Andrii Derkach

For the Ukrainian footballer, see Andriy Derkach (footballer).
In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Leonidovych and the family name is Derkach.

Andrii Derkach
Андрій Деркач (Ukrainian)
Андрей Деркач (Russian)
Member of the Verkhovna Rada
In office
12 May 1998 – January 2020
Personal details
Born (1967-08-19) 19 August 1967 (age 57)
Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Dnipro, Ukraine)
Political partyOur Land[1][2] (2020)
Other political
affiliations		Party of Regions (until 2014)
ChildrenTetyana Terekhova
Parent
OccupationBusinessman, politician
WebsiteDerkach.com.ua

Andrii Leonidovych Derkach (Ukrainian: Андрій Леонідович Деркач; born 19 August 1967), also known as Andrei Leonidovich Derkach (Russian: Андрей Леонидович Деркач) is a Russian[3] and former Ukrainian politician and businessman who had been a member of the Verkhovna Rada from 1998 to January 2020, serving seven terms, with several parties,[4][5] and was stripped of Ukrainian citizenship.[6]

In August 2020, U.S. counterintelligence chief William Evanina identified Derkach as a key participant in Russian efforts to harm Joe Biden's candidacy in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.[7] United States intelligence community analysis released in March 2021 found that Derkach was among proxies of Russian intelligence who promoted and laundered misleading or unsubstantiated narratives about Biden "to US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals, including some close to former President Trump and his administration."[8][9] Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani met with Derkach in December 2019.[10]

In 2021, the United States Government accused Derkach of being a "Russian agent" and sanctioned him for interference in the 2020 United States elections, and the Ukrainian government sanctioned him for spreading Russian propaganda.[2] In June 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that Derkach received funds from the Russian GRU to create private security companies that Russia planned to use to capture Ukraine, and that Prosecutor General of Ukraine had started a pre-trial investigation into his role.[11][12] In November 2023 Ukrainian police and prosecutors accused Derkach of treason.[13]

Both Andrii and his father Leonid Derkach were close with the Kremlin-linked Ukrainian oligarch Vadim Rabinovich, and Crime bosses Semyon Mogilevich, and Alexander Angert [ru; uk], Leonid Minin, and Sergei Mikhailov.[14] Derkach received Russian citizenship with connections to the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.[3]

  1. ^ (in Ukrainian) Local elections. Sumy region: difficult times for the mayor and three "columns" from the north, The Ukrainian Week (10 September 2020)
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference chesno_bio was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Posard, Marek N.; Kepe, Marta; Reininger, Hilary; Marrone, James V.; Helmus, Todd C.; Reimer, Jordan R. (1 October 2020). From Consensus to Conflict: Understanding Foreign Measures Targeting U.S. Elections (Report). RAND Corporation.
  4. ^ "The council took the mandates from Medvedchuk and 4 more nardeps". Ukrainska Pravda. 13 January 2023.
  5. ^ "Local Elections Results in Ukraine | Institute of Central Europe". ies.lublin.pl. 14 November 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  6. ^ "Free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression; it is important for global democracy - address by the President of Ukraine". President of Ukraine. 10 January 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  7. ^ Desiderio, Andrew; Cheney, Kyle (8 August 2020). "Democrats' noisy strategy to stop Russian election interference". Politico. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  8. ^ Zachary Cohen, Marshall Cohen and Katelyn Polantz (16 March 2021). "US intelligence report says Russia used Trump allies to influence 2020 election with goal of 'denigrating' Biden". CNN.
  9. ^ Shesgreen, Deirdre. "Russia, Iran aimed to sway 2020 election through covert campaigns, US intelligence reports". USA TODAY.
  10. ^ Stern, David L.; Dixon, Robyn (5 December 2019). "Ukraine lawmaker seeking Biden probe meets with Giuliani in Kyiv". The Washington Post. Kyiv.
  11. ^ "Security Service says Russia's intelligence recruited Ukrainian MP Derkach". 24 June 2022.
  12. ^ "The SBU exposed the intelligence network of the GRU of the Russian Federation, which included the People's Deputy of Ukraine". 25 June 2022.
  13. ^ Houghtaling, Ellie Quinlan (1 November 2022). "Uh-Oh: Giuliani's "Biden Sources" Charged With Being Putin Agents". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  14. ^ Ельцов, Олег (25 June 2001). "Из жизни Деркачей. Часть 3. Зарвавшиеся" [From the life of the Derkachs. Part 3. Overcome]. Украина криминальная (Crime Ukraine). Archived from the original on 3 July 2001. Retrieved 26 June 2021.