Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk (; born 7 August 1954), also known as Viktor Vladimirovich Medvedchuk (), is a former Ukrainian lawyer, business oligarch, and politician who has lived in exile in Russia since September 2022 after being handed over to Russia in a prisoner exchange. Medvedchuk is a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician and a personal friend of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Viktor Medvedchuk: political legalization, Hromadske.TV (7 August 2018).
Prior to being deported from Ukraine, Medvedchuk was elected as People's Deputy of Ukraine on 29 August 2019. He served as the chairman of the pro-Russian political organization Ukrainian Choice from 2018 to 2022. He is an opponent of Ukraine joining the European Union.Kremlin-imposed "Ukrainian choice", The Ukrainian Week (3 July 2012).Playing opposition, Den (15 August 2013).Russia's Plan For Ukraine: Purported Leaked Strategy Document Raises Alarm, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (20 August 2013).
From 1997 to 2002 Medvedchuk was a member of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament). Medvedchuk served between 2002 and 2005 as chief of staff to then Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma. After this he was absent from national politics until 2018. In November 2018, Medvedchuk was elected chairman of the political council of the political party For Life, which later merged into the Opposition Platform — For Life party. In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party won 37 seats on the nationwide party list and six constituency seats.CEC counts 100 percent of vote in Ukraine's parliamentary elections, Ukrinform (26 July 2019). Results of the extraordinary elections of the People's Deputies of Ukraine 2019, Ukrayinska Pravda (21 July 2019). As he placed third on the 2019 election list of Opposition Platform — For Life, Medvedchuk was elected to the Verkhovna Rada.
On 19 February 2021, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine included Medvedchuk and his wife, Oksana Marchenko, on the Ukrainian sanctions list, due to alleged financing of terrorism. Youtube blocked the broadcast of Medvedchuk's channel, Ukrayinska Pravda (5 March 2021) On 11 May 2021, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine accused Medvedchuk of treason and attempted looting of national resources in Crimea (which had been annexed by Russia but remains internationally recognised as Ukrainian). Medvedchuk's house arrest started on 13 May 2021.Court gives permission to detain Kozak, Ukrayinska Pravda (20 May 2021) Medvedchuk escaped this house arrest on 28 February 2022, four days after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and went missing. On 8 March 2022 he was removed from the post of co-chairman of Opposition Platform — For Life. Boyko became the chairman of the political council of the OPZH. Medvedchuk was deprived of the post of co-chairman, (8 March 2022) On 12 April 2022 Medvedchuk was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). On 21 September 2022, Medvedchuk (together with 55 Russian prisoners of war) was exchanged for 215 Ukrainian POWs from the Siege of Mariupol.
On 13 January 2023, the Verkhovna Rada stripped Medvedchuk of his position as a people's deputy.
Early life and education Medvedchuk's father, Volodymyr Medvedchuk, avoided being drafted into the Red Army during World War II due to his suffering from Pott disease. During Nazi Germany's occupation of Ukraine, he worked for the German administration in a labor camp from April 1942 to November 1943. The section provided enforced deportation of the local able-bodied Ukrainian youth to work in Nazi Germany. Volodymyr Medvedchuk was arrested by SMERSH on 7 August 1954 and sentenced to eight years of imprisonment and four of exile in Siberia "for participation in Ukrainian nationalistic activities."
Viktor was born in Pochet, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russian SFSR. He has claimed that his father was a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. According to his Soviet court indictment, Volodymyr Medvedchuk had "joined the counter-revolutionary organization of Ukrainian nationalists" in April 1942. In July 1995, Ukraine's military prosecutor's office reviewed the case of Volodymyr Medvedchuk and decided to rehabilitate him "In accordance with Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine of 17 April 1991 On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression in Ukraine." Myths and legends about Victor Medvedchuk, from-ua.com (3 July 2015).
In the mid-1960s, the Medvedchuks returned to the Ukrainian SSR, settling in Kornyn, Zhytomyr Oblast. In 1971, Medvedchuk graduated from high school in Borova, Fastiv Raion (Kyiv Oblast). In November 1971, Medvedchuk found a job as sorter at the Kyiv Railroad Post office factory producing periodicals. According to Dmytro Chobit, by the start of 1972, he was an overstaffed militsiya (the police of the Soviet Union) worker at the Motovylivka station (located in Borova).
In the summer of 1972, Medvedchuk successfully passed an entrance exam to the Law School of KSU Shevchenko (now the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv). However he was not admitted. On 12 September 1972, he was enrolled in the university by the Rector's order #445, based on the authorization from the Ministry of the Interior of the Ukrainian SSR. According to Dmytro Chobot, Medvedchuk was allowed to study at the university only thanks to a special recommendation from the police.
After graduation, he tried to enroll at the Higher School of Militsiya, but was rejected due to his family history. He graduated from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 1978 as a lawyer.
Legal career and participation in political trials against Soviet dissidents
In 1979, Medvedchuk became a member of the Shevchenkivska Legal Consultation of the Kyiv City Collegiate of Attorneys.
In 1979, Medvedchuk was the lawyer for repressed poet Yuriy Lytvyn. In his last word in court on 17 December 1979, Lytvyn described Medvedchuk's work as a lawyer: "The passivity of my lawyer Medvedchuk in defense is not due to his professional profanity, but to the instructions he received from above and his subordination: he does not dare reveal the mechanism according to which provocations were implemented against me." Lytvyn was convicted and died in prison. Medvedchuk's role: Yuriy Lytvyn and Vasyl Stus had one lawyer and died in the same camp, Ukrayinska Pravda (9 July 2020). According to official documents, in 1979 Medvedchuk appealed the verdict against Lytvyn issued by the Vasylkiv court and referred to the incompleteness of the investigation carried out in the case to request the Kyiv Regional Court to annul the verdict and send the case for a new trial.
In 1980, Medvedchuk was appointed as a defence lawyer in the trial of dissident poet Vasyl Stus.SHCHERBYTSKYY ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN UKRAINE by Taras Kuzio, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (11 March 2003). According to the testimony of people close to Stus (his wife, and also his friend Yevgeny Sverstyuk), Stus refused to be defended by Medvedchuk, because "he immediately felt that Medvedchuk was an aggressive Komsomol type person, he didn't protect him, he didn't want to understand him, and, in fact, he was not interested in his business." Nevertheless, Medvedchuk remained Stus's lawyer despite the protests of his client.
According to the "Chronicle of Current Events", Medvedchuk's plea at the Stus trial was as follows: "The lawyer said in his speech that all of Stus's crimes deserve to be punished, but he asks to pay attention to the fact that Stus, working in 1979–1980 at the enterprises of Kyiv, fulfilled the norm; in addition, he underwent a severe stomach operation." According to Ukrainian lawyers Roman Titikalo and Ilya Kotin, Medvedchuk seems to have recognized the guilt of his client Stus during the court case. In doing so, Medvedchuk violated his professional duty as lawyer since he seemed to refuse to defend Stus, which grossly violated Stus's right to defense in court.Стус без шансу на захист: ведмежа послуга Медведчука, 23 серпня 2016, Українська Правда
Stus died after he declared a hunger strike on 4 September 1985 in Perm-36, a Soviet forced labor camp for political prisoners.Vasyl Stus – His Life, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (1 March 1999). In a 2018 interview with The Independent, Medvedchuk claimed he could not have operated differently: "Stus denounced the Soviet government, and didn't consider it to be legitimate. Everyone decides their own fate. Stus admitted he agitated against the Soviet government. He was found guilty by the laws of the time. When the laws changed, the case was dropped. Unfortunately, he died."The return of the godfather: How Putin's best friend in Ukraine is staging an improbable comeback, The Independent (30 August 2018).
In 1985, he was a lawyer at the trial of poet Mikola Kuntsevich. According to Kuntsevich's memoirs, Medvedchuk "poured more dirt on him than the prosecutor." After Medvedchuk asked the court to dismiss one of Kuntsevich's motions, he challenged him and repeated the challenge several times, but each time the court dismissed it. In his last word, Medvedchuk said: "I completely agree with a comrade prosecutor in determining the sentence. But, for reasons incomprehensible to me, comrade prosecutor forgot that the defendant had not yet left one year and nine months from the previous term. I consider it necessary to add this period to the new punishment." This request was granted by the court.
Medvedchuk founded a successful legal company, BIM, in the early 1990s. From 1990 to 1997, he was the president of the Bar Association of Ukraine. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Medvedchuk was a leading member of the Kyiv Seven, one of the three most powerful political clans in Ukrainian politics.
On 24 May 2023 Medvedchuk was stripped (disbarred) of the right to practise law in Ukraine by the Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of the Bar of Kyiv Oblast. Efforts to disbar Medvedchuk had been ongoing since as early as 2016. Medvedchuk appealed his disbar, on 9 February 2024 his appeal was rejected by the . The upheld this decision on 11 June 2024.
First parliamentary tenure In 1994, Medvedchuk became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united). He served as chairman from 1998 until two days after the 26 March 2006 parliamentary election. Медведчук Виктор Владимирович, Информационно-аналитический центр "ЛІГА"
Medvedchuk first entered the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) in 1997 by winning a by-election in the 171st District (in the Zakarpattia Oblast).Medvedchuk Victor, Kyiv Post УКРАЇНА ПАРТІЙНА. ЧАСТИНА VI СОЦІАЛ-ДЕМОКРАТИЧНА ПАРТІЯ УКРАЇНИ (ОБ'ЄДНАНА), (16 March 2002). Reelected to the Verkhovna Rada in 1998,KUCHMA'S MEN LINE UP FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, The Jamestown Foundation (10 June 2003). he was elected Second Deputy Chairman in July 1998.Parliament ends speaker deadlock , Kyiv Post (10 July 1998). In 2002, he was reelected to the Verkhovna Rada. Medvedchuk was the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada from February 2000 until December 2001, when he was dismissed for abuse of power, biased treatment of the Verkhovna Rada's agenda and procedural violations.Ukraine's parliament dismisses first deputy speaker , Kyiv Post (13 December 2001).
Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine