Putin's friend comes up with "Another Ukraine" and recruits traitors and propagandists

Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian oligarch and personal friend of Putin's who is accused of treason and is now living in Russia following a prisoner swap, has founded a "political movement" called Another Ukraine which is attracting fugitives from Ukraine: political commentators from now shut-down pro-Russian TV channels, local council members from the Opposition Platform – For Life [a political faction that was headed by Medvedchuk – ed.], and political strategists accused of treason and separatism. 

Source: Skhemy project (Radio Liberty)

Details: It was in late January 2023 that journalists first noticed that the Another Ukraine project had begun operating, primarily on Russian social media, where its spokespeople, who have managed to escape punishment and flee Ukraine, parrot or supplement the messages of Russian propaganda.

Quotes from these fugitives and traitors about allegedly "crazy Nazis in Ukraine", "Satanism and lawlessness", "desecration of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra" (Monastery of the Caves) and so on are then picked up and cited by Kremlin-controlled media.

Notably, 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).

Skachko has been wanted by the Security Service of Ukraine (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", and "the pre-trial investigation has not established any information about the method by which he left the territory of Ukraine". 

"Political expert" Yurii Dudkin, who was served with a notice of suspicion under Art. 111 (high treason) and 161 (violation of the equality of citizens) in 2021. His case is being considered in absentia, since 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 7 June 2022.

Former Ukrainian journalist Denys Zharkykh, whose public statements prompted an investigation ordered by former Prosecutor General Yurii Lutsenko. According to Skhemy, Zharkykh crossed the Ukrainian-Slovak border in September 2022. The Border Guard Service did not respond when asked on what grounds Zharkykh, 55, was allowed to leave during martial law. Nor have Yurii Lutsenko and the prosecutor's office answered the question of how the 2018 investigation into Zharkykh's activities 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 when asked on what grounds Mishyn, 57, was allowed to cross the border during martial law.

Other members of Another Ukraine include political analyst Oleksandr Potemkin, who suggested in 2021 that Volodymyr Zelenskyy should relinquish power to Viktor Medvedchuk, journalist Oleh Yasynskyi (who lives in Chile and has criticised decommunisation in Ukraine), Olena Bronitska (who campaigned for vaccination with the Russian vaccine and used to talk up Medvedchuk), Pavel Karnazitsky (a Belarusian deported from Ukraine for anti-Ukrainian materials), Alexander Dudchak (a political strategist with a Russian passport), Kyrylo Molchanov (a 35-year-old political strategist), and Ruslan Kotsaba (accused of treason in Ukraine, now in the United States; how he managed to cross the border is unknown).

Two members of city councils have also become spokespeople for Another Ukraine: Bohdan Hihanov (a member of Odesa City Council from the Opposition Platform – For Life faction, who admitted that he had fled Ukraine) and Maksym Nevinchannyi (a representative of Mykolaiv City Council from Opposition Platform – For Life whose whereabouts are unknown).

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

The journalists say they asked all of the individuals mentioned in the article to comment, but none of them responded.

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