Viktor Medvedchuk: Putin's crony guarding Russia's interests in Ukraine

Victor Medvedchuk

One of Ukraine's most enigmatic politicians is Viktor Medvedchuk, a member of parliament for three terms, former head of President Kuchma's administration, deputy speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, and former head of the Presidential Administration. His biography is littered with "strange" criminal episodes, and there are no clear-cut facts. Nevertheless, he is now free, living the high life, developing his long-standing, openly pro-Russian political project, "Ukrainian Choice." So how did one of Ukraine's most enigmatic politicians get his start?

"Recruited" from an early age

Born Medvedchuk Viktor Vladimirovich He was born in 1954 in the village of Pochyot in the Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It was there that his father, Vladimir Medvedchuk, served time for collaborating with the Nazis during World War II. Viktor Vladimirovich wanted to serve in the internal affairs department, but due to his father's criminal past, he was rejected. Trying to find his place in life, Viktor Medvedchuk applied to Kyiv State University, but again failed the competitive selection process. It was here that the first "strange things" in his life began. Soon after the admissions campaign, Medvedchuk was admitted to the law faculty by order of the rector, without having to go through the competitive selection process. According to official documents, he was admitted on the recommendation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for "close collaboration with the police."

While studying at university, Viktor Medvedchuk commanded the Komsomol detachment "Voluntary People's Militia," which led to his embroilment in an unpleasant situation. When Viktor Medvedchuk was a second-year student (1974), he and two of his comrades were charged with beating a minor, Andriy Krichak. The "village militia" were expected to receive several years in prison, but their actions (for unknown reasons) were reclassified as "abuse of power," and the criminal case was soon closed. It's noteworthy that the decision to expunge Medvedchuk's criminal record was made by the infamous Pechersky District Court, which at the time was completely controlled by the Presidential Administration of Ukraine. This moment in Viktor Medvedchuk's life became a turning point—according to experts, it was then that the KGB branch of the Ukrainian SSR recruited the young Medvedchuk in exchange for dropping all charges against him and ending the investigation.

Viktor Medvedchuk: A lawyer devoid of ethics

Immediately after graduating from university in 1978, he was hired by the Kyiv City Bar Association, which he chaired a few years later. He also achieved "fame" as a lawyer. During the trials of prominent Ukrainian dissidents Vasyl Stus and Yuriy Lytvyn, he represented them. According to the recollections of Yevhen Sverstyuk, a witness to those events, Viktor Medvedchuk, as the defense attorney, did everything he could to imprison Stus (whom he was supposed to defend), but it looked as if he was simply "selling" him on orders from above. Upon learning who his lawyer would be, Stus protested vigorously. However, Viktor Vladimirovich, accustomed to seeing his cases through to the end (especially if there was a secret order from the KGB), did not abandon the defendant, disregarding legal ethics. Ultimately, Vasyl Stus was convicted and died in a prison camp.

Victor Medvedchuk. Connections with the KGB

Further confirmation of Viktor Vladimirovich's direct connection to the KGB comes from a recording of a conversation between former SBU head Leonid Derkach and Leonid Kuchma. In this conversation, Derkach claimed that Medvedchuk had long worked for the KGB under the codename "Sokolovsky."

A conversation between Leonid Kuchma and Leonid Derkach. From the book "Who's Who: On President Kuchma's Sofa"

Business partners

In 1990, Viktor Medvedchuk became the head of the Ukrainian Union of Advocates. That same year, he joined the board of the Union of Advocates of the Soviet Union representing Ukraine. Around the same time, he began pursuing business interests, including founding his own law firm, BIM. According to him, during those years, he created a number of commercial entities through which he regularly received dividends and shares in various companies. At one time, Viktor Medvedchuk was one of the largest Ukrainian businessmen. The so-called "Surkis-Medvedchuk group," or as it was dubbed "The Magnificent Seven," included: Gregory Surkis – head of the FFU, Igor Surkis – president of the Dynamo football club, Bogdan Gubsky - oligarch, Yuriy Lyakh - an oligarch who died under mysterious circumstances, Valentin Zgursky - the former mayor of Kyiv, and Yuriy Karpenko - a businessman with ties to crime.

This "group" had its interests in virtually all areas of business: electric power, oil and gas, metallurgy, sports, mass media, the sugar industry, etc.

Their earliest commercial projects were the Slavutich concern and FC Dynamo. Before appearing in Ukraine Konstantin Grigorishin The "magic seven" controlled eight of the 24 regional power companies. They also owned the Inter television channel, the newspapers Business and Kievskie Vedomosti, and the Ukrainian Credit Bank offshore company network.

In 1996, he became President Kuchma's advisor on tax matters. He first entered the Verkhovna Rada with the Social Democratic Party, where he worked on law and order issues. In 1998, at the suggestion of Leonid Danilovych, he became Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada.

In an attempt to conduct his own election campaign, Medvedchuk turned SDeks into a dull laughingstock, despite inviting leading Russian political strategists as consultants. Many remember Medvedchuk cooking something in the kitchen in his election television commercials? Despite his obviously insane financial outlay, he received a paltry percentage of the vote, and his political strategy remains the epitome of stupidity and unprofessionalism. It was personally conceived and implemented by Marat Gelman, a renowned Russian political strategist.

Marat Gelman

In 2002, he resigned as a people's deputy upon his appointment as head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine. During Leonid Kuchma's presidency, Medvedchuk was considered one of the most influential people in Ukraine. He resigned as head of the Presidential Administration in January 2005.

Viktor Medvedchuk. Conflict with Russian oligarch Grigorishin

In October 2002, the well-known Russian oligarch Konstantin Grigorishin was detained near the Egoist restaurant by a special forces unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. During the arrest, Sokol fighters pulled MP Volodymyr Sivkovich from his car, threw him to the ground, and brutally kicked him. The fighters also handcuffed Grigorishin and openly stuffed a pistol and a bag of cocaine into his pocket before taking him to the Pechersk district police station. However, due to a lack of evidence linking the pistol and drugs to his possession, Grigorishin was released after just a week. Some time later, he released a statement claiming that Viktor Medvedchuk and his main business partner, Igor Surkis, had threatened to kill him in order to seize control of his business. According to Grigorishin, the SDPU leaders promised to "bury him alive." A year later, The New York Times, a leading international newspaper, published an article detailing how Medvedchuk and Surkis had persecuted the oligarch Grigorishin. The article, titled "Friends of Ukraine," was published with an "Advertisement" banner. Incidentally, the cost of such material at the time was over $50. (It was possible to negotiate with The New York Times for $100.000 without the banner, but the oligarch apparently decided to save money—he was concerned about reaching specific people.)

"Ukrainian choice"

When examining Viktor Medvedchuk's life, the idea of ​​promoting and protecting "Russian interests" in Ukraine becomes a common thread. His involvement in Russia's political and economic expansion in our country is clearly evident. As head of the presidential administration, he removed pro-Ukrainian politicians one by one from Russia's path. It was through such actions that he managed to curry favor with his "big brother" and even amass a fortune in Ukraine. His aggressive political nature subsided only after the victory of the Orange Revolution. Law enforcement agencies seriously suspected him of attempting to assassinate President Viktor Yushchenko, but they lacked evidence. Long considered a political corpse, Medvedchuk resurfaced in late summer 2012, now openly pro-Russian. He then announced that he would not run in the elections, but intended to develop his new political project, "Ukrainian Choice."

A photoshopped version of a "Ukrainian Choice" campaign poster

The core of this "social movement" was supposed to be the idea that without Russia, Ukraine's economy had no chance. Needless to say, the project began on a grand scale: thousands of billboards featuring Viktor Vladimirovich's face and the "Ukrainian Choice" logo appeared across the country. The media actively promoted the "social movement," replicating notes and articles by Medvedchuk, who almost openly advocated rapprochement with the Russian Federation and praised Vladimir Putin as the greatest politician of all time. Of course, he was his godfather. In 2004, in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin and Svetlana, the wife of his close ally Dmitry Medvedev, baptized the daughter of Viktor Medvedchuk and Oksana Marchenko, Daria.

Vladimir Putin visiting Viktor Medvedchuk

Knowing about his family ties to the Russian president, everything becomes clearer: his KGB past, his pro-Russian propaganda, and even the facts of his close contacts with separatists in the east.

Studying Viktor Vladimirovich's life, one repeatedly encounters the "mysterious" deaths of his colleagues and opponents. In this, they bear a striking resemblance to Vladimir Putin. Throughout his entire business career, Medvedchuk contributed virtually nothing to the Ukrainian state; all his actions were aimed more at destruction than construction. His methods were always as brutal as he himself. One can only hope that our "poor" government recognizes the danger of this man's actions and prevents his "second coming" into "big" politics.

Dmitry Samofalov, for Skelet.Org

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