“VR expert Yana Salmina has been receiving funds from the Russian Federation for years, her father works for the Russian military industry.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: “Scheme” investigation
Literally: “No law in Ukraine is adopted without them – the main scientific consultants of the Verkhovna Rada…
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Yana Salmina, a lawyer who, prior to taking this position, systematically received Russian state funds for the protection of the rights of Russians in Ukraine through public organizations, one of which she still manages, is among the narrow circle of several dozen chief consultants whose expertise the parliament relies on.
Details: Salmina’s activities became known thanks to a leak from Pravfond, a Russian state organization created by Vladimir Putin’s decree, which has been providing grants for the “protection of compatriots abroad” since 2012 and has been under EU sanctions since 2023.
Since 2019, Salmina has held the position of chief scientific expert consultant of the Council.
GNEU is part of the Council’s apparatus and evaluates draft laws, in particular, according to their consequences and compliance with the Constitution.
Since 2019, according to journalists’ calculations, she has written by herself and in co-authorship more than 250 conclusions to draft laws, which were considered in 17 committees of the Verkhovna Rada. Most of them are related to issues of agrarian and land policy.
At least three times since the full-scale invasion, she has also provided her expertise to the Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence.
Before entering the apparatus of the Council, Salmina attracted money from the Kremlin to spread narratives about the need to “protect Russian speakers” in Ukraine.
She has been doing this since at least 2012 and together with people who have already been charged with treason and fled Ukraine.
Thus, Salmina registered the NGO “Minority Rights Center” in Kyiv.
In November 2016, she organized a round table in Kyiv to “protect the rights of minorities”, mainly Russian-speaking minorities.
Thanks to the leak of documents, it turned out that the event was financed by Russia. The money was allocated by Pravfond, a Russian state structure founded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and Rossotrudnichestvo.
The Russian-funded study was supposed to counteract “xenophobia and discrimination against the Russian-speaking minority in Ukraine,” as well as the “forced Ukrainization” of society.
Salmina personally organized a public event in the center of Kyiv – in the press center of the Ukrinform information agency.
A few weeks before the event itself, the Ukrainian bank blocked the account to which the Russian money for the event was received.
In the leak of Salmina’s correspondence, an email was found in which she is outraged that the “funding for the round table” was “brazenly taken” from her by the bank “on absolutely illegal grounds.”
The event eventually took place. The topic of protection of the rights of national minorities in Ukraine was revealed mostly on the examples of Hungarian and Russian.
She also worked for years at NGO of pro-Russian politician Vadym Kolesnichenko – “Russian-speaking Ukraine”.
Fnormally, Salmina did not hold a management position there, but she attracted funds from Moscow.
“Russian-speaking Ukraine” fromfounded in 2009 focused on “protecting the rights of the Russian minority, developing the Orthodox Church, fighting xenophobia and giving the Russian language state status.”
Salmina was one of the deputies’ assistants. According to the documents, she was a lawyer and project manager there.
It follows from the leaked data that she was responsible for attracting funding from Pravfond at Russian-speaking Ukraine: she prepared grant applications and implemented approved projects.
And also – on behalf of “Russian-speaking Ukraine” she was a member of at least four public councils. In particular, at the Ministry of Defense in 2014.
In 2014, Kolesnichenko fled to Crimea. After his escape, Salmina’s husband, Serhii Shostak, became the head of “Russian-speaking Ukraine” in 2015.
However, Kolesnichenko continued to be the face of the organization. Salmina worked continuously in this NGO for at least two more years.
From 2012 to 2016, according to the grant applications that journalists found in the leak, at least 20 million rubles could go to the organization’s accounts (almost half a million dollars) from Pravfond.
In 2016, “Rossotrudnichestvo” – a federal agency under the Russian government that is engaged in spreading “Russian world” abroad – even came forward to support the financing of “Russian-speaking Ukraine”.
After the beginning of Russian aggression in 2014, Salmina was able to visit Russia at least three times. In particular, to see the curators.
On August 24, 2016, in one of her letters to Pravfond on behalf of Russian-speaking Ukraine, Salmina agreed on a visit to Moscow.
The goal is a personal meeting with the then top management of “Pravfond”: the head of the organization Igor Panevkin and his advisor Viacheslav Yelagin.
A similar meeting could take place on November 8, 2016.
According to the publication’s sources, Salmina went to Russia again in October 2018. Together with her husband, they crossed the border with the Russian Federation by land transport in the Sumy region.
According to the leaked data, tranches from “Pravfond” to “Russian-speaking Ukraine” were received until the end of 2016. And then the organization’s website stopped working.
Journalists called Salmini, however, after hearing questions about funds from the Russian “Pravfond” for the implementation of projects in Ukraine, she hung up and did not answer subsequent attempts to communicate with her.
The mass media also sent requests for Shostak’s comment.
Journalists also came across another communication from a state employee of the BP apparatus with the Russian Federation.
Yes, the only real estate that Salmina indicates in the declaration (from 2022) is an unfinished property near Kyiv.
However, she goes to work from another address – in the capital itself.
Salmina’s postal address in Kyiv was found in Pravfond documents dated 2015.
After observing the house on Chavdar Street in Kyiv for several days, the journalists found out that the VR consultant still lives there.
According to the data of the real estate register, Oleg Salmin, the father of a civil servant, a citizen of Russia and an employee of the Russian military-industrial complex, owns the ownership of this apartment since 2014.
Over the past ten years, Salmina’s father received almost 14 million rubles (about $200,000) as a salary from the Air Force Institute of the Ministry of Defense of Russia and a number of state-owned military-industrial enterprises of the country.
Most of these institutions belong to the Russian state corporation Rostec and are under international sanctions.
Journalists called Oleg Salmin and asked whether he keeps in touch with his daughter, who lives in Ukraine, to which he indignantly replied: “I don’t understand” and hung up.
He was sent a trans many questions, but as of the time of publication they have not been answered.
Does Salmina’s management know about her connections with Russia? Journalists asked Svetlana Tikhonyuk, head of GNEU, about this by phone.
Tikhonyuk’s direct speech: “You’ve just invaded my space and I’m doing the work I’m doing. I can’t even fathom what you just told me. When you get a chance, please make an appointment and then I can answer you.”
After that, Tikhonyuk hung up. Journalists sent her questions in writing.
The journalists set out the facts about Salmina separately established in the investigation in a letter addressed to the chief of staff of the Verkhovna Rada Vyacheslav Shtuchny.
There they replied that they had appointed an official check on Salmina and addressed the results of the journalists’ work to the NAKC and the SBU – with a request for additional checks.
Based on the results of the inspections, the Verkhovna Rada promises to take measures, which will be reported further.