Portnov’s death and its consequences: impact on courts, Poroshenko’s case and political project in place of OPFL
Last week, the former deputy head of President Viktor Yanukovych’s administration, Andrii Portnov, was shot dead in Madrid. The violent joyful reaction of social media to the politician’s death eclipsed for a while the question of why he was killed and what he was doing in the last months of his life.
But first, let us remind you who he was in detail.
From raiding to lawyer for Tymoshenko and Yanukovych
Andrii Portnov started his career at the State Securities and Stock Market Commission, which at that time was responsible for the corporatisation of Ukrainian state-owned enterprises. And then he set up a law firm based on his work.
In 2005, he entered Ukrainian politics as a lawyer in the case of Secretary of State Oleksandr Zinchenko against the then NSDC Secretary Petro Poroshenko. It was part of the war between Yulia Tymoshenko's entourage and Viktor Yushchenko's team. According to Mykhailo Brodskyi, Portnov was brought to Tymoshenko by Bohdan Hubskyi, but Ihor Kolomoisky claimed the credit for this.
"He and Oliinyk (Sviatoslav- ed.). I recommended them to the headquarters. They are from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. I recommended them to Brodskyi," Kolomoisky said in an interview with Bihus 15 years later.
Anyway, in the next election, Portnov joined the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc team, heading its legal staff.
There, he had a hand in drafting laws that limited Viktor Yushchenko's power, and in 2008 he even became acting head of the State Property Fund, with the sole purpose of sending the Odesa Port Plant for privatisation. As Brodskyi described him at the time, he was "a very zealous Yulia Tymoshenko supporter with good raiding experience".
In fact, it was in 2008 that Portnov began to be known as the country's main raider, when, thanks to a game of additional emission, little-known firms suddenly became the owners of huge enterprises.
The raider schemes were carried out through several courts: Frankivsk District Court of Lviv, Holosiivskyi District Court of Kyiv, Komsomolskyi Court of Kherson Region, Solomianskyi Court of Kyiv, and Mukachevo City Court of Zakarpattia Region.
As a lawyer, Portnov was involved in the preparation of the notorious Tymoshenko gas deal in 2008, for which she was tried in the Yanukovych era.
In addition, in 2008, the MP was involved in drafting a new text of the Constitution, which actually divided power in the country between the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the Party of Regions.
At the time, Portnov described the project on Channel 5 as follows: "The option that we would have offered to the parliament if we had expected 300 votes also stipulates that the political force that received the majority of votes should receive 226 seats and form a coalition on its own."
The biggest surprise for the MPs was that in 2010 Portnov was still contesting the election results for Tymoshenko, and then went to work for the Yanukovych administration. He was in charge of judicial reform, and since then his power over the courts has increased to the maximum. In 2012, amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code were adopted, which were called "Portnov's". One of its novelties was the introduction of the position of an investigating judge. It also introduced the rule that evidence can only be testimony given to the court.
On 22 February 2014, Portnov fled Ukraine for Moscow. And for more than 5 years he did not come here. Only after Volodymyr Zelenskyy's victory did he land at Zhuliany airport.
After his return, he lived in the village of Kozyn on a landing stage owned by Ihor Kolomoisky. This gave rise to versions that it was Kolomoisky who invited Portnov to Ukraine in order to regain Privat.
This interpretation was also supported by Kolomoisky's words in the UP chat: "He is helping me with some things there. He has matured so much in this matter, when he fought off 800 hryvnias (Portnov was charged with illegal salary), all international sanctions, he has come a long way."
"I think today he is the No. 1 specialist in how to fight off unfounded and invented accusations. You understand that the man was accused of stealing his salary of UAH 800," Kolomoisky added.
At the same time, the oligarch denied in an interview with Bihus that Portnov had helped him with recent court decisions on "PrivatBank" in 2019, and also claimed that Portnov was not involved in Zelenskyy's team: "Like the devil from incense."
The task of returning Privat to Kolomoisky was actually assigned to the head of the Presidential Office, Andrii Bohdan, at that time. And according to one version, Bohdan was fired for not returning it, because it would have been politically incorrect.
Interestingly, Bohdan and Portnov were friends. And even in 2019, there were rumours that Portnov might be returned to power.
"It would be a wrong political decision, we cannot afford it. I am also against it, and I will not betray the president. But yes, he is my friend for many years," Bohdan said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.
Some media outlets suggested that it was Bohdan who helped Portnov return.
"What does this have to do with me? There were no obstacles to his return to Ukraine. My involvement was not necessary," Bohdan replied to Censor.NET.
Since his return, Portnov has been very politically beneficial to Zelenskyy, as he has constantly torpedoed the previous president, Petro Poroshenko, with allegations of crime.
According to estimates by Poroshenko's lawyer, Illia Novikov, Portnov has filed about 10 criminal complaints since the beginning of May 2019. "There is the case of the Kerch Strait, the case of seizure of power for not appointing courts, and the case of Semochko's appointment (First Deputy Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine - ed.) And then, starting around September 2019, he lost interest in being an applicant himself, and there are even more proceedings that were initiated either by a lawyer from his team or his sister. But he controlled them in one way or another," Novikov says.
In addition to hunting Poroshenko, Portnov also joined the persecution of Odesa activist Serhii Sternenko, demanding that he be imprisoned for murder, former MP Tetiana Chornovol, Radio Liberty, and the leader of the "Voice" faction Sviatoslav Vakarchuk. The odious politician accused the latter of withdrawing money through offshore accounts. As time went on, more and more journalists and activists joined Portnov's list of victims.
By mid-2020, Portnov was already accusing the current government of collaborating with Poroshenko more frequently, in particular because of the Prosecutor General's Office's decision to close three proceedings against the Eurosolidarity leader.
He also attacked the NABU and the then head of the Bureau, Artem Sytnyk, over the case of Oleh Tatarov, deputy head of the Presidential Office.
It should be recalled that before joining the Presidential Office, Tatarov was Portnov's lawyer.
As previously reported by Slidstvo.Info, Tatarov's name as Portnov's lawyer appeared in a letter from Prosecutor Oleksandr Bozhko dated 11 July 2019 to the then Prosecutor General Yurii Lutsenko. In the document, Bozhko complains about threats from Portnov and his lawyer Tatarov.
"A procedural action was carried out with Portnov A.V. and lawyer Tatarov O.Y., who provides legal assistance to Portnov A.V. According to Person 1, Person 2, Person 3, it was established that Portnov A.V. and Tatarov O.Y. said in a rude manner that they would imprison me, among others," prosecutor Oleksandr Bozhko said in a statement.
The events took place in the summer of 2019. But they had no consequences for the odious figure.
In 2021, Portnov came under US sanctions. He was included in the list of individuals under the so-called "Magnitsky Act". This list includes high-ranking officials involved in human rights violations and large-scale corruption.
But again, this did not affect him in Ukraine.
In the summer of 2022, Portnov left Ukraine as a father of three young children and settled in Turkey. A year later, he moved to Spain.
Nevertheless, he continued to visit Ukraine and the Presidential Office. And he was not alone. Last year, Mykhailo Tkach filmed an investigation into the cover numbers used by some VIPs in Kyiv. One of Portnov's friends, Valerii Pysarenko, was among them.
According to UP's sources in law enforcement, Pysarenko also keeps in touch with President Zelenskyy's office. In response to journalists' questions, Pysarenko confirmed that he was in contact with Portnov at the time, but denied any ties to the OP.
Portnov was last seen on Bankova Street a week before his death.
According to Censor.NET's sources, during his last visit to Ukraine on 17-19 May, Portnov met with high-ranking officials, including Tatarov. And he was released from Ukraine illegally - without a certificate from the TCR on the existence of legal grounds for going abroad.
He was also seen in the government quarter in the company of MPs - "Servants" from Kolomoisky's group.
According to the same sources, among other things, Portnov was involved in discussing future political projects, including the creation of a new party for the OPFL electorate.
"Andrii really had political ambitions and wanted to return to parliamentary life. In addition, thanks to Buzhanskyi, they have a certain resource in the Dnipropetrovsk region," one of Portnov's acquaintances told Censor.NET.
The rumours of party plans were quite unexpected. Until now, Portnov had been perceived by the media as an intermediary between the authorities and the courts and a person who had direct influence on judges.
However, different interlocutors of the publication assessed this impact differently.
Some said that he was actually the demiurge of these decisions. Others asked not to be dramatic.
"You are greatly overestimating Portnov's influence on the courts. He did not decide anyone's fate. This option always belongs to the authorities. In this time period - to Oleh Tatarov. And Portnov was more of a communicator. His mission was more to talk to some unfortunate judge who was destined to do the will of the state," says a source familiar with Portnov and the judiciary.
"Therefore, talking about Portnov's universal influence is like selling last year's snow. The power is in completely different hands," he added.
At the same time, other interlocutors pointed out that the deceased actively influenced at least three courts - the Pecherskyi, Shevchenkivskyi District Courts of Kyiv and the Kyiv Court of Appeal - as they are headed by people close to him.
"If the case fell to an intractable judge, Portnov would go to the head of the court and either arrange for the judge to be replaced or for him to change his position," says one of the interlocutors.
"What did Portnov influence on? He never lost contact with the SBI. Further, he was relied upon in the courts, not all of them, but he had, let's say, a controlling stake. Maybe he didn't have 100%, but in the Pechersk court he definitely had a controlling stake," one of the lawyers told Censor.NET.
"In the Pechersk Court and the Kyiv Court of Appeal, the concentration of loyal people in strategic positions was such that it made it possible to ensure what would not normally have been possible. To strengthen some search or to get a search warrant," the source explains.
The media wrote that Portnov also had an influence on the so-called coal case against the fifth president. Although he was not a complainant. Censor.NET asked Poroshenko's lawyer if they had any evidence of this.
"When Medvedchuk's tapes appeared, they (the authorities - ed.) thought they had found corruption. But it turned out they hadn't. And when the critical moment came, in December 21, when it was time to sign the suspicion, and then go to court, and then secure the decisions to seize property, Portnov was also working with them," says Illia Novikov.
Interestingly, the Pechersk court has now run out of judges who can hear Poroshenko's case, as they were involved in other investigations. And now, by the decision of the Court of Appeal, the case will be transferred to the Shevchenkivskyi Court. But now it will be interesting to see how the judges will act in it. Now without Portnov.
And now for the main thing - the cause of death. Censor.NET has heard very different versions - from the Russian trail, revenge of Sivkovych, revenge of Mohylevych for the seized assets of Zhevago, to which the Russian mafia was involved, to murder for unfulfilled obligations and debts.
"This is nonsense about debts. He has never made any debts. As for obligations, he has never made commitments that he could not fulfil. The other thing is that he got involved in a lot of ugly stories about raiding. But no one really has a version of his death," says a source who knew Portnov.
"I know at least two businessmen from whom he demanded $10 million over the past year or he would destroy their business. And one who had screwed him off almost lost his business. So everyone understands why he was killed, it's just a question - who?," the Kyiv businessman told Censor.NET.
Meanwhile, according to the UP, Spanish law enforcement officers refused to create a joint working group to investigate Portnov's murder, initiated by the Ukrainian side.
In addition, information is circulating on social media that Oleh Tatarov, either himself or through other law enforcement officers, asked the Spaniards to give him access to the deceased's phones. But they also refused.
In addition, the Spanish side is still refusing to hand over Portnov's body to Ukraine.
Tetiana Nikolaienko, Censor.NET
