After the release of our investigation about excessive spending of the state budget finances on the new English-language digital platform The Gaze, there was a public comment from SE “International Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine” (IBMPU), which is in the line of responsibility of the Ministry of Culture. A lengthy response to our investigation was also published by Artem Bidenko, a well-known Ukrainian specialist in advertising, who calls himself an outside adviser to the IBMPU.
It was our deliberate intention not to give immediate comments to obviously manipulative statements of the IBMPU; instead, we decided to dedicate our time to a deeper analysis of the activity of this state enterprise – and we have found something really unexpected.
42-year-old Artem Bidenko (a photo from Facebook)
As it happens, a considerable part of subcontracts from the enterprises of the Ministry of Culture is given to companies and entrepreneurs with family or friendly relations to this very Artem Bidenko. In incomplete three years, these companies have received UAH 70,5 million from the Ministry including almost UAH 51 million – directly from the IBMPU.
This case of Artem Bidenko is a good illustration of the possibilities and impact that unofficial advisers or consultants of state institutions might have. It also becomes clear that sometimes important decisions are made not by the people, sitting in the state offices.
“I know a great many people, and sometimes they win competitions”
The fact that the former state secretary of the Ministry of Culture is the adviser to the IBMPU first became known from his blog, dedicated to justifying the expenses for The Gaze platform. Later, Artem Bidenko gave a lengthy interview to “Babel” in which he talked about the launch of The Gaze and named several other people, involved in this project.
NGL.media decided to verify the new information, disclosed by Bidenko, and to respond to the reproaches of the IBMPU at the same time. So, we started investigating the procurements of the IBMPU and other institutions of the Ministry of Culture and found the “fingermarks” of Artem Bidenko almost immediately.
Bidenko spent a total of over five years in the government – first in the Ministry of Information Policy, and then in the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sport. Yet the companies related to him, started winning the competitions, announced by the Ministry of Culture, after his dismissal in 2021. They still receive the state contracts even now – while Bidenko is consulting the IBMPU unofficially and free of charge.
In the conversation with NGL.media, Artem Bidenko explained that he had become the consultant for The Gaze project at the request of Yulia Ostrovska, the director of the IBMPU Yulia Ostrovska has been heading SE “International Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine” since early 2020, previously she worked as a producer of several TV and advertising production companies , who used to be his colleague at the Ministry.
“Last year, I talked to Yulia Ostrovska over coffee, and we just shared some information. She said that there was this idea, and it would be great if someone could shoulder the coordination, the organization of processes. I said that I would have a look and give some suggestions, and then they would deal with it. That’s approximately how it happened,” Artem Bidenko said. “This is not a full-time job; I don’t work as an adviser, I don’t get any money for it, I don’t spend much of my time doing it, that is, it is an hour or two a week at best… I am something like a bridge between other authorities and The Gaze in terms of introducing some narratives.”
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SE “International Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine” confirmed for NGL.media that Bidenko does not get any payments for his consultations because he is not employed by this enterprise.
One could assume that Artem Bidenko really helps develop Ukrainian international broadcasting out of pure altruism. Still, there is one catch – a considerable part of state contracts is received by the companies of his relatives and friends. According to the estimates of NGL.media, in almost three years, these companies have received over UAH 70,5 million from the Ministry of Culture, including nearly UAH 51 million – from the IBMPU, consulted by Bidenko.
For instance, the Light Communication company, founded by Bidenko’s father-in-law, 68-year-old Vitalii Shapovalenko, signed the agreements with the enterprises of the Ministry of Culture for UAH 47,7 million in the last two years. The first contract of the Light Communication was a series of documentaries, dedicated to the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Independence Day in 2021. Bidenko didn’t work in the Ministry anymore at the time.
The story of shooting this series turned out to be somewhat shady. Two years ago, the analysts from Dozorro tried to find out what exactly the state paid UAH 9,8 million for, and where this series could finally be watched. However, the journalists of Dozorro didn’t get any comprehensive answers from the Ministry of Culture; this time the NGL.media journalists have not got any either.
The clips, produced by the Light Communication, can be watched on its YouTube channel. These are 26 1.5–2.5-minute-long episodes about different regions of Ukraine. Some clips feature famous Ukrainians, like Serhii Zhadan, a writer, Valerii Kharchyshyn, a musician, and others. However, each of these clips was viewed about a hundred times on average.
In addition to the clips, the Light Communication also shot a 28-minute-long documentary, but it is not freely available anywhere – it is not even present in the corporate YouTube channel of the Light Communication. However, NGL.media received a copy of this documentary from the Ministry of Culture in response to its official inquiry, so we succeeded in confirming that the documentary had actually been made.
68-year-old Vitalii Shapovalenko is Artem Bidenko’s father-in-law
But let’s come back to the co-owner of the Light Communication – Artem Bidenko’s father-in-law. 68-year-old Vitalii Shapovalenko had no experience in TV or cinema prior to 2019. He was involved in designing and maintaining residential multi-storey houses, worked as the Deputy Minister in Housing and Utilities Infrastructure in the government, headed by Mykola Azarov, and was a consultant for GIZ, the German agency, dealing with the issues of development and energy efficiency. Shapovalenko hasn’t left his main area of activity even now and still works as a project manager for the engineering company, iC consulenten Ukraine.
Yet the lack of experience didn’t keep Vitalii Shapovalenko and Yevhen Vysokovskyi, his business partner, from arranging large-scale advertising campaigns and shooting clips first for the state-run Oshchadbank, then for the Kyiv City State Administration where his son-in-law used to work, and then for the Ministry of Youth and Sport in a few recent years. Since August 2021, the Light Communication company has been receiving contracts solely from the IBMPU – a state enterprise, consulted by Artem Bidenko.
In July 2023, the Light Communication company came onto a new level. The company received the contract from the IBMPU for three series at once – two documentary series “Homo amans” and “Sensitive Content”, and one feature series “One and a Half Percent”. The Light Communication company is to complete all three series by the end of 2023. The IBMPU selected these projects at the art contest. By the way, the very principle of money distribution via art contests, run by the IBMPU, is often criticised by experts for its non-transparency.
“Indeed, this will be our first attempt to produce a feature series. But we have invited a very experienced team of specialists to prepare and produce this series. The preparation for shooting is under way,” Yevhen Vysokovskyi from the Light Communication told NGL.media.
We contacted Vitalii Shapovalenko to find out how he manages to combine such different areas of activity and whether Artem Bidenko, his son-in-law, urged him to start working in the creative sphere. Yet, on hearing our question, Shapovalenko refused to communicate at all.
As for Artem Bidenko, he told NGL.media that he doesn’t see any problem with his father-in-law’s having different interests and shooting the advertisements and series for the Ministry of Culture.
“Being a co-owner, he doesn’t run the production on his own, this is some business of his, the stories I don’t interfere with… You should understand that the market is small, and everybody knows each other, I know a great many people; from time to time, these people win competitions, and from time to time, these people can cross paths with my relatives. It doesn’t mean that I can call Tkachenko Oleksandr Tkachenko – the Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine from June 2020 to August 2023) or somebody else, who makes decisions, and say, “Please, let this company win,” Artem Bidenko explained.
However, Yevhen Vysokovskyi, the other co-owner of the Light Communication, is not a stranger to Bidenko either. There was a time when Bidenko had joint business with Yevhen’s wife, Elina Vysokovska, – the Prana advertising agency. This business is still active, but Bidenko disaffiliated himself from its owners, leaving the ownership to Elina Vysokovska and Andrii Rudenko, his friend.
Mummy, I am in a helmet
During a conversation with the NGL.media journalist, which lasted almost an hour, Artem Bidenko emphasized several times that he has different kinds of activity and would not physically have any time to control the procurements of the IBMPU. He is involved in many various activities indeed – for instance, in addition to his advertising business and work in the government, in 2021, Bidenko provided his services as a sole entrepreneur, settling the guests of the constitutive summit of the Crimea Platform in hotels.
But we were intrigued by one particular kind of Bidenko’s activity. As it happens, he is a co-founder of a non-governmental organization, “Institute of Information Security”, which develops information campaigns, does promotion projects, and marketing. Among other activity directions, this organization conducts neuromarketing research Neuromarketing research is based on the reactions in the human brain, registered and measured using special scanner helmets .
EEG-helmet, used for neuromarketing research
This research envisages the use of special EEG-helmets, which detect the reaction of the recipient’s brain to a specific product (logotype, advertisement, website, etc.). Helmets are also used in sociology, although the Ukrainian market is rather narrow, represented by only a few companies. Before the full-scale war, the complete cycle of such research using the EEG scanner and analysis of the obtained data cost about USD 4,000, but it can cost more as it all depends on the number of recipients, as the representatives of the companies, conducting such research, told NGL.media.
The direction of neuromarketing research in the Institute of Information Security is headed by Andrii Rudenko – a close friend and business partner of Bidenko. Before 2018, he was a co-owner of “Computer Information Technologies” LLC (CIT), which received two contracts from the IBMPU to develop The Gaze platform. One of these contracts was also related to the research using EEG helmets.
Andrii Rudenko, a close friend and business partner of Artem Bidenko
On September 29, 2022, the IBMPU signed an agreement with the CIT for the amount of UAH 12,56 million but in a matter of a few hours the agreement cost was reduced by UAH 2,5 million. On the same day, the contractor announced the completion of the project. As early as the following day, on December 30, the CIT received a little over UAH 10 million.
Oleksandr Yefremov, the head of the CIT, explains this swift completion of the task by the fact that the company started developing The Gaze platform prior to the competition announcement “at their own risk and peril”.
“It happens quite often that we start working soon after the realization that we are the only participant in the competition, and it is highly likely that the agreement with us will be signed. There are some situations when the agreement is not signed, but we have to take this risk. Otherwise, some projects may not be started and completed,” Yefremov explained in the conversation with NGL.media.
As for the use of the EEG helmet in this project, it was Artem Bidenko who personally insisted on it since he believes this research works better than classic focus groups. However, due to the lack of financing, the requirement to conduct neuromarketing research was removed from the agreement, thus reducing the cost of the work from UAH 12,5 million to 10 million.
“Yes, it was my initiative, I have been recommending that the state authorities, enterprises, and advertising agencies should incorporate this research. Yet, in case of the CIT, these studies were not included in the final agreement,” Bidenko explained.
Investigation
However, Oleksandr Yefremov from the CIT claims that his company conducted the neuromarketing research anyway but was not paid for it.
“At first, the client intended to promote the portal using the results of neuroresearch, but they did not allocate any finances for this purpose and an additional agreement was signed to reduce the volume and cost of work. Thus, the neuroresearch, related to the promotion, was not paid for,” Yefremov said.
One of such EEG-helmets, model Emotiv Epoc X (the same as the one, used by the CIT for The Gaze) belongs to Artem Bidenko, and, according to him, he lends it from time to time. One of Bidenko’s clients turned out to be Roman Peresunko – an entrepreneur who received a contract from the IBMPU for the amount of UAH 2,2 million to promote The Gaze in Great Britain this July. It is specified in the documents, submitted by Peresunko for the competition, that he rented the helmet from Bidenko for five months.
Roman Peresunko received UAH 2,2 million for promoting The Gaze platform in Great Britain
“Using the EEG-helmet, the vendor shall conduct the research of natural reactions of the relevant parts of the brain in controlled groups of audience (10–15 people) to specific parts of creative marketing ideas with the purpose of improving the efficiency of advertising materials. Following the findings of the research, a report with the recommendations regarding the increase in the efficiency of marketing materials shall be submitted,” reads the agreement, signed with Peresunko.
It seems that Roman Peresunko was to take the EEG-scanner to the target audience in Great Britain to conduct the neuroresearch there. In October, Peresunko already received full payment for the completed work, so we asked him about the results of the surveys in Great Britain. Unfortunately, neither Peresunko, nor Bidenko could confirm that this research had been conducted.
“It is possible that some foreigners were his subcontractors, because we were interested in foreigners. That is, he found somebody here, but someone could have done the research for him there as well,” Bidenko assumed.
He also failed to recollect how often he cooperated with Roman Peresunko and whether he lent Roman his EEG-helmet for other projects, explaining it by the fact that as a sole entrepreneur, he has various kinds of activity and does not remember everything.
“It is not my main activity to lend scanners after all. I have lots of various things. To tell you a secret, I even lease out premises and pay all the taxes,” Bidenko boasted in the conversation with NGL.media. In the public domain, we actually found a reference to a house in the Carpathians, which Bidenko came to own last year. Sheshory Chalet is available for rent at the price of UAH 5,000 a day.
NGL.media talked to the owners of two Ukrainian companies, involved in neuromarketing research using EEG-scanners. Neither of them has ever heard about Roman Peresunko or Artem Bidenko. They say that the helmet, owned by Bidenko, provides minimal information, so more complicated scanners are used to obtain more comprehensive data. Besides, high quality analysis of the data from this scanner requires some knowledge and qualifications: the mere availability of this helmet is not enough.
“This is a science-intensive product, a science-intensive service which requires relevant specialization, knowledge, and skills. For instance, we use the automated interpretation of the data only in part, because it takes a specialist to analyse them more deeply. Some studies demonstrate that the automation of interpreting such complicated results, registered in the activity of the brain and other behavioural markers, decreases the interpretation accuracy twice. It is just like buying a top-of-the-line notebook and using it as a typewriter,” Viktor Komarenko, the co-owner of the centre of neuromarketing research, Beehiveor, explained to NGL.media.
Roman Peresunko has some experience in marketing, but it is not clear whether he has the relevant qualifications to conduct neuromarketing research. It is known from open sources that previously Peresunko headed the “Khata na Tata” (House for Dad) reality show on STB TV channel, and has “Media Hub” company, working with marketing and PR activities, in joint ownership with his relatives.
The story with the use of the EEG-helmet is not the only contradictory moment in the cooperation of the IBMPU and Roman Peresunko. As per Myroslav Simka, the head of the NGO “The Centre for Public Monitoring and Research”, there were many violations in the competition, won by Peresunko, and it had to be completely cancelled. But the IBMPU didn’t do it, and it is too late now since Peresunko has already received his money.
“This participant neither submitted all the certificates nor confirmed all the information, required by the client. Yet the client wrote their requirements with the violation of the legislation: there was a demand to submit unnecessary certificates. So, the client had to cancel this procurement,” Myroslav Simka explained.
Thus, it seems like not all the pieces of advice, given by Artem Bidenko to the state enterprise of the Ministry of Culture, are beneficial for the Ministry. A tangible result in the form of rather a nice profit is received by the relatives and friends of Bidenko who still works with the Ministry of Culture rather closely, albeit unofficially. The status of the unofficial adviser gives him serious leverage in the IBMPU and The Gaze project, in particular, and there is no responsibility involved, since he does not work for the state officially.