With the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019 fast approaching, pro-Russian politicians, who kept a low profile after the EuroMaidan Revolution ousted Kremlin lackey Viktor Yanukovych as president, are reappearing.
They are like rats clambering back onto a ship saved from sinking. They are drawn by the scent of power and hope to take advantage of public disillusionment with Ukraine’s current leaders.
One such pro-Russian politician is Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, a friend of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and the leader of Ukrainian Choice, which despite its name is a pro-Russian political organization.
In fact, Medvedchuk never really went away. He has even been representing Ukraine in regular meetings on implementing the Minsk peace process. He is reputedly the only person in Ukraine who can fly directly to Russia — commercial flights were canceled in 2015.
That has kept his name in the news, but recently the oligarch has been increasing his public exposure: On Aug. 25, Medvedchuk gave a 90-minute interview to television channel 112, a business in which he is alleged to have a financial interest.
During the interview, Medvedchuk took a completely opposite position to that of the present authorities. He talked of restoring “brotherhood” with Russia. He accused Ukrainian officials of not implementing the Minsk peace process. He mocked Ukrainian government ministers as “jokes,” and he defended Russia’s failure to release a hunger-striking Ukrainian political prisoner, the filmmaker Oleg Sentsov.
In short, Medvedchuk lived up to his nickname of “the Prince of Darkness.”
And via the 112 interview, he was without doubt setting out his stall for the upcoming elections: Announcing that he is joining the For Life party headed by 2019 potential presidential candidate Vadym Rabynovych, Medvedchuk said he’d fight to “restore peace” with Russia. He might well do that, but by all indications he would do it by selling out Ukraine to the Kremlin again, as he and his ilk did under Yanukovych.
Ukrainian voters should not be fooled. Medvedchuk is Putin’s man. They should reject him and all the other pro-Russian politicians at the ballot box in 2019 — just as they rejected the Yanukovych regime on the streets of Kyiv in the bitter winter of 2013–2014.
