Viktor Medvedchuk

Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk (; born 7 August 1954), also known as Viktor Vladimirovich Medvedchuk , is a former Ukrainian lawyer, business oligarch, and politician who has lived in exile in Russia since September 2022 after being handed over to Russia in a prisoner exchange. Medvedchuk is a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician and a personal friend of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

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.

From 1997 to 2002 Medvedchuk was a member of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament). In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party won 37 seats on the nationwide party list and six constituency seats. As he placed third on the 2019 election list of Opposition Platform — For Life, Medvedchuk was elected to the Verkhovna Rada. 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. Medvedchuk escaped this house arrest on 28 February 2022, four days after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and went missing. On 8 March 2022 he was removed from the post of co-chairman of Opposition Platform — For Life. On 12 April 2022 Medvedchuk was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

Early life and education Medvedchuk's father, Volodymyr Medvedchuk, avoided being drafted into the Red Army during World War II due to his suffering from Pott disease. During Nazi Germany's occupation of Ukraine, he worked for the German administration in a labor camp from April 1942 to November 1943. The section provided enforced deportation of the local able-bodied Ukrainian youth to work in Nazi Germany. Volodymyr Medvedchuk was arrested by SMERSH on 7 August 1954 and sentenced to eight years of imprisonment and four of exile in Siberia "for participation in Ukrainian nationalistic activities."

In the mid-1960s, the Medvedchuks returned to the Ukrainian SSR, settling in Kornyn, Zhytomyr Oblast. In 1971, Medvedchuk graduated from high school in Borova, Fastiv Raion (Kyiv Oblast). In November 1971, Medvedchuk found a job as sorter at the Kyiv Railroad Post office factory producing periodicals. According to Dmytro Chobit, by the start of 1972, he was an overstaffed militsiya (the police of the Soviet Union) worker at the Motovylivka station (located in Borova).

In the summer of 1972, Medvedchuk successfully passed an entrance exam to the Law School of KSU Shevchenko (now the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv). However he was not admitted. On 12 September 1972, he was enrolled in the university by the Rector's order #445, based on the authorization from the Ministry of the Interior of the Ukrainian SSR. Lytvyn was convicted and died in prison. According to official documents, in 1979 Medvedchuk appealed the verdict against Lytvyn issued by the Vasylkiv court and referred to the incompleteness of the investigation carried out in the case to request the Kyiv Regional Court to annul the verdict and send the case for a new trial. According to the testimony of people close to Stus (his wife, and also his friend Yevgeny Sverstyuk), Stus refused to be defended by Medvedchuk, because "he immediately felt that Medvedchuk was an aggressive Komsomol type person, he didn't protect him, he didn't want to understand him, and, in fact, he was not interested in his business." Nevertheless, Medvedchuk remained Stus's lawyer despite the protests of his client.

According to the "Chronicle of Current Events", Medvedchuk's plea at the Stus trial was as follows: "The lawyer said in his speech that all of Stus's crimes deserve to be punished, but he asks to pay attention to the fact that Stus, working in 1979–1980 at the enterprises of Kyiv, fulfilled the norm; in addition, he underwent a severe stomach operation."

Stus died after he declared a hunger strike on 4 September 1985 in Perm-36, a Soviet forced labor camp for political prisoners. In a 2018 interview with The Independent, Medvedchuk claimed he could not have operated differently: "Stus denounced the Soviet government, and didn't consider it to be legitimate. Everyone decides their own fate. Stus admitted he agitated against the Soviet government. He was found guilty by the laws of the time. When the laws changed, the case was dropped. Unfortunately, he died."

In 1985, he was a lawyer at the trial of poet Mikola Kuntsevich. According to Kuntsevich's memoirs, Medvedchuk "poured more dirt on him than the prosecutor." After Medvedchuk asked the court to dismiss one of Kuntsevich's motions, he challenged him and repeated the challenge several times, but each time the court dismissed it. In his last word, Medvedchuk said: "I completely agree with a comrade prosecutor in determining the sentence. But, for reasons incomprehensible to me, comrade prosecutor forgot that the defendant had not yet left one year and nine months from the previous term. I consider it necessary to add this period to the new punishment." This request was granted by the court.

Medvedchuk founded a successful legal company, BIM, in the early 1990s.

On 24 May 2023 Medvedchuk was stripped (disbarred) of the right to practise law in Ukraine by the Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of the Bar of Kyiv Oblast. Medvedchuk appealed his disbar, on 9 February 2024 his appeal was rejected by the . The upheld this decision on 11 June 2024.

First parliamentary tenure In 1994, Medvedchuk became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united). He served as chairman from 1998 until two days after the 26 March 2006 parliamentary election. Reelected to the Verkhovna Rada in 1998, he was elected Second Deputy Chairman in July 1998. In 2002, he was reelected to the Verkhovna Rada.

Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine From June 2002 Medvedchuk served as head of President Leonid Kuchma's presidential administration. As such, he was a leading target for criticism by the opposition, including Viktor Yushchenko, who often spoke out bitterly against Medvedchuk. Medvedchuk was considered the main behind-the-scenes man of then Prime Minister and pro-Kuchma presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election,

Failing to return to parliament In the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Medvedchuk was placed third on the election list of the Opposition Bloc "Ne Tak". This alliance failed to win parliamentary representation, with 1.01% of the total votes. Medvedchuk did not take part in elections again until 2019. Focus evaluated Medvedchuk's assets in 2008 to be worth $460 million and labeled him the 57th richest man of Ukraine. In a September/October 2013 poll by Razumkov Centre, a party led by Medvedchuk would score 0.9% of the votes during elections.

A December 2013 poll by the Sociological group "RATING" gave it 0.7% and predicted that Medvedchuk's result in the first round ballot of the next (Ukrainian) presidential election would be 0.9%. During 2013, Ukrainian experts argued that Medvedchuk's attempts to influence public opinion had failed.

Medvedchuk was an open and bitter critic of the Euromaidan protest campaign of November 2013–February 2014 (initially aimed at reverting the second Azarov government decision to suspend preparations for signing an Association Agreement and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the European Union ). On 30 November, he condemned a series of protests, known as Euromaidan, that supported closer ties between Ukraine and the EU. After one of his December 2013 meetings with Russia's president Vladimir Putin, Medvedchuk publicly promised to "deal with" pro-European protesters in Ukraine.

Euromaidan activists alleged that Medvedchuk was among the masterminds of the attempted murder of Ukrainian journalist Tetiana Chornovol on 25 December 2013. They called him a "perpetrator" and linked his name to the bloody events of the government strike against the Euromaidan. Considering all Medvedchuk's recent activity directed at pushing Ukraine into economic union with Russia, the Euromaidan activists came to one of the Medvedchuks' villas to protest. The next day, the Ukrayinska Pravda newspaper published an investigative article on Medvedchuk's allegedly illegal takeover of a government property back in 2004, while Head of Administration for the Ukrainian president. The source of the information was named as Mykhailo Chechetov (the state property chief at the time), who had been "forced" (in his own words) to help Medvedchuk in that deal.

On 8 January 2014, Medvedchuk won a slander lawsuit against Oksana Zabuzhko. In an interview with Radio Liberty the writer had accused Medvedchuk of involvement in the provocations against Euromaidan on 30 November – 1 December (Medvedchuk had demanded a token amount of ₴0.25 as a compensation).

Medvedchuk stated on 9 January 2014 that "The absence of the translation of the text of the [EU] Association Agreement, the provision of excessive asymmetric privileges to European manufacturers – all this indicates that the EU was preparing to turn the Ukrainian economy into its raw material appendage".

Alleged involvement in the 2014 separatist movements and Russo-Ukrainian War

On 17 March 2014 the United States placed Medvedchuk on its sanction list to punish him for his alleged role during the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea. Since the March 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia, Crimea is under dispute by Russia and Ukraine. In an August 2016 interview with Radio Svoboda, Medvedchuk stated that from a legal point of view, Crimea is part of Ukraine, "but de facto, unfortunately, it belongs to Russia." In May 2021 Medvedchuk claimed he was first authorized for these negotiations by acting Ukrainian president Oleksandr Turchynov, and later by President Poroshenko. This was immediately denied by Turchynov.

On 24 June 2014, the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) informed the OSCE that Medvedchuk was appointed their representative in the negotiations with the Ukrainian Government. On 8 July 2014, self-proclaimed Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic Alexander Borodai stated that Medvedchuk "has no right to represent either the Donetsk People's Republic or the Luhansk People's Republic" and that he was a "mediator in the negotiations". About the negotiations, Medvedchuk wrote on his Facebook page on 28 June 2014, "Hope that a compromise will be found has appeared and we'll manage to find a way of the present situation, retaining the territorial integrity of Ukraine and restoring peace".

On 8 July 2014, it was reported that Medvedchuk would not be involved in further negotiations with the separatists. However, in December 2014, he officially received the status of a negotiator from Ukraine on the exchange of prisoners with the separatists. He became Ukraine's special representative for humanitarian affairs in the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine on 5 June 2015. In June 2021 Petro Poroshenko claimed that Medvedchuk had been involved in the prisoner exchange negotiations on the insistence of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

In an August 2016 interview with Radio Free Europe, Medvedchuk urged the Ukrainian authorities to "reach a consensus" directly with the militant leadership ("DPR" and "LPR"), because, according to him, "there is no other way to return these territories".

In a 2018 interview with The Independent, Medvedchuk claimed that the United States was interfering in the affairs of what he called the "brotherly" nations Ukraine and Russia. In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party won 37 seats on the nationwide party list and 6 constituency seats. This non-fiction book details the criminal case of Ukrainian poet Vasyl Stus who was imprisoned by the Soviet Union. Medvedchuk was the defence lawyer in the trial of Stus. Medvedchuk has denied the accusations.

On 11 May 2021, Medvedchuk and fellow Opposition Platform — For Life lawmaker Taras Kozak were named as suspects for alleged high treason and the illegal exploitation of natural resources in Ukraine's Russian-annexed Crimea. Three days later Medvedchuk was put under house arrest and fitted with an electronic tracking device. On 14 May 2021 Russian authorities began the process of liquidating the Russian company Novye Proekty which was allegedly used by Medvedchuk for his alleged illegal exploitations in Crimea.

In 2021, former president Petro Poroshenko was named as a co-suspect in the criminal case against Medvedchuk. Medvedchuk's house arrest was prolonged four times, which means that Medvedchuk was supposed to spend at least 10 months under house arrest, even though Ukrainian law allows for a maximum of six months' house arrest.

Medvedchuk and his business partner Kozak have money in Belarusian banks, which are controlled by business associates of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Aliaksei Aleksin and Mikalai Varabei.

In May 2021, Ukrainian media published recorded audio in which Medvedchuk congratulated the leader of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin on Victory Day and wished him further "victories". In addition, Medvedchuk stated that he was impressed by a military parade in Donetsk.

Sanctions On 17 March 2014 the United States placed Medvedchuk on its sanction list to punish him for his alleged role during the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea.

Medvedchuk was sanctioned by the UK government in 2022 in relation to the Russo-Ukrainian War.

On 13 February 2025, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy imposed sanctions on multiple oligarchs and individuals including Medvedchuk on suspicion of “high treason” and assisting a terrorist organization, particularly their role in compromising national security through unfavorable business agreements with Russia. The next day, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office announced the opening of criminal investigations against him and other sanctioned individuals.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

During a massive build-up of Russian troops around Ukraine's borders in the first weeks of 2022, Medvedchuk was one of two people (the other one being Oleg Tsaryov) identified by the United States intelligence community as a possible Kremlin-supported choice to lead a pro-Russia puppet Ukrainian government.

On the opening day of the invasion, 24 February 2022, some analysts expected that Putin may have wanted to install Medvedchuk as president of Ukraine if Russian forces captured Kyiv. According to sources by Ukrainska Pravda Ukrainian intelligence services believe that Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's national parliament) Ruslan Stefanchuk was to be deposed on 27 February 2022 and Medvedchuk would have become chairman in the place of Stefanchuk (In order to make this plan (Medvedchuk becoming Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's national parliament)) a reality he would have needed 226 votes from his fellow MP's while his own party Opposition Platform — For Life had only 44 seats and no allies in parliament.) In 2025, Zelenskyy said that he received an ultimatum from Putin in the early days of the invasion demanding that he step down as president in favor of Medvedchuk.

On 26 February 2022 Medvedchuk managed to prevent the expulsion of Illia Kyva from the parliamentary faction of Opposition Platform — For Life (Kyva had expressed his public support for the Russian invasion).

On 8 March 2022, Medvedchuk was deprived of the post of co-chairman of the political party Opposition Platform — For Life. (On 22 March 2022 Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova stated that there was no official information as to Medvedchuk having crossed the Ukrainian border.) Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a photo of Medvedchuk in handcuffs wearing a Ukrainian military uniform. Zelenskyy suggested exchanging Medvedchuk for Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russia, but on 13 April Russian officials refused this offer. Medvedchuk had never left Kyiv, but had been hiding in a luxurious three-story house near Protasiv Yar.

On 18 April 2022 Medvedchuk released an appeal to the Presidents of Russia and Ukraine to be exchanged for Ukrainian troops and civilians who were trapped in the Siege of Mariupol. The following day Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov stated that Medvedchuk's appeal "has been seen, and there is no reaction [from the Kremlin] for the time being."

On 21 September 2022, as part of a prisoner swap, Ukraine handed over Medvedchuk and 55 Russian prisoners of war to Russia per the Security Service of Ukraine; Russia in turn handed over 215 Also freed were foreign volunteers serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner, Brahim Saadoun — who were condemned to death by a tribunal set by the Donetsk People's Republic. The swap was brokered by Saudi Arabia. The swap caused controversy in Russia among hardliners and pro-war supporters, as Russian officials had previously been against the exchange of Azov Regiment members, with State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin in June calling them "Nazi criminals" who must be brought to justice, the Embassy of Russia in the United Kingdom tweeted in July that the fighters should be hanged adding “They deserve a humiliating death.” and the Russian government designating it as a terrorist group in August, allowing for harsher punishments for captured fighters under Russian law.

On 10 January 2023, Medvedchuk was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship alongside three other people's deputies.

Medvedchuk's term as People's Deputy of Ukraine was terminated by parliament on 13 January 2023. 320 members of parliament voted to strip Medvedchuk of his position as a people's deputy. In December 2023 a branch of "Different Ukraine", who claimed to be an international organisation, was opened in Serbia.

In March 2024, the Czech Republic accused Medvedchuk of financing a pro-Russia propaganda network under the media outlet Voice of Europe that paid European politicians in cash or cryptocurrency in an attempt to influence elections.

In exile Medvedchuk lost his right to practice law in Ukraine. He appealed his disbarment, but his appeal was rejected by a court on 9 February 2024 and on 11 June 2024 by a higher court. In this proposal Putin stated that the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblast and Ukrainian non-aligned status would "bring an end" to "the conflict",

Personal life Family Medvedchuk has been married three times. He is divorced from Marina Lebedeva and Natalya Gavrilyuk. Since 2021 Daryna is studying at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia.

Five days before the 24 February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Medvedchuk's wife, Oksana Marchenko, left for Belarus. She later published a video from Moscow.

In February 2023 Medvedchuk confirmed that following his 21 September 2022 prisoner exchange he has lived in Moscow, Russia.

Relationship with Vladimir Putin In Ukraine, Medvedchuk is considered an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

In an August 2016 Radio Svoboda interview, Medvedchuk stated that his relationship with Putin was helping him to "help the interests of (Ukraine)."

In a 2019 interview with filmmaker Oliver Stone, Putin did acknowledge that he was godfather to Medvedchuk's daughter.