Pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Medvedchuk stripped of Ukrainian citizenship

Volodymyr Zelensky has stripped Verkhovna Rada deputy Viktor Medvedchuk, the former leader of the pro-Kremlin party Opposition Platform – For Life who was charged with treason in 2021, of his Ukrainian citizenship, the president announced in an address on Tuesday.

Parliamentarians Taras Kozak and Renat Kuzmin, who were both elected as members of Medvedchuk’s party, as well as Andrii Derkach, who doesn’t belong to a party faction, have also lost Ukrainian citizenship.

According to Zelensky, the decision to revoke the politicians citizenship was made “on the basis of materials that were prepared by the Ukrainian Security Service and the Ukrainian State Migration Service.”

“If elected officials choose to serve not the people of Ukraine but murderers who come to Ukraine, then we’re going to take the appropriate measures,” said the president, adding that “this won’t be the last of these kinds of decisions.”

Before Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, Viktor Medvedchuk was the country’s most popular pro-Russian politician. Known to be a close friend of Vladimir Putin, Medvedchuk has said that Putin is his daughter’s godfather.

In 2021, Ukrainian authorities charged Medvedchuk with treason and put him under house arrest. After the start of the full-scale war, Medvedchuk fled his home. In April, Zelensky announced that he had been arrested, and in September, he was transferred to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange. Opposition Platform – For Life announced after the war began that it was closing, and a Ukrainian court banned it from operating in the country.