Kinokit is dead: who will be responsible for cutting the parliamentary budget?

Source: Author’s Facebook page

In the fall of 2021, this unaesthetic cheap structure appeared in the middle of the parliamentary corridors, covering half of the second floor – a table with a remote control and a place for operators’ suitcases were placed in front of the women’s toilet.

At that time, there was no press on the sidelines, journalists had safely survived from here even during the Covid era. And now one company has received this preference. Not just having a camera on the sidelines, with access to deputies. But also an entire “studio”. The presenters, among whom were not only the Petrov-Ivanovs, but also Ms. Anna Gomonay, former presenters of 112, were given jackets with the company logo, everything was lavish.

The studio was set up for the needs of the Kinokit company, to which, for the first time in history, the Rada channel, which is supposed to be only a parliamentary daily, awarded a contract worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias to produce content without a competition.

In this studio, Bankova’s media killers called German Chancellor Merkel a “pig,” and the opposition “brokers,” and other obscenities. The office was delighted. This went on for 4 years.

Now Mindich, who, as it turned out, stole not only from the energy sector, but also from the budget of the Verkhovna Rada, has fled. Kinokit is dead. In the middle of the historical building stands this piece of junk. UAH 341 million was thrown out of the Verkhovna Rada budget for Kinokit. We understand that these millions were used to pay for anonymous TGs, information attacks on the opposition, and Bankova’s propaganda.

Outsiders actually managed the Rada channel and introduced political censorship there. By the way, the salary of the director of the Rada TV channel is 150 thousand UAH per month, more than that of a soldier at the front and three times higher than the salary of a people’s deputy.

Who will be responsible for all this? European Solidarity has repeatedly drawn the attention of anti-corruption bodies, the National Council for Television, and the Accounting Chamber to the activities of “Kinokot” and the misuse of funds and the blatant corruption scheme of the parliamentary budget.

And all these years, I have been especially struck by the reaction of journalists, who had no protest whatsoever about their blocked access to the backstage of the Verkhovna Rada. And they “didn’t notice” Kinokot and the political censorship of the marathon.

It seems that this is an important topic for the Freedom of Speech Committee – what happened and what is happening with the Rada channel and Kinokot… Yaroslav Yurchyshyn.

Recall that the production company “Kinokit”, which previously produced content for the parliamentary TV channel “Rada” as part of the telethon, has ceased operations . Most employees were fired, studios and rented premises were emptied, and equipment was removed in mid-January.

People’s Deputy from “European Solidarity” Iryna Gerashchenko recalls that over the past few years, the company “Kinokit”, associated with businessman Timur Mindich, has received 341 million hryvnias from the state budget.

According to her, the funds were allocated without an open competition, and cooperation with the production has raised numerous questions since 2021. Gerashchenko also spoke about political censorship and the use of budget money for information attacks on the opposition, raising questions about responsibility for the decisions made.

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