Parliament strips mandates of 3 lawmakers from pro-Kremlin party

The Verkhovna Rada revoked the mandates of three lawmakers belonging to the pro-Kremlin Opposition Platform – For Life party, reported lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak on Feb. 24.

Three hundred and twenty-five lawmakers voted to terminate Yuriy Solod's mandate, 332 for Nataliia Korolevska, and 330 for Oleh Voloshyn.

According to the Chesno non-profit, a record 17 lawmakers have been stripped of their mandate since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. Nearly all of them belong to the Opposition Platform – For Life party.

The political party was co-founded by pro-Kremlin lawmaker Viktor Medvedchuk, who was arrested on treason charges in April and later handed over to Russia during a prisoner exchange in September 2022.

For many years, Medvedchuk was Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's right-hand mand in Ukraine, advocating for closer ties between both countries.

On Feb. 23, the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, announced that it had seized multiple assets belonging to Medvedchuk's wife, Oksana Marchenko, totaling $152 million. This marks the latest in a series of asset seizures targeting the disgraced lawmaker and his circle.

On Feb. 7, the Security Service released details about a vast underground financing scheme worth over $1.3 million that involved companies linked to Marchenko. The scheme involved financing the Russian National Guard and Interior Ministry in occupied Crimea.

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The Kyiv Independent