Dnipro as a testing ground: how Vyacheslav Mishalov built a controlled system of access to budget flows

13 грудня 2025 р., 23:29

Микола Богданович   509   0  

Dnipro as a testing ground: how Vyacheslav Mishalov built a controlled system of access to budget flows

Dnipro became an ideal environment for building Vyacheslav Mishalov’s system not by chance, but due to a combination of money, weak oversight, and a concentration of power.

It is one of the country’s wealthiest cities, with extremely complex infrastructure, thousands of contracts, constant repairs and modernization projects, and streams of budget funds that are difficult to track even formally. After obtaining the position of city council secretary, Mishalov effectively entered the center of all key decision-making.

This was not a ceremonial role, but control over commissions, departments, the agenda, and the distribution of resources. In such a configuration, the city ceases to be a market and turns into a closed system where the rules are written by those who control access. Competition in Dnipro disappeared not because of weak business, but due to administrative barriers.

“Unwanted” players simply did not reach tenders or lost them in advance, while “insiders” received stable access to contracts. This is how a managed market was formed, where economic outcomes were derivative of political loyalty. It was in Dnipro that this model was refined to the point of automatism. The city became a testing ground where schemes were not just applied, but brought to a systemic level.

That is why Mishalov’s influence did not disappear with his departure from office: he left behind a structure embedded so deeply in the city’s governance that dismantling it would mean breaking the entire configuration of local power.