A high fence and grim-faced armed guards are the first things one sees on arriving at the Kyiv headquarters of the newly created Ukrainian opposition party Nashi (Ours).
Inside, party founder and presidential candidate Yevgeniy Murayev presents a more welcoming picture – he is polite, educated and soft-spoken. At first glance, one could take him for a Western-style democrat, from the same mold as many young Ukrainian politicians.
In fact, however, Murayev is firmly in the pro-Russian camp of the Ukrainian opposition. Moreover, he is its bad boy.
He left the Opposition Bloc to form an alliance with Vadym Rabinovich and his populist party Za Zhyttya (For Life), but then fell out with Rabinovich in the autumn of 2018. He promptly founded Nashi and nominated himself for the presidency.
Never one of the party leaders, Murayev still had more influence than regular lawmakers – mostly due to his ownership of NewsOne, a news-and-views TV station that has often got in trouble for pushing a pro-Russian agenda – and criticizing the pro-Western Ukrainian authorities. He sold it in
October and immediately launched a new station, Nash (Our).
For patriotic and pro-Western Ukrainians, Murayev is an opponent.
His views often coincide with the Kremlin’s propaganda: he has called the Russia-backed war in eastern Ukraine a “civil war,” the EuroMaidan Revolution a coup d’etat, and referred to Oleg Sentsov, the Ukrainian jailed in Russia for opposing the seizure of Crimea, as a terrorist. All of these Kremlin propaganda claims are false.
Still, parroting the Kremlin’s propaganda has won him 3.4 percent support from Ukrainian voters, according to early February polls. He shares the field with at least two other pro-Russian candidates – Oleksandr Vilkul and Yuriy Boyko.
Yevgeniy Murayev (R) takes part in a political show on his TV channel Nash in February 2019. (Courtesy of Nash TV channel)
Big break-up
On Nov. 20, 2018, a tectonic split hit the 38-member Opposition Bloc faction. Influential lawmakers Yuriy Boyko and Serhiy Lyovochkin were expelled from the faction.
The party was reportedly backed by Ukrainian billionaire oligarchs Rinat Akhmetov and Dmytro Firtash, and Ukrainian analysts were unanimous in saying that the split was evidence of a disagreement between the two men. Akhmetov and Firtash have not commented on the issue.
The split gave birth to two presidential candidates: Akhmetov’s former employee and ex-deputy prime minister Vilkul, representing the Opposition Bloc, and ex-energy minister Boyko, who entered an alliance with the notorious pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk.
According to Murayev, who watched it all from the front-row seat, Medvedchuk played a key role in the split.
Medvedchuk entered Za Zhyttya, a party led by the duet of Murayev and Rabinovich, in the summer of 2018.
During the summer, Opposition Bloc and Za Zhyttya were negotiating an alliance and a single candidate, but failed. Za Zhyttya went with Boyko, while the Opposition Bloc preferred Vilkul.
Today, Murayev blames Medvedchuk for the split.
“Everything he touches has no political future,” he said of his former ally. “Everything collapses and fades, birds stop singing.”
Medvedchuk, in his turn, says that Murayev didn’t want to join forces with Opposition Bloc because of his personal ambitions.
“It’s his right to have his position,” Medvedchuk said in October on Russian television. “I think his behavior is wrong, but I’m sure he would disagree.”
In September, Murayev left Za Zhyttya.
“Rabinovych and Medvedchuk turned the party into a financial project and means of satisfying their personal and financial ambitions, not an ideological platform,” he says.
He claims that his former partners struck a secret deal with President Petro Poroshenko, preparing Boyko as a fake opponent to go with Poroshenko in the presidential election runoff.
Poroshenko’s administration and spokesman didn’t answer requests to comment for this story.
Rabinovych denies these accusations. He has no kind words for his ex-partner, either. He calls his statements “absurd” and his new party Nashi “a cult.”
President, Medvedchuk
Murayev drops quiet hints that Medvedchuk has ties and common business interests with Poroshenko.
“We don’t have an embassy in Russia, but business still goes across borders. It cannot take place without two sides, and we have only one postman who tells Poroshenko what Putin wants, and who tells Putin what Poroshenko wants,” Murayev said.
The theme of Poroshenko and Medvedchuk’s alleged dealings arose in November. Back then, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty published an investigation showing that the two had several meetings. The meetings took place late at night, and at least one happened in Poroshenko’s private residence outside Kyiv.
While Medvedchuk is largely shunned by mainstream politicians due to his openly pro-Russian stance and friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he still enjoys a privileged position in Ukraine. For instance, while all direct flights between Ukraine and Russia are forbidden, and even private jets have to make a stop in Minsk, Medvedchuk’s jet is permitted to fly directly between the two countries.
Poroshenko said that he was meeting with Medvedchuk to discuss prisoner exchanges with Russia. The same explanation is given for the politician’s direct flights. However, there have been no prisoner exchanges since 2017.
Now Murayev claims Medvedchuk and Poroshenko have struck a deal to set up Boyko against Poroshenko in the election runoff, calculating that Poroshenko, who polls second or third in the race, would surely win against a pro-Russian candidate. Boyko is supported by 10.4 percent of the voters, according to the poll by the Rating Group, published in late January.
“It is beneficial for him (Medvedchuk) if Poroshenko stays president, since he will have a favorable business climate,” said Murayev.
But some don’t believe that Murayev fell out with Medvedchuk due to ideological or moral disagreements.
Yevhen Mahda, a Ukrainian political analyst and the executive director of the Institute of World Policy, is skeptical as well.
“I don’t think that Murayev criticizes Medvedchuk because of ideological differences. He is more likely just envious of the level of the Putin ally’s influence,” Mahda told the Kyiv Post.
Media wars
Murayev sold his TV channel NewsOne to Taras Kozak, a lawmaker with the Opposition Bloc and a member of Medvedchuk’s Ukrainskiy Vybor movement, in October. According to Kozak’s declaration, he paid about $1.5 million for the station.
Due to Kozak’s affiliation with Medvedchuk, Ukrainian media and experts immediately attributed the real ownership to Medvedchuk, which Medvedchuk has denied. The channel has been covering Medvedchuk positively – and has been giving positive coverage to Poroshenko as well.
And in April 2018, another news-based station, Channel 112, was sold to an obscure German citizen who months later resold it – to Kozak.
Medvedchuk’s appearances spiked on the station, again leading many to believe he was the real owner.
Today, Murayev claims it’s true: Medvedchuk is the de facto owner of both stations.
After the sale, Murayev was shut off from NewsOne, where he used to appear often. He says he didn’t expect it to happen. Channel 112 won’t invite him on either, according to Murayev.
But Murayev claims another media market rumor is true as well: He says that Pryamiy, a news-and-views TV channel launched in 2017, de facto belongs to Poroshenko. Poroshenko has denied this in the past. He officially owns only Channel 5, another news station.
Officially, Pryamiy channel belongs to a Cyprus company Parlimo Trading Limited, which belongs to Volodymyr Makeienko, a former member of the pro-Russian Party of Regions. Makeenko denies having any connection with Poroshenko.
“Look at what the hosts on Channel 5 and Pryamiy do – they inflame the processes that divide Ukraine and praise the actions of the current failed president and his government,” Murayev said.
The only megaphone that Murayev can use now is his new project launched in November – a TV channel called Nash, which is consonant with the name of his new party.
Looking far ahead
Murayev is a long shot in the presidential election: His current rating (as of Feb. 4) is 3.4 percent, according to Sociological Group Rating.
But he’s still in the running – as a strategic move for the long term – Murayev is preparing for the parliamentary elections in October, according to political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko.
“Murayev decided to step into the presidential elections when he saw that his personal ratings allow him to fight for a result close to five percent. This means that his personal party could enter the Verkhovna Rada,” Fesenko told the Kyiv Post, referring to the five-percent threshold that a party needs to cross to win seats in parliament.
Murayev’s party could win around 18-19 places in parliament if it passes the five-percent threshold, Fesenko predicts.
“It doesn’t matter that the faction will be small – it will be his own one. That’s the most important thing for Murayev – to gain a foothold in these elections as an independent political leader,” said Fesenko.
If the Nashi party enters parliament, Murayev claims he wouldn’t seek alliances or merge with any parties – despite his own rich record of forming alliances.
“No one is close to us. We must unite not with people, but around ideas, laws and goals,” said Murayev.
Still, he sounds as if he might be flexible.
“If I see people who really want to end the conflict, really remove the political speculative component from the government, then we will vote for that,” he said.
