Servant of the People in Kyiv

Gennady and Pinchuk's father-in-law were both officials in Dnepropetrovsk. They were fellow villagers and colleagues, and their relationship was originally quite good.

Gennady used the power of the municipal government to contract cinemas and various film businesses in the city. Almaish also used his position as deputy director of the Health and Social Welfare Committee to pave the way for his son-in-law and helped Pinchuk open a high-end restaurant in Kiev.

According to Gennady, Pinchuk was an engineer at a pipeline factory in Dnepropetrovsk. Because Gorbachev wanted to sell Soviet oil and natural gas to Europe, the pipeline project from Ukraine to EU countries became a major project in recent years.

Almaish and Pinchuk established a private pipeline company last year. Relying on their connections, they bought pipes from pipeline factories at low prices, then undertook pipeline laying projects and sold them to the government at high prices for construction. Pinchuk has made a lot of money in the past two years.

The leadership teams of Dnepropetrovsk Oblast and the city have received many benefits from Pinchuk. Gennady also learned some of this from the side and couldn't help feeling jealous.

After a few pleasantries, in order to suppress Pinchuk, Gennady smiled and introduced Poroshenko to Pinchuk.

Upon learning that the young man in front of him was the general manager of the renowned "Rosen Imaging," Pinchuk enthusiastically extended his hand: "It's an honor to meet you, Mr. Poroshenko."

Pinchuk opened a restaurant in Kiev not for the purpose of making money, but because he often had to come to Kiev to deliver materials and coordinate relationships for the pipeline laying project. In order to make it easier to arrange meals and drinks for the leaders, and to find a base for Dnepropetrovsk to reach the capital, he invested in opening this high-end French restaurant.

The success of this restaurant also allowed Pinchuk to get to know many officials in Kiev and learn many secrets and news that he could not know in Dnepropetrovsk.

According to information obtained by Pinchuk, there are ministerial-level officials behind "Rosen Images". In order to clear the resistance to the development of "Rosen Images", the Kyiv Ministry of Internal Affairs has specially carried out an operation to crack down on gangsters and eliminate evil, focusing on dealing with many land rogue gangs and video stores that interfere with the operation of "Rosen Images" and engage in improper operations of "Rosen Images".

It can be said that the reason why "Rosen Imaging" has become the only dominant company in Kyiv City and Kyiv Oblast and is making a fortune is because of the special operation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that year. This is enough to illustrate the powerful connections behind Rosen Imaging.

There was no way Pinchuk would miss the opportunity to get to know such a powerful figure with connections.

Chapter 204 I'm already a big shot

Pinchuk happened to be in the store today and saw Gennady coming in to shop. He recognized Gennady as a friend of his father-in-law and a senior official in his hometown of Dnepropetrovsk, so he came over to say hello.

At first, Pinchuk just wanted to say hello and give a bottle of wine as a favor, but he didn't expect that his intention of just saying hello would lead to an unexpected surprise.

Unexpectedly, Tymoshenko was actually friends with the owner of Rosen Images, and he could take the opportunity to get to know Rosen Images' owner, Poroshenko.

In order to deepen his relationship with Tymoshenko and Poroshenko, Pinchuk immediately and generously stated that he would pay for their meal tonight.

In the past two years, Pinchuk has earned a lot of money from working on pipeline projects. Dealing with many department leaders has made him more capable and he has grown from a small engineer into a successful businessman.

Investing in favors is also a kind of business investment. If you want to make friends with noble people, you always have to make some sacrifices in advance. Otherwise, if you have no relatives or friends, why would others take care of you?

Although Pinchuk said the meal was free, Poroshenko naturally felt embarrassed to take advantage of Pinchuk since it was their first meeting and he politely declined immediately.

However, Gennady saw what Pinchuk was thinking and wanted to do him a favor, so he helped persuade Poroshenko with great foresight and finally got him to agree.

Then, the delighted Pinchuk asked someone to fetch a few bottles of wine from a famous French winery, opened the lids himself and poured a glass for everyone.

Poroshenko is also a businessman, so he is naturally willing to make friends. After noticing Pinchuk's goodwill, he picked up his glass and praised him a few times, and then everyone started chatting about the red wine.

Everyone present was a talented person and one of the most business-minded elites in Ukraine, so they quickly shifted the topic to business. After the discussion, everyone felt that they had benefited. Pinchuk, Poroshenko and Yulia also made a verbal agreement to cooperate on suitable projects in the future.

Just as the group was talking more and more excitedly, Poroshenko suddenly stood up and said, "Haniyev is here."

Tymoshenko and her family of three also stood up hurriedly. Pinchuk was startled, knowing that an important person had come, and he also stood up and looked in the direction they were looking.

He saw a young man who was less than 30 years old walking in. The man was tall, walked with a very confident and steady posture, and had a faint smile on his face, which made people feel good about him.

"Haniyev, is there some big shot in Kiev named Haniyev...hiss...could it be him?"

Pinchuk was startled. He thought of the first secretary of Yalta City. It was said that he was promoted to deputy director of the Ukrainian Education Commission at the beginning of this year and became a deputy ministerial-level cadre in Ukraine. The Haniyev in front of him was about the same age as Haniyev and looked the same. He must be the political star.

"Both Poroshenko and Tymoshenko respect him so much. It seems that Haniyev is the protagonist of today's meal..."

Pinchuk's mind raced, and in an instant he understood everything.

At this time, Haniyev also walked up to the crowd, shook hands with several people, looked at Pinchuk and asked, "Who is this?"

Pinchuk quickly extended his hand: "My name is Viktor Pinchuk, I'm the owner of this restaurant, and I'm from the same hometown as Deputy Director Tymoshenko."

Haniyev had been to this restaurant several months ago and had of course heard about the owner, Pinchuk, and knew that he was a big oligarch after Ukraine's independence after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. However, Pinchuk was not in the restaurant at the time, and Haniyev had no chance to meet him.

I didn't expect to be invited to dinner today. Since Pinchuk and Tymoshenko are from the same hometown, I got to meet him.

After shaking hands with Pinchuk, Haniyev smiled and said, "I've heard of you, Mr. Pinchuk, before. Your natural gas pipeline business is quite successful."

Pinchuk was startled, realizing that Haniyev had probably already investigated his situation. He smiled apologetically, "My small achievements were thanks to the General Secretary's reform drive. Compared to a reform leader like you, I'm nothing."

"You recognize me?"

"How could I not recognize your name? You've been interviewed on national television many times, and we often study the General Secretary's call for small city reform to learn from Yalta."

"You're quite good, too. For a foreigner like me, your business in Kiev is booming, and you've won quite a few pipeline-laying projects. You're considered a very successful businessman in Ukraine."

"Your praise makes me feel a little uneasy. To be honest, I still hope to learn more from you and do great things, so that I can become a person who contributes to the country and the nation."

Pinchuk said cautiously.

Pinchuk's modesty and flattery made Haniyev smile slightly. Although Soviet people are rarely modest, many of them still know how to be humble and low-key when facing important figures.

For Pinchuk, if he wanted to curry favor with Haniyev, he would naturally be willing to lower his posture and flatter him.

Haniyev glanced at the people who were carefully serving and observing him, and a strange feeling arose in his heart.

Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Pinchuk are both future Ukrainian oligarchs, big figures who can stir up trouble both in Ukraine and internationally, but now they are as uneasy and nervous as elementary school students in front of him.

Haniyev didn't expect that he had unknowingly grown into a big man in the eyes of ordinary people and even the elites. With his current power and status, he could help Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Pinchuk to quickly grow into wealthy businessmen in Ukraine, allowing them to become tycoons or even oligarchs earlier than their original destiny. At the same time, he could also suppress them, making it difficult for them to run their businesses, or even destroying their families.

Haniyev breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that talents were rare, and it would be best to recruit both Tymoshenko and Pinchuk.

Wanting to recruit Pinchuk as his younger brother, Haniyev warmly invited him to sit down with him. After chatting for a while, Pinchuk had some good wine, cigarettes and delicious food brought to him, and then he took his leave on his own accord.

After all, this was the first time I met Haniyev. Although Haniyev treated me warmly and respectfully, they chose to have dinner here because they obviously had something to say. I was just an outsider, and it would be foolish for me to get involved.

After Pinchuk left, Poroshenko reported to Haniyev about the contract he and Yulia had signed to agree on the details of the cooperation. Haniyev nodded slightly after listening and said, "You can handle these things as you wish. After all, we are all family. There is no need to be too detailed in business cooperation. We should not be too calculative, right?"

Besides, this imaging business can’t continue to thrive for long. We still need to transform and do some other big businesses in the future. You can handle this imaging business on your own.”

Chapter 205: District Head? District Party Secretary

This dinner consisted of exquisite French cuisine and wine from a famous winery, which was a relatively luxurious meal even for Haniyev.

Everyone was eating and chatting, and the Tymoshenko family and Poroshenko were all flattering Haniyev, so the atmosphere was very harmonious.

About half an hour later, Haniyev had enough food and drink and took a wet towel to wipe the corners of his mouth and hands.

Gennady Poroshenko personally poured a cup of winter tea for Haniyev and sprinkled some cinnamon powder on it. "Deputy Director Haniyev, it's been raining for the past two days and the temperature has dropped a bit. Have a cup of winter tea to warm yourself up."

Haniyev took the cup with a smile, added some sugar cubes and stirred it slowly with a small spoon.

Gennady coughed lightly and said, "Dear Mr. Haniyev, our family's goal for the trip to Kiev has been basically achieved. Do you have any other instructions? If there is nothing else to arrange, we will return to Dnipropetrovsk."

Haniyev clapped his hands and said, "Don't mention it, I really need your help with something."

"Please give me your instructions. I will do whatever I can to help you."

"I'm a good friend of Burkina Faso's President Sankara. He recently got a lot of money from France and plans to buy some basic industrial equipment. I remember there are many factories in Dnepropetrovsk. You're the head of the municipal bureau, and you happen to be in charge of the material factories and plants needed for municipal projects. Perhaps you could help by selling the discarded equipment and scrapped vehicles from your pipe factory, cement factory, cable factory, and bus company in Dnepropetrovsk to Burkina Faso at a low price. These things should be enough for them after repairs, and you can also generate income for Dnepropetrovsk and help my friend Sankara. It's a win-win situation, right?"

The Soviet Union did not currently implement a market economy, so the municipal bureau was not only involved in laying pipelines for urban sewage, water supply, heat, energy, etc., but also had to have its own pipe factory for production. Other related municipal projects were also self-sufficient relying on its own factories.

It is for this reason that Pinchuk, who was an engineer at the Dnepropetrovsk Pipeline Factory, is so familiar with Gennady. His father-in-law, Almaish, also used his connections to help his son-in-law get some pipeline laying projects from Dnepropetrovsk in the early days of helping him set up a pipeline company.

Because of this, Gennady and Almaish were only friends, if only by some measure.

The request that Haniyev made now was not a piece of cake for Gennady, the deputy director of the Dnepropetrovsk Municipal Government, but it was definitely not difficult either.

Now the General Secretary requires all localities to promote in-depth economic reforms. With the emergence of a large number of private enterprises, the operating conditions of many factories under the municipal bureau have been affected. Gennady can find an excuse to report more scrapped equipment and scrapped buses, and then sell this batch of "scrapped" equipment and vehicles to Burkina Faso at a low price. This will certainly make Haniyev very satisfied.

Gennady suddenly figured out what he should do.

After whispering his plan, Haniyev nodded in satisfaction. "Although this might seem like undermining socialism, the equipment at Dnepropetrovsk's bus and municipal infrastructure production plants is indeed severely outdated and should be phased out."

"Yes."

Gennady nodded. "The buses and equipment we retired are all outdated, usually just sitting in the warehouse, rusting and moldy. Fortunately, thanks to your help, we found a buyer in Burkina Faso and revitalized the abandoned state-owned assets. I'll be doing a great job when I get back and get this done."

Many things, if told differently, take on a whole new meaning. Haniyev, quite pleased with Gennady's cleverness, nodded. "Your thinking is sound. You're a proven socialist cadre. Push this matter forward as soon as you return..."

Gennady patted his chest and agreed, then asked cautiously, "Deputy Director Haniyev, my district... district head..."

"District chief?"

Haniyev frowned and said in a deep voice: "District Party Secretary!"

Gennady was overjoyed when he heard this, and his face was filled with uncontrollable joy.

"Are you all ready?

You really gave me a huge surprise!"

Haniyev nodded. "The Central Political Department has informed the Dnepropetrovsk City and Dnepropetrovsk Oblast Party Committees and Soviets. You'll be able to become the Secretary of the Kirov District Party Committee in a few days."

Gennady stood up in surprise, shook Haniyev's hand, and said with a hint of flattery: "I thought it was very difficult to get a real job as a district head, but I didn't expect you to help me fight for the position of district party secretary. This saved me five years of personal struggle and gave me the hope of striving for deputy provincial level treatment before retirement.

You have truly given me a new political life. Thank you, dear Haniyev!"

The three members of the Tymoshenko family were all happy from the bottom of their hearts. All their current achievements were based on Gennady's position as deputy director of the municipal bureau. If Gennady could become the district party secretary or even deputy governor in the future, Yulia and Alexander were confident that they could expand the family business tenfold or even a hundredfold.

Haniyev glanced at the empty wine glass on the table. Yulia hurriedly waved for the waiter to bring another bottle of champagne. After pouring champagne for the four people, Yulia smiled sweetly and said, "Thank you for your help to our family, Deputy Director Haniyev."

Haniyev raised his glass and said, "Congratulations to Secretary Tymoshenko!"

Gennady couldn't hide his joy. After clinking glasses with Haniyev, he said, "No matter where I go, I will always be your most loyal follower, Comrade Viktor Vladimirvich Haniyev!"

At the end of the meal, Pinchuk, who had disappeared for half a day, reappeared. He enthusiastically asked Haniyev, Gennady and others about their feelings about the meal, and then asked someone to bring four gift boxes, each containing two bottles of famous red wine.

"Take this wine home and drink it. If you like it, ask someone to get more or let me know and I'll personally deliver it to your house."

Haniyev was very pleased with Pinchuk's ability to deal with people and do things, and he also knew that Pinchuk would be no ordinary person to achieve such results in the future. Having such a person as his subordinate would help him do a lot of things.

Haniyev didn't take the wine and whispered, "When you have time, please send it home for me."

Then Haniyev told Pinchuk his home address.

Pinchuk was overjoyed when he heard this, knowing that he had gained Haniyev's recognition and had currying favor with Haniyev.

As long as he doesn't make any mistakes in the future and serves attentively, he will become Haniyev's trusted subordinate sooner or later.

Chapter 206: One Wrong Step Leads to Another

After Tymoshenko and her family returned, Haniyev returned to his ordinary life.

Every day he is either sitting in class at the Education Commission or busy with the leaders of the "Ukrainian People's Movement" to plan the development and growth of the movement.

A month passed quickly, and before I knew it, it was October 20th.

About half a month ago, Alexander and Yulia came to Kiev to visit Haniyev and brought a truckload of Dnepropetrovsk specialty gifts, mostly sausages, smoked meats, and some good-quality natural gold ores, natural iron ores, and manganese ores that could be used as ornaments.

These gifts were not of high value, but they represented Tymoshenko's intentions, because in early October, the Dnepropetrovsk State and City Party Committees and Soviets finally promoted Gennady to the position of First Secretary of the Kirov District Party Committee. This not only solved his actual job at the bureau level, but also paved the way for his next step to the deputy provincial level, because the first secretary of the Dnepropetrovsk City District Party Committee would be a deputy provincial-level cadre.

Haniyev and Veslidov had helped Gennady so much that he naturally had to express his gratitude. Therefore, on Teacher's Day, he asked his son and daughter-in-law to go to Beijing to give Haniyev and Veslidov gifts to express his gratitude.

Basically, each person gets a car of local specialties, and the cash value of each car of gifts is only 20,000 to 30,000 rubles. For Haniyev and Vesridov, the value of the gift is no longer the most important thing. What is important is that their subordinates know how to be grateful and are willing to give something back when the leader needs it.

Tymoshenko's thank-you gift showed that he was a grateful person, and Vesridov was very satisfied.

Haniyev also asked in detail about his arrangements for Gennady.

Before Gennady was promoted to the first secretary of the district committee, he had already applied to scrap a large number of old equipment and vehicles from various factories and bus companies under the municipal bureau. He only had to wait for the approval of the municipal committee in half a month, and these old equipment and old buses would become worthless scrap metal.

At that time, we only need to ask First Mining to pay some money to buy it and ship it to Burkina Faso along with the mining equipment, which will help Sankara a lot.

As Burkina Faso's top advisor and Sankara's personal friend, Haniyev never forgot to help Sankara.

Rosen Images also successfully entered the city of Dnepropetrovsk at the end of September. More new films have indeed aroused the desire of Dnepropetrovsk citizens to watch DVDs and videos. Yulia and Poroshenko have both made considerable profits recently.

Haniyev had anticipated this long ago. If these people couldn't make money working in monopoly industries, they would just buy a piece of black bread and kill themselves.

A few days later, Gorbachev expressed his intention to reduce interference in the internal affairs of Eastern European countries, especially to stop the use of force.

Soon, Soviet Foreign Minister Shevardnadze publicly stated at a Soviet press conference that in accordance with the new requirements of Soviet reform, the Soviet Union recognized the right of all Eastern European countries to free choice, especially the right of other Warsaw Treaty countries to free choice.

Although these words were ambiguous, they caused an uproar both at home and abroad as soon as they appeared.

As the leader of the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet Union has always controlled the Eastern European countries in all aspects such as military force, diplomacy, and politics through the Warsaw Pact. However, as Gorbachev's relationship with the United States has become increasingly better in recent years, he is ready to carry out political system reforms in accordance with the suggestions of his senior advisers and the help of the United States. In recent years, the Soviet Union has gradually changed its previous policies that have been adhered to for decades, including exporting revolution, foreign aid, and arms race.

The Western world interpreted Shevardnadze's words as the Soviet Union's true openness and determination to implement thorough reforms. However, there were different opinions within the Soviet Union. Some people believed that granting freedom to Warsaw Pact members and Eastern European countries was the real reform towards democracy and freedom. Many Soviet Communist Party cadres at the time had some complaints about this, especially some old cadres who were very dissatisfied.

However, Gorbachev's reforms are now the general trend of the Soviet Union, and no one can stop it. Therefore, Shevardnadze's words are equivalent to releasing to the outside world that before implementing political system reform, Gorbachev is ready to overthrow the Brezhnev Doctrine that controlled the Warsaw Pact and the United States in the Cold War, and truly embrace peace.

When Haniyev learned about this, he sighed several times in his heart. He knew that if the Soviet Union abandoned Brezhnevism, it would lose its ability to control the Warsaw Pact countries.

From this time on, dramatic changes broke out in Eastern Europe. In less than a year, the communist regimes in many socialist countries such as East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania were overthrown, and the socialist camp collapsed and became the mainstream.

If it weren't for Gorbachev and his faction's policies that constantly undermined their own strength, how could the powerful Soviet Union have disintegrated within a few years, and how could the powerful socialist world have collapsed and ceased to exist?

Since Gorbachev came to power, he has been pushing for so-called "reforms." His starting point was bad, and his implementation was even worse.