The Cabinet of Ministers has decided to suspend the Yugozapadnaya Railway’s head Oleksii Kryvopyshyn from office. Prime Minister Arsenii Yatsenyuk announced this at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reports.
Yatsenyuk also said that the government intended to ask law enforcement agencies to open criminal proceedings against Kryvopyshyn.
"According to media reports, the modest management of the Yugozapadnaya Railway – its head Kryvopyshyn – used state resources to build the Olympic Village sports complex. Firstly, I ask law enforcement agencies to open criminal proceedings urgently. Secondly, members of the government have held consultations and immediately suspended the head of the Yugozapadnaya Railway from office," said the prime minister.
As reported, Kryvopyshyn has headed the largest railway in Ukraine since 2002. The administrative center of the Yugozapadnaya Railway is located in Kiev.
According to Forbes, Kryvopyshyn is also participating in the competition for the post of general director of the State Railway Administration (Ukrzaliznytsia), which the Ministry of Infrastructure is organizing jointly with experts from international consulting firms. The publication claims that Kryvopyshyn made the longlist of 11 candidates for the post. However, he is not among the three finalists.
As the Insider publication reported, members of Kryvopyshyn’s inner circle earn a lot of money. For example, people close to him own the majority of the retail outlets at the Kiev railway station. In addition, according to the publication, the Yugozapadnaya Railway has begun leasing dining cars to the Interveb private company, which has close links to Kryvopyshyn.
Kryvopyshyn and his wife also founded a small agricultural business. An employee of the Yugozapadnaya Railway said on condition of anonymity that a farm near the village of Vishenka, outside Kiev, was built by workers from the Kozyatin and Fastov construction division of the railway.
