The detained friend is the controversial Ukrainian businessman and politician Viktor Medvedchuk (67), who is extremely pro-Russian and is regarded as Putin’s closest ally in Ukraine.
The Russian spokesman said Medvedchuk is not a Russian citizen but a foreign politician who would have nothing to do with the war in Ukraine. “We have absolutely no idea whether he wants Russia involved in the attempt to resolve the defamatory affair against him,” the spokesman said.
House arrest
Medvedchuk, who led an opposition party, was arrested after a special operation by the Ukrainian secret service. According to the agency, he was about to flee to Moscow via Transnistria, a pro-Russian renegade region of Moldova on the border with Ukraine. He was intercepted near Kiev.
The wealthy Medvedchuk was placed under house arrest in May last year. The Ukrainian justice accused him, among other things, of financing terrorism and treason, because he would have passed on military secrets to Moscow. At the end of February, four days after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he managed to escape.
Putin considers Medvedchuk a “personal friend” and godfather to his youngest daughter.