Viktor Medvedchuk

Early life

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." 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.

The fortune

In 2008 the Ukrainian magazine Focus estimated Medvedchuk's wealth at $460 million. His investments included energy, resources and media. On 13 March 2022, Ukrainian media reported that Medvedchuk had in his possession a replica of a Pullman dining car. Allegedly this wagon had been a birthday present from his wife Oksana Marchenko. Medvedchuk's $200M 93-meter yacht, the Royal Romance, was seized in the Croatian port of Rijeka in March 2022. In July 2022, Medvedchuk's Bell 427 helicopter and a Gulfstream G650 business jet was seized and handed over to the Ukrainian Army, as part of the ongoing investigation on him for abuse of power and embezzlement.

Sanctions & controversy

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 the financing of terrorism. It was claimed he was channeling money from his Russia-based refinery to the separatists of the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine. Medvedchuk has denied the accusations. The sanctions froze the assets of Medvedchuk and his wife for three years and prevented them from doing business in Ukraine (most of Medvedchuk's assets were registered under his wife's name). Ukrainian authorities announced that an oil pipeline that was reportedly controlled by Medvedchuk which transports Russian oil products to Europe would be nationalised. On 11 May 2021, Medvedchuk and fellow Opposition Platform — For Life lawmaker Taras Kozak were named as suspects for alleged high treason and the illegal exploitation of natural resources in Ukraine's Russian-annexed Crimea. Three days later Medvedchuk was put under house arrest and fitted with an electronic tracking device. On 14 May 2021 Russian authorities began the process of liquidating the Russian company Novye Proekty which was allegedly used by Medvedchuk for his alleged illegal exploitations in Crimea. In 2021, former president Petro Poroshenko was named as a co-suspect in the criminal case against Medvedchuk. Medvedchuk's house arrest was prolonged four times, which means that Medvedchuk was supposed to spend at least 10 months under house arrest, even though Ukrainian law allows for a maximum of six months' house arrest. Medvedchuk and his business partner Kozak have money in Belarusian banks, which are controlled by business associates of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Aliaksei Aleksin and Mikalai Varabei. They also have common business interests. In May 2021, Ukrainian media published recorded audio in which Medvedchuk congratulated the leader of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin on Victory Day and wished him further "victories". In addition, Medvedchuk stated that he was impressed by a military parade in Donetsk.

On 17 March 2014 the United States placed Medvedchuk on its sanction list to punish him for his alleged role during the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea. 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. In January 2022, Medvedchuk was placed under sanctions by the United States, accusing him of involvement in a plot to set up a collaborator government in the wake of a Russian invasion. Medvedchuk was sanctioned by the UK government in 2022 in relation to the Russo-Ukrainian War. On 13 February 2025, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy imposed sanctions on multiple oligarchs and individuals including Medvedchuk on suspicion of “high treason” and assisting a terrorist organization, particu

Career

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. 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. 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. Stus died after he declared a hunger strike on 4 September 1985 in Perm-36, a Soviet forced labor camp for political prisoners. 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." 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 determi

Personal life

Medvedchuk has been married three times. He is divorced from Marina Lebedeva and Natalya Gavrilyuk. He is currently married to Oksana Marchenko, a well-known TV presenter in Ukraine. He has two daughters: Irina (born 1982) with Gavrilyuk, and Daryna (born 2004) with Marchenko. Russian president Vladimir Putin is the godfather of Daryna. Since 2021 Daryna is studying at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia. In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Medvedchuk's brother Serhiy lost as an Opposition Platform — For Life candidate in single-seat constituency 105 (Luhansk Oblast). Five days before the 24 February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Medvedchuk's wife, Oksana Marchenko, left for Belarus. She later published a video from Moscow. On 11 April 2023 the Ukrainian police issued an arrest warrant for Marchenko on the grounds that she was "hiding from pre-trial investigation authorities." In February 2023 Medvedchuk confirmed that following his 21 September 2022 prisoner exchange he has lived in Moscow, Russia.