Andriy Portnov is probably best known as the chief lawyer and judicial reformer during Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency.
In 2010, Yanukovych appointed Portnov as the head of the Main Directorate for Judicial Reform and Court System.
Who was one of the greatest enemies of Ukraine? Summing up by censor.net.
Portnov himself was a member of the High Council of Justice, to which he was elected in 2009 through the quota of legal higher education institutions.
On January 24, 2014, Viktor Yanukovych appointed Portnov as the First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration. At the end of February 2014, almost simultaneously with Viktor Yanukovych, Andriy Portnov left Ukraine.
He returned only after Volodymyr Zelensky won the presidential election in 2019, literally just a few days before Zelensky’s official inauguration. He left Ukraine again during the full-scale war, in the summer of 2022.
Criminal cases
In 2014, after Andriy Portnov left Ukraine along with other top managers from Viktor Yanukovych’s team, law enforcement agencies began making high-profile statements against him.
In January 2015, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine announced Andriy Portnov wanted under Part 3 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (misappropriation, embezzlement, or seizure of property by abusing official position, committed repeatedly or by prior conspiracy with a group of persons). However, in November of the same year, Portnov himself reported that the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv ordered the investigation to stop the search after his whereabouts were established.
In March 2014, Portnov was included in a list of eighteen individuals close to Viktor Yanukovych against whom the EU Council imposed personal sanctions.
A year later, these sanctions were lifted from Portnov because the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine did not provide any evidence against him.
Later, in November 2015, the court in Luxembourg satisfied Portnov’s lawsuit against Ukraine, recognizing the sanctions as illegal.
In March 2014, a case was opened against Andriy Portnov for making threats against members of parliament, as well as a case related to the embezzlement of funds from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and the Kyiv National Economic University in the amount of 137,600 UAH, and the embezzlement of payments totaling 26 million UAH. Additionally, he was accused of forging the decision of the 3rd All-Ukrainian Congress of representatives of legal higher education institutions and research organizations, which approved three members of the High Council of Justice.
Portnov’s interests in court were represented by his lawyer, Oleg Tatarov, who is currently the Deputy Head of the Office of the President.
During Yanukovych’s presidency, Tatarov held the position of Deputy Head of the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and provided commentary to the media about events at Maidan.
Between 2015 and 2018, the Embassy of Ukraine in Canada sent official letters to Canadian government agencies, citing the Prosecutor’s Office, informing them about the investigation concerning Andriy Portnov. Based on these reports, the Canadian government included Portnov on its sanctions list (Freezing Assets of Corrupt Foreign Officials (Ukraine) Regulations, SOR/2014-44).
In 2019, after Volodymyr Zelensky was elected President of Ukraine, publications appeared about the Prosecutor General’s Office addressing the Canadian government regarding the lifting of sanctions against Portnov.
Andriy Portnov was finally removed from the Canadian sanctions lists in March 2024.
In 2017, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) opened a criminal case against Portnov for illegal enrichment amounting to 26 million hryvnias during the period from July 2011 to December 2013.
The case was closed in March 2019 following the Constitutional Court’s annulment of the provision on illegal enrichment, which happened after the appeal of members of parliament.
In 2018, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) opened a criminal case against Andriy Portnov on suspicion of treason.
In August 2019, this case was closed, and “the procedural supervisor did not cancel the decision to close the proceedings.”
Public activity against the Maidan (Revolution of Dignity 2013–2014)
There was not a single public statement condemning the actions of Russia and its president, Putin. Meanwhile, Portnov had been very active publicly earlier, at the start of Volodymyr Zelensky’s presidency.
Immediately after returning to Ukraine, Portnov gave an interview to the pro-Russian publication Strana.ua, which is banned in Ukraine, where he stated that his “large legal team” would file “criminal activity reports” against former President Petro Poroshenko and his circle, seeking the arrest of Poroshenko’s assets.
A year later, during a second interview for Strana.ua (both interviews were downloaded by Business Censor), Portnov said that the issue of Poroshenko was now “fifth,” and the “first,” meaning the main issue, was the “de-heroization” and “demythologization” of the Maidan (referring to the events during the Revolution of Dignity).
“President (Zelensky) never once said the word ‘Maidan’ during his campaign, thus showing the East and Southeast that he intended to be fair. After being elected, he remained silent for several months, then started walking around Maidan with votive candles,” — Portnov criticized Zelensky’s policy during an interview.
At the same time, Portnov said his legal team was defending law enforcement officers “who took part in the events at Maidan” in court.
He also recounted filing a lawsuit against the Ministry of Education demanding the removal of “any references to the so-called Revolution” from textbooks for grades 5 to 11 in Ukrainian schools. As a result, the Kyiv District Administrative Court satisfied Andriy Portnov’s claim to revise the section concerning the Revolution of Dignity.
Lawsuits against Ukrainian media and judicial influence on freedom of speech
In recent years, Andriy Portnov has filed lawsuits from abroad against a number of Ukrainian media outlets and public organizations to protect his honor and business reputation.
Currently, he continues legal proceedings against the public organization Statewatch, which in 2023 published a report on leading pro-Russian figures in Ukraine who, according to the organization, have not faced any sanctions in Ukraine. Andriy Portnov was mentioned in the Statewatch report as one of these figures. The Statewatch research was published by online outlets The Kyiv Independent and lb.ua, both of which Portnov has also sued, demanding retractions of statements calling him a “pro-Russian politician.”
Portnov’s legal battles continue with the public organization “Rukh Chesno” (Honest Movement) and the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP). In June 2022, Portnov was included in the Register of State Traitors created by “Rukh Chesno,” which the organization filled in cooperation with the NACP. On February 15, 2024, Portnov initiated a lawsuit challenging his inclusion in this Register and disputing certain statements made about him.
Andriy Portnov has also taken legal action against Yuriy Butusov, the editor-in-chief of Censor.NET, sued the TV channel Hromadske, the Kyiv bureau of Radio Svoboda (Freedom), and the investigative journalism project Skhemy.
He is also suing the public organization “Center for Countering Corruption,” which in 2021 was involved in the process of imposing U.S. sanctions against Andriy Portnov. According to the Center for Countering Corruption, one case initiated by Portnov is currently under cassation review, in which he challenges the label “pro-Russian” applied to him.
“From a legal point of view, Portnov’s numerous lawsuits against all media outlets that criticize him appear to be SLAPPs — Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation — because they aim to prevent journalists from writing or to reduce their coverage about Portnov and his influence. Such lawsuits pose a serious threat to freedom of speech as they create a ‘chilling effect’ on journalists and the media. This seems especially dangerous during wartime, since journalists investigate both corruption offenses and war crimes, and citizens have the right to receive such information,” noted media lawyer Lyudmyla Pankratova in a comment for Detector Media.
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