MazepaGate: How Mazepa was whitewashed, and what do Tatarov and developers’ lobbyists in the Parliament have to do with it?
Exactly one year ago, the State Bureau of Investigation detained Ihor Mazepa. The case concerned the construction of cottages on the land of the Kyiv hydroelectric power plant, which is a critical infrastructure.
The study conducted by the Holka Civic Initiative does not analyze the documents from the case. It contains only an analysis of the information field that was formed around this case by the Telegram channels and some media. Apparently, the results of the study prove that the information field in the Mazepa case was constructed in a way that would allow the developers to pass the rules of the game they needed through the Parliament.
After Mazepa’s detention, a wave of posts supporting Mazepa immediately followed on Telegram, constructing the image of an “honest businessman” targeted by “bad law enforcement agencies.”
Now, referring to this Mazepa case, MP Ihor Fris (Servant of the People ) is introducing a bill with corruption risks in the interests of developers (12089). This initiative is being lobbied for personally by the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office, Oleh Tatarov, who emphasized at the committee meeting that “so-called activists” who “earn a lot of money” are profiting from opposing business.
What is the danger of draft law 12089? Claims against developers are proposed to be nullified if they have owned the land for more than 10 years. And if the state or community suddenly wants to return the lost forest or coastline earlier, a deposit will have to be made to the court’s account from the budget (!) – the market (!) value of such property. Then developers will not even have to build anything – there is every chance of receiving funds from the budget directly.
The draft law is already being prepared for the second reading after it was supported by the Servants of the People, fragments of the OPFL (Restoration of Ukraine and Platform for Life and Peace), Batkivshchyna, and Dovira. The EU and Holka did not vote.
Given that at a meeting of the Environmental Committee, the author of the draft law, Fris, cited the Mazepa case as an example of “pressure on business by law enforcement agencies,” the Holka civil initiative decided to investigate how the information field in this case was shaped last year by Telegram channels. As it turned out, dishonest methods were used to whitewash a “virtuous” businessman.
Publications that contained signs of a smear campaign generated large-scale information waves. This information campaign preceded the submission of at least five bills in the interests of developers, the main risks of which are full amnesty for carve-ups and de facto nullification of claims against developers.
At least, this is the number of legislative initiatives that have been identified during this time. The public initiative wrote about this earlier. The activity of the country’s main anti-corruption body, the National Anti-Corruption Agency, is particularly significant here — or rather, its inaction.
Ultimately, this study provides an understanding of how “virtuous” businesses use media platforms to lobby in their own interests.
“Mazepagate” is how this case was dubbed after Mazepa’s detention by his own defenders. The Dragon Capital website wrote that the owner of this company, Tomas Fiala, could be next. It was he who bought Ukrayinska Pravda a few years ago and then claimed that he did it “without the intention to increase his influence.”
There were two waves of whitewashing in the Telegram space. The first wave was the most powerful – in January last year, immediately after his arrest.
And here we need to remind you that Telegram still operates without paying taxes to the state during the war. This is the black market of the advertising business. And it was on this market that the “virtuous businessman” Mazepa was whitewashed.
Almost 34% of the news items covered Mazepa in a positive light. Such messages often conveyed the position of Mazepa himself, his lawyers, or public defenders, of course, without maintaining a balance.
The developer is compared to journalists who are actually being persecuted or politicians:
First Bigus, then Nikolov, then Mazepa… Prepare Palatnyi. Members of Klitschko’s team are under surveillance,
– says Volodymyr Tsybulko, whose statement was later shared on Telegram.
Colonel Chervinsky, General Marchenko, and General Pavlovsky are also mentioned alongside Mazepa’s name. Moreover, they wrote that Tatarov had a good chance of being fired because of the Mazepa case. Thus, the developer became a “serious fighter against the system”-Bankova Street. Moreover, because of the Mazepa story, Zelenskyy not only “ate information shit” but also allegedly “had unpleasant communication with ambassadors.”
Screenshot from the Berezovyi Sok Telegram channel
The line that Mazepa was a victim of Bankova Street and law enforcement officers putting pressure on business was continued by his defense attorney, then a lawyer at Miller Law Firm Oleksiy Nosov. He argued that the reason for the pressure could be that Mazepa, a fighter, had created a platform to resist the pressure of law enforcement on business. This is what Nosov said in an interview with Forbes, which was later circulated on Telegram:
I mean, who is afraid of Igor Mazepa? Six months ago, he announced the creation of a platform to counteract the pressure of law enforcement on business with a register of dishonest law enforcement officers called Manifesto 42. We believe this is no coincidence.
Screenshot from the Forbes Ukraine Telegram channel with a link to an interview with Mazepa’s lawyer Nosov
A few months later, Nosov, who defended “an honest fighter against law enforcement, Mazepa,” and convinced that Mazepa was a victim, himself became the focus of law enforcement agencies. NABU suspects him of offering $200,000 in another case “for making a decision to transfer the case against the client to another pre-trial investigation body.”
Miller Law Firm immediately issued a statement that the legal community interpreted as a virtual admission of Nosov’s guilt.
During the campaign to whitewash Mazepa’s image, they used not only the image of bad Bankova Street but also tried to combine his image with the name of Zaluzhnyi, who has a fairly high level of trust. This is also one way for technologists to construct a positive image for a client, if necessary.
Screenshot from the channel “Pravda News: Oleshko’s Blog”
For comparison, only 8% of all the posts about Mazepa studied during the year were negative.
However, it is not only the number of positive posts about Mazepa but also their reach – almost 14.2 million views (negative posts had almost 4.1 million views). Positive posts were viewed about three and a half (!) times more. And this is quite understandable, because these messages that whitewashed Mazepa constructed the image of “bad law enforcement officers.” The audience likes “betrayal” more than “victory”.
Thus, this information campaign was aimed not only at whitewashing Mazepa but also at undermining trust in law enforcement agencies that“put pressure on honest business and engage in racketeering” and even decided to destroy the business:
Sometimes, if the developer, like the last beggar, does not want to pay again and again, the land can be returned to its original state and sold again to someone else. In my opinion, this is the scenario we have all just seen in the case of Igor Mazepa. And this process of “plucking geese” has no statute of limitations,” ”an attack on honest business by unscrupulous law enforcement officers,
– they write on one of the Telegram channels.
The thesis that developers are poor, law enforcement officers are bad, and that they are likely to be paid for has also become one of the key messages for lobbyists. And while such lobbyists-people’s deputies walk around the session hall and convince their colleagues to vote for bills favorable to developers, journalists and the public sector do not have access to the sidelines to at least convey their position and talk to MPs.
To achieve their goal, these “virtuous” businessmen do not even stop at trying to undermine Ukraine’s credibility in the eyes of its international partners in times of war through this “virtuous” information campaign: “An article has already been published in the West with the headline ‘An investment banker who complained about corruption has been detained.’
Screenshot from the anonymous Telegram channel “Closed Zone”
To understand the scale of the impact on the audience, you can look at the reach of individual posts. For example, one post by Trukha received almost 780,000 views.
However, it should be noted that there are anonymous channels and Telegram channels of well-known media outlets. There should also be neutral coverage of the course of events.
The analysis of these Telegram channels revealed that Forbes Ukraine and the media pool associated with Tomas Fiala (Ukrayinska Pravda, Ekonomichna Pravda, NV) made the most news on balance sheet issues. (However, it should be added that NV provided an opportunity for the public sector to inform its audience about the risks of the mentioned draft laws during the broadcasts.)
To understand, there are Telegram channels of media outlets that published exclusively neutral content on the Mazepa case, such as Suspilne Novyny and Channel 24. And the number of messages, even neutral ones, was much smaller. Therefore, a reasonable question arises not only about positive content but also about the attention some media paid to Mazepa’s detention.
Speaking of politicians who influence the media sector, Petro Poroshenko personally defended Mazepa and bloggers who may be sympathetic to him. This support from Poroshenko was not only on Telegram but also on television, in particular on the Pryamyi channel. The narratives are the same: “The arbitrariness of the security forces jeopardizes the provision of assistance to Ukraine.” Poroshenko even posted this video on his personal YouTube channel.
It is worth recalling here that Ihor Mazepa eventually bought Leninska Kuznya, which was previously owned by Poroshenko. This happened after Serhiy Tihipko failed to pay for it. And the question arises: Where did Mazepa get the money from if even Tigipko doesn’t have it?
By the way, here’s what Ekonomichna Pravda wrote about Mazepa and Leninska Kuznya:
However, according to the court registry, the EP learned that Tigipko had previously made advance payments to Poroshenko and Kononenko’s funds in the amount of $7.9 million and $2.1 million, respectively. Therefore, there is a possibility that Mazepa did not pay Tigipko or paid a small amount and took over his obligations to Poroshenko and Kononenko.
A screenshot of the 2023 edition of Ekonomichna Pravda
This text alone was published a few months before the Mazepagate. But after the detention and after four bills (11134, 11135 , 11184 , 11185 ) were submitted to the Parliament, an interview with Mazepa was published on Ekonomichna Pravda: “The laws have “gray areas” for dishonest “cops”. Ihor Mazepa on pressure from law enforcement, land schemes and criticism of Zelensky”.
Screenshot from the website Ekonomichna Pravda, spring 2024
Such interviews in the leading media with similar headlines shape public opinion and can have a significant impact on the parliamentary session hall because law enforcement and their activities are a trigger.
And in the background of this interview, there is a mention of Lenin’s Forge. But there is no longer any information that “there is a possibility that Mazepa did not pay Tigipko or paid a small amount and took over his obligations to Poroshenko and Kononenko.” And there is no reference to the material that the editorial board itself prepared several months ago. Instead, there is a mention of Mazepa’s business partner, the former mayor of Irpin and a person involved in anti-corruption investigations, Volodymyr Karpliuk.
Screenshot from the certificate provided by EP for Mazepa’s interview in the spring of 2024
While the Forge is not mentioned in the context of Mazepa, the story of Karpliuk should recall the episode of how defenders of green areas in Pryirpin were beaten and their cars burned during his mayoralty. But now Karpliuk and Mazepa have simply “launched a project to build the O.Krasa cottage community in Irpin.”
A rally in front of the government because of the unpunished beating of activists in Pryirpinia when Karpliuk was mayor of Irpin. 2017
The Telegram of Ekonomichna Pravda includes the positions of the Mazepa movement 42 and Mazepa himself. However, it does not include a position in law enforcement.
A screenshot from the Telegram channel “EP. Economic Chronicles of War”
After this first wave of information campaigns by a “virtuous” business, a number of politicians and experts, 4 (!) bills appeared in the Parliament one after another in the spring, as mentioned above. One of the co-authors of several of these initiatives is the aforementioned Fris. But it is worth mentioning another MP, Oleksandr Horobets, who was recognized by Vox Ukraine as the reformer of 2023. He is supposed to represent the interests of voters in the 95th district, which includes… the already mentioned city of Irpin, rather than developers.
The civic initiative “Holka” prepared a detailed analysis of all these draft laws and appealed to the NACP.
In general, the analysis of the content of the posts confirmed in the Mazepagate case that the politicians quoted had a more positive attitude, while economists were divided into those who were complimentary and those who were neutral. A significant segment of the news space was neutral, except for the cases mentioned above.
As a rule, there is a pool of speakers who were referred to in their positive posts about Mazepa by Telegram channels: his lawyer Oleksiy Nosov, Valeriy Pekar, director of the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs Oleksandr Konotopsky, co-founder of Riviera Village Serhiy Slyusarenko, president of the International Payment Association Halyna Heilo, Vasyl Khmelnytsky, Yuriy Zozulya, and the already mentioned Mazepa’s group Manifesto 42.
By the way, Zozulya appeared on a special program on Radio NV. Also, the study found that if at least one of a series of such interviews on the NV Business website is labeled as “NV premium,” this may indicate advertising. Such cases, when the labeling is present on the website and absent in Telegram, are not isolated.
A screenshot from the NV Business website, which has the “NV premium” label, and the NV Telegram channel, which does not.
On the NV Telegram channel, the same message was viewed by more than 26,000 readers without any marking.
Given that the risks of the 4 draft laws (11134, 11135, 11184, 11185) mentioned above have become publicized in the past six months thanks to the activities of the public sector, lobbyists have obviously decided to reformat their plans. The working group came to the conclusion that it is also necessary to introduce market compensation for businesses from the budget if law enforcement officers decide to take away property valuable to the state or community through the courts.
This approach was approved by one of the working group members, Supreme Court Justice Vasyl Krat. This is how a new monster bill 12089 appeared, which incorporated the risks of the previous bills.
The new initiative was submitted by the aforementioned MPs Ihor Fris, Oleksandr Horobets, and several dozen of their colleagues on October 3. Then, “by a strange coincidence,” the second wave of the Mazepagate began.
The network of Telegram channels of the Trukha group is again working to whitewash “virtuous” businesses. In particular, on October 8, amid news of the continuation of the trial against businessman and CEO of Concorde Capital investment company Ihor Mazepa, Trukha’s Telegram channels simultaneously disseminated statements by Mazepa himself.
“Mazepa called for a public dialogue on Kostin’s actions blocking foreign investment,” “Mazepa accused the Prosecutor General of deliberately blocking investments in the Ukrainian economy,” “Prosecutor General’s actions block foreign investment in Ukraine – Mazepa.”
In addition to the Trukha group, other telegram channels also joined in spreading the statements.
The key author of the bill, MP Ihor Fris, is leading the draft through committees to be considered in the Parliament. And then the legend of the Telegram space that Mazepa is a “fighter and an honest businessman” who opposes Bankova and Tatarov… falls apart.
Deputy Head of the President’s Office, Oleh Tatarov, personally called for support for draft law 12089 at the committee. Here is the official transcript. Tatarov’s position is very simple: “the so-called activists earn… a lot of money.”
Screenshot from the transcript of the discussion at the Committee on Legal Policy
Prior to the vote, the public initiative and the Anti-Corruption Action Center informed MPs of the corruption risks and urged them not to vote. A “virtuous” business in support of 12089 “in the name of Mazepa” immediately started working on Telegram. Traditionally, UNIAN was also involved, and the main blows fell on Vitaliy Shabunin, the head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, who wrote a post on Facebook about the risks of the bill.
This second wave was dispersed by channels with millions of viewers: Insider.UA, Ukraine Online, Real War, Ukraine Now, and others. Up to 10 posts were launched in one day.
Different Telegram channels posted the same messages with the signs of a pre-paid campaign: the same text, quotes, and often the same photos
The civic initiative also informed the NACP about the corruption risks of draft law 12089, but the anti-corruption expertise did not find all the risks mentioned in the letter, although the letter was forwarded to the committee. In this case, the NACP became part of the problem, not its solution.
It is not the first time that developers have lobbied for their interests through Parliament in times of war. It is worth recalling the scandalous urban planning “reform” of 5655 by Olena Shulyak, the head of the Servant of the People party, whose risks were emphasized by both the European Parliament and the European Commission. The Royal Chatham House Institute saw in draft law 5655, promoted by former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, a threat to the emergence of construction cartels. The NACP also failed to properly fulfill its function in this case.
Mazepa’s business partner, former mayor of Irpin Karpliuk, campaigns for 5655 on UNIAN
After that, the lobbyists realized that 5655 was not going to pass and began to “reform” the legislation in a different way – they submitted several bills, and when the public sector had time to analyze them, they merged them into one (12089) to make it easier to pass a vote in Parliament. Thus, the draft law has already passed the first reading only a month and a half after its consideration, and it is being prepared for the second reading.
Given the accelerated turbo mode in the Verkhovna Rada during the war, it may appear in the parliamentary hall for consideration very soon. Another information wave in support of the finalization of draft law 12089 has already begun.
For reference, the study covered 222 Telegram channels, of which 1012 posts were included in the sample for analysis. These posts informed readers about the progress of the Ihor Mazepa case in 2024. The methodology can be found on the website of the Holka civic initiative.
“Holka” wrote letters to the media regarding their comments on January 21. We will publish them as soon as they are received.
Especially for the author’s blog by Iryna Fedoriv on Ukrayinska Pravda
