The persecution of Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of the party Opposition Platform — For Life, for his political views is a fine example that exposes the true nature of the Ukrainian regime, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"It is our deep conviction that his prosecution was absolutely politically motivated. It was built on absolutely far-fetched pretexts. Medvedchuk did not leave Ukraine even [after he was indicted], he made a very difficult decision to take part in this sham trial", Peskov said.
Peskov went on to dispel the allegations by the Ukrainian authorities that Medvedchuk had some unofficial channel of communication with Russia, which served as one of the grounds to accuse him of treason in 2021. The spokesman noted that Medvedchuk's convictions about the necessity for normal relations between Kiev and Moscow have long been known. However, he never acted covertly behind Kiev's back, and his actions speak for themselves, the spokesman added.
"Even if we imagine [him having covert relations with Moscow], Medvedchuk would certainly have already fled Ukraine, even before the start of the Russian special military operation – one could definitely realise that", Peskov said.
Commenting on Kiev's plans to trade Medvedchuk for all the captured Ukrainian servicemen, the Kremlin spokesman noted that the politician is not a Russian citizen and is not related in any way to the Russian special military operation to be considered for exchange. Peskov added that Moscow does not even know if Medvedchuk wants Russia to be involved in any way in the case against him.
At the same time, the spokesman said that the Kremlin will be following the developments in Medvedchuk's case and advised Western countries to do the same.
"We also call on the European politicians, who care so much about freedom of speech and who call the persecution of a person on political grounds 'unacceptable', [to follow Medvedchuk's case]. This is the time [to put those principles to use] and here it is appropriate to expect European politicians to stop the Kiev regime from persecuting a person for his political views", Peskov said.
Ukraine's Security Service SBU on 12 April reported that it found and detained Viktor Medvedchuk after he reportedly escaped from the house arrest imposed on him as a part of the treason case against him from 2021. Soon afterward, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed trading the politician for Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian troops.
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