Andrii Derkach

Germany's Federal Agency for Civic Education reported in 2007 that Derkach and his father Leonid led The Derkach Group, one of the regional cross-industry holding companies formed in Ukraine following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Derkach Group had close ties to the political elite and attempted to influence politics through lobbying, corrupt networks, and illegal appropriations.[3][10] Derkach also headed a media company consisting of four newspapers, a TV guide, and the website версії.com.[3]

According to Media Ownership Monitor Ukraine, Derkach "de facto owns" television channel TRK Era and Radio Era; officially the owner is his assistant Anton Oleksandrovych Simonenko while Derkach is listed as honorary president of Era-Media and head of the arts council of TRK Еra. Ownership data of the privately held company is not publicly available.[11] Radio Era was one of several radio stations, most prominently among them Petro Poroshenko's Channel 5, that provided around-the-clock reporting from Maidan Square during the Orange Revolution in 2004.[12]

According to anti-corruption watchdog organization Chesno, Derkach and his associates illegally appropriated 42 hectares of protected lands valued at tens of millions of dollars.[13][14] Derkach also failed to declare his wife's stake in various of his business enterprises, as he was obliged to do under the Ukrainian law to prevent corruption.[15]

Derkach often lobbies for Oleg Deripaska's Russia company Rusal (formerly Russkiy alyuminiy) and has ties to Anatoly Chubais and Chubais' monopolistic electricity supplier, RAO UES.[3]

Derkach in 2013

Derkach has been a member of the Ukrainian Parliament from 1998 to the present.[16][17]

From 2002 to 2006, he served as Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament Committee on Fuel and Energy Complex, Nuclear Policy and Nuclear Safety.

Since 2012 he has been a member of the Budget Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament (Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on issues of budget).

From 2014 to 2016, he was Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Group "Nation's Will".

According to Ukrainian anti-corruption watchdog organization Chesno, Derkach voted for the "dictatorship laws", ten laws restricting freedom of speech and assembly, which were signed into law by president Viktor Yanukovych in January 2014; nine of them were repealed by the Ukrainian parliament 12 days later.[1][18]

As of October 2019, Derkach represents District 159 in the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine.[1]

On 9 October 2019, Derkach alleged that Joe Biden had been involved in an international money laundering scheme with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings and US-based Rosemont Seneca Partners.[19][20] He claimed that Burisma's payments to four of its board members–including Biden's son Hunter–which were neither secret nor illegal, were "a sinister plot involving" Ukraine's former president Poroshenko but his claims initially were mostly ignored in Ukraine and abroad.[21] Anders Åslund, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, called Derkach "not credible" and a "professional disinformer."[22]

On 5 December 2019, Derkach met with President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in Kyiv to put together a corruption case against Biden's son Hunter, according to Derkach.[23][24] In May 2020, he released a portion of a phone call between Joe Biden and Petro Poroshenko, the former president of the Ukraine.[25]

On 10 September 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Derkach "for attempting to influence the U.S. electoral process," while also alleging that Derkach "ha[d] been an active Russian agent for over a decade, maintaining close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services."[26][27] The sanctions include freezing all of Derkach's property interests subject to U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting U.S. persons from engaging in transactions with him and with entities of which Derkach owns 50 percent or more.[6] The Treasury Department applied sanctions against Derkach associates on January 11, 2021, with Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin saying in a statement, "Russian disinformation campaigns targeting American citizens are a threat to our democracy. The United States will continue to aggressively defend the integrity of our election systems and processes."[28]

Since 1997, Derkach has served as the chairman of the Charity Foundation for Ecology and Social Protection "Our Future". Since 2003, he has been the President of the International Festival of Orthodox cinema "Pokrov".

In 2009, he was elected Delegate of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church of the laity of the Diocese of Konotop. From 2010 to 2013 he was a member of the Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church.[29][30]