Putin's friend makes up “Other Ukraine” and recruits traitors and propagandists

Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian oligarch and Putin's personal friend, accused of treason and now living in Russia after the prisoner exchange, has created a "political movement" called "Other Ukraine" and is attracting fugitives from Ukraine: political commentators from already closed pro-Russian TV channels, local council members from the Opposition Platform - For Life [a political faction that was headed by Medvedchuk - ed.], and political technologists accused of treason and separatism.  Source: Skhemy project (Radio Liberty) Details: Journalists noticed that the "Other Ukraine" project began operating primarily on Russian social media in late January 2023.

There, its speakers, who managed to escape punishment and flee Ukraine, repeat or supplement the messages of Russian propaganda.

The quotes of these fugitives and traitors about allegedly "crazy Nazis in Ukraine", "Satanism and lawlessness", "desecration of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra" (Kyiv Cave Monastery), etc, are then picked up and quoted by Kremlin-controlled media. In particular, Medvedchuk's political movement has been joined by: Volodymyr Skachko, accused under Art.

110.2 of the Criminal Code (encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine).

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Skachko has been wanted by Ukraine's Security Service (SSU) since March 2019. According to the Office of the Prosecutor General, "the accused is on the territory of the Russian Federation, in the city of Moscow," while "the pre-trial investigation has not established any information about the method of leaving the territory of Ukraine".   

"Political expert" Yurii Dudkin, who in 2021 was suspected under Art.

111 (high treason) and 161 (violation of the equality of citizens). His case is being considered in absentia. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, 62-year-old Dudkin left Ukraine in June 2022.

According to Skhemy, he left in the direction of Poland through the Rava Ruska checkpoint on June 7, 2022.

Former Ukrainian journalist Denys Zharkykh, whose public statements were instructed to be checked by former Prosecutor General Yurii Lutsenko. According to Skhemy, Zharkykh crossed the Ukrainian-Slovak border in September 2022. The Border Guard Service did not answer the question on what grounds 55-year-old Zharkykh was allowed to leave during martial law.

And Yurii Lutsenko and the prosecutor's office did not answer how the inspection of Zharkykh's activities in 2018 ended.

Political strategist Andrii Mishyn, who has been working for Medvedchuk for at least a decade and fled Ukraine for Russia in January 2023. Mishyn himself told Russian media about his escape through Poland and Belarus, saying that he was afraid of the Ukrainian special services. In 2013, Mishyn was a speaker at Ukrainian Choice, a women's political club, and appeared on pro-Russian TV channels as an expert.

The Border Guard Service did not provide an answer to the question on what grounds Mishyn, 57, was allowed to cross the border during martial law.

Other members of "Other Ukraine" include political analyst Oleksandr Potemkin, who in 2021 suggested that Volodymyr Zelenskyy give power to Viktor Medvedchuk, journalist Oleh Yasynskyi (lives in Chile, criticises decommunization in Ukraine), Olena Bronitska (campaigned for vaccination with the Russian vaccine and praised Medvedchuk), Pavel Karnazitsky (Belarusian, deported from Ukraine for anti-Ukrainian materials), Alexander Dudchak (political strategist with a Russian passport), Kyrylo Molchanov (35-year-old political strategist), Ruslan Kotsaba (accused of treason in Ukraine, is in the United States, how he managed to cross the border is unknown). Two members of city councils also spoke for Other Ukraine: Bohdan Hihanov (a member of the Odesa City Council from the Opposition Platform - For Life faction, who admitted that he had fled Ukraine), Maksym Nevinchannyi (representative of the Mykolaiv City Council from the Opposition Platform - For Life, whose whereabouts are unknown).

In total, Skhemy identified 13 speakers of Medvedchuk's new project. The SSU refused to answer the question of whether these people are involved in criminal proceedings being investigated by the special service, citing a ban on disclosing such information.

The journalists report that they tried to get comments from all the people mentioned in the article, but none of them responded.

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