In the 1990s. Igor Yeremeev was an ordinary entrepreneur, and at the beginning of the new millennium he became not only a prominent figure in business, but also made a dizzying political career. In recent years, he was called one of the richest Ukrainians. Who knows what other heights the people's deputy of the Verkhovna Rada could have reached if his heart had not stopped in August 2015.
Biography
Igor Yeremeev was born on 1968-03-04 in the village of Ostrozhets, Rivne region of Ukraine. In 1985 he graduated from high school and entered the Institute of Water Resources Engineers in Rivne. A year later, he interrupted his studies, going to serve in the Soviet army. In 1988, he resumed his studies, while simultaneously working at the university as a laboratory assistant. In 1992, he graduated from the institute with a degree in civil engineering, and went into business the same year.
Together with his high school friend Stepan Ivakhin, Igor Yeremeev organized the Continium enterprise in his native village, specializing in sewing leather jackets. Newly made businessmen bought accessories in Odessa, leather - in Rivne, and local craftsmen were hired to sew things. The business did not bring serious profit, and then the guys decided to trade also productsnutrition. In 1993, the sale of gasoline was added to this.
Business Development
In 1995, the company's turnover increased significantly. Along with Continuum, the partners created the Western Oil Group joint venture and came up with the WOG brand, under which more than four hundred gas stations are now united. At the same time, the trading house "Western Dairy Group" was founded. Today, it includes about ten enterprises producing cheese and whole-milk products under the brands KOMO, Optimal, Dairy Rodina, Gurmanika.
In 2000, Igor Yeremeev met Petr Dyminsky, a big businessman in Western Ukraine. He helped the entrepreneur to buy a number of assets, including shares of NPK "Galicia", Lutsk cardboard-ruberoid and Razdolsky brick factories. Very soon, Continium became a prominent business group in Ukraine, with assets in the agricultural, construction and energy industries.
Politics
In 2002, Igor Yeremeev became crowded in business, and he decided to engage in political activities. He became a people's deputy of the Verkhovna Rada from the Volyn region. At the invitation of Catherine Vashchuk joined the "Agrarian Party", whose leader was Volodymyr Lytvyn. He was a member of the parliamentary committee on fuel and energy complex and nuclear safety.
In the 2006 elections, people's deputy Igor Yeremeev could not keep his seat in the Rada and refocused on business again. However, in 2012, whenViktor Yanukovych took the presidency, the entrepreneur again wanted to become a deputy. This time, Eremeev entered the Verkhovna Rada as an independent candidate. He worked in the committee on customs and tax policy, remained non-factional. During the events of 2014, he often appeared on the Maidan. After the change of power, he founded the Will of the People parliamentary group, which included twenty people, and provided active assistance to the ATO fighters.
Income
Igor Yeremeev was one of the richest people in Ukraine. According to the magazine "Correspondent", in 2008 his fortune totaled 454 million dollars. In 2014, in the ranking of the richest Ukrainians according to the investment firm Dragon Capital and Novoye Vremya magazine, the businessman took 56th position with a fortune of $133 million. In 2015, his assets were further reduced and, according to Focus magazine, were estimated at $95 million. At the same time, Forbes magazine indicated a figure of $58 million.
Death
It is interesting how the income of a politician and an entrepreneur would change further, but this will not be possible to find out. 2015 was the last year in the biography of Igor Eremeev. He was seriously interested in equestrian sports and often took horseback rides. On July 26, a tragic situation occurred while riding. The horse fell into the pit with its hoof and turned over several times along with the rider, who did not have time to free his legs from the stirrups. The man received a severe fracture of the skull, injuries to the legs and spine. In a state of coma, he was taken to the intensive care unit of the Kyiv Institute of Neurosurgery,then transferred to a Swiss clinic in Zurich for treatment. The efforts of doctors to bring the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada back to life did not work, and on 2015-13-08 he died.
Many public figures and representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, volunteers and fighters of volunteer battalions came to the funeral of Igor Yeremeyev. On August 15, the businessman and politician were buried in the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Lutsk, and then buried in his native village of Ostrozhets. Eremeev is survived by his wife Tatyana, daughter Sophia and son Roman.
