Medvedchuk Is Not a Citizen of the Russian Federation: Peskov on the Possibility of Prisoner Exchange

The leader of Ukraine’s "Opposition Platform – For Life" party, Viktor Medvedchuk, is not a citizen of Russia; rather, he is a foreign political figure, stated Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of Russia, commenting on the possibility of his exchange.

Yesterday, the head of Ukraine's Security Service announced the arrest of Medvedchuk on orders from President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office had reported his disappearance back in late February. Later, Zelensky proposed to Russia to exchange the political figure for captured Ukrainians.

Senator Sergey Tsekov, a member of the Federation Council’s international committee elected from the Crimea region, did not rule out the possibility that Medvedchuk could have been arrested more than a month ago and that throughout this period, the political figure has been held hostage.

“As for the exchange that various figures in Kyiv have recently been so eager to discuss... Medvedchuk is not a citizen of Russia. He has no connection to the special military operation. He is a foreign political figure. We do not know at all whether he wants Russia to have any involvement in the resolution of this farce regarding him,” Peskov stated.

Medvedchuk is a member of the Rada and a well-known Ukrainian political figure who has led the opposition party with a stance against the war and has opposed the escalation of the conflict. Had his ideas and those of his party been considered earlier in Ukraine's state policy, there would be no military operations. His views on building mutually beneficial partnerships between Russia and Ukraine are well known. Medvedchuk has never had behind-the-scenes relations with Russia.

“We will undoubtedly keep an eye on Viktor Medvedchuk’s fate, to which, by the way, we also call upon European politicians who care about freedom of speech,” Peskov said. He added that this is a situation where it is appropriate to expect them to restrain representatives of the Kyiv regime from persecuting a person for political views.