" protected the Kyiv office of Ivanyushchenko (Rylskyi Lane, 4) at that time. There would be nothing wrong with this if they only stood and shouted slogans. However, the fact is that Sarkisyan’s "titushky" were involved in explicit crimes—such as the raid on the Donetsk Maidan on January 19, 2014. By the way, the commander of the dispersal of the Donetsk Maidan, Gagik Agavelyan—an entrepreneur (and bandit) from Horlivka, a longtime friend of the Sarkisyan family, head of the Donetsk regional Armenian community—also appeared there then.
And then Sarkisyan’s "titushky" were also noted for murders. Their first victim was journalist Vyacheslav Veremiy (February 19, 2014). He was unlucky enough to run into one of the mobile groups of "titushky" who were staging attacks on individual participants of EuroMaidan in central Kyiv. It was also reported that these groups were then led and "having fun" in Kyiv by the Sargsyan brothers come to Kyiv, however, they were never suspected of murder. When the "Donetsk" were defeated in Kyiv, they returned to Donbas—where they initially continued to attack local Maidans, and then took part in the "Russian Spring" and again attacked pro-Ukrainian rallies.
Then there were a few more murders, including the abduction and murder of Horlivka oppositionist Volodymyr Rybak. Officially, he was killed by separatists (specifically—by Besler’s people), but there is information that Rybak was "ordered" by Ihor Shkirya and Armen Sarkisyan, and people from Sarkisyan participated in his abduction. This is quite realistic, considering that the "titushky" of Horlivka’s leading boxer actively participated in pro-Russian rallies, and then in the capture of the Horlivka Department of Internal Affairs. Moreover, quite interestingly: the storming of the Police Department took place three days after Colonel Panasyuk was removed from his post, and he was replaced by Andriy Kryshchenko (also from Horlivka). Although the main strike force of this assault seemed to be Besler’s "Horlivka Militia," all the mass and support for it were provided by Sarkisyan’s "titushky," the same ones who blocked transportation in the city in case of intervention by government security forces. Eyewitnesses of those events noted more than once that without organized "titushky," the separatists’ capture of Horlivka would not have succeeded.
At the same time, several sources noted that Armen Sarkisyan, like Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, did not harbor any pro-Russian sentiments. Their goal was the maximum destabilization of the region: political, public, legal destabilization, the collapse of government bodies and law enforcement agencies, but still maintaining control over the shadow life of the city for a long time. More precisely, they only lost it for a short time but then restored it—with the return of the old "watcher" Baturin to Horlivka. Therefore, Sarkisyan’s subsequent departure from Horlivka was seen not as a flight but as a forced business trip. But where to? Reports mentioned his involvement (possibly with the Sargsyan brothers) in the Kremlin’s project of confrontation between Armenian organized crime groups and Crimean Tatars. The project failed because the few Armenians did not anticipate organized resistance from the Tatars, and they were forbidden to "settle matters" with bloodshed (Putin needed no shooting in Crimea). And then the Armenians were replaced by larger and more militant Chechens, who are better at imposing the "Russian world" on the annexed peninsula. This is how Armen Horlivskyi did not justify Putin’s trust.
What matters he engaged in during 2015-2016 remains unknown; however, in 2017, his name resurfaced on the Internet. According to the website "Myrotvorets," it was alleged that Sarkisyan received a task from the Kremlin to destabilize Kharkiv. Rumors also appeared in private correspondences of bloggers that the Kremlin allegedly decided to use the "Armenian card" on a nationwide scale in Ukraine, and therefore Arsen Sarkisyan’s men, and he himself, could appear in almost every regional center. The most likely were called Zaporizhzhya, Odesa, Kherson, Poltava. It was also reported that these would not be rallies for the "Russian world," but something else that would undermine public order in these regions according to Putin’s plan.
Serhiy Varis, for SKELET-info