SBU confirms interrogation of Medvedchuk in Surkov tapes case

The SBU Security Service of Ukraine has officially confirmed they interrogated Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest ally in Ukraine, Ukrainian Member of Parliament with the Opposition Platform For Life Party Viktor Medvedchuk in the so-called Medvedchuk-Surkov tapes case.

Read alsoMedvedchuk, Surkov talk power supplies to occupied Crimea, prisoner swap – leaked call from 2014

The investigators' questions concerned, among other things, the facts that appear in the recently leaked communications between Medvedchuk and ex-"supervisor" for Donbas, Putin's former aide Vladislav Surkov, the SBU press service told UNIAN.

Former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko was summoned for interrogation twice as part of the criminal proceedings related to the tapes, but he did not appear both times.

Sanctions against Medvedchuk and his case

• On February 19, 2021, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) decided to impose sanctions on 19 legal entities and eight individuals. In particular, sanctions shall be applied to MP from the Opposition Platform - For Life Party Viktor Medvedchuk and his wife Oksana Marchenko. All their property and assets are subject to the sanctions.
• On February 25, the Censor.net online outlet published an audio recording of a conversation between two people whose voices sound similar to Medvedchuk and Surkov. They discussed the supply of electricity to Russia-occupied Crimea and the exchange of prisoners in Donbas. According to the publication, the conversation is dated 2014.
• On February 26, SBU chief Ivan Bakanov said that the SBU would conduct a probe into the audio recordings of the alleged conversation between Medvedchuk and Surkov, published by the media. According to him, the published audio recordings of the conversations of persons identified by the media as Medvedchuk and Surkov are included in criminal proceedings.
• According to NSDC Secretary Oleksiy Danilov, the SBU Security Service of Ukraine has been investigating a case under Part 5 of Article 258 (financing of terrorism), and the latest sanctions were applied to Medvedchuk, Marchenko, and other persons precisely in connection with the said probe.