The Kremlin’s Trojan horse in Ukrainian politics expands his possessions.
The family of controversial politician Viktor Medvedchuk, leader of the pro-Russian Opposition Platform party, turned out to be a shareholder of the prominent Ukrainian TV channel 1+1, the major stake in which belongs to Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.
A recent investigation by Ukrainian journalists revealed, based on the lawmaker’s asset declaration for 2019, that a company called Bolvik Ventures Ltd., registered in the Brit-ish Virgin Islands, owns nearly 25% of shares of 1+1. The company is partly owned by Medvedchuk’s wife, celebrity TV host Oksana Marchenko as Medvedchuk is under the U.S. sanctions.
Influence over 1+1
Changes in the editorial policy of the 1+1 TV channel are palpable. It is involved in spreading the most disgusting fakes in line with Russian propaganda.
1+1 is the oldest private TV channel in Ukraine. It appeared in the mid‑1990s on the frequencies of the Second Ukrainian Channel of Soviet television, known as UT‑2.
The founders of 1+1 were cousins Alexander Rodnyansky and Boris Fuchsman. Later they involved Ronald Lauder, an heir to the Estée Lauder Companies, ex-ambassador of U.S. to Austria and the president of the World Jewish Congress, into the business.
The channel played a leading role in all the revolutionary events in the last 25 years of Ukraine’s history. But now 1+1 is facing the biggest challenge — how to preserve the remnants of objectivity when they have Vladimir Putin’s friend among the shareholders.
Medvedchuk’s secret influence on 1+1 was first uncovered back in the 1990s when he allegedly helped it to avoid problems with licenses. For this, 1+1’s editorial stand was pro-government. On the eve of the dramatic 2004 presidential election, the channel became the mouthpiece of pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych and his shadow chief of staff Medvedchuk, former head of the Presidential Administration.
Collecting media assets
Perhaps it was then that Medvedchuk realized the importance of “collecting” media assets, which now prompts him to purchase TV channels with the money of unknown origin. Those channels almost instantly become a mouthpiece of the Kremlin propaganda.
If we go back to the year 2004, we will see a lot of similar processes, which are now scaled to global proportions.
In 2004, Medvedchuk, as head of Leonid Kuchma’s presidential administration, began to introduce in Ukraine a system of media manipulation technologies, known in Russian as “temniks” — a word derived from the word “theme” — an instruction from the authorities which is disseminated among the media. A temnik tells which stories to cover, who is to be treated positively, who should have negative coverage and who should be altogether ignored. They were introduced in Ukraine by a group of Russian political consultants led by Marat Gelman and Gleb Pavlovsky.
Attacking George Soros
And, not surprisingly, one of the first to experience the Kremlin’s temnik was George Soros, who had been demonized on a global scale over the past 15 years. When he arrived in Kyiv in 2004, he was represented in the media as “an exporter of the Velvet Revolutions,” and Medvedchuk’s hired supporters threw condoms filled with mayonnaise at the American philanthropist. Militants of the right-wing radical organization Bratstvo claimed responsibility for this. Their leader hosted a propaganda show on 1+1 under Medvedchuk’s protection, where he was mocking the then pro-European presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko.
As a result, Soros promised to discuss with the American owner of the channel Ronald Lauder the use of the 1+1 channel in Ukraine’s internal political wars.
“I see common features between (Boris) Berezovsky and Medvedchuk. These people are not in business, they are demanding money from other entrepreneurs, in exchange allowing them to work,” Soros told me in an interview that was published on the Ukrainska Pravda website in April 2004.
Tymoshenko switches
It’s interesting that Yulia Tymoshenko used to defend Soros. Back then, she was trying to appeal to pro-Western voters.
“At the initiative of the presidential administration, a campaign was organized to discredit and create a negative image of George Soros in the eyes of the public,” said Tymoshenko.
She changed her stance later. Today, Tymoshenko sides with Medvedchuk, spreading the myths about global financial speculators trying to destroy Ukraine and profit off it.
It is also interesting that Medvedchuk even took money from the Soros Foundation in Ukraine once — $87,500 for a project of training lawyers in the organization he heads.
Medvedchuk lost in 2004 as a wave of the Orange Revolution swept the country in a movement that overturned the rigged election of his candidate Yanukovych. The 1+1 journalists went live to apologize for the lies they had been spreading for several years.
Poroshenko helps
After that fiasco, Medvedchuk disappeared from politics for 10 years and was rehabilitated only under the rule of Petro Poroshenko. I described his rise in my previous op-ed in Kyiv Post.
Having accumulated resources for a political comeback, Medvedchuk became the leader of the pro-Russian Opposition Platform For Life party, converting money, connections, and TV channels into political influence.
As a lawmaker, Medvedchuk was required to publish an electronic asset declaration under the Ukrainian disclosure system, which is one of the most advanced in the world. That is how the scale of Medvedchuk’s empire became clear. Medvedchuk’s wife’s company co-owns two TV channels — 1+1 and 2+2.
NewsOne, 112, ZIK
At the same time, he is suspected to control three TV stations — NewsOne, 112 and ZIK — through their owner and his ally, Taras Kozak, No. 10 on the Opposition Platform party list.
Medvedchuk’s lawyer said that back in 2012, his offshore company Beresintio Investments Ltd. bought another company that owns a third of the shares of the third offshore company Bolvik Ventures Ltd., which indirectly owns shares of a few TV stations. Officially, Oksana Marchenko owns 8.22% of the 1+1 shares and 8.17% of shares of its sister TV channel TET.
‘Dancing with the Stars’
In Ukraine, television is unprofitable but crucial in influencing voters. At first, Medvedchuk’s manifestations on 1+1 were quite inconspicuous — yes, his wife Marchenko in 2018 unexpectedly took part in the show “Dancing with the Stars” on 1+1.
Her appearance was marred by a scandal — the 1+1’s newsroom protested Marchenko’s participation, accusing her of pro-Russian views. Forty journalists signed an appeal to drop her from the show. It didn’t happen.
Now, when it became clear that Marchenko and Medvedchuk are employers of 1+1 TV channel journalists, they did not protest in any way.
Kolomoisky turns
The reason here is not just the fear of losing a job amid an economic crisis. Kolomoisky himself also significantly changed his public stance. While five years ago he positioned himself as a savior of Ukraine from Russian aggression and called Vladimir Putin a “schizophrenic,” he now actively calls for reconciliation with Russia and echoes Medvedchuk’s anti-Western rhetoric.
Moreover, there is an exchange of information messages on 1+1 with those of Medvedchuk’s media holding. Lawmakers from Kolomoisky’s group are constantly speaking at Medvedchuk’s channels — for instance, Oleksandr Dubinsky who promotes the anti-Western, anti-European and oligarchic agenda for Ukraine.
Touting Kremlin line
The 1+1 channel has been increasingly promoting the Kremlin’s “temniks” in recent months. One example came in May when lawmaker Andriy Derkach released recordings of former President Poroshenko and former U. S. Vice President Joe Biden discussing the dismissal of then-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. When the story didn’t get much attention because it didn’t reveal anything new, it was decided to give it a boost by discussing it at the 1+1’s main political show.
Anti-US fake news
Besides, 1+1 recently embarrassed itself by spreading an obviously fake story about the alleged presence of 15 American military biological labs in Ukraine that develop new viruses that are tested on Ukrainians.
The story, which aired on 1+1, was based on Medvedchuk’s statement about the existence of the laboratories. It was shared by a handful of pro-Russian media — and by 1+1. Needless to say, the U.S. embassy in Ukraine has denied that any such labs existed in Ukraine.
This is a very alarming situation for Ukraine. The Kremlin will benefit from adding one of the flagships of Ukrainian television — 1+1 TV channel — to the ranks of its propaganda mouthpieces in Ukraine.
In the future, we might see 1+1 promoting more narratives from Medvedchuk, which are designed to trigger anti-Western sentiment in Ukraine, promote the idea of reconciliation with Putin on his terms, and preserve the oligarchic status quo.
Time for sanctions
It feels like we as a country got a time machine and returned to the past.
A solution to this problem should be the active participation of our foreign partners in the fight against fake news and spreading anti-Western narratives.
The main participants should be targeted by personal sanctions — not only by visa denials but also by expanding the Magnitsky List which targets human rights violators and corruption figures. It should include people like Kolomoisky, his accomplice lawmakers, such as Oleksandr Dubinsky, as well as Medvedchuk and his wife, whose name was used to obscure the assets of this representative of Kremlin in Ukrainian politics.
Sergii Leshchenko is a Kyiv Post columnist, investigative journalist, and former member of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament.
