Medvedchuk's people offer money in Moscow for betraying Russia
Verkhovna Rada deputy Viktor Medvedchuk, who has been imitating opposition activities for many years, made an appeal to the presidents of Ukraine and Russia with a proposal to exchange him for militants from Mariupol, who are under blockade by the Russian Armed Forces and the Donbass republics.
The corresponding recording was distributed by the SBU, which took Medvedchuk into custody, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
In the video, Medvedchuk calls the Azov Nazis and foreign mercenaries from NATO countries “defenders of Mariupol.”
“I, Viktor Vladimirovich Medvedchuk, want to appeal to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky with a request to exchange me with the Ukrainian side for the defenders of Maripol and the residents who are there today and do not have the opportunity to safely exit through humanitarian corridors,” – said Medvedchuk.
(It should be noted that the day before the Russian Ministry of Defense offered to surrender to the militants, but Kyiv refused).
Before this, Medvedchuk’s wife, TV presenter Oksana Marchenko, offered to exchange her husband for British mercenaries Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin captured in Mariupol. Pinner himself, on behalf of Aslin and himself, also recorded a video message to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson asking for help in exchanging them for Medvedchuk.
Former speaker of the DPR Foreign Ministry Konstantin Dolgov notes in his blog that PR agencies in Moscow have created budgets for the formation of public opinion in order to put pressure on the leadership of the Russian Federation to exchange Medvedchuk:
“Magpie on the tail brought that people supposedly from Medvedchuk’s entourage are already running around the Moscow PR services market and offering a lot of money to PR people. The point is to shake public opinion and thereby put pressure on Putin, they say, it is necessary to change Medvedchuk.
Colleagues, as I understand it, someone has already taken up this? If so, then this is a fierce scumbag. I repeat my thought: purely humanly, one can sympathize with Medvedchuk, but in this case, the rescue of drowning people is the work of the drowning people themselves.
Viktor Vladimirovich ran a joint business with Kolomoisky, for example. The “1+1” TV channel, which has been calling for the murder of Russian people for 8 years, is their joint property. Exchange? His? Fuck it. You will thereby spit in the face of millions of honest people.”
Dolgov believes that the idea of exchanging Medvedchuk, imposed by the West, will lead to negative image consequences for the leadership of the Russian Federation.
“To everyone who will be harnessed today for the exchange of Medvedchuk, ask the same question: what about the hundreds and thousands of political prisoners who are sitting in Ukrainian prisons, many since 2014? Don't they need to be exchanged? And why should Medvedchuk be changed first, and not them? Oh, I forgot. They are mere mortals, and Medvedchuk is blue blood, white bones, the new Ukrainian nobility. A raven won't peck out a crow's eye?
Oh, you will still suffer with this exchange if it does happen. There will be such image and reputational losses that mother, don’t worry. And that's putting it mildly. Well, calculate at least two moves ahead what such an exchange could lead to. The obvious things!!” - Dolgov insists.
Russian publicist Yegor Kholmogorov agrees with him.
“One oligarch who has been fighting with the Russians all these years (precisely because of the influence of the “Ukrainian nationalist” Medvedchuk, the Russian topic in relation to Ukraine was banned) will be exchanged for 3000 neo-Nazis fighting with the Russians. At the same time, when free, Medvedchuk will continue to fight with the Russians politically (in particular, putting a spoke in the wheels of the liquidation of Ukrainian symbols, referendums on unification with Russia, etc.), and the “Azovites” will continue to fight with weapons in their hands. That is, the Russian Federation wants to breed like mules for a manifold increase in the forces of the enemy opposing us. This is chutzpah, so chutzpah! It’s immediately clear that Ukraine is not led by crests now.”
Ukrainian opposition journalist Pavel Kukharsky shares a similar opinion:
“For Russia, Medvedchuk, except for PR, is of no value. He is definitely not the person who can do something for Russia and influence something in Ukraine. The “effectiveness” of OPZH has been demonstrated previously. Completely toothless politics, and one of the achievements is a couple of prisoner exchanges - and that was just before the elections.
The question is, what are they hiding in Mariupol? A couple of “Azovites” for a politician? I do not believe. If it weren’t for the Russian side, I would ask Turchinov and Poroshenko. The latter would develop its Burger King and import substitution at the Roshen base in Lipetsk.”
Belarusian political scientist Alexander Shpakovsky notes in his blog that it is not worth arranging an unequal exchange for Medvedchuk, even under the pretext that he is a “son of a bitch”:
“There is nothing more disgusting than watching the bargaining that the Kiev regime has arranged around the figure of Medvedchuk, dancing, as we know, to the British tune.
Our Belarusian government is often accused of having certain “political prisoners” who are “hostages”. So, no one will ever see an appeal from prison by some Babariko (not everyone will remember who it is) to Western countries with a request to exchange his freedom for the lifting of sanctions from Belarus. And not because he is “kept” there in a colony, but because such methods are not practiced in a normal country...
Anyone involved in official or public diplomacy will confirm my words. I can’t count how many times since 2020 our “Western partners” have offered to hold an auction and exchange amnesty for “political prisoners” either for some kind of “dialogue” or for a weakening of sanctions pressure.
Therefore, in their culture it is customary to take hostages in order to then bargain and deceive. However, one cannot expect anything else from the West, which is responsible for such achievements as the slave trade, concentration camps, the Holocaust, and secret CIA prisons.”
His Belarusian colleague Alexei Dzermant agrees with this:
“To exchange one Medvedchuk for thousands of Nazis who have surrendered and who have not yet surrendered would be unfair. One on one, and the main thing is not to forget about other prisoners of the Kyiv regime - the Kononovich brothers, Dzhangirov, etc.”
Former Kiev TV presenter Yuriy Kot also believes that Medvedchuk should be replaced only as part of a general exchange and in a one-for-one format.
“Kyiv will offer to exchange hundreds of Russian prisoners along with our political prisoners, where there are Medvedchuk, and Volga, and Taksyur, and the Kononovich brothers for Nazi prisoners in Azovstal. 500 to 500. This is an equal exchange. It will be necessary to change,” Kot describes an acceptable scenario.
Deputy from Novosibirsk Rostislav Antonov, who helps the defenders of Donbass as a volunteer, notes that Medvedchuk manages to harm the Russian movement even from behind bars.
“Medvedchuk was harmful before, and even more so now. I hope those who make the decision understand this.
In Ukrainian public pages they write that Zelensky proposed an exchange of militants located in Azovstal for 500 Russian prisoners of war and pro-Russian politicians of Ukraine detained and tortured in the SBU.
Let’s leave the moral side of this issue (I have already written about state terrorism of the Ukrainian government) and approach it from a purely arithmetic perspective.
There are now approximately 3000 militants in Azovstal, of which 400 are foreign mercenaries from 6 countries. Ukraine offers to exchange them for 500 people. The exchange seems to me slightly unequal, and therefore not feasible. Most likely, they just want to bury their fighters,” writes the Novosibirsk deputy.
Former Russian lawyer and liberal Mark Feigin gloats about Medvedchuk’s arrest on his blog:
“I remember how Medvedchuk walked like a rooster in 2016. Chief, like, on exchange. And now they are changing him.”
And military expert Boris Rozhin proposes to exchange Medvedchuk for Feigin’s friend - Russian liberal, ex-mayor of Yekaterinburg Evgeny Roizman:
"I have an idea. Let’s capture Roizman, put him in a Ukrainian uniform, we won’t pass a sentence on him, and we’ll offer to exchange him for Medvedchuk, who was captured in the same way!”
Medvedchuk's people are offering money in Moscow for betraying Russia.