Lawmaker Viktor Medvedchuk, who was charged with treason, denies wrongdoing and says that the charges against him are politically motivated.
Medvedchuk arrived at the Prosecutor General’s Office on May 12, making his first public appearance since he was charged on the day before.
“I’m not planning on hiding from law enforcement and I’m ready to defend myself because I don’t feel guilty,” he said. “Everything that is going on, it’s political repressions against me as an (opposition) party leader.”
Medvedchuk co-leads the 44-member pro-Kremlin Opposition Platform – For Life faction in parliament. He is even better known as a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his unofficial representative in Ukraine.
On May 11, Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova signed charges against Medvedchuk and his ally Taras Kozak, another lawmaker with the Opposition Platform. The prosecution alleges high treason.
Medvedchuk and Kozak are suspected of colluding with the Russian government to extract natural resources in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that has been illegally occupied by Russia since the 2014 military invasion.
According to Venediktova, after Russia annexed Crimea, Medvedchuk re-registered his Kyiv-based company according to Russian laws to continue extracting gas in the peninsula. She demonstrated audio tapes that allegedly show Medvedchuk discussing the details of it with Putin’s deputy chief of staff Dmitry Kozak. Kozak allegedly told Medvedchuk that the company needs to be re-registered to a Russian citizen, and Medvedchuk agrees to do it.
The oil and gas field that Medvedchuk’s company allegedly worked is estimated to be worth Hr 38 billion, according to Venediktova. It is known as the “Hlyboke” oil and gas field and is located in the eastern part of Crimea.
Medvedchuk allegedly shared geological information that helped Russia begin extracting resources in Crimea.
Medvedchuk first said that he “can’t comment about any gas fields” because he didn’t read the charges against him yet, but then denied working the “Hlyboke” gas field in Crimea.
“I’ve never heard of this field and I’m not involved in it,” he said on May 12.
There are two other charges against Medvedchuk.
According to Ivan Bakanov, head of Ukraine’s Security Service, Medvedchuk also shared sensitive security information with Putin’s deputy chief of staff Kozak.
He allegedly shared the location of Ukrainian troops in Donbas, where they were fighting off Russia’s intervention.
“This is absurd, absurd!” Medvedchuk said about this accusation.
In a separate case, Medvedchuk allegedly hired Ukrainians to spread Russian propaganda in Ukraine.
Medvedchuk said that he didn’t listen to the tapes, released by the prosecution, that allegedly record his conversations with Dmitry Kozak. But he confirmed that he “frequently talks with Kozak.”
Between 2008 and 2020, Dmitry Kozak was Russia’s deputy prime minister responsible for overseeing occupied Crimea. He is not related to Taras Kozak, a Ukrainian lawmaker and Medvedchuk’s ally, who was also charged with treason.
Taras Kozak didn’t yet react to the charges. According to Bakanov, he is currently in Russia and isn’t planning on coming back to Ukraine.
The charges against Medvedchuk and Taras Kozak are the newest step in an ongoing offensive against Medvedchuk. In February, the state imposed sanctions against Kozak and shut down three television channels – Channel 112, NewsOne and ZIK – owned by Kozak and reportedly linked to Medvedchuk.
The state followed up by introducing sanctions against Medvedchuk, their spouses and businesses, and ordered to nationalize one of Medvedchuk’s most prized possessions — an oil pipeline that used to belong to Ukraine.
