Amid fighting in the second month of the Russian invasion, a video released this Monday (18) by the Armed Forces of Ukraine is drawing attention. It shows billionaire businessman Viktor Medvedchuk, who was arrested by Kiev troops last week and is urging the Russian government to trade his freedom for the lives of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.
On the same day, Russian public television broadcast video of two detainees identified as Britons Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin. In the footage, the two men arrested by Russian forces ask British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to negotiate their release in exchange for oligarch Medvedchuk.
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The man at the center of this hostage swap is a Ukrainian businessman close to Vladimir Putin. According to Forbes Ukraine magazine, he is one of the richest people in the country with a fortune of R$3 billion (US$620 million).
Medvedchuk was considered the top man in the Russian government in Kyiv and one of the major supporters of the proRussian movement in Crimea and Donbass.
A loyal ally, part of the family
The 67yearold billionaire has had close ties with Vladimir Putin since the early 2000s, when the current Kremlin chief took office.
The Ukrainian lawyer “was always very close to Vladimir Putin and for a long time was his adviser on Ukrainian affairs,” explains Russian geopolitics expert and professor at the University of Montpellier Carole Grimaud Potter.
Medvedchuk boasts that he has Putin as a godfather to one of his daughters. A familial relationship that “in this clan culture that characterizes the postSoviet republics, implies bonds of loyalty and friendship that go well beyond the formal bond,” according to a report by the newspaper Le Monde.
The billionaire and the Russian President have been photographed together on numerous occasions over the years, often attending lavish events such as the Formula 1 race in Sochi.
In this July 18, 2019 file photo, Ukrainian business tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk, left, speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia — Photo: Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/Pool of the Kremlin via AP
In this July 18, 2019 file photo, Ukrainian business tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk (left) speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting in Saint Petersburg, Russia — Photo: Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/Pool of the Kremlin via AP
The businessman, who belongs to the Kiev tycoon clan, got into politics and was elected a member of the Ukrainian parliament in the late 1990s government as Putin’s eyes and ears.
After the defeat of proRussian presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych, the businessman is accused of abuse of power and money laundering and retires from politics, but returns in 2012 and denounces rapprochement between Ukraine and the European Union.
The entrepreneur then founded the proRussian party “Opposition Platform for Life”, which had around 30 MPs in parliament by the beginning of the war.
Medvedchuk also controlled three television stations in Ukraine that the Zelenskyi government accused of spreading Russian propaganda in the country.
In 2021 the stations were closed and identified as “one of the tools of war against Ukraine”. The Kiev government also hijacked his family’s assets, including a pipeline carrying Russian oil to Europe.
From the accused to the prisoner of war
3 of 3 Oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk is pictured in the office of the President of Ukraine, April 12, 2022 — Photo: Presidential Office of Ukraine via AP
Oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk is pictured in the office of the President of Ukraine, April 12, 2022 — Photo: Presidential Office of Ukraine via AP
In May 2021, the businessman was charged with Ukrainian state treason and attempted theft of Crimean goods and placed under house arrest in Kyiv despite denying the crimes.
Earlier this year, while a Russian invasion was just one possibility, the United States accused Medvedchuk of being linked to Russian intelligence agencies and cited him as a possible name to take power in the country should the Putin administration occupy it.
After the Russian invasion in February, the businessman managed to flee his home in Kyiv and was missing for more than a month while the war ravaged entire Ukrainian cities.
However, last Tuesday (December 12), Ukrainian secret services found the tycoon in his hiding place and announced his arrest with a photo showing him thinly dressed in military clothing.
Ukrainian armed forces celebrated the arrest: “You can be a proRussian politician and work for the aggressor state for years. you can run away You can even wear a Ukrainian uniform to go unnoticed. But does that help you avoid punishment? Absolutely not,” reads the text published on the Telegram app after his arrest.
Despite the text promising his punishment, the prisoner was subsequently offered by the President of Ukraine as a bargaining chip for soldiers and civilians detained in Russia. On the 54th day of fighting, the offer called for the release of the Ukrainians in Mariupol who were surrounded by the Russian army.
For the specialist Grimaud Potter, the proposal could have repercussions. “I think Putin would be interested in this exchange because Medvedchuk is a close friend,” he says, “but maybe he wants to buy time and not do it under Ukrainian pressure, but do the exchange at a different time, under different circumstances. ” , he thinks. .