Tapes released by the Bihus.info investigative journalism project on June 7 revealed new information on relations between ex-President Petro Poroshenko and pro-Kremlin lawmaker Viktor Medvedchuk.
Specifically, Medvedchuk has allegedly discussed introducing an intermediary company, believed to be controlled by Poroshenko, into Ukrainian power supplies to the Russian-annexed Crimea. Medvedchuk has also allegedly delayed a prisoner of war exchange with Russia and its proxies in order to help Poroshenko stage a publicity stunt with a Ukrainian prisoner, Bihus.info reported.
The tapes show that Medvedchuk has mostly promoted the Kremlin’s interests in prisoner of war exchanges and did not do much to exchange prisoners – something that he has claimed is his main goal in his talks with the Kremlin.
Moreover, Medvedchuk held negotiations on natural gas supplies with Russia on Poroshenko’s behalf, according to the tapes.
Spokespeople for Poroshenko and Medvedchuk denied the accusations of wrongdoing.
“An unknown source leaked something to Bihus, and everyone who addresses me is not concerned with the reliability of all of this and the legal basis for these (audio) files,” Medvedchuk’s spokesman Oleh Babanin told the Kyiv Post.
“As far as the natural gas talks in 2014 are concerned, then Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan confirmed that the Ukrainian delegation was in constant contact with Poroshenko but the president did not pressure the negotiators,” Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party told the Kyiv Post.
Power supplies
In 2014 Medvedchuk held talks with top Russian officials on Russian power supplies to Ukraine and Ukrainian power supplies to the Russian-annexed Crimea, according to the tapes. Specifically, he wanted a company allegedly controlled by Poroshenko and his former business partner Kostyantyn Grigorishin to be an intermediary in the supplies.
“This is not my company – it’s a company (the name of which) the president (Poroshenko) gave us,” Medvedchuk told Dmitry Kozak, then a Russian deputy prime minister and now a deputy chief of staff for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. “The president called me yesterday night and asked me to organize certain things… This is Grigorishin’s company.”
Medvedchuk also arranged sending Grigorishin for talks on power supplies with Russia.
Grigorishin admitted in 2015 that he had taken part in Russian-Ukrainian talks on power supplies and had good relations with Russian state power firm Inter RAO. However, he declined to comment on the Medvedchuk tapes.
Eventually the information on the plans to introduce Grigorishin’s company for the electricity supplies was leaked to the media, and Poroshenko announced in December 2014 that there would be no intermediary.
When asked for comment, Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party told the Kyiv Post: “Bihus.info journalists themselves admit that the power supply contract in the fall of 2014 was concluded directly without any intermediaries.”
Prisoners of war
Medvedchuk also delayed exchanging Andriy Grechanov with the nom-de-guerre Rakhman, a Ukrainian soldier and prisoner of war, for Russian officer Vladimir Starkov for several months in August-November 2015, according to the tapes. Medvedchuk was trying to prevent Ukrainian racing driver and negotiator Oleksiy Mochanov from arranging Grechanov’s exchange and delay it in order to let Poroshenko take the credit for the exchange and organize it the way he wanted it, the tapes show.
In September 2015 Starkov was sentenced by a Ukrainian court to 14 years in jail for waging an aggressive war against Ukraine. Poroshenko pardoned him and announced his exchange for Grechanov at a highly publicized meeting with the Ukrainian soldier in December.
“Two national leaders (a reference to Poroshenko and Putin) have reached an agreement,” Medvedchuk told Vladimir Kononov, a Russian proxy leader in Donetsk. “I negotiated for several weeks and then this Mochanov guy comes up.”
“It’s the first decree on pardoning a person linked to the Donbas crisis,” Medvedchuk continued. “We are setting a precedent for the future, and someone is trying (to prevent it). Mochanov is against the authorities and now he may start attacking the head of state (Poroshenko).”
Medvedchuk’s fall from grace
Medvedchuk is a personal friend of Putin, who is the godfather of his daughter. The lawmaker has long been the unofficial representative of Putin’s interests in Ukraine.
Medvedchuk, the co-leader of the pro-Kremlin Opposition Platform – For Life party, and his ally, lawmaker Taras Kozak, were charged with high treason on May 11, dealing a blow to the Kremlin’s lobby in Ukraine.
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.
The recent treason charges against them are the latest step in Ukraine’s crackdown on Medvedchuk and his interests. It began in early February, when the government sanctioned Kozak and shut down three of his television channels that Medvedchuk allegedly controlled.
Sanctions against Medvedchuk, both opposition leaders’ spouses and businesses soon followed. The state ordered the nationalization of one of Medvedchuk’s most prized possessions — an oil pipeline that used to belong to Ukraine.
