Viktor Medvedchuk

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Volodymyrovych and the family name is Medvedchuk.

Viktor Medvedchuk
Віктор Медведчук (Ukrainian)
Виктор Медведчук (Russian)
Medvedchuk in 2019
People's Deputy of Ukraine
In office
29 August 2019 – 13 January 2023
ConstituencyOpposition Platform — For Life, No. 3
In office
25 April 1997 – 20 June 2002
Constituency
Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine
In office
12 June 2002 – 21 January 2005
PresidentLeonid Kuchma
Preceded byVolodymyr Lytvyn
Succeeded byOleksandr Zinchenko
Personal details
Born (1954-08-07) 7 August 1954 (age 70)
Pochet, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
CitizenshipUkrainian (1991–2023)[1]
Russian (according to SBU)[2]
NationalityUkrainian
Political partyOpposition Platform — For Life (2016–2022)
Other political
affiliations
Spouses
Marina Lebedeva
​
(divorced)​
Natalya Gavrilyuk
​
(divorced)​
Oksana Marchenko
​
(m. 2003)​
Children2
Alma materKyiv University (1978)
OccupationPolitician, lawyer
Signature

Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk (Ukrainian: Віктор Володимирович Медведчук; born 7 August 1954), also known as Viktor Vladimirovich Medvedchuk (Russian: Виктор Владимирович Медведчук), is a former[3] Ukrainian lawyer, business oligarch, and politician who has lived in exile in Russia[4] since September 2022 after being handed over to Russia in a prisoner exchange.[5][6][7][8] Medvedchuk is a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician and a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.[9][10][11]

Prior to being deported from Ukraine, Medvedchuk was elected as People's Deputy of Ukraine on 29 August 2019. He served as the chairman of the pro-Russian political organization Ukrainian Choice from 2018 to 2022. He is an opponent of Ukraine joining the European Union.[12]

From 1997 to 2002 Medvedchuk was a member of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament).[13] Medvedchuk served between 2002 and 2005 as chief of staff to then Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma.[8][14] After this he was absent from national politics until 2018.[13] In November 2018, Medvedchuk was elected chairman of the political council of the political party For Life, which later merged into the Opposition Platform — For Life party.[15] In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party won 37 seats on the nationwide party list and six constituency seats.[16] As he placed third on the 2019 election list of Opposition Platform — For Life, Medvedchuk was elected to the Verkhovna Rada.[17][16]

On 19 February 2021, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine included Medvedchuk and his wife, Oksana Marchenko, on the Ukrainian sanctions list, due to alleged financing of terrorism.[18] On 11 May 2021, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine accused Medvedchuk of treason and attempted looting of national resources in Crimea (which had been annexed by Russia but remains internationally recognised as Ukrainian). Medvedchuk's house arrest started on 13 May 2021.[19] Medvedchuk escaped this house arrest on 28 February 2022, four days after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and went missing.[20][21] On 8 March 2022 he was removed from the post of co-chairman of Opposition Platform — For Life.[22] On 12 April 2022 Medvedchuk was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).[23] On 21 September 2022, Medvedchuk (together with 55 Russian prisoners of war) was exchanged for 215 Ukrainian POWs from the Siege of Mariupol.[6]

On 13 January 2023, the Verkhovna Rada stripped Medvedchuk of his position as a people's deputy.[24][25]

  1. ^ "Free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression; it is important for global democracy - address by the President of Ukraine". President of Ukraine Official Website. 10 January 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  2. ^ "СБУ утверждает, что у Медведчука есть российский паспорт". РИА Новости. 22 July 2022. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  3. ^ Kochubey, Bogdan (11 January 2023). "Zelenskiy strips Putin ally Medvedchuk, three others of Ukrainian citizenship". Reuters. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
  4. ^ "I currently live in Moscow on permanent basis "by necessity" – Medvedchuk". Ukrainska Pravda. 16 February 2023. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  5. ^ "Putin Ally Medvedchuk, 55 Servicemen Freed in Swap With Ukraine". Moscow Times. 22 September 2022. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference 7368588Medvedchuk was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Wilson, Andrew (2005). Virtual Politics: Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09545-7.
  8. ^ a b Kinstler, Linda (28 May 2015). "The 12 people who ruined Ukraine". POLITICO.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ (in Ukrainian) Viktor Medvedchuk: political legalization, Hromadske.TV (7 August 2018).
  11. ^ Stedman, Scott; Bernardini, Matt (30 April 2021). "Giuliani Probe Expands, Ukrainian Ally Under Criminal Investigation: Former Ukrainian politician Andrii Artemenko received a secret payment in 2019 from a television station owned by Putin's closest ally in Ukraine. The FBI is now investigating the Giuliani ally". Forensic News. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  12. ^ Kremlin-imposed "Ukrainian choice", The Ukrainian Week (3 July 2012).
    Playing opposition, Den (15 August 2013).
    Russia's Plan For Ukraine: Purported Leaked Strategy Document Raises Alarm, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (20 August 2013).
  13. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference LigaMedvedchuk was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference medvedchuka8515456 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ "Medvedchuk elected head of political board of Za Zhyttia party". Interfax-Ukraine.
  16. ^ a b CEC counts 100 percent of vote in Ukraine's parliamentary elections, Ukrinform (26 July 2019).
    (in Russian) Results of the extraordinary elections of the People's Deputies of Ukraine 2019, Ukrayinska Pravda (21 July 2019).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference 603747HtvMedvedchuk was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ (in Ukrainian) Youtube blocked the broadcast of Medvedchuk's channel, Ukrayinska Pravda (5 March 2021)
  19. ^ Court gives permission to detain Kozak, Ukrayinska Pravda (20 May 2021)
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference nypost.com20220302Medved was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ "A "golden" car was found in Medvedchuk's possession". Українська правда (in Ukrainian). 13 March 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  22. ^ (in Ukrainian) Boyko became the chairman of the political council of the OPZH. Medvedchuk was deprived of the post of co-chairman, Lb.ua [uk] (8 March 2022)
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference 7339145Medvedchuk was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ Cite error: The named reference Medvedchuk7384721 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  25. ^ "Верховная рада лишила Медведчука мандата". РБК (in Russian). 13 January 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2023.