Lawmaker Viktor Medvedchuk, co-head of the pro-Kremlin 44-member Opposition Platform - For Life faction, failed to declare assets worth over Hr 73 million ($2.7 million), the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) announced on Dec. 8.
According to the agency, Medvedchuk did not declare his Kyiv land plot and house, worth Hr 29 million ($1.1 million) and Hr 16 million ($592,000) respectively, in his 2020 asset declaration.
The lawmaker was further accused of not specifying the value of four of his cars, together valued at approximately Hr 27 million ($1 million). The NAPC also said that Medvedchuk didn't disclose six cars and a land plot in occupied Crimea owned by his wife, former TV presenter Oksana Marchenko.
Medvedchuk's party's website refuted the NAPC's claims, saying that they are groundless and are an example of state-sponsored political repression against the pro-Kremlin lawmaker. The statement further said that Medvedchuk acquired the property in question long before he became a lawmaker in 2019.
According to law, undeclaring over Hr 4.5 million ($166,000) is punishable by either a fine of up to Hr 85,000 ($3,145), 240 hours of community service, or imprisonment for up to two years.
The NAPC said that “this is a record sum of undeclared assets that the NAPC found during its review of officials' declarations this year.”
The past year has seen a precipitous fall from grace for Medvedchuk, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the godfather of the lawmaker's daughter.
In February, three pro-Kremlin TV channels allegedly belonging to Medvedchuk through his intermediary Taras Kozak, another Opposition Platform lawmaker, were yanked off the air by the National Security and Defense Council as a result of sanctions imposed on Kozak.
On Feb. 19, the National Security and Defense Council also imposed sanctions on Medvedchuk himself. The High Anti-Corruption Court ordered the seizure of an oil pipeline that was allegedly controlled by Medvedchuk on Feb. 23. The politician denied owning it.
In May, Medvedchuk was charged with high treason for allegedly colluding with the Russian government to extract natural resources in occupied Crimea.
In October, Medvedchuk was charged with his second count of high treason, as well as terrorism, for allegedly sabotaging Ukraine's energy independence. He remains under house arrest and previously denied wrongdoing.
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