Kyrylo Kernes escapes responsibility for drug trafficking

Kyrylo Kernes, the son of former Kharkiv mayor Hennadiy Kernes, has avoided prosecution for the distribution of drugs - ecstasy and marijuana, UNN reports.

Details

During the investigation of one of the criminal cases of drug trafficking in Kharkiv, investigators of the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine found that Kyrylo Kernes had been selling ecstasy and marijuana in the Kharkiv nightclub "Laboratory" for two years, the publication "Censor.net" writes. 

In particular, the investigation revealed that the defendant, Ihor Havrylov, allegedly supplied cocaine to former high-ranking officials in Kharkiv who were involved as witnesses in the case.

Investigators found out that Ihor Havrylov, a 31-year-old resident of Kharkiv, who had been previously convicted and prosecuted under Part 3 of Article 307 of the Criminal Code (illegal production, manufacture, purchase, storage, transportation, shipment or sale of narcotic substances by an organized group in particularly large amounts), had bought 42 grams of cocaine in Odesa on April 6, 2008, with the intention of selling it.

During interrogation, Gavrilov told law enforcement officers that he had repeatedly supplied cocaine to former high-ranking officials in Kharkiv.

Another witness in the case, Oleg Medvedev, confirmed that Gavrilov had repeatedly brought cocaine to the apartment he had indicated, where Medvedev used it with others. 

In addition, during the interrogation, Medvedev said that the son of Kharkiv City Council Secretary Gennadiy Kernes, Kyrylo, "sold ecstasy pills and marijuana" in the Laboratory nightclub on Myrosnytska Street in Kharkiv in 2004-2006. 

It is interesting to note that Gavrilov was caught red-handed in Odesa trying to sell almost 20 grams of cocaine to a certain P.I. Anapolsky, allegedly the son of Ukrainian businessman Igor Anapolsky. According to media reports, he owns a large amount of real estate on Primorsky Boulevard in Odesa, as well as a number of Panamanian companies, and runs business in the United States.

In 2017, Ihor Anapolsky found himself at the epicenter of a scandal involving former US President Donald Trump.

Back then, the international non-governmental organization Global Witness, after conducting an investigation, discovered that US President Donald Trump had a real estate project in Panama that was used to launder money from Colombian drug cartels, and that its investors included people with criminal backgrounds from Latin America and the former Soviet Union. The hotel complex in question was the Trump Ocean Club. 

Alexander Ventura Nogueira, a former real estate agent who has worked with Trump since 2006, told NBC and Reuters  that among the investors in Trump's project was Ukrainian businessman Igor Anapolsky, who owns 10 Panamanian real estate companies, four of which were part of the Trump Ocean Club hotel complex. 

According to Slidstvo.Info journalists, Anapolsky has also been cooperating in the real estate sector since 2005 with the wife of former traitor MP Viktor Medvedchuk, the godmother of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Oksana Marchenko.  Investigators suggest that this is the wife of Ukrainian politician and oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk. 

The case was to be heard by a court in Odesa, as the last episode of the crime was committed there.

However, in the case of drug trafficking against Havrylov, there were only two court rulings on taking him into custody and extending his detention. There is no further mention of this case in the court register. This means that neither Gavrilov nor Kyrylo Kernes has been brought to criminal responsibility. It is possible that the case was "buried" for money by influential figures.

Political scientist Ruslan Bortnik also hinted that Kyrylo Kernes is addicted. 

"But they don't like people with this kind of behavior there (in Russia - ed.). They don't like people with addictions there," Bortnik told UNN, commenting on the fact that Russia could use Kirill Kernes to destabilize the situation in Kharkiv.

Recall 

Kyrylo Kernes is suspected of possibly assisting pro-Russian elements to destabilize the region. Russian-backed politician Yevhen Muraiev may use Kernes to advance Russian goals in Ukraine. UNN's sources reportedthat Kyrylo Kernes regularly travels to Vienna to meet with Muraiev.