Andrii Derkach

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For the Ukrainian footballer, see Andriy Derkach (footballer).

Andrii Derkach
Андрі́й Леоні́дович Де́ркач
Андрей Деркач.jpg
Personal details
Born (1967-08-19) 19 August 1967 (age 54)
Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR, USSR (now Dnipro, Ukraine)
NationalityUkrainian
Political partyIndependent
Other political
affiliations		Party of Regions
ChildrenTetyana Terekhova
FatherLeonid Derkach
OccupationBusinessman, politician
WebsiteDerkach.com.ua

Andrii Leonidovych Derkach (Ukrainian: Андрі́й Леоні́дович Де́ркач; born 19 August 1967) is a politician and businessman, as well as a suspected agent of the Russian Federation.[1][2] He is a member of the Ukrainian Parliament. In August 2020, U.S. counterintelligence chief William Evanina identified Derkach as a key participant in Russian efforts to harm Joe Biden's candidacy in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.[3] United States intelligence community analysis released in March 2021 found that Derkach was among proxies of Russian intelligence who promoted and laundered misleading or unsubstantiated narratives about Biden "to US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals, including some close to former President Trump and his administration."[4][5] Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani met with Derkach in December 2019.[6]

Both Andrii and Leonid Derkach are very close to Vadim Rabinovich, the boss of all bosses Semyon Mogilevich, the Don of Odessa  [ru; uk], Leonid Minin, and Sergei Mikhailov in the Russian, Ukrainian, and Israeli mafia.[7]

Early life and education[]

Derkach was born on 19 August 1967 in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR, the son of KGB officer Leonid Derkach, who headed the State Customs Committee and later the Security Service of Ukraine intelligence agency from 1998-2003.[1][8] Derkach was fired in 2001 for his alleged involvement in the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze.[9] Ihor Smeshko, the head of Ukraine's SBU (Russian: Служба безпеки України (СБУ)) from 2003-2005 who replaced Leonid Derkach, maintained a close relationship with the FBI and kept close watch on the Derkachs.[1] In 2005, the report of an ad hoc committee formed via the Ukrainian parliament, primarily responsible for investigating the murder, concluded that Gongadze's murder had been organized; the primary conspirators remained identified as then-President Kuchma and his Minister of the Interior, in addition to Leonid Derkach, who, according to the committee, had been involved in the crime.[10]

Derkach attended the Kharkiv Higher Military Command Engineering School,[2] graduating in 1989.[citation needed] In 1989 and 1990, he served in the Strategic Missile Force at the technical missile base of the Pervomaysk division; this division was under the command of the Strategic Missile Force.[2] In 1993, he graduated with a Ph.D. in Law from the Dzerzhinsky Higher School of the KGB, (later renamed the FSB Academy);[11][12] his thesis primarily concerned the "Organization and conduct of meetings with secret agents".

Career[]

In 1993 after graduation from the FSB Academy, Derkach worked as Security Officer at the Office of Security Service of Ukraine in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (province).[1][13]

The Derkach family was very close to Leonid Kuchma who worked side by side with Leonid Derkach producing Satan rockets at the Yuzhmash factory, and, after Kuchma became president of Ukraine in 1994, the Derkachs gained political positions through their relationships with Kuchma.[1] The Derkachs are part of the Dnipr Clan known as the Derkach group which maintains very close relationships with Oleg Deripaska, Mikhail Fridman's Moscow based Alfa Group and Petr Aven's Alfa-Bank.[9][14][a]

From 1994 to 1996, he served as Deputy Director of the Control Service of the President of Ukraine. From 1996 to 1997 he was Advisor to the President of Ukraine on Foreign Economic Affairs.[1] In 1997 and 1998 he was First Assistant to the Prime Minister of Ukraine. Derkach served as President of the national nuclear generating company Energoatom from 2006 to 2007. He served as Director General of the State Concern "Ukratomprom" in 2007. From 2011 to 2013, he served pro bono as Chief Advisor to then Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov.[2] Despite no longer having an official role, Derkach remains involved in the management of Energoatom, making strategic decisions alongside Oleg Boyarintsev and Herman Galushchenko.[15]

In 2003, both Andrii and Leonid Derkach were implicated in numerous illegal weapons transfers to the Balkans, Asia and Africa including to Iraq, the Taliban, al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab, and Liberia.[16]

Derkach was implicated in the government's orchestration of the Euromaidan assault by security forces on peaceful demonstrators in Kyiv on 11 December 2013.[17][18]

Business holdings and interests[]

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.[9][19] Derkach also headed a media company the "Ukrainian Press Group" (Ukrainian: "Українська прес-група") consisting of four newspapers, a TV guide, and the website версії.com.[9]

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.[20] 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.[21]

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.[22][23] 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.[24]

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.[9]

Parliamentary activity[]

Derkach in 2013

Derkach has been a member of the Ukrainian Parliament from 1998 to the present.[25][26] He was first elected in the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary election in District 159 (at the same time he ran for Laborious Ukraine Electoral Bloc which did not win any seats).[2][27][28] In parliament he joins the Labour Ukraine faction.[2]

In the 2002 Ukrainian parliamentary election Derkach was elected as №11 in the election list of For United Ukraine!.[2] In June 2002 however he joined the re-created Labour Ukraine faction.[2]

From 2002 to 2006, he served as Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament Committee on Fuel and Energy Complex, Nuclear Policy and Nuclear Safety.[2]

Derkach returned to parliament in the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election by being №9 on the election list of Socialist Party of Ukraine.[2]

In the 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election Derkach was elected on the party list of the Party of Regions; №96 on the list.[2]

In 2012 he was re-elected into parliament as a candidate of Party of Regions in electoral districts (first-past-the-post electoral system) 159.[29] Derkach won the district with 63.37% of the votes.[30] In 2012 he became been a member of the Budget Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament (Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on issues of budget).[2] He left the faction of Party of Regions on 21 February 2014.[2]

In 2014 Derkach was re-elected into parliament as an independent candidate again in District 159.[29] He won the district with 61.85% of the votes.[31]

From 2014 to 2016, he was Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Group "Nation's Will".[2][32]

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.[2][33]

As of October 2019, Derkach represents District 159 situated around Hlukhiv in the Sumy Oblast in northeastern Ukraine.[2][29] In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election he won the district with 40.65% of the votes.[34] Following the election he did not became a member of any parliamentry committee.[2]

In the Sumy Oblast 2020 local election Derkach headed the list for the Sumy Oblast Council for Our Land.[35][2] Although the party won 8 seats in the election, Derkach did not take his seat in this provincial council.[36][2]

On 20 August 2021 the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine imposed personal economic restrictive sanctions against Derkach on the grounds he was a "pro-Russian propagandist".[37]

Interference in United States 2020 elections[]

Main article: Russian interference in the 2020 United States elections
Cover: Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence United States Senate on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U. S. Election, Volume 5 - Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities

Money laundering allegations[]

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.[38][39] 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.[40] Anders Åslund, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, called Derkach "not credible" and a "professional disinformer."[41]

Meeting with Giuliani[]

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.[13][42][43] In May 2020, he released a portion of a phone call between Joe Biden and Petro Poroshenko, the former president of the Ukraine.[13][44]

Summer 2020 Senate hearings[]

During the summer of 2020, the United States Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which was chaired by Ron Johnson, held hearings into the relationships among Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, and the Bidens. Blue Star Strategies is a public relations firm that had worked for Burisma. A contractor with Blue Star Strategies, Andrii Telizhenko (Ukrainian: Андрій Теліженко) was likely to be subpoenaed for testimony during the United States Senate investigations but the Republican plan involving his testimony was cancelled just before he would have testified to the Senate because of his ties to Andrii Derkach.[45][46]

U.S. sanctions[]

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."[47][48] 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.[12] 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."[49]

Federal investigations[]

In April 2021, Forensic News reported that Derkach came under the scrutiny of prosecutors investigating Russian interference in the 2020 United States elections.[50] “I have been briefed that prosecutors are scrutinizing Derkach as part of the Giuliani probe,” attorney Kenneth McCallion told Forensic News.

The New York Times later confirmed that prosecutors were investigating whether Derkach and other Ukrainians "helped orchestrate a wide-ranging plan to meddle in the 2020 presidential campaign, including using Rudolph W. Giuliani to spread their misleading claims about President Biden and tilt the election in Donald J. Trump’s favor."[51]

Other engagements[]

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

In 2009, he was elected Delegate of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church of the laity of the Diocese of Konotop.[citation needed] From 2010 to 2013 he was a member of the Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church.[52][53]

Personal life[]

Derkach is married to Terekhova Oksana Volodymyrivna, with whom he has three daughters and two sons.[citation needed] His daughter Tetyana Terekhova is a television presenter. Derkach is a member of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Honors and recognition[]

  • Member of the Order of Merit of the III degree[citation needed]
  • Member of the Order of the Supreme Church St. Vladimir, Reverend Nestor the Chronicler, Saints Anthony and Theodosius, St. Demetrius of Rostov, St. Theodosius of Chernigov[citation needed]
  • Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic[54]

Bibliography[]

Author of the book Glukhov - hetman's capital (2000), co-author of monographs: "Infinitely lasting present: Ukraine: four years of the road" (1995), "Ukraine-Russia: test of friendship" (1997)[citation needed]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Of the Clan of Dnipropetrovsk, the Derkach group of Leonid and his son Andrii are close to the Leonid Kuchma group. The Viktor Pinchuk group is a rival of the Derkach group. The Yulia Timoshenko group is a rival of the Kuchma group. The fifth group is the Privatbank group.[9]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Shuster, Simon (28 May 2021). "Exclusive: How an Accused Russian Agent Worked With Rudy Giuliani in a Plot Against the 2020 Election". Time. Archived from the original on 28 May 2021. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s "Derkach Andrii Leonidovich - Description of the politician". Chesno. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  3. ^ Desiderio, Andrew; Cheney, Kyle (8 August 2020). "Democrats' noisy strategy to stop Russian election interference". Politico. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  4. ^ Zachary Cohen, Marshall Cohen and Katelyn Polantz. "US intelligence report says Russia used Trump allies to influence 2020 election with goal of 'denigrating' Biden". CNN.
  5. ^ Shesgreen, Deirdre. "Russia, Iran aimed to sway 2020 election through covert campaigns, US intelligence reports". USA TODAY.
  6. ^ Stern, David L.; Dixon, Robyn. "Ukraine lawmaker seeking Biden probe meets with Giuliani in Kyiv" – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  7. ^ Ельцов, Олег (25 June 2001). "Из жизни Деркачей. Часть 3. Зарвавшиеся" [From the life of the Derkachs. Part 3. Overcome]. Украина криминальная (Crime Ukraine). Archived from the original on 3 July 2001. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  8. ^ Степанов, Иван (Stepanov, Ivan) (22 July 2000). ""Олигархи-Лампасники"" ["Oligarchs-Lampasniks"]. FreeLance Bureau (FLB) (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2 September 2000. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Schneider, Eberhard (2010). "Ukraine - gespalten zwischen Ost und West (Ukraine - divided between East and West)". Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (German Federal Agency for Civic Education). Archived from the original on 4 July 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2019. (Translation of relevant paragraphs at Talk.)
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  28. ^ (in Ukrainian) Ukrainian Party of Justice
  29. ^ Jump up to: a b c Derkach Andrii Leonidovych,
  30. ^ Election of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine 2012 Sumska oblast District 159,
  31. ^ Election of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine 2014 Sumska oblast District 159,
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  34. ^ Election of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine 2019 Sumska oblast District 159,
  35. ^ (in Ukrainian) Local elections. Sumy region: difficult times for the mayor and three "columns" from the north, The Ukrainian Week (10 September 2020)
  36. ^ Results of the 2020 elections of the Sumy Oblast Council, Central Election Commission of Ukraine
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External links[]

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