{"id":541,"date":"2024-07-29T14:46:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-29T11:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/osintglobal.com\/?p=541"},"modified":"2024-10-18T13:46:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T10:46:59","slug":"prybutkovyy-lis-yak-i-navishcho-viktor-smal-prominiav-sviy-biznes-na-posadu-holovy-derzhlisahenstva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/osintglobal.com\/en\/prybutkovyy-lis-yak-i-navishcho-viktor-smal-prominiav-sviy-biznes-na-posadu-holovy-derzhlisahenstva\/","title":{"rendered":"Profitable forest. How and why Viktor Smal traded his business for the post of head of the State Forestry Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How Viktor Smal joined the civil service to spend his fortune<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life of Viktor and Yevheniia Smal during the war: meager salary, enormous expenses<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What property of his wife in the occupied Crimea Viktor Smal hides from the NACP<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Property owned by the head of the State Forestry Agency Viktor Smal and his wife Yevhenia Smal<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fictitious LLC \u201cTrading and Delivery\u201d associated with Yuriy Bolokhovets earns hundreds of millions of hryvnias on wood supplies to the military<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electronic timber accounting. How Viktor Smal preserves corruption opportunities for himself<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear friends of Viktor Smal. Where and to whom does the money of the State Agency of Forest Resources go?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viktor Smal’s foreign trips during the war<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viktor Smal had several business projects of his own that brought him good profits. But he decided to trade everything for the position of head of the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine with a salary of less than a thousand dollars a month, replacing Yuriy Bolokhovets, who was accused of keeping the forestry industry in the shadows. Since the beginning of the war, timber has become the most necessary resource for the construction of fortifications, and its supply is growing every day. And this is happening in an extremely corrupt way – through \u201cgasket\u201d companies and at prices that are many times too high. Meanwhile, Viktor Smal buys real estate, cars and travels the world.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a meeting of the Environmental Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in March 2024, MPs listened to a report by Viktor Smal, head of the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine, on the results of work in 2023. MP Olena Kryvoruchkina, who was present at the meeting, was outraged by the disorder in the forestry sector, in particular, in terms of patrolling by the forest guard, which was supposed to monitor illegal deforestation of Ukrainian forests, and said<\/a>: \u201cIt seems that the guards are patrolling Khreshchatyk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She mentioned the news from the State Bureau of Investigation that on March 4, 2024, SBI detectives in Lviv region had once again exposed<\/a> officials who had illegally cut down trees worth more than UAH 64 million. After that, Kryvoruchkina asked Viktor Smal a rhetorical question: \u201cDo you think that a state at war should maintain a staff of ineffective officials who can only draw beautiful numbers in reports instead of delivering results?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine’s forestry industry can be called one of the most corrupt. We have already talked about the many violations, the sale of timber at half price to \u201ctheir\u201d companies, illegal exports of timber, and the incredible enrichment of forestry managers in our investigation<\/a> \u201cFake Reform. How Yuriy Bolokhovets, Director of the State Enterprise \u201cForests of Ukraine\u201d, led corruption and illegal logging in forestry\u201d. But Yuriy Bolokhovets is not the only one responsible for the prevalence of corruption in the forestry industry. Viktor Smal, judging by the data we have obtained, is his faithful partner in this shameful business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viktor Smal and Yuriy Bolokhovets are both natives of Chernihiv region. Smal was born in Nizhyn and before being appointed to the State Forestry Agency, he first worked at the Lviv Automobile Plant, Avis Ukraine, and also ran his own business projects in IT: WillSport, an online sports equipment store, Webanatomia IT agency, Chasopys Watch development project, and founded the first geolocation search messenger Gloice<\/a> for mobile phones, which allows users to communicate with locals around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when Yuriy Bolokhovets was appointed acting head of the State Forestry Agency on January 18, 2021, a month later, on February 15, Viktor Smal quit his business and was appointed<\/a> his deputy for digital development, digital transformation and digitalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years later, in May 2023, Yurii Bolokhovets, after the investigation of the temporary investigative commission on the investigation of the actions of the State Forestry Agency of Ukraine, was dismissed from his position and transferred to the position of director of the newly created SE “Forests of Ukraine”, Viktor Smal was appointed the head of the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine . Since then, Bolokhovets and Smal have become two heads of the same eagle that controls one of the most corrupt industries in the country. And the fact that they are not just random colleagues is confirmed at least by the fact that some telephone subscribers, according to the data of the Getcontact application, sign Viktor Smal’s father Igor Smal as a person from Bolokhovets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What could motivate a person who was making good enough money in business to leave it and go to work for the salary of a civil servant – 23 thousand hryvnias per month as the deputy head of the State Forestry Agency or 35 thousand hryvnias per month as its manager?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Viktor Smal joined the civil service to spend his fortune<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An interesting point should be noted here right away: in the declaration<\/a> for 2019, which Smal submitted as a candidate for the position of deputy head of the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine, he declared rather high family income from his business activities and his wife’s salary in the amount of 168,511 US dollars, as well as great cash savings of $397,195.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for the year 2020, according to his declaration, he had no income at all from entrepreneurial activity, and his wife had a salary. In this year, when Victor Smal was just preparing to enter the civil service, he and his wife Yevgenia received only income from renting out property (62 thousand UAH per year), co-payment of social security benefits and social benefits (55 thousand UAH per year). At the same time, the amount of their savings almost did not decrease – for some reason, Smal stopped receiving passive income from his IT business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This may indicate either that his business turned out to be unsuccessful and Smal closed it, or that he knew in advance that he would become one of the managers of the forest industry and transferred his business to someone unrelated to the family in advance. and now hides his income from the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, if we rely on the official declarations of Viktor Smal, the picture looks like this: a person abandoned a profitable business in order to live on a salary of less than a thousand dollars a month and spend savings: from 397 thousand dollars in 2019, Smal’s assets in 2023 decreased up to 110 thousand dollars. So why should a person make such sacrifices? Is it because, despite the ridiculous official salary, management of the forestry industry looks more profitable than owning a business?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life of Viktor and Yevheniia Smal during the war: meager salary, enormous expenses<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, further analysis of the declarations of the head of the State Forestry Agency shows that his affairs immediately went up after entering the civil service. Over the past four years, Victor and Yevgenia Smal bought two apartments, a storeroom and a new car for a total of 9 million 626 thousand 245 UAH (about 340 thousand US dollars).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, in 2021-2022, when he was already the deputy head of the State Licensing Agency, Smal paid a large part of his financial obligations, and after being promoted to the position of head of the State Licensing Agency in 2023, he completely closed them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, on December 30, 2020, Smal took out a mortgage for an apartment with an area of \u200b\u200b91.6 square meters in the elite Kyiv residential complex “Respublika” in the amount of 5 million 96 thousand hryvnias, immediately paid 862 thousand hryvnias, and the balance of 4.23 million hryvnias was already paid by the civil service .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, Yevgenia Smal bought an 86-square-meter apartment on credit in Kyiv for UAH 3,510,377 (USD 129,000), which she and her husband have already paid off. Before that, there was a 2.8-meter storage room in the same residential complex “Respublika” for 101,000 hryvnias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, Viktor Smal bought a 2021 Hyundai Tucson for UAH 918,100 (USD 25,112), although the price is somewhat understated, because, for example, the average market value of such a used car now ranges from USD 28 to USD 35,000 USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this way, during three years of public service, Victor Smal acquired movable and immovable property worth 3 times more than what he acquired during the years of doing business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What property of his wife in the occupied Crimea Viktor Smal hides from the NACP<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The wife of the head of the State Forestry Agency Yevgenia Smal, according to the register of property rights to real estate, owns a house and an apartment in the annexed Crimea, which she re-registered under Russian laws and which is why, probably, Smal does not indicate them in her declarations, which is a violation of anti-corruption legislation. We are talking about a house with an area of \u200b\u200b42.3 square meters at the address of the city of Saky, str. Zaliznychna, 13, owned by Yevgenia Smal according to the sales contract dated December 15, 2011. And also an apartment in Sevastopol, which has been owned by Viktor Smal’s wife since October 2012 and has the address Heroiv Stalingrada Avenue, 46, sq. 93.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Property owned by the head of the State Forestry Agency Viktor Smal and his wife Yevgenia Smal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fictitious LLC \u201cTrading and Delivery\u201d associated with Yuriy Bolokhovets earns hundreds of millions of hryvnias on wood supplies to the military<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forestry farms sell wood for military needs at an inflated price of millions of hryvnias. As you know, wood is the main necessary material for the construction of fortification structures. And as Yuriy Bolokhovets, an associate of Viktor Smaly, director of State Enterprise “Lisa Ukrainy”, recently stated, forest farms give wood to the military for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The military unit determines the scope, agrees with OVA. The administration sends an appeal to “Forests of Ukraine”\u2026 It seems that what is there to talk about? State forest, state wood. They took it and gave it to the military\u2026 Therefore, wood is supplied to the front from all over the country. Almost all branches of “Forests of Ukraine” are involved. Procurement, removal from the upper warehouses to the railway station, loading into wagons – all costs are at the expense of the enterprise. We pay taxes for wood, we allegedly realized the resource and received income,” Bolokhovets wrote<\/a> on his Facebook page on May 13, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The head of State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” Yuriy Bolokhovets claims that wood is given to the military for free<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, a month before that, in April 2024, as reported<\/a> by the publication “Our Money”, the military units concluded two large contracts for the supply of wood for the construction of defense structures for a total of 226 million hryvnias. In both cases, the military rejected the offers of state-owned forestry farms with cheaper wood and awarded the contracts to intermediaries with prices that were collectively higher by 9,640,000 hryvnias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 8, military unit A3160 concluded an agreement<\/a> with LLC “Trading and Delivery” (LLC “TED”) for the supply of wood for UAH 151,590,000, and military unit A0543 on April 12 concluded an agreement<\/a> with LLC “Forcast Group” worth UAH 76,570,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
“Trading and Delivery” LLC wins tenders from state forest farms even with much higher prices of its offers. Screenshot of Prozorro<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But the largest supplier of wood to state and communal enterprises for the construction of fortifications, according to data from the electronic public procurement portal Prozorro, is TED LLC<\/a>. And it supplies wood to the military not at all for free, but at many times inflated prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According<\/a> to the investigators, this scheme was organized by the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, Ruslan Strilts, and the curators of the Ukrainian forest industry, Yuriy Bolokhovets, director of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” and Viktor Smale, the head of the State Forestry Agency, who are enriching themselves at the fortifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The analysis of the activities of LLC “TED” leads to the conclusion that this company is fictitious, it does not have its own fixed assets, labor resources, equipment, capital for the execution of contracts and carries out dubious economic activities aimed at the withdrawal, legalization of funds obtained through criminal means, evasion from paying taxes, withdrawing cash to controlled fictitious legal entities and sole proprietorships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does this happen? In fact, this company buys forest materials from SE “Forests of Ukraine” and other forest farms, which are affiliated and under the control of officials of the State Forestry Agency, at a reduced price. Later, as a result of winning multimillion-dollar tenders, TED LLC sells wood to state enterprises at an inflated price, thereby generating its own profit from the difference at the expense of budget funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result of this scheme can be seen in the company’s financial indicators: since the beginning of the war, the company’s sales have increased not even several times, but tens of times. If in 2022 “TED” LLC received only almost 700,000 hryvnias for public procurement, then in 2023 this amount amounted to 12.2 million hryvnias, i.e. the jump occurred 17 times. And in the first half of 2024, LLC “TED” received contracts worth UAH 61.8 million – this is already 5 times more than in the full year of 2023, or 89 times more than in 2022. One can only envy such growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
“TED” LLC during the war years demonstrates a geometric progression of the volume of obtaining state contracts for wood. Screenshot of OpendataBot<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The founder of TED LLC, Maksym Pirogov, according to the Getcontact application data, is signed to subscribers as “Maxim lawyer”, “Maxim rent a car”, “Maxim lawyer of Dnipropetrovsk region” and “Pirogov Max Bolokhovets TED”. The last tag may indicate a direct connection between the founder of the company, which demonstrates considerable success in the supply of wood to the state, and the director of State Enterprise “Lisa Ukrainy” Yury Bolokhovets.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Maksym Pirogov is associated by telephone subscribers as Yuri Bolokhovets, head of the State Enterprise “Lisa Ukrainy”. Getcontact screenshot<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Another representative of this firm, Artem Morgun, a signatory and representative at tenders of TED LLC, was an assistant to the former deputy mayor of Dnipro, Igor Dyadych, and is also the founder of Sirius Legal Company LLC. At Getcontact, he is associated as a Prozoro specialist. Maria Stepicheva, a lawyer and a representative<\/a> of TED LLC at tenders, is an advisor in the field of public procurement and a lawyer of the Sirius company. The company “Sirius” positions itself as a company to support business participation in public procurement \u2014 from the search for a tender to the conclusion of a contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is, one of the largest suppliers of wood to the military for the construction of fortifications is a firm consisting of lawyers specializing in winning tenders. “TED” LLC looks like an ordinary “gasket” – in this case, between Ukrainian forest farms as suppliers and military administrations and units as customers. “Prokladka”, the founder of which is clearly related to the head of the State Enterprise “Lisa Ukrainy”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is noteworthy that “TED” LLC wins in tenders not only of military units, but also in tenders of “Forests of Ukraine” itself. For example, in June 2024, the state-owned enterprise chose<\/a> Maksym Pirogov’s firm in the tender for logging services for the amount of UAH 3.1 million. In January 2024, the same story happened<\/a>, but already for the amount of almost UAH 8 million. It really looks like “close cooperation”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the most important question in this story is what kind of free supply of wood to the military did comrade Smalya Bolokhovets talk about? Do the forest farms give the felled forest to TED LLC for free, and then it sells it to the military for hundreds of millions of hryvnias<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electronic timber accounting. How Viktor Smal preserves corruption opportunities for himself<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But this is far from the only corruption story that is actively practiced in the State Silage Agency and “Forests of Ukraine”. According<\/a> to experts, most of the corruption schemes in the forest industry are based on the deception of the electronic timber accounting system, which is actually a cover for the illegal movement of timber and the maintenance of which costs several hundred million a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The electronic accounting of wood, which has been implemented throughout the country, provides that before releasing the logs loaded onto the logging truck from the felling site, the foreman of the forest puts electronic chips on them. Thus, anyone with access to the EOD can read all the parameters of each deck and the party as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the nuance is that the master of the forest manually enters the technical and quality indicators of the product into the electronic register, that is, he can accidentally or purposefully indicate a lower class of wood or reduce the amount of volume. This is how the money laundering scheme works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DBR employees and activists have repeatedly exposed such machinations of foresters, as unaccounted forest products represent not only illegal enrichment of scheme participants, but also unpaid taxes hidden from the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, as journalists and activists noted, the electronic wood accounting system does not have a certificate of a comprehensive information protection system. And this means that anyone can have access to any amount of strategic information, including defense information, because, as mentioned above, a large amount of forest is used for the needs of the Armed Forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The absence of a certificate of a complex information protection system allows even the head of the State Forestry Agency Viktor Smal, whose subordinates are EOD administrators, to “get into” it. He publicly stated that it was allegedly impossible to falsify data in the EOD system, but at the same time, for some reason, the certificate still did not appear in the system. Given that Viktor Smal is an IT businessman in the past, as well as the fact that in 2015 he created an online auction<\/a> for the sale of raw wood for stock trading in the regions of Ukraine, agree, it is very surprising that this person has not yet resolved this issue . Maybe because it is profitable not to solve it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear friends of Viktor Smal. Where and to whom does the money of the State Forest Resources Agency go?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to our information, Viktor Smal has a close relationship with Oleksiy Volodymyrovych Teplukhin, the owner of two companies \u2014 Grizelda LLP<\/a> and Everclever LLP<\/a> \u2014 engaged in computer programming. It is known from open data that in 2021 Everclever LLC was the winner<\/a> in the tender for services related to technical support and improvement of the computer program “Billion Trees” for the amount of 686 thousand 506 UAH, the customer of which was SE “Forestry Innovative -analytical center” subordinate to the State Forestry Agency. “A billion trees” is a project of Smal, who at that time had just joined the State Forestry Agency as deputy head of digital development, digital transformations, and digitalization. And this was far from the only contract that “Everclever” LLC received from SE “LIAC” after Viktor Smal got into the State Forestry Agency. For example, in May 2024, Teplukhin’s company, Smal’s friend, won three times in the tenders of SE “LIAC” for the total amount of 3 million 408 thousand 751 UAH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in December 2021, “Everclever” LLC, which, let’s remind you, is engaged in computer programming, suddenly received a logging ticket<\/a> from the “Teterivske Forestry” State Enterprise of the Kyiv region to cut down 1 hectare of coniferous forest and harvest 4,000 cubic meters of wood for only 4,000 UAH The average price of one cubic meter of pine in 2021 ranged<\/a> from UAH 4,000 to UAH 5,000. It was possible to make a profit of up to 20 million hryvnias on such deforestation. It is not known what and why the company, which performs contracts for forest farms in the field of computer support, received such an opportunity. Probably, because Viktor Smal became one of the leaders of the forest industry of Ukraine. And because it can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viktor Smal covers up the corrupt activities of another close friend of his, Oleksiy Golubchak, who was the head of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Department of Forestry and Hunting. The journalists collected the facts<\/a> of the abuses of Golubchak and his subordinates and handed them over to the Cabinet of Ministers and the head of the State Forestry Agency Viktor Smal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was about the fact that under Golubchak’s leadership, state forestry enterprises of the Frankiv region provided 210,000 hectares to private users of hunting grounds free of charge for seven years, which resulted in the loss of 1,470,000 hryvnias annually. Total losses reached more than UAH 10 million. Despite all the violations, the corruption system left Golubchak in charge after retirement: he was appointed director of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Hungarian Forestry named after P.S. Parsnip<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When journalists commented on this, Smal replied to them in a letter dated May 30, 2023, that the stated facts about Golubchak have no confirmation and are only evaluative judgments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viktor Smal’s foreign trips during the war<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to the data available to Osint Global, conscript Viktor Smal regularly leaves Ukraine to rest abroad during the war. Smal made seven such trips since February 24, 2024: he rested in Italy from September 30 to October 8, 2022, enjoyed the sea in Egypt for ten days in November 2022, and spent the winter vacation of 2023 in the United Arab Emirates. Other trips were to Europe: Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not known what reasons Smal has for freely traveling abroad for rest in the midst of the war. But it is becoming more and more clear why Viktor Smal gave up his profitable business for the position of an official with a modest salary – the forest industry of Ukraine can give so many extra profits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Viktor Smal had several business projects of his own that brought him good profits. But he decided to trade everything for the position of head of the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine with a salary of less than a thousand dollars a month, replacing Yuriy Bolokhovets, who was accused of keeping the forestry industry in the shadows. Since the beginning of the war, timber has become the most necessary resource for the construction of fortifications, and its supply is growing every day. And this is happening in an extremely corrupt way – through \u201cgasket\u201d companies and at prices that are many times too high. Meanwhile, Viktor Smal is buying real estate,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publichni-rozsliduvannya"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/osintglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/osintglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/osintglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osintglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osintglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/osintglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":584,"href":"https:\/\/osintglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions\/584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osintglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/osintglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osintglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osintglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}