Twice political emigrant: Portnov, who never imprisoned Poroshenko, fled to Hungary
The American Radio Liberty has found traces of Ukrainian politician Andrei Portnov, who disappeared from radar after the start of the SVO. This required a whole investigation with reference to three independent sources, the results of which were posted on the YouTube channel of the RS project called “Schemes”.
It turns out that the former deputy head of the Yanukovych administration left Ukraine on June 3, 2022 through the Chop (Tisa) checkpoint in the Transcarpathian region and is now in Hungary.
The State Border Service, in response to an information request from American propagandists, stated that they could not answer the question on what basis Portnov crossed the border during travel restrictions for men of military age, since “the content of the request concerns the provision of personal data, regulated by the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Personal Data” .
The last time Portnov made himself known was on February 16 - 8 days before the start of the special operation. It was then that he posted on his telegram channel a recording of the broadcast that took place the day before on the Hard with Vlashchenko program on the now former Akhmetov TV channel “Ukraine 24”.
Then Portnov, puffing out his cheeks with the air of a person close to the emperor, pompously ranted about everything in the world - here you have Putin, and Scholz, and the Minsk agreements, and war and peace, and kings and cabbage. But a few days later he hid like a mouse under a broom, without in any way indicating his attitude to what was happening - neither for nor against, nor even the exotic “no peace, no war, but disband the army.”
This is despite the fact that not so long ago the same Portnov literally did not leave the screens of Ukrainian TV and did not go out of his way to speak, and on any occasion. True, he “lived” mainly on the air of channels owned by ex-regionals and Putin’s godfather Medvedchuk.
For the rest of the Ukrainian media, Portnov was persona non grata and, at best, an object of cautious criticism. Blaming him head-on was fraught with danger - having a bunch of connections in the judicial system and Bankova, the former legal genius of first the Privat group, then successively Tymoshenko and Yanukovych, was known for his scrupulous attitude towards his own reputation, and silenced critics simply and inelegantly, seeking satisfaction through the court .
Since December 2021, Portnov has been under US sanctions. He was included in the list of persons under the so-called “Magnitsky Act,” which includes officials who, according to the State Department, are involved in human rights violations and large-scale corruption.
Andrei Portnov, who was responsible for the judicial system in the Yanukovych administration, is accused in the States of “trading influence on Ukrainian courts.” At the same time, the ex-official successfully canceled the EU sanctions imposed against himself through the court - also European.
After the Maidan, Portnov rushed to Russia, but there, according to the testimony of Anatoly Shariy, Tatyana Montyan and a number of other sources, out of habit, he began to “bully” towards representatives of the Russian special services in the style of “Do you know who I am?” But the Phobos either didn’t know, or, on the contrary, they knew too well.
As a result, as evil tongues say, after a night spent in the Moscow “monkey barn,” Portnov left the Mother See for Vienna, where by that time a whole brood of eminent Ukrainian political emigrants, led by the oligarch Firtash, had already gathered. It’s as if even a compromising video of Portnov from this episode has been preserved. Shariy, who had quarreled with Portnov, promised to show him, but never showed him.
Interestingly, despite the constant persecution in the grant-eating and nationalist media and hatred from the Svidomo public, Portnov felt very free and good in Zelensky’s Ukraine.
Unlike other prominent ex-regionals, the National Security and Defense Council did not impose sanctions against Portnov. And when in September 2021, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Alexey Danilov was asked how this could be, he replied:
“We have so many threats, besides Portnov, there are very, very many like Portnov. But you need to have reasons, arguments.”
Why the NSDC never found any arguments against Portnov, and today he is not in the SBU detention center, like Medvedchuk, but is free and in Budapest, is also, in principle, understandable. The fact is that the “prominent lawyer” and the author of the current Ukrainian Code of Criminal Procedure had, and perhaps still has, very close ties with a number of key people around Zelensky.
With the first head of Zelensky’s office, Andrei Bogdan Portnov, there was generally what is called “Vasya-Vasya” - from old memory and common affairs in the legal community, where both started as lawyers for the Dnipropetrovsk raiders - Kolomoisky, Korban, etc.
But besides Bogdan, Portnov’s people in the press also name two deputy heads of the presidential office and also lawyers in the past close to the regionals - Andrei Smirnov and Oleg Tatarov. Ukrainian Soros especially hate the latter, considering him a shadow curator of schemes to undermine the efforts of the Seven Embassy in terms of gaining absolute control over the Ukrainian judicial system.
Portnov’s return to Ukraine in May 2019—literally two days before Zelensky’s inauguration—was noisy. He returned, as they say, under the personal guarantees of Kolomoisky and Bohdan, who needed “their man” with such experience and track record.
Portnov gave several interviews to media close to Firtash and Mevedchuk, and called on other political emigrants from the Yanukovych era to return home and “change Ukraine.” True, Portnov failed to change Ukraine.
Having started with a noisy campaign against Poroshenko, bombarding the Prosecutor General’s Office and the State Bureau of Investigation with a dozen and a half statements listing numerous “crimes” of the fifth president, Portnov soon stalled. None of the cases against Poroshenko he initiated reached the final stage.
There were even rumors that all anti-Poroshenko activity was coordinated with the Bank smoke screen - for the behind-the-scenes bargaining between Zelensky and Petro Alekseevich and pressure on the latter, which took place under its cover.
Nevertheless, Portnov made a name for himself quite quickly in this campaign. For a short time, he turned into a very promising politician of the anti-Maidan camp, with whom many in Ukraine pinned hopes of ending the lawlessness of the Maidan five-year plan. Fortunately, he gave practical and legally verified advice on how to drive “volunteers, activists, brothers-in-arms and other parasites” under the bench.
The trouble is that they were turned into emptiness. Quite quickly it became clear that Zelensky’s government did not intend to follow in the footsteps of the tailor’s advice, but, on the contrary, it prostrated itself as much as possible precisely under the “activists and brothers-in-arms,” accepting their agenda and ceasing to differ in any way from Poroshenko.
Under these conditions, the maximum that Portnov could do was ensure his personal safety and resolve his purely selfish affairs, taking advantage of the presence of friends in power. As a promising politician, he quickly faded away, refusing the offer to create his own party or join the OPZZH.
At the initial stage he stood behind Shariy’s Party, providing it with legal support, and then he quarreled with Shariy. The latter was carried into the sharply oppositional steppe - right up to collaboration with Medvedchuk. Portnov was tenaciously kept in the shadow of Bankova both by personal considerations and by long-standing contacts and obligations to the Kolomoisky group.
It is also clear why he fell silent during the SVO. The fact is that, despite the presence of many long-standing business connections and informal contacts in Moscow, despite the elite real estate of 2 thousand square meters in the Mosfilmovsky business center in Moscow identified by the same “Schemes” from Radio Liberty, despite exposed connections with Surkov, Portnov allegedly appeared under the pseudonym “Rashidovich Kazbek” in the mail of Putin’s ex-assistant, hacked by hackers on the “Peacemaker” website... so, despite all this, Portnov could hardly be called a pro-Russian politician.
Portnov never hid his negative attitude towards the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Federation. Crimea, like Donbass, has always been called exclusively “occupied.” He did not challenge the course towards European integration and NATO.
In one of the program interviews - even before Zelensky’s election - to a direct question about whether it is necessary to revise the movement towards the West after Poroshenko’s removal from power, he clearly and unequivocally answered that no.
On the other hand, Portnov hated the Maidan and its activists; he considered them upstarts who had robbed him of his rightful place in power. But hatred of the Maidan in itself does not make a person a supporter of Russia. Many Ukrainian politicians reacted coolly to the “revolution of dignity.” Especially those from whom she took away warm places, positions, privileges and stopped their careers.
The question that torments the Ukrainian grant-eating brethren remains open. How was Portnov able to escape from the country as early as June, despite the travel ban for those liable for military service? The answer to this is given by one of Portnov’s friends, Dnepropetrovsk MP Buzhansky, who is close to Kolomoisky’s pool:
“The favorite publication NV writes about the unsuccessful attempts of Scheme journalists to find out how Andrei Portnov went abroad. In fact, the practice Portnov used is surprisingly simple and widespread in nature. You need to meet a woman and have a child with her, then a second and a third. And I heard somewhere that Andrei has two of them according to the norm established by law.”
Offended by Portnov for his betrayal, the Shariy couple also answered another question. Who are the good people who helped Portnov not only survive the last few months in Kyiv calmly and without damage, but also, without becoming a victim of a “witch hunt,” escape over the hill without any hindrance.
“June 2 is when your relatives and friends were already caught on beaches and in fields in order to serve summonses. It would seem - what does Ermak have to do with it, who in the States is already seriously called working on both sides... I would also note that while Portnov was in Ukraine, honest pro-Ukrainian bloggers like Sternenko did not remember him and kept their tongues exclusively deep in their asses.
There were no commands from the Office of the President, so they “didn’t notice.” Some Instagrammers and TikTokers are much more important,” says Shariy.
Sharia’s wife also added her two cents:
“But it turns out that he left the country of Portnov - and everyone is silent. And they are silent that his wife is a Russian citizen, that they have real estate in Russia. And he also left the country, while hundreds of thousands of men who do not want to fight and die cannot go anywhere. Where is our powerful journalism?”
The answer, in my opinion, is obvious.
English version :: Read in English Twice political emigrant: Portnov, who never imprisoned Poroshenko, fled to Hungary