Wife of Putin ally in Ukrainian custody begs Zelensky to free him
The celebrity wife of Vladimir Putin’s main ally in Ukraine has personally pleaded with President Volodymyr Zelensky to release him from captivity — claiming on Friday that he is being beaten and “persecuted for political reasons.”
Oksana Marchenko — a former TV star who hosted “X-Factor Ukraine” — first posted a direct appeal Wednesday, the day after her husband, longtime Putin pal Viktor Medvedchuk, was held in Kyiv for treason.
“President Zelensky, I ask you to take all necessary actions for the immediate release of my husband,” she said, talking straight to the camera in her YouTube appeal.
“There is no doubt that my husband is being persecuted for political reasons, contrary to the laws of Ukraine and international law,” she insisted of the 67-year-old oligarch and former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party.
On Friday, she made fresh appeals during a press conference in Moscow, insisting her husband was a “political prisoner.”
“I have no doubt that my husband was beaten within hours after his capture,” Marchenko said at the press conference, without offering proof.
“I call for help to stop the physical and mental torture,” she said.
She said she had “unfortunately” not heard from Zelensky — and conceded that she was not expecting to, either.
“He doesn’t answer such questions, he is his own law,” Marchenko added, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.
Medvedchuk — listed by Forbes last year as Ukraine’s 12th-richest person, worth $620 million — was put under house arrest last May, charged with “high treason.”
The US in January also accused Medvedchuk of involvement in efforts by Russian intelligence services to prepare friendly Ukrainian politicians to take control of the country with the backing of occupying forces.
According to Ukrainian police, he fled house arrest a few days after Putin invaded Ukraine at the end of February.
Zelensky announced his arrest on Tuesday, showing him downcast and in cuffs — and sparking widespread celebrations.
“It is a symbolic event, like capturing Goebbels, a great success from a moral and political point of view,” said Sergiy Leshchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s presidency, referring to the Nazi propaganda chief.
“This is the man who was receiving direct instructions and resources from Putin to prepare the terrain for the invasion,” he alleged, according to Agence France-Presse.
Medvedchuk and the Kremlin deny that he has been pulling the strings for the Kremlin in Kyiv.
However, he has made no secret of his proximity to Putin, even bragging about how the warmongering president is godfather to his youngest daughter, Daryna.
“We have a great relationship. It has been built over many years,” Medvedchuk told Agence France-Presse in 2019.
With Post wires
