Former Ukrainian MP Medvedchuk and his accomplices receive notices of suspicion

Ukraine's Security Service and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau have gathered a huge evidence base in the Samara-West Direction pipeline case, serving notice of suspicion on Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian businessman and pro-Russian politician who is also known for his connections to Putin, and his accomplices for seizing the pipeline.

Source: press service of the Security Service of Ukraine; Office of the Prosecutor General on Telegram 

Details: According to the case file, the organiser of the unlawful privatisation project was former Ukrainian MP Viktor Medvedchuk, who is suspected of high treason by Ukraine’s Security Service. He began implementing this programme in 2015, working with Ukraine and Russia's political leaders at the time.

Medvedchuk involved third parties in the scheme, who subsequently took up senior positions at the company that "privatised" the oil pipeline.

According to the procedures, after the collapse of the USSR, Russia retained ownership of the pipeline, but in 2014-2015, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Economic Court confirmed Ukraine's rights to it.

However, Medvedchuk, with the help of Ukraine's then-leadership, was able to reverse this ruling through the Rivne Economic Court and arrange for the sale of the oil pipeline to a Swiss corporation controlled by the scheme's participants.

After seizing the pipeline, Medvedchuk and his accomplices ensured its operation through the company Prykarpatzakhidtrans, and the revenues were transferred to the accounts of affiliated overseas companies and distributed among them.

This information is supported by evidence accessible to the Ukraine's Security Service and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, as well as Viktor Medvedchuk's own testimony, which he voluntarily provided prior to the exchange with the Russian Federation.

In May 2019, diesel pumping through the pipeline was halted in order to ensure its return to state ownership. In January 2024, the Supreme Court of Ukraine formally recognised the Ukrainian portion of the pipeline as state property.

The pre-trial investigation is still ongoing. Law enforcement agencies implement a series of procedures to bring suspects who are overseas to justice and to create a circle of all individuals involved in this unlawful transaction.

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