Medvedchuk is involved in the seizure of assets in Russia and Donbass

Former Ukrainian deputy Viktor Medvedchuk, who after the exchange of prisoners in September 2022 lives in Moscow, participates in the redistribution of property in Russia and in Moscow-controlled territories of Ukraine.

As the journalists-investigators of the Sistema project found out, Medvedchuk, whom the mass media call Putin’s godfather, seizes assets in the oil industry, large real estate and metallurgy through the mediation of large state companies and Russian law enforcement agencies.

With the name of Medvedchuk, investigators connect the capture of the oil company “Dulysma” in the Irkutsk Region and “Kayum Neft” in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. “Sistema” calls Donetsk metallurgy another source of Medvedchuk’s income.

Shortly before the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine, control over the export of coal in the region passed from Moscow-based Ukrainian businessman Sergei Kurchenko to the company “Donskie Ugly”, which is associated with Medvedchuk (they deny it there). The “Florence” company, which provides logistics services, is also compared to the approximate businessman. for transportation of coal, coke, iron and steel. In October 2023, a close associate of Medvedchuk became a co-owner of the Industrial Innovations company. The company with the same name manages the Dniprorudne iron ore plant in the Zaporozhye region, one of the largest producers of iron ore in the region.

From all this, Sistema journalists conclude that Medvedchuk has become “a new beneficiary of the Donbass economy”, having displaced the former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, from the region.

According to Sistema, Medvedchuk and his family also have interests in Moscow. In early 2021, a company associated with Medvedchuk bought an area in one of the most expensive skyscrapers, Moscow City, for 500 million rubles. Medvedchuk’s wife, Oksana Marchenko, became the owner of five hectares of land on Luzhnetsk embankment and four hectares of land near the former ZIL plant in Moscow.

These sites belonged to the Moscow enterprise “Heliymash”, which develops cryogenic systems for the Ministry of Defense of Russia and Roscosmos. Medvedchuk’s wife received them in 2020, when she became a co-owner of the Heliymash plant.

Medvedchuk was considered one of the most influential politicians of Ukraine for a long time. He headed the administration of the second president Leonid Kuchma, was a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada for four convocations, and was twice its deputy chairman.

Before the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, Medvedchuk headed the “Opposition Platform — For Life” party and met with Vladimir Putin several times. Opponents called him a pro-Russian politician. In 2021, the Ukrainian special services accused him of treason and sent him under house arrest.

After the Russian invasion, Medvedchuk escaped from house arrest. In April 2022, he was detained again, and in September he was handed over to Russia, exchanged for more than 200 Ukrainian prisoners of war, defenders of “Azovstal”. In January, he published an article in which he accused Western countries of the war in Ukraine. In July, he created the “Druhaya Ukraina” movement in Russia, which does not conduct significant public activity.