Ukrainian opposition leader arrested UPDATE

RT
Tue, 12 Apr 2022 18:20 UTC

© Reuters/Serhii Nuzhenenko

FILE PHOTO: Ukraine opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk. The US and EU have a vested interest in the country, no matter how radical the government becomes, Viktor Medvedchuk said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his delight on Tuesday after Kiev's successor to the Soviet-era KGB arrested the country's most prominent opposition leader. The SBU is Ukraine's main intelligence and security agency, founded in 1991 to replace the KGB.

The President shared a photo of his handcuffed rival Viktor Medvedchuk on social media, with the caption:

"A special operation was carried out by the SBU. Well done! Details to follow."

Zelensky later said "I consider it especially cynical of him to use military camouflage," mocking Medvedchuk as trying to pose as a "warrior" and "patriot" and proposing to exchange the detained politician for Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russia.

Medvedchuk heads the second largest party in the national parliament, the "Opposition Platform - For Life." He was previously placed under house arrest, last year, as part of Zelensky's clampdown on dissent, which was granted tacit approval by the regime's Western supporters.

Medvedchuk, who opposed the 2014 Kiev Maidan, and believes the country's Western turn to be detrimental to Ukraine's interests, has led his party since 2018. He previously served as Chief of Staff to former President Leonid Kuchma, in the early 2000s.

© Telegram

Medvedchuk arrested
Kiev released photos of an emaciated Medvedchuk in a military uniform bound in handcuffs. The SBU, Ukraine's security service, claims he was captured in a complicated classified operation.

Some Western commentators have labelled him as Vladimir Putin's "closest ally in Ukraine." However, the Russian President has described Medvechuk as a "Ukrainian nationalist."

In 2019, Opposition Platform - For Life won 13% of the vote in a parliamentary election, making it the country's largest opposition faction. Last year, polls showed that it had passed Zelensky's Servant of the People as the most popular party in the state. That seemed to prompt a crackdown by Zelensky, who closed media outlets associated with Medvedchuk. Soon after, the politician was arrested on politically motivated "treason" charges.

Medvedchuk has rejected accusations of being "pro-Russian," insisting his party represents millions of ordinary Ukrainians. In February 2021, he accused Zelensky of seeking to establish a dictatorship in Ukraine and suppress the legally elected opposition.

Authorities in Kiev also charged Zelensky's predecessor Petro Poroshenko with treason, back in December 2021, for allegedly illegally buying coal from the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk and thus "financing terrorism." Poroshenko made a big deal out of publicly returning to Ukraine in January, and a Kiev court refused to jail him. Unlike Medvedchuk, Poroshenko has substantial support in the West.

The US and its allies have sought to justify their support for Ukraine by saying Zelensky is a democrat fighting for freedom, and have presented Russia's actions towards Kiev as motivated by a fear of democracy.

Moscow sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, following a seven-year standoff over Kiev's failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements and end the conflict with the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. Russia ended up recognizing the two as independent states, at which point they asked for military aid.

Russia demands that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two Donbass republics by force.

Comment: Ukraine has learned well from its US overlords: Deflect by accusation.

Opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk should be swiftly tried, sentenced and physically assaulted before an attempt is made to swap him for Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russia, said an advisor to Ukraine's interior minister. President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested an exchange after announcing the politician's arrest on Tuesday.

Vadim Denisenko said of the arrested politician:

"At the very minimum, he has to make some confessions because he knows a lot about who in Russia gave how much and to whom to create a fifth column" in Ukraine. "At the maximum ... he needs to be tried swiftly, given a prison term, beaten into providing certain testimony and then exchanged."

Denisenko's remarks, particularly the implication that Medvedchuk could be coerced into cooperating by violence, were criticized by some Russian officials.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of the Russian national security council, made a not-so-veiled threat by saying that people supporting such ideas

"should pay attention to their surroundings and keep the door locked for the night not to get added to the list of individuals eligible for a prisoner swap themselves."

Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, mocked the suggested sequence of events in Medvedchuk's prosecution plan:

"It's a British scheme: hold a swift trial, give a prison term, and then extract testimonies. Works every time."

Medvedchuk is reputed to have friendly connections in Moscow and served as an intermediary between the governments of Ukraine and Russia on several occasions since tensions escalated after the 2014 armed coup in Kiev. Among other things, he said he helped organize several prisoner swaps between Ukraine and rebel forces in the east.

He repeatedly rejected his characterization as a "pro-Russian" politician that Western and pro-government Ukrainian media routinely use. He said he represents his voters and defends their interests, which would be better served if Ukraine had good relations with its powerful neighbor.

UPDATE: 13/APR/2022 Kremlin rejects Kyiv's offer to swap Medvedchuk for captured troops:

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on April 13:

"Medvedchuk is not a Russian citizen and has nothing to do with the special military operation [in Ukraine]. We do not know at all if he wants Russia's involvement in resolving this libelous situation he faces."

Peskov added that Russia will continue following the situation around Medvedchuk's arrest and the criminal cases launched against him, deemed politically motivated.

Medvedchuk, who owns energy assets in Russia, is one of Ukraine's wealthiest individuals with a fortune estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. On April 13, Britain imposed sanctions against Medvedchuk and several Russian citizens over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.