Armen "Horlivskyi" Sarkisyan. Strokes to the Portrait

Wanted internationally for committing particularly serious crimes in Ukraine in February 2014, Armen Sarkisyan, like a submarine, went under the ice in France and surfaced in Russia.

1. The mystical story of the arrest in France and the subsequent appearance in the Russian Federation of the Ukrainian-Armenian mafia figure

The French mistook him for another Armen Sarkisyan (with an Armenian passport, under which he was detained — Armen Sarkisyan) — with such a statement made on the pages of one of the Ukrainian websites by the self-proclaimed bloody titushka-leader. Well, considering there are as many Sarkisyans in Armenia as Ivanovs in Russia, theoretically, they could have made a mistake. But Interpol would not spread unconfirmed information, and our sources confidently state that the fact took place (details).

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The situation, let’s be frank, is unusual: the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine has already passed the necessary package of documents for extradition to France, yet the intrigue remains only in the form of the response to the request. With a probability of 9 to 1, it can be said that the person of interest is already beyond reach. Because after the French replaced his arrest with a personal commitment, he immediately bolted.

What is a personal commitment to comply with all court orders for a person facing charges that could result in life imprisonment? It means: "find the wind in the field".

2. Who is "Armen Horlivskyi", and how is he connected with Armenia and the Russian Federation?

Armen from Horlivka is a complete namesake (and possibly a distant relative) of the current President of Armenia, who took office on April 9. But he received an Armenian passport from the hands of his predecessor Serzh Sargsyan — now Prime Minister, who retains maximum power. Sargsyan, who ruled in Armenia for 10 years, is a loyal friend of Putin, supported the annexation of Crimea, and on the eve of Russian aggression in Ukraine advocated for the "Taiga Union".

"Armen fled Ukraine in February 2014, like Yanukovych with Ivanyushchenko, but not to Russia. In Armenia, he lived for a year and obtained citizenship. He has extensive connections at the level of the President there. Having arranged matters, he began to openly appear with an Armenian passport in Moscow and Kyiv," a former friend of the "influential figure" told "ORD".

The former MP from Yenakievo to whom Sarkisyan owes everything — Yuriy Ivanyushchenko (Donetsk, 2013). Was it to him — in Monaco — that the citizen with an Armenian passport, stopped by French police, was flying?

In the 90s, Armen Sarkisyan was an ordinary petty hoodlum in the multicultural Donbas. A yard-scale thug pretending to be the terror of the Kalininskyi district of the three hundred thousand population city of Horlivka. His only remarkable trait was his sycophancy. A striving to jump out of his skin to please former killers who dressed as businessmen and gained parliamentary immunity. By the 2000s, the leader of the ethnic gang managed to work his way into the trust of the most infamous representatives of the Party of Regions in the Donetsk region, who put organized crime at the service of their political interests. By the 2010 elections, he assumed an unofficial status of an influential mafioso known as Armen Horlivskyi, operating not only in neighboring regions with Donetsk but also in the capital. The presidency of Yanukovych became his star time.

"At the beginning of the 2000s, Oleksandr Baturyn was the overseer for Horlivka, but Armen somehow managed to become the favorite of ’Yura Yenakiyevskyi’, and ’Batura’ was moved aside. Sarkisyan was not crowned in the criminal world; he had one conditional conviction, long since expunged. During Yushchenko’s times, there was a complaint about him to the Organized Crime Department, after which he spent 1.5 years on the run. Yenakiyevskyi helped close this issue. On December 16, 2006, in the center of Horlivka, in broad daylight, a businessman involved in mazut was shot in the head. The slain man’s business transferred to Armen. By the 2010 elections, Armen fully controlled all power structures in the city and a significant part of the council members," says our interlocutor.

By 2013, Sarkisyan performed the tasks of the ruling gang so well that he himself became a dollar millionaire. He bought a huge apartment in the Pechersk district of the capital, opposite the CEC. For $200,000 — a car for his underage daughter. Built a palace on the street of revolutionary Klokov in the settlement of the Kochegarka mine. After his father Nagapet’s death, local council members presented the mafioso Sarkisyan with a resolution that renamed this street in Horlivka after Nagapet Sarkisyan. In a word — he began to lose his mind from an advancing megalomania.

All this was possible due to a colossal corruption of law enforcement agencies, whose heads in Horlivka were at Sarkisyan’s service, and Horlivskyi’s favorite cop ran with reports daily to the “authoritative figure”’s office, as we told here. About youthful years and corpses over which the “authoritative figure” stepped, you can read here. More about how criminal business developed and the hunt for “Don Anisim” (the authoritative figure from Zaporizhzhya) — here. About the enterprises squeezed by Sarkisyan, luxury cars, connections with the "elite" of the PR — on the Horlivka website. The entrepreneur and journalist from Horlivka, Oleksandr Bilinskyi, interestingly tells about habits and customs — here.

3. From Antimaidan to "DPR", Sarkisyan’s personnel and business in the "republic"

The main order in his bandit biography Sarkisyan received on New Year’s Eve 2014. He was put on Interpol’s wanted list for his bloody deeds in Kyiv but "signed up" for the dispersal not only of the capital’s but also of Donetsk’s Euromaidan. In Donetsk, of course, there were no murders or serious injuries caused by Sarkisyan’s titushkas. But there were group hooligan actions, mass brawls (22.01.2014 and January 26, on the Shevchenko Avenue in Donetsk), beatings of Euromaidan activists and death threats, backed up by law enforcement support. All this happened almost every day for two months.

On January 19, 2014, the vice-president of the Donetsk boxing federation Armen Sarkisyan personally showed up near the Shevchenko monument in Donetsk (where the local Euromaidan was located). Hiding behind the backs of associates, he monitored the situation.

The attackers initially portrayed Donetsk residents who "at the call of the heart" came to support their President. They took away and broke Ukrainian flags from the Maidan activists, rampaged, "pressed by force" — physically pushing people out of the square, bombarding them with eggs, blocks of ice, and condoms filled with green dye.

The first appearance of Sarkisyan’s gang at the Donetsk Maidan. The closest associate in black glasses — head of the Armenians’ society of the Donetsk region, Gagik Agavelyan.

Interestingly, for this work, Sarkisyan involved not only hoodlums with whom he strived "toward success" since the 90s (such as Gocha) but also the management of the bars he owned, including women. The roles in the gang were distributed as follows: the loudmouthed-cleaners shouted insults, the higher-ranked personnel used megaphones for the same purpose, fighters from boxing clubs caught and beat the most active ones not only near the Euromaidan but also near workplaces and hospitals where the injured were receiving help. Media owned by the Horlivka "authoritative figure" was involved, with representatives spreading fake news about the "Right Sector".

On the far right is a titushka-journalist of Armen Sarkisyan, Oleksiy Petrov, in the center — one of Sarkisyan’s boxers named Serhiy, who "pressured" the Maidan activists.

At the scene, the gang’s hooligan actions were directly supervised by twice-convicted Gagik Agavelyan, a friend of Armen’s late father and also a native of Horlivka. This hoodlum "businessman" was also the head of the regional Armenian society. Before the largest attack on Maidan activists — on Unity Day when dozens of activists and journalists were beaten, Agavelyan received instructions directly at the Donetsk Regional State Administration building. He left the office of the head of the regional council feeling inflated with self-importance.

From the 62.ua photo, Gagik Agavelyan. Sometime after Maidan, he, like Armen, went into hiding, but now continues anti-Ukrainian activities in "DPR". Agavelyan on "Myrotvorets"

On this day, "sporting meat" numbering at least 200 individuals, divided into groups of 20-40 souls, arrived in organized squads.

On the 62.ua website photo, Sarkisyan’s thugs in all their glory. The arrival of one of the titushka squads on Unity Day.

Sarkisyan’s "athletes" burned opposition party flags. The clash spilled onto the roadway, partially blocking traffic.

In the 62.ua photo, a titushka attack on a Euromaidan activist (individuals of "sporting appearance" try to tear down the EU flag).

The shooting crew of the "Donbas" TV channel also suffered:

The following photo characterizes the police reaction.

In the 62.ua photo — January 22, 2014, Donetsk. A police officer gently leans on the shoulders of a titushka from Armen Sarkisyan’s gang.

Euromaidan activist Oleh Zhelnakov recognized one of the rank-and-file members of Sarkisyan’s gang, who repeatedly beat him.

In February, Sarkisyan’s Horlivka titushkas split into two teams. Some stayed in Donetsk Oblast and were noticed in the attack on MPs Kuzhel and Pavlovskyi (they merely harassed them), and the most ruthless ones went on a "capital business trip." Among them was also "Dima Dagestanian" (aka Jalal Aliyev), who shot at "Vesti" newspaper journalist Vyacheslav Veremiy on February 18, 2014.

In a "Vesti" photo, a member of Sarkisyan’s gang — Jalal Aliyev. He fought for the "DPR", was arrested by "DNR’s Ministry of State Security" in Horlivka, was reported missing, information about liquidation wasn’t confirmed.

We detailed the murder of journalist Veremiy and the titushka-leader Krysina case, who is already convicted for this crime (e.g., here).

From the materials of the SSU, it follows that Krysin owned a security company and on February 17, 2014, received a call from a familiar "figure from Horlivka" Sarkisyan with a proposal to bolster his Horlivka gang, contracted to suppress Euromaidan in Kyiv, with Krysin’s thugs. Sarkisyan asked to find 200-300 people "to maintain public order in the government quarter," but Krysin supposedly provided only 15 people, with himself included. On the evening of February 18, Horlivka and Krysin (mostly from Bila Tserkva) "militia members," according to Krysin, gathered on Sofia Square, where about 200 more individuals gathered, found by Koshelev. They were all given bats, and they headed to B. Zhytomyrska and Volodymyrska - see the video from the verdict:

For participating in attacks on Maidan activists and simply passers-by on February 18, Krysin received $20,000 from Sarkisyan "for a complex of services." These testimonies from Horlivka-born Krysin were among the reasons that allowed keeping the SBU materials about journalist Veremii’s murder a closed affair. Allegedly they made titushka-leader Krysin receive threats.

"Under the supervision of Interior Minister Zakharchenko, as well as the head of the logistics service Pavlo Zinov, a criminal organization was created directly through Armen Sarkisyan, tasked with not letting protesters from the Maidan go up Mykhailivska. They shot people at point-blank range," claimed Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema (in 2015).

Sarkisyan’s boxers also distinguished themselves during the "Russian Spring". Together with colleagues from the "Union Boxing Promotion" agency (close friends of Sarkisyan — Gennady Uzbek and Yuriy Ruban, who, according to available information, are doing well in "DPR"), they were seen during the massacre in Donetsk on March 13, 2014. They attacked and killed pro-Ukrainian supporters.

In April 2014, titushkas of "Armen Horlivskyi" participated in the kidnapping of local deputy Volodymyr Rybak, who was then tortured in Slovyansk by Hirkin’s henchmen. According to one version, the brutal murder was organized by Sarkisyan upon a request from his friend, PR MP Ihor Shkira, who had a long-standing enmity with oppositionist Volodymyr Rybak.

We wrote about Deputy Shkira’s role in the events of the "Russian Spring" in Horlivka and Dzerzhynsk (now Toretsk) and the nature of the conflict between Shkira and Rybak during the 2012 elections here: /

Sarkisyan still exerts influence over processes in the "DPR Horlivka". For some time, he didn’t appear in "DPR" and tried to sell his palace in Horlivka (but who would buy it?), but starting from the middle of last year, he began to visit regularly.

"Each time he is accompanied by a company of armed men. The head (occupation — ed. note) of the administration Ivan Prykhodko is subordinated to him (prior to the war — one of the PR officials, headed a district in Donetsk — ed. note). But Prykhodko cannot provide such security. Armen has good relations with the "DPR" leadership," says his acquaintance.

Currently, Sarkisyan’s aide with the surname Agavelyan is the head of the Armenian diaspora in "DPR".

He also heads the organization "Donetsk Regional Society of Armenians", which is still active and represented even in Ukraine-controlled territory (EDRPOU Code 23356136).

And Agavelyan, who managed organized hooligan actions and desecrated state symbols, does not appear to be wanted in Ukraine.

The director of Sarkisyan’s night club "Zefir", Eduard Polepkin — another character particularly notable during Antimaidan, currently manages Armen Sarkisyan’s affairs in "DPR".

Eduard Polepkin, Sarkisyan’s manager, on whom several businesses of Sarkisyan are registered, attempts to tear a flag from a woman. Donetsk Euromaidan, January 19, 2014.

Polepkin not only shouted anti-Ukrainian slogans through a megaphone but also initiated fights. Just like the journalist of the site "Horlivska Pravda" under Armen Sarkisyan — Oleksiy Petrov.

Polepkine in "DPR" continues to earn money for Sarkisyan. Although his Horlivka club "Zefir" isn’t doing well. However, the new establishment "Three Birches" is in demand.

In the photo, Mr. Polepkin today. He promotes Sarkisyan’s new establishment in occupied Horlivka — "Armen Horlivskyi" opened a "Three Birches" club-cafe in "DPR".

And leading journalist-titushka Sarkisyan turned into a militant of the "DPR army". Petrov personally participated in tortures and kidnappings. However, last autumn, the "military career" cracked: "DPR media" reported the arrest of Oleksiy Petrov. He is accused of stealing Russian humanitarian aid and possessing explosives.

In the gorlovka.ua photo, a titushka from Sarkisyan’s team — Oleksiy Petrov, who became a militant and a "happy owner" of the so-called "DPR passport".

Last year, one "DPR" site reported on how the aforementioned Gagik Agavelyan engages in extortion under "Armen Sarkisyan’s roof". Former "DPR" deputy (and before the war — Horlivka city council deputy) Yuriy Krykulenko accused Agavelyan of demanding his wife, who is engaged in transportation, to either share the business or pay a tribute of 80 thousand rubles monthly.

«Between Armen and Krykulenko, who is also convicted, there is a struggle for the market. Before the war, there were four nightclubs in Horlivka, but now two is too crowded. «Zefir» closed, but Armen and Polepkin opened «Three Birches», while Krykulenko has «Bermuda», so he inundates Armen with complaints to the General Prosecutor’s Office of the republic and publications in the DPR media (for example), — they say in Horlivka.

4. Inspired by the example of patron Ivanyushchenko, full of hope to clear his name in Ukraine

The dirty work the Horlivka gang did for Ivanyushchenko (for example, in Zaporizhzhya, which is discussed here) — is the reason why Yura Yenakiyevskyi lifted "Armen of Horlivka" «from rags to riches». Beatings, abductions, torture, killings – all this was on the Donbas even during the 2004 elections, but did not become the subject of such wide publicity as in 2014.

In the special investigations department of the General Prosecutor’s Office (who filed Sarkisyan in the international search), they claim that the evidence against Armen is not limited to Krysin’s testimonies. And the suspicion is more than serious: attempted murder of several individuals, group hooligan actions, organization of arsons and explosions.

As for Ivanyushchenko, it’s worth recalling that the intersection where Koshelyivtsi with Krysynites shot from assault rifles and killed a journalist is located two steps away from Ivanyushchenko’s office at Rylskyi Lane, 4. Just after the victory of the Euromaidan, the heads of all law enforcement agencies – Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Prosecutor’s Office, Security Service of Ukraine – unanimously stated that this office was the headquarters of the bloody titushky. However, later Ivanyushchenko managed to get all criminal cases closed, including economic ones, unblock accounts and lift sanctions. And now Yenakiyevskyi is so confident in himself that he inundates courts with lawsuits against Leshchenko, Chornovol, Butusov, and other journalists who «dared» to link him with the «death squads» on Maidan in their publications.

The millions gained through criminal means are being spent by Ivanyushchenko in Monaco. Near Kyiv, on nature reserve lands, another «Mezhyhirya» of Yenakiyevskyi is being built, guarded by the «Geletye’s eagles». Meanwhile, Ivanyushchenko’s lobby in the Verkhovna Rada is so powerful that his representative – Oleh Nedava — was appointed by Petro Poroshenko as the chief overseer for Donbas…

«They haven’t figured it out yet, time will put everything in its place», — Armen Sarkisyan allowed himself to lightly criticize Ukrainian law enforcement in an interview with «Left Bank»… And made it clear that he is not losing hope to rehabilitate himself legally: «There was no need before, but now, yes, I will engage»:

In the photo http://gorlovka.ua Armen Horlivskyi is on the far left

Mafioso Sarkisyan – a key link in the chain that connects people like Krysin not only with the organizers of crimes on Maidan but also with state traitors, whose activities led to the occupation and continue to destroy Ukraine. And this link leads not only to those residing in Monaco and Moscow but also to some who have disguised themselves in vyshyvankas and are comfortably settled in Kyiv. It remains to be guessed which levers were used to allow this crucial link to escape justice.

Tetyana Zarovna, «ORD»