Heads do not turn when Ukrainian lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko enters Kyiv’s Closer underground club on a Saturday night: Nobody is surprised, as he is a frequent visitor to local raves.
A long-time fan of electronic music, Leshchenko, 38, didn’t quit partying after he was elected to the Ukrainian parliament in 2014. When he arrives for an interview with the Kyiv Post on Sept. 17, a fresh club entrance stamp is on his arm.
“I went there (to the Arma party in Closer on Sept. 15-16) at night, was there from 4 till 8 a.m., went home to sleep, then had a reception with citizens at Teremky (a residential area in Kyiv) and a meeting with a British lord,” Leshchenko says.
And his love of rave culture is not the only thing that marks him out from the majority of lawmakers in Ukraine’s 423-member parliament.
Leshchenko wears street clothes by Ukrainian brands, rides the subway, and spends his vacations at art festivals.
Before being elected to the Ukrainian parliament in 2014 as a member of the 127-seat Bloc of Petro Poroshenko, Leshchenko was a journalist famous for his investigations into corruption.
The lawmaker shifted to politics after the Euromaidan Revolution that forced former President Viktor Yanukovych from power in 2014. After entering parliament, Leshchenko became a member of Verkhovna Rada’s anti-corruption committee.
As a lawmaker, he supports reforms that advance Ukraine’s democracy and opposes all forms of discrimination.
For instance, in 2015, Leshchenko along with fellow lawmaker Svitlana Zalishchuk, were the first two members of parliament to join the Equality March, a rally for the rights of LGBT people in Ukraine.
“This is a question of equality and human rights, and there can be no alternative opinion here,” Leshchenko says.
Raver
Leshchenko’s love for electronic music dates back to 2003, when he was a journalist. He says that he wrote his articles while listening to electronic music, as it helped him to concentrate on one thing and block out distracting noises.
The working habit soon became a hobby. He started subscribing to a German magazine called Groove, which focuses on the electronic music scene, as well as visiting Kyiv raves.
Leshchenko says that he loves the genre for its pleasant energy and because people who listen to it usually share his values and engage in self-development.
“There is no aggression (at raves), there are a lot of modern creative people who understand how the world is set up and who are interested in high technologies and art,” he says.
The lawmaker parties in Kyiv at least once a month to listen to the artists he loves, or joins in an event put on by organizers whose taste he trusts, like Rhythm Büro.
He says that raves never interfere with his job, as they usually take place on Saturdays, and his working weeks start on a Monday.
“I never go to the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) right from Closer,” Leshchenko laughs.
Apart from that, the lawmaker has a routine that helps him stay fresh after parties: He goes to bed at around 12 a.m. for a short sleep, wakes up around 4 a.m. and then goes to a rave.
He says that sleeping for even a few hours is always helpful.
“Failures, of course, happen sometimes. There have been a couple of times when I missed parties because I couldn’t get up,” he says.
As he is a public figure, many ravers recognize Leshchenko, and their reaction is very positive, he says.
“Many people say that they are very glad that there’s a lawmaker, that he is a normal person, and we dance together on the fuggy third floor of Closer.”
Ukrainian lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko talks to the Kyiv Post at the Harms cafe in Kyiv on Sept. 17. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
Creative fields
When he’s not at the Verkhovna Rada and doesn’t have to follow a dress code, Leshchenko wears street clothes, many of which are made by Ukrainian producers.
His favorite brands include Syndicate, famous for its comfortable apparel with artsy prints, and Hard, known for its minimalistic clothing with inscriptions.
But even in parliament Leshchenko can be seen wearing colorful socks by Sammy Icon.
He says that his wife, Anastasia Topolska, an electronic music artist known as Dj Nastia, increased his interest in made-in-Ukraine clothes, as she has plenty of them herself.
“I saw that these (clothes) were of a very high quality, and were no worse than the ones made by international producers.”
He says that he started to meet the brand designers and founders personally to find out more about the industry.
Leshchenko believes Ukraine has a lot of potential in the clothing industry. But while many local designers have already achieved international acclaim, and niche brands are successfully selling streetwear, the mass apparel segment remains underdeveloped. That will change, however, Leshchenko says.
He also says that as a lawmaker he tries to keep up with the latest business innovations in the country, as they could potentially boost the economy and promote Ukraine internationally.
For those reasons, Leshchenko also communicates with people involved in technology, the restaurant business, and book publishing, as well as other progressive fields.
“It’s an important part of my research and self-identification,” he says.
Burning Man
Leshchenko’s summer vacation this year was also far from one typical for a Ukrainian lawmaker – including neither fancy hotels nor sun-drenched beaches.
The lawmaker joined his wife for her DJ performances in Odesa, Portugal and the United States.
He says that the trips’ costs were covered by his savings and partially covered by Topolska’s rider. Apart from working at parliament, Leshchenko hosts a blog on the national TV channel 24, and writes opinion pieces for the current affairs magazine Novoye Vremya.
In the United States, the family visited three national parks in California and attended one of the most unusual art festivals in the world, Burning Man.
Burning Man features a temporary city in the middle of the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, where people live in campsites, and don’t use money, creating products and providing services instead. Apart from that, the attendees of Burning Man express themselves by presenting huge art installations and wearing spectacular costumes. The festival also features lots of electronic music.
Leshchenko was the first Ukrainian lawmaker to attend Burning Man. Pictures of him wearing feathered hats, wigs and shiny costumes went viral on the Internet and brought him thousands of new subscribers on Instagram.
However, he says that not everything he does is intended to change the image of a Ukrainian lawmaker.
“I didn’t go to Burning Man to consciously break stereotypes. I mean, I, of course, knew that it would be cool and I would be able to brag about it,” he jokes.
But there are also actions that Leshchenko does take on purpose – like bringing members of Ukraine’s artistic community to the Rada for excursions and briefings.
“(This is) so that they can see how pathetic this is, how unenlightened and corrupt these people are,” Leshchenko says.
Bouncing between the halls of the Verkhovna Rada and the dancefloors of the capital’s clubland, Leshchenko brings together two wildly differing worlds, helping them get to know each other.
“I want more people from the one reality to look at the other,” he says.
