By Denys Bigus

Serhiy Varlamov, the new Deputy Head of the State Reserve Agency of Ukraine, used to work for a close associate of the absconded ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and has apparently lied about it, according to shredded documents pieced together by YanukovychLeaks.org.

Last December, Varlamov was named to a key position at the strategically important agency, which is charged with procuring essential commodities like gasoline and grain to create a special reserve in case of shortages.

According to the official website of the State Reserve, Varlamov had previously worked in various private oil and gas trading companies. His last job was listed in 2010, when he was the Deputy Director on Gas Supplies of the “Naftogas Ukraina” subsidiary.

Varlamov claims that he was unemployed between 2010 and 2013. ““I wasn’t working at all. I couldn’t find any job,” he told reporters for YanukovychLeaks/OCCRP.

Yet according to documents reconstructed by the Paper Division project of YanukovychLeaks.org, Varlamov during that period led the Natural Gas Department in Serhiy Kurchenko’s group of companies. Kurchenko, who fled Ukraine with Yanukovych, is a young billionaire close to the ex-president’s family who mysteriously amassed a huge fortune in just a few years.

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