Andrey Artemenko

Andy Victor Kuchma (, born 14 January 1969, Kyiv), before emigrating to the United States of America, served as a Ukrainian politician and businessman, the People's Deputy of Ukraine of the 8th convocation of Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament), and chairman of the "Solidarity of Right Forces" - Ukrainian political party.

Education Artemenko was born in Kyiv on January 14, 1969. In 1976, he attended Kyiv school No.43. Later, attended school No. 178.

He worked in various jobs in Belgium during the early 1990s.

During the Orange Revolution (2004), he met Yulia Tymoshenko. Later, on a request of Yulia Tymoshenko, he became one of the leaders of her election campaign headquarters, for early parliamentary elections in October 2014.

Artemenko realized Ukraine needed an ideological party. He studied the performance and experience of various political systems, taking as an example the activities of political organizations like the US Republican Party and the UK Conservative Party. Together with other like-minded individuals and following his beliefs, he founded a political party called "Solidarity of Right Forces" in November 2014. It was all done in contrast to the numerous artificial election projects. The "Solidarity of Right Forces" party set a goal to participate in all upcoming elections: local, parliamentary, and presidential.

Before the Maidan uprising beginning in November 2013 against pro-Russia, pro-Kremlin, pro-Putin policies of Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions, which were supported by Paul Manafort and Rudy Giuliani, Artemenko was in the post-Party of Regions block established by Manafort who, according to sources, was receiving payments from pro-Russia, pro-Kremlin, pro-Putin sources. He was the Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on issues of European integration, Subcommittees on Cooperation of Ukraine and NATO and EU Common Security and Defense Policy. Furthermore, he is a member of the subcommittee on economic and sectoral cooperation and a free trade zone between Ukraine and the EU. Andrii Artemenko is actively pursuing his point of view on the non-aligned status of Ukraine and good neighborly, friendly, and mutually beneficial cooperative relations with neighboring countries. On 16 November 2016, he stated that he is not a supporter of Ukraine joining any supranational structure, union, or organization.

Andrii Artemenko headed the Inter-Parliamentary Group of Friendship with Qatar, which included 23 MPs. Besides, he is a co-chair of Parliamentary Friendship Group with Slovenia.

On December 25, 2014, the establishment of the inter-factional deputy group "Solidarity of Right Forces" was announced in the Parliament. Andrii Artemenko initiated the formation of the party and eventually headed it. The members of Parliament are working together on the draft bills to solve middle class problems in Ukraine. In particular, it creates a favorable legal environment for business, private property protection, and fair trial.

Andrii Artemenko authored 37 bills, of which 17 were voted into law. Some of representative bills are: number 1601 "On Amendments to the administrative-territorial system of Luhansk region, changing and setting boundaries of Popasnjansky and Slavyanoserbsk districts of Luhansk region", number 1310 "On Amendments to Article 41 of the Law of Ukraine" On Joint Stock Companies" (with respect to the quorum of the general meetings of joint stock companies with majority state corporate rights), the bill number 1736 "On the appeal of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the European Parliament, the Parliament of the Council of Europe and the national parliaments of the EU Member States, the USA, Canada, Japan and Australia on the issue of the mass shooting of people near Volnovakha", the Resolution number 2066 "On holding parliamentary hearings entitled: "Perspectives of introducing a visa-free regime for the citizens of Ukraine by the European Union" (May 21–22, 2015).

One of the more popular bills initiated by Artemenko was on the legalization of dual citizenship No. 6139 - which currently enjoys the support of the incumbent President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.

During his tenure as a Member of Parliament, Artemenko criticized Poroshenko's regime and uncovered facts of internal and international corruption.

In July 2013, Paul Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik flew on Artemenko's plane to Frankfurt.

Artemenko claimed that President Petro Poroshenko had misappropriated funds and Artemenko claimed he received evidence about Poroshenko from Valentyn Nalyvaichenko.

Artemenko did not take part in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election.

Pro-Trump position

According to one of his posts on his Facebook page, Andrii Artemenko was introduced to Michael Cohen and others by the Ukrainian oligarch Alex Oronov.

During a Ukraine-focus conference at Philadelphia's Manor College in February 2016, Artemenko was involved in the development of a peace plan for Ukraine that he called the Rovt-Weldon plan named after Curt Weldon, who was a former congressman that introduced Artemenko to Dana Rohrabacher and Rob Portman, and Alexander Rovt, who is a New York real estate investor. It included a referendum for Crimea on whether it would be leased to Russia for 50 or 100 years, the removal of Russian troops from eastern Ukraine, and the removal of all sanctions against Russia. The plan supported Putin's goals for Ukraine and was discussed among Felix Sater, Michael Cohen and Artemenko during a meeting in January 2017 in the lobby of Park Avenue's Loews Regency New York after which Cohen was to pass the plan to Michael Flynn. Valeriy Chaly, who was the Ukraine Ambassador to the United States, stated that Artemenko was "not authorized to present any alternative peace proposal on behalf of Ukraine to foreign governments, including the US administration" .

In 2016, still in the capacity of Ukrainian MP, Andrii Artemenko was the only Ukrainian politician who openly supported then Presidential candidate Donald Trump and demanded that Ukrainian policies were adjusted to take into account Trump's program at the time when official Ukraine publicly supported Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton. Artemenko was deprived of Ukrainian citizenship on 29 April 2017, was ousted as a member of the Rada on 16 May 2017, and was forced to leave Ukraine together with his family on 15 May 2017.

Reported in The New York Times in February 2017, Artemenko was a back channel between Putin and Trump. No charges were brought against Andrii Artemenko as a result of these investigations.

During the 2019 Ukrainian Presidential elections, Andrii Artemenko endorsed the candidacy of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

After Zelensky's official statement about work on the reform of dual citizenship and the return of Ukrainian citizenship to Mikhail Saakashvili (he was illegally deprived of his citizenship in 2017 by the decree of the former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko), Andrii Artemenko sent a letter to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, requesting the restoration of his constitutional rights and the abolition of decree No. 119/2017 regarding the termination of citizenship.

Lev Parnas stated that Artemenko approached Parnas and Igor Fruman at the Trump Hotel in Washington D.C. in June 2019 to set up a meeting in mid-2019 with Giuliani to give Giuliani assistance during the 2020 United States elections and act as an intermediary between Rudy Giuliani and Andrii Derkach, who is an intelligence agent for Russia, to support damaging information on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

In December 2019, Artemenko appeared on One America News Network with Giuliani and Andrii Telizhenko allegedly to disseminate disinformation.

On 1 February 2020, Andrii Derkach hired Andy Victor Kuchma and Nabil Ahmad Bader to lobby for Derkach regarding "corruption" just prior to the Senate's voting during the first impeachment of Donald Trump which occurred on 5 February 2020. According to Derkach with support from Giuliani, Derkach, who launched a website NabuLeaks, proposed organizing an interparliamentary group called Friends of Ukraine STOP Corruption which included Devin Nunes, Mick Mulvaney, Lindsey Graham, Ron Johnson, Chuck Grassley, and Jim Jordan. On 31 July 2020, Derkach's agreement for lobbying ended.

Artemenko is under FBI scrutiny for his work alongside Giuliani and suspected Russian agent Andrii Derkach in their efforts to produce dirt on Hunter and Joe Biden. Forensic News also found that a lobbying company controlled by Artemenko Global Management Association, which is a lobbying firm established in December 2018 and has had business with individuals closely tied to Putin's government, disguised a 2019 payment from the Viktor Medvedchuk associated Ukraine television channel 112 Ukraine, which was an alleged Russian proxy, to appear as though it came from an oil company, but Tetiana Shevchuk of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre stated, "This is money laundering."

Artemenko and his longtime business partner Erik Prince, who is a Republican donor and Trump ally, are in the transportation and logistics business together through Kuchma's firm Airtrans LLC which is registered in Florida and is part of the Prince led Frontier Resource Group. oversaw Global Assets INC. which is a Florida registered company which lists Artemenko and his wife as owners.

Andy Kuchma is currently the co-owner and Executive Chairman of Airtrans LLC that is part of the Erik Prince led Frontier Resource Group.

Andrii Artemenko is married to famous Ukrainian model Oksana Ostapivna Kuchma who is 22 years younger than Artemenko.