SPECIAL REPORT: Ukraine imposes sanctions on Putin ally Viktor Medvedchuk
KYIV, FEB 21: Ukraine has imposed sanctions on Viktor Medvedchuk, a close
friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and leader of Kyiv’s main pro-Russia
party.
Announcing the measures imposed by presidential order late
on Friday, Ukraine’s national security chief Oleksiy Danilov said Medvedchuk
and seven other sanctioned individuals, including his wife Oksana Marchenko, as
well as 19 companies associated with the group, were suspected of “financing
terrorism” against the Ukrainian state.
“Sanctions are imposed on assets which belong to Mr
Medvedchuk,” Danilov said. Property controlled by him and the other associates,
who included five Russian citizens, would be seized, Danilov added.
The sanctions threaten to increase tensions between Kyiv and
Moscow, which have been high since Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea and
subsequent role in a seven-year separatist war in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas
region.
Ivan Bakanov, head of Ukraine’s SBU state security service,
said the sanctions were imposed based on intelligence that the individuals and
companies were involved in smuggling coal from eastern regions controlled by
Russian-backed separatists. The ongoing investigation would “confirm financing
of terrorism”, he said.
Their activities also included funding three pro-Russia
domestic television channels that were shut down by Volodymyr Zelensky,
Ukraine’s president, earlier this month, Danilov said.
The TV channels — 112, NewsOne and ZIK — are legally owned
by businessman Taras Kozak, another pro-Russian MP in Ukraine's parliament and
an associate of Medvedchuk. The government imposed sanctions on Kozak himself
earlier this month.
Zelensky’s decision to take the channels off Ukrainian
airwaves for allegedly spreading pro-Russia “disinformation” was sharply
criticised by the Kremlin. But western countries refrained from comment, with
the US embassy in Kyiv saying in a statement this month only that “the US
supports Ukraine’s efforts . . . to counter Russia’s malign influence”.
Medvedchuk has described the shutdown as an act of
censorship intended to reverse Zelensky’s plunging poll ratings.
Kozak’s wife Natalia Lavrenyuk was among those sanctioned on Friday. Along with Medvedchuk’s wife, she owns several businesses in Ukraine and Russia.
Medvedchuk gave no immediate comment. He serves as an MP and
leader of the pro-Russia Ukrainian party Opposition Platform — For Life. Putin
is godfather to one of his daughters.
The sanctions are not expected to directly prohibit his
political activities, although seizure of the assets could curtail his
influence.
Assets to be seized from Medvedchuk include an oil pipeline
in western Ukraine and aircraft controlled by companies affiliated with the
oligarch and his associates, Danilov said.
According to Danilov, the sanctions come amid what he
described as a flare-up in the fighting in the east of Ukraine, which has so
far this year claimed the lives of 13 Ukrainian soldiers.
Kyiv and its western backers say the Kremlin fomented and fuels the war in the Donbas region, which has claimed more than 13,000 lives since erupting in 2014.
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