- He has been Putin's man in Kyiv for decades, defending the country's Russification politically and in the media.

- Ukraine Exchanges Pro-Russian Prisoner Medvedchuk For 215 Prisoners, Including Azov "Heroes" And Foreign Volunteers

Putin's ally in Ukraine, Viktor Medvedchuk.

Medvedchuk, the pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch and friend of Putin, for whom Russia has exchanged more than 200 prisoners

Ukraine and Russia closed this past Thursday the exchange of the largest number of prisoners since the beginning of the Russian invasion of their neighbor. 215 Ukrainian soldiers for a single Russian; just one. How important is that person?

In the exchange, Ukraine recovered 215 prisoners, including 108 soldiers from the Azov battalion. In return, the Kremlin secured the release of 67-year-old Victor Medvedchuk. "The delivery of a Russian fanatic for 200 warriors is a good result," said Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelenski: "The delivery of a Russian fanatic for 200 warriors is a good result"

That fanatic to whom the president of Ukraine refers is a pro-Russian politician and, what is more, a friend of Vladimir Putin himself. Medvedchuk refers to the Russian president as "a personal friend" and, in fact, is the godfather of the youngest daughter of this Ukrainian lawyer, business oligarch, and politician.

A Ukrainian politician imprisoned by his compatriots and now "liberated" by Russia? In February 2021, the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council placed Medvedchuk and his wife, Oksana Marchenko, on the Ukrainian sanctions list, for their alleged links to terrorist financing.

Medvedchuk, calling for their exchange for Ukrainian civilians and soldiers.

In May of that year, the Ukrainian government accused Medvedchuk of treason. They accused him of selling military secrets to Moscow and looting the natural resources of Russian-annexed Crimea. Kyiv put him under house arrest, and Putin went so far as to say that the Zelensky government was "purging the political field of all forces that advocate a peaceful resolution."

Putin: "They are purging the political field of all the forces that defend a peaceful resolution"

On February 28, 2022, four days after Russian tanks invaded Ukraine, Medvedchuk managed to flee. However, in mid-April, he is arrested after a "lightning operation" by the Security Service of Ukraine. He has been jailed ever since, until last Thursday's exchange.

From lawyer to politician and oligarch

In the 1980s, Medvedchuk made a living as a lawyer. We are still in Soviet times and he is criticized for his weak defense of Ukrainian dissidents. In the 1990s he entered politics after joining a pro-Russian socialist party.

Politics opens the doors of power to him and in June 2002 he is already the head of the presidential administration of the pro-Russian Leonid Kuchma. Already at that time, he is considered a man of the then "Moscow" prime minister and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych.

He met Putin in person in 2003 and a year later the Russian president was the godfather at the baptism of his youngest daughter

Journalist Mansur Mirovalev recounts that Medvedchuk met Putin in person in 2003. He then went on to lead Yanukovych's election campaign. In 2004, the Russian president was the godfather at the baptism of his youngest daughter in a cathedral in St. Petersburg.

Medvedchuk, handcuffed, in an image released by Kyiv.

Yanukovych won the 2004 elections, but Ukraine was already so tense and divided that the opposition accused Medvedchuk of rigging the vote. Thus the Orange Revolution was unleashed. It is the first pro-Western revolt.

Yanukovych's rival, Viktor Yushchenko, goes to the front page of half the world's newspapers. His face has been disfigured. He accuses the Kremlin of poisoning him with dioxin.

In 2006, the country repeats the second round of elections and Yushchenko wins. Marked and singled out, Medvedchuk's party, the "Ne Tak" Opposition Bloc, collapses resoundingly. They do not achieve parliamentary representation, only 1% of the votes. Then the businessman and future oligarch is born.

Yúschenko and Yanukovych (S.Chuzavkov and Stringer  REUTERS)

He begins by setting up a media empire with three television networks and several publications. Although the facts are going to show his null influence, Medvedchuk earns a lot of money. In 2008, Focus magazine - a Ukrainian newsweekly in the Russian language - estimated his assets at around 450 million euros.

In 2010 Yanukovych wins the presidential elections, but Medvedchuk is no longer in the front row. He is sidelined but remains Putin's top man in Ukraine. He regains his influence in 2014 when Yanukovych is overthrown by the second pro-Western uprising in Ukraine, the Revolution of Dignity.

In 2008, Medvedchuk's net worth was estimated at €450 million.

For the 2018 presidential elections, the now oligarch Medvedchuk finances the opposition platform For Life. It is the largest pro-Russian party and its candidate is Yuri Boyko. To promote the candidate could not think of anything better than visiting the Kremlin.

And suddenly a comedian

The elections are won by a comedian; a guy well known as an actor but not as a politician. What seems like a joke, perhaps a television reality show becomes a reality. Volodímir Zelenski is the new president of Ukraine after receiving 73% of the votes.

Medvedchuk does not participate in the elections again until the 2019 parliamentary elections. His party becomes the largest faction against the Zelensky formation, with 44 seats in the lower house. There he opposed the "language law" that curbed the use of the Russian language and the removal of Soviet-era monuments and symbols.

His party opposed the "language law" that curbed the use of the Russian language and the removal of Soviet symbols

To extend the pro-Russian discourse, he used his means. In theory, Mirovalev says, its TV channels were not supposed to praise the Kremlin directly, but their presenters were either describing Kyiv's conflict with Russian-backed separatists as a "civil war" or saying that the Crimean population supported the 2014 annexation.

In 2021, Medvedchuk and his closest allies were sanctioned by the Ukrainian government. They shut down their television networks and froze their assets. In May of that year, we have already seen, Kyiv put him under house arrest.

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