Former Ukrainian MP Andrii Derkach awarded Hero of Russia title
Former Ukrainian MP Andrii Derkach, who features in the high-profile Operation Midas, has been awarded the title of Hero of Russia.
Source: Russian media outlet Kommersant
Details: At a meeting of Russia's Federation Council on 10 December, the senators congratulated all the recipients of the "Gold Star" from their ranks. It turned out that one of the Heroes of Russia was Derkach, who is now a senator for Astrakhan Oblast.
His receipt of Russia's highest state honour had not previously been reported.
On 10 November, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) exposed a multi-level criminal scheme involving the embezzlement of funds from the state-owned nuclear energy company Energoatom. The investigation, known as Operation Midas, revealed a corruption network that had permeated the state energy sector and reached the highest levels of government.
Those involved in the scheme include Derkach's aide Ihor Myroniuk and Tymur Mindich, an associate of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
When the full-scale war began, Myroniuk moved to Russia, where, like Derkach, he now serves as a senator.
The money-laundering office involved in the case is located in a building owned by the Derkach family.
Read more: The president's men: how Zelenskyy's friends plundered Ukraine during the war
According to Kommersant, 58-year-old Andrii Derkach is the son of Leonid Derkach, a former head of the Security Service of Ukraine (1998-2001). He graduated from the FSB Academy in 1993. In 2007, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) with the Party of Regions, and from 2014 he was an independent MP. At various times, Andrii Derkach headed Energoatom and the state company Ukratomprom.
Derkach gained widespread attention in May 2020 when he published a series of recordings of phone conversations from 2015-2016 between (he claimed) then Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and US vice president Joe Biden.
In 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine stated that Derkach had been recruited by Russian intelligence.
In 2023, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revoked Derkach's Ukrainian citizenship, after which the Verkhovna Rada terminated his parliamentary powers.
Derkach is now a senator in Russia's Federation Council and a member of the Defence and Security Committee.
Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!