From raiding to extortion: a chronicle of the shadow schemes of Zaporizhzhia “overseer” Vemir Davityan

From raiding to extortion: a chronicle of the shadow schemes of Zaporizhzhia “overseer” Vemir Davityan

Vemir Davityan has once again found himself at the center of a story about informal influence over Zaporizhzhia. He has been described as Petrovskiy’s man and the “overseer” from Bankova, and has been linked to David Arakhamia and attempts to influence personnel decisions and regional tenders.

For years, a machine has been operating around his name to clean up inconvenient information online — from publications about his connections and influence to materials concerning his business activities and alleged schemes.

We are publishing this material to remind readers how Vemir Davityan’s system of influence in Zaporizhzhia was built, who stood behind him, and how a private businessman gained access to decisions that formally fall within the competence of government authorities.

Any Kryvyi Rih president would die of shame upon learning that Vemir Davityan, a clown, had become the Presidential Office’s “overseer” of Zaporizhzhia. Either Kiril Timoshenko is a complete idiot, or Ermak has lost touch with reality and is putting cocks in charge of watching over pheasants.

Nevertheless, the fact remains: Vemir Davityan is trying to run Zaporizhzhia and collect tribute. There is less and less money, Davityan is being kicked around and pressured, but Vemir Surenovich holds on, reporting that there is no money, but telling everyone to hang in there. Almost everyone sees the complete mess, but no one replaces Vemir Davityan.

Vemir Davityan is a frequent visitor to the President’s Office. He is the vice president of the “Solidarity” charitable foundation, owned by Dnipro businessman Aleksandr Petrovskiy, known by the nickname “Narik.” He has also been spotted alongside David Arakhamia, head of the Servants of the People parliamentary faction. Vemir Surenovich Davityan is considered the shadow curator (“overseer”) of the Zaporizhzhia region on behalf of Bankova. Journalist Mikhail Tkach reported this on Facebook, according to UkrRudProm.

“About a year ago, we began noticing that an unknown person was visiting the President’s Office, and judging by the amount of security and the armored Mercedes, he was clearly an important figure. Recently, we noticed this person’s cars next to the car of the head of the presidential Servants of the People faction, David Arakhamia, in a restaurant parking lot. The security noticed us as well. That is why Arakhamia’s car was taken from the restaurant parking lot by a parliamentary aide,” Tkach said.

He added that journalists also witnessed Arakhamia leaving Bankova accompanied by the same individual. The man’s security guard opened the door for the parliament’s top “servant,” and he got into the Mercedes.

“This figure and owner of the Mercedes turned out to be the non-public businessman Vemir Davityan. Davityan is a businessman with a broad range of interests, from quarries to legal services,” Tkach wrote.

Davityan told media representatives that he had gone to the President’s Office to pick up Arakhamia for dinner. On other occasions, he said, he simply went there for public reception hours, although he could not remember whom he had gone to see. Davityan also described himself as a private individual and said that no one had the right to monitor him.

“Yet in just the past two weeks, Mr. Davityan has visited Bankova three times. I am not sure that some ministers have had the opportunity to visit the country’s main office that many times,” Tkach said.

According to him, Davityan is the President’s Office’s curator of the Zaporizhzhia region and Arakhamia’s right-hand man on a wide range of issues. Arakhamia denied the connection, confirming only that they were friends.

It seems that everyone already knows that after Zelenskiy and his “servants” came to power in Ukraine, the so-called “institution of overseers” emerged. The disgrace of this phenomenon is further aggravated by the people whom the President’s Office appoints as “overseers” of particular sectors or regions.

Offended Vemir Davityan crawling back to Knyazi?

And the farther from the capital, the worse it gets. Although in the case of the “servants,” it is difficult even to find a suitable description, given how appalling the caliber of some party members is. But let us move on to a specific “overseer” and a specific region. This is about Zaporizhzhia and the man who presents himself there as Zelenskiy’s “overseer.”

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How much he actually is one is somewhat debatable, because in the “servants’” system of government, even with the institution of “overseers” who supposedly replace the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, there is no order — just as there is no order anywhere else. But that is beside the point. Whether he is an official “overseer” or merely presents himself as one, the main question is whether the majority of the region’s key figures perceive him in that capacity.

Vemir Surenovich Davityan first made a name for himself as an “overseer” about a year ago, when he began presenting himself as such to local “servants” as well as government officials and business representatives. In conversations with them, he insisted that all “issues” should now be “resolved” strictly through him. He also repeatedly emphasized that he was a friend of none other than David Arakhamia, who heads the Servants of the People faction in Parliament.

Moreover, Davityan claimed that he had connections within the President’s Office at the level of Kiril Timoshenko, the OP official responsible for regional policy. At the same time, Davityan persistently advised businessmen who were allowed to win tenders to “kick back” 20–30% of the tender amount to him. This applied not only to current and future tenders, but also to tenders they had already won.

Judging by the scale of theft cited at the time by Deputy Prime Minister Uruskiy, Davityan was not demanding anything extraordinary — let us recall that, according to Oleg Uruskiy, a deputy prime minister in Shmyhal’s government, exactly half of the budget funds allocated to “Big Construction” were being stolen. So there was certainly enough for the tender winners to share; they should not complain.

But the real question is: who is Vemir Surenovich Davityan to openly throw his weight around with the region’s elites? As it turned out, he is just as much a nobody as most of the “servants.” Of course, unlike most deputies and ministers, he owns several companies and is formally a businessman.

All of these companies operate in a wide variety of fields: extraction of sand, gravel, and clay; car rental; property management; security services; and the production of tobacco for hookahs. As a sole proprietor, Vemir Surenovich provides legal services.

Backside-shaking clown Davityan Vemir Surenovich

But what immediately stands out is that these are businesses from completely different sectors. Moreover, it is impossible to find any advertising, websites, or social media pages for these companies. So how do they actually conduct business? There is another factor that brings them all together: