Over the past month, Irpin Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn spent more than $30,000 on a black PR campaign against Irpin City Council Secretary Anzhela Makeeva, who represents the “Servant of the People” party.
Anzhela Makeeva publicly exposed Markushyn’s salary schemes during a budget commission meeting and opposed salary increases for selected officials in the executive committee. Additionally, she voted against raising utility tariffs for Irpin residents.
In response, Markushyn used embezzled public funds to finance a discreditation campaign against Makeeva via Telegram channels and websites operated by executive committee staff using municipal resources.
The direct executor of the media attack is black PR specialist Taisia Yusupova, a former producer of the TV show Head and Tail.
It is worth noting that Markushyn is implicated in more than 12 criminal cases involving kidnapping, embezzlement of public funds, and forgery of signatures and documents.
Markushyn organized the media attack on Anzhela Makeeva from the “Servant of the People” party ahead of a city council session that is expected to discuss salary reductions for Irpin officials. In June alone, the executive committee salaries totaled 6.6 million UAH—a record amount for the year.
It was revealed that around 40 employees of the executive committee received salaries ranging from 60,000 to 150,000 UAH.
Specifically:
- Chief accountant of the Irpin City Council, Khrystyna Hluzhanets: 146,000 UAH
- Chief specialist of the organizational department, Maksym Levytskyi: 144,000 UAH
- Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn: 133,000 UAH
- Deputy chief accountant, Olena Hanzha: 127,500 UAH
- Executive committee manager, Tetyana Yaroshenko: 100,000 UAH
- Head of the land department, Anastasiia Cherkas: 98,000 UAH
- Head of the administrative services center, Yuliia Yurchenko: 89,000 UAH