The Washington Post 28 February 2022 - by David L Stern
© AP/AP Ukrainian tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk, left, speaks to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow in October 2020.
MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin is godfather to his daughter. The two men vacation together and meet up to watch Formula One races.
Viktor Medvedchuk, leader of Ukraine’s most prominent Kremlin-friendly party, has leveraged his proximity to Putin to establish himself as one of Ukraine’s most influential behind-the-scenes political brokers for more than three decades. It also made him a very wealthy man: In 2021, Forbes magazine estimated he was worth $620 million.
But it’s his position as one of the Kremlin’s favourite Ukrainian politicians that may catapult him to prominence in the weeks to come.
Historic sanctions on Russia had roots in emotional appeal from Zelensky
If Moscow succeeds in occupying Ukraine, Medvedchuk’s Opposition Platform-For Life party may provide the pool of politicians from which the Kremlin will assemble a government more to its liking.
Medvedchuk has denied that the party is pro-Russian. Still, it pushes for closer political and economic ties with Moscow, and a number of its members parrot Kremlin talking points.
His relationship with Putin stretches back more than 20 years. Medvedchuk has visited the Russian leader at home in Moscow and Sochi, joining Putin to watch races and combat sambo tournaments.
After Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014, the U.S. government sanctioned Medvedchuk for “contributing to the current situation in Ukraine” and for leading an organization at the time that “engaged in actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in Ukraine.”
But when the conflict with Moscow-supported separatists ignited in eastern Ukraine months later, Ukrainian officials found Medvedchuk to be a useful go-between with the Kremlin who could pass messages to Russian officials and help negotiate prisoner exchanges with the militants.
This mediator role came to an abrupt end with Volodymyr Zelensky’s victory in Ukraine’s presidential elections in 2019. In February 2021, Zelensky signed a decree that accused Medvedchuk of financing terrorism, freezing his assets.
The decree also blocked transmission of three television stations that are associated with Medvedchuk and are accused of broadcasting pro-Kremlin propaganda.
In May, prosecutors accused Medvedchuk of high treason and placed him under house arrest.
Moscow condemned the moves, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling the treason charges a witch hunt. Putin said it was “an absolutely obvious purge of the political field” that could turn Ukraine into “a kind of anti-Russia.”
