The family of controversial politician Viktor Medvedchuk, leader of the pro-Russian Opposition Platform party, owns nearly 25% in the prominent Ukrainian TV channel 1+1, an investigation by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty revealed on June 10.
The investigation, based on the lawmaker’s asset declaration for 2019, showed that a company called Bolvik Ventures Ltd., registered in the British Virgin Islands, owns 24.66% of shares of 1+1, one of Ukraine’s most popular TV channels.
The company belongs to Medvedchuk’s wife, celebrity TV host Oksana Marchenko.
Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who is the main shareholder of the 1+1 media group, told Radio Liberty that he did not know that Medvedchuk’s family owns part of his TV channel.
“It is news to me,” he said.
Kolomoisky added that Medvedchuk acquired the shares from Ihor Surkis, an influential Ukrainian businessman who used to co-own 1+1. The 1+1 website that discloses the company’s ownership in accordance with the Ukrainian legislation, still lists Marchenko’s company Bolvik Ventures Ltd. as belonging to Surkis.
The 1+1 Media is one of the biggest media holdings in Ukraine. It operates eight TV channels, including Channel 1+1, which airs popular TV shows, including the ones produced by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Kvartal 95 entertainment company.
The channel played an important role in Zelensky’s presidential campaign in spring 2019, covering his candidacy and showing reruns of his shows en masse. The channel has also often reflected the interests of Kolomoisky.
Medvedchuk’s wife’s company co-owns two biggest channels in the group, 1+1 and 2+2.
While those are the first TV channels that Medvedchuk owns officially, he is suspected to control three other stations — NewsOne, 112 and ZIK — through their owner, Taras Kozak, No. 10 on the Opposition Platform party list.
On the paper, Medvedchuk owns a law firm while his wife is the owner of nearly 100 companies, according to the politician’s declaration.
His wealth was estimated at $78 million in 2018, according to an index by Ukrainian news magazine Novoye Vremya.
A personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and an unofficial representative of Russia in Ukraine, Medvedchuk has been a longtime figure in Ukrainian politics.
In 2004, Putin became godfather to Medvedchuk’s daughter. Medvedchuk regularly visits Moscow and meets with Russian officials, positioning himself as a representative of the Russia-friendly part of the Ukrainian political scene.
He and his business partners acquired great wealth, including media assets and energy utilities, in the 1990s. He has also exerted strong control of Ukraine’s courts as a member of the Supreme Council of Justice, starting in 2008. He used to serve as the head of the presidential administration for ex-President Leonid Kuchma in the early 2000s.
Medvedchuk also boasted of having negotiated with Russian-led groups in the Donbas on the release of four Ukrainian prisoners of war.
His peace plan for ending the war calls for direct talks with Russian-backed leaders in the occupied territories, individuals whose authority Kyiv does not recognize. It also calls for the granting of autonomous status to the Donbas within Ukraine.
