Ilya Nizhnikov, the current head of the Zakarpattia Customs Service, has applied for the position of head of the State Customs Service of Ukraine. His biography is yet another example of what the “renewal” of the customs service looks like in practice.
In 2022, Nizhnikov was dismissed from his position as head of the Lviv Customs Office for being unfit for the job, but was later reinstated by the court in 2023.
Nizhnikov jointly owns a plot of land in the town of Livadia (Yalta, occupied Crimea) with Russian politicians.
Twenty percent of this plot belongs to individuals associated with the Russian government and the United Russia party:
Andriy Karazan, secretary of the United Russia branch in Yalta, who became an official of the occupation administration after the occupation;
Arsen Grodsky — member of the Yalta branch of United Russia, deputy.
Nizhnikov was also spotted driving while intoxicated in 2016. At that time, he was serving in the Security Service of Ukraine. The case was closed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
Interestingly, in 2020, Nizhnikov’s father was an advisor to the head of the Verkhovna Rada, Dmytro Razumkov, and before that, he was the deputy head of the Main Organizational Department of the Verkhovna Rada.
And, of course, the property belongs to his entourage. Relatives have real estate with dubious sources of origin:
his mother-in-law has an apartment of almost 100 square meters in the OK`LAND residential complex (Kyiv), with a market value of approximately $127,000
his brother has a cottage in the Kyiv region, with a market value of over $100,000.