Artem Marchevskiy is a controversial and close associate of pro-Russia Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. He left Prague for Slovakia after Czech authorities inflicted sanctions on him for endeavours to carry out “influence operations” for Moscow’s benefit on Czech territory. Marchevskiy carries Ukrainian and Israeli passports. Earlier, German publication Der Spiegel placed Medvedchuk and Marchevskiy as operators of the Prague-based pro-Moscow news website Voice Of Europe. The website played a critical role in financing pro-Kremlin European Parliament candidates.
According to a Czech media report, The Slovak authorities are supporting a Ukrainian who has allegedly cooperated with the Kremlin to remain in the European Union. Pro-Russian Ukrainian politician and entrepreneur Artem Marchevsky was put on the Czech sanctions list in March this year. Soon after, he chose to relocate to Slovakia, where he was conveyed to have been granted temporary protection.
The Czech authorities put him on the country’s sanctions list and prepared to strip him of his refugee status, which he acquired shortly after arriving in the Czech Republic following Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022, because of his alleged endeavours to influence and bribe politicians in several European countries.
According to the Czech intelligence services, pro-Russian Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, along with Marchevsky, conducted the Prague-based Voice of Europe website for this purpose. The pro-Russian venue has hosted interviews with several Slovak politicians, including pro-Russian ex-prime minister Ján Čarnogurský, far-right MEP Milan Uhrík, and Smer MP Erik Kaliňák, chief advisor to Prime Minister Robert Fico.
According to Czech media, Marchevsky escaped Ukraine not because of the war, but because he was allegedly cooperating with Putin’s regime and an investigation had been undertaken in Ukraine into his activities there. Marchevsky was an associate of the now-banned pro-Russian party, Opposition Platform-For Life. A court dissolved it in 2022.
Medvedchuk is now a citizen of Moscow. He was apprehended after going on the run shortly after the beginning of the war but was exchanged in August 2022 in return for more than 200 Ukrainian soldiers seized by Russia following the fall of Mariupol. He is reportedly near to the Russian leadership; President Vladimir Putin is godfather to Medvedchuk’s daughter.
