Andriy Derkach - Senator of the Russian Federation: What signals the Kremlin sends to its agents in Ukraine, honoring traitors
Andriy Derkach is a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine six convocations. He worked in Parliament from 1998 until February 24, 2024. The last time was elected in 159 district (Sumy region) as a non -party self -nominated. And before that he was a people's deputy from the banned "Party of Regions" and the deputy chairman of the deputy group "Volia of the People" Igor Eremeev.
After the start of a full -scale invasion of Russia stopped attending meetings - it turned out, left Ukraine, although at that time there was no suspicion by law enforcement agencies. Meanwhile, Derkach has long been accused of interfering with the US elections in 2020 - the US Department of Finance has imposed a sanction policy.
The day before, he released audio recordings, which, as if, testified to the influence of former Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden on President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. The proceedings were violated only after the escape of Derkach from the country. Subsequently, the SBU accused the People's Deputy, and with him and several other persons, in particular, the People's Deputy from the "servant of the people" Alexander Dubinsky, in his work on Russian intelligence.
The prosecutor's office believes that Derkach and others had to discredit Ukraine in the international arena, worsen diplomatic relations with the United States and interfere with Ukraine's integration into the European Union and NATO. The investigation found that it received at least $ 567 thousand from the law enforcement and intelligence agencies of the Russian Federation for subversive activities against Ukraine under the curating of the Russian GRU.
According to the investigation, the deputies were included in the criminal organization, which was created by the first deputy chief of Russian GRU Volodymyr Alekseev (the same, who from the Russian side agreed to capture the defenders of "Azovstal"). In January 2023, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy officially deprived Derkach of citizenship, and the Verkhovna Rada - a mandate.
And now the former Ukrainian deputy and former Ukrainian citizen Andriy Derkach became part of the upper house of the Russian Parliament from the Astrakhan region, the region in the Southern District of the Russian Federation. This was reported by Russian media. Derkach himself does not comment on this fact. "If the people's deputies choose the service not of the people of Ukraine, but to the murderers who came to Ukraine, then our actions will be appropriate.
And these are not the last such decisions. The services work," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in early January 2023, depriving not only of Derkach , but also Viktor Medvedchuk (previously detained and transferred to the Russian Federation in the process of exchange of prisoners), Taras Kozak (fled from Ukraine before February 24) and Renata Kuzmin (former Deputy Prosecutor General), Ukrainian Citizenship. All are the persons involved in the state council.
But they are not the only deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, operating or present, who, after the start of a full -scale invasion, found themselves in the Russian Federation. In Belarus, the former spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the MP from the IPP Oleg Voloshin lives and in Moscow. He fled from Ukraine on the eve of a full -scale invasion. He was also suspected in the State Executive Council.
According to the SBU, during 2020-2021 he actively contributed to the highest military-political leadership of Russia in conducting large-scale subversive activities against Ukraine, spreading the Kremlin narratives on the socio-political situation in Ukraine. In the elite apartments in Moscow there is an exocalist "Party of Regions" Alexander Efremov. After the invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, he first went to Slovakia and then to Russia.
Ukrainian law enforcement officers are also blamed for the State Executive Council. The Office of the Prosecutor General also reported the suspicion of the Experler of the prohibited Communist Party in Ukraine Petro Symonenko. During the occupation of the Kyiv region, Symonenko appealed to Russia's supreme military-political leadership regarding his "evacuation" from the village of Berezivka, Makariv district.
He was taken out in early March through Belarus to Russia, where he lives now, developing the Communist Party. In the Russian Federation, a deputy from the IPP is hidden Alexander Ponomarev. The SBU and he is suspected of the State Executive and Collaboration The investigation found that the deputy, while in the temporarily occupied territory of Zaporizhzhya region, voluntarily went on cooperation with the Russian Federation. He re -registered enterprises under Russian law, opened accounts.
The case was already transferred to court, and the Verkhovna Rada was deprived of the mandate. Some live not only in the Russian Federation, but also in Europe, as the Exnarade (resigned in the summer of 2022) and a deacon of the Russian Orthodox Church, Vadim Novinsky. He actively lobbies the interests of the ROC in the EU, declaring oppression in Ukraine. Political scientist Mykola Davidyuk is wondering why there is little attention to Novinsky.
"What is it, not a Russian spy that came to the church, and in the time of Yanukovych he received a passport from his hands? It is worth noting that among the fugitive deputies were politicians who frankly sympathized with the Russian authorities, and those who were very restrained. Political scientist Petro Oleshchuk in conversation with focus reminds that Andriy Derkach was not among the representatives of the political elite, which was considered pro -Russian.
During the Orange Revolution, his Media Media Media Holding openly supported the presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, and dozens of photos can be found on the network, where Derkach, along with the then opposition in the Orange Slik. In Russia, some still reproach him with this fact and relations with individual politicians, such as Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko of President Petro Poroshenko. Derkach was a guest at his birthday.
"Derkach did not manifest himself as a pro -Russian politician, but at the same time participated in campaigns, tried to influence American policy on behalf of Ukraine. That is, he was engaged in subversive activities on behalf of Ukraine. And people such as Derkach are much more dangerous than pro -Russian persons, They run with flags and try to convey something. In fact, Derkach's connections with Moscow have never been a secret.
In all public biographies of politics, it is mentioned that in 1993 he received a diploma of the Lawyer of the FSB Academy of Russia, having prepared a thesis "Organization and meeting with an unspoken agent". And the theory of Derkach quickly tested in practice. After his studies, he immediately received positions at the heads of the Ukrainian state-he was an advisor and consultant of President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.
However, at that time, such experience of cooperation was not considered a betrayal, but rather an advantage, since relations with the Russian Federation were the norm. It was for this reason that Viktor Medvedchuk also operated in Ukrainian politics for a long time. He is in the past the head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, as well as the chief speaker on the return of Ukrainian citizens from the Russian Federation after 2014, a participant in the Minsk negotiations.
The Ukrainian law enforcement agencies detained Medvedchuk only after the start of a full -scale invasion and transferred in exchange for the captives of the Azov of Russia. "Finally, we found out that Derkach is the most status after Medvedchuk by a Russian agent," Oleshchuk notes. The case of Derkach proves that the so-called old Guard, which Russia relied on until 2022, and even in 2014, to put aside.
Experience proves that neither former President Viktor Yanukovych, nor former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov RF was seriously tried to use in ten years, rather show as propagandists. Just like a new generation of public pro -Russian activists such as Oleg Voloshin. Russia uses not to influence those people who act with pro -Russian slogans. She is beneficial to those who did not hold a frankly public pro -Russian position but participate in certain votes and campaigns.
"Derkach has fully revealed himself as an agent and went to Russia, to receive the award," says Oleshchuk. "And not for nothing everything happens in public. Having appointed Derkach to a high position, Russia sends a signal to its agents who remember everyone, for their services, for merit Medvedchuk was awarded from prison, Derkach was given a high status, "says political scientist Oleshchuk.
He believes that this signal is not only old agents, but also new, young, say, agree to cooperation, we do not throw our own. "The Russians are trying to recruit a new generation of Ukrainian politicians. There are certain indicators by which the moods of individuals can be determined. For example, the ban on the Russian Orthodox Church.
The UOC -MP has always been an important tool for preserving Russian influence in Ukraine, and to those people who did not work in The card during the vote in parliament, I personally raise suspicions. And in this context, the work of law enforcement agencies, or rather, the importance of political influence on it, as well as political will, is decisive.