Now ex-Radical Party member of parliament Andrey Artemenko came under criticism from all sides after the New York Times revealed on Feb. 19 that he was trying to broker his own peace plan to end Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The plan was distinctly pro-Russian, but even the Russians rejected it and his freelance, amateurish diplomacy got him kicked out of his own party, although he remains a member of parliament.
His ideas included leasing Crimea to Russia for 50 years and the lifting of economic sanctions against Russia by U.S. President Donald J. Trump.
Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, denied prior knowledge of the sealed plan, which includes a suggestion that Ukraine lease Crimea to Russia, which annexed the region in 2014, the Telegraph in London quoted him as saying. “There’s nothing to talk about. How can Russia rent its own region from itself?” Peskov said.
Artemenko described himself to the New York Times as a Trump-style politician.
The 48-year-old lawmaker’s biography is colorful and controversial: He has a wife who is a model, he served 2.5 years in prison without a trial, he has business in U.S and he is involved in the military trade to the war zones in the Middle East. At home, he has close ties with the ultra-nationalistic Right Sector.
“I demand Andrey Artemenko discard as a lawmaker. He has no rights to represent our faction and party. Our position is unchangeable – Russia is the aggressor and must get away from Ukrainian territories,” Oleh Lyashko, Radical Party leader said to the journalist in Verkhovna Rada on Feb. 20.
“Nobody in Radical Party trades Ukraine,” Lyashko said. “To lease Crimea to Russia is the same as to give your own mother for rent to the traveling circus.”
Artemenko told the New York Times that many people would criticize him as a Russian or American C.I.A. agent for his plan, but peace is what he’s after.
“But how can you find a good solution between our countries if we do not talk?” Artemenko said.
Before the New York Times story, Artemenko wasn’t famous. He may see himself as the next president of Ukraine, but others saw him as just another gray cardinal.
Family, business in U.S.
Artemenko hasn’t filed electronic declaration for 2016.
However, according to his previous e-declaration in 2015, Artemenko has a wife, model Oksana Kuchma and four children, including two with U.S. citizenship — Edward Daniel, Amber Katherine. The children from the first marriage, Vitaly and Kristina Artemenko (Kraskovski), have Ukrainian citizenship but live in Ontario, Canada with their mother’s husband. In 2014 Artemenko’s elder daughter Kristina gave birth to Artemenko’s grandson.
Artemenko owns land plots of 14,000 square meters and 5,000 square meters in Vyshenki village of Kyiv Oblast.
And his wife Oksana Kuchma is not only a model but a businesswoman. According to Artemenko’s e-declaration, Kuchma has a land plot of 3,000 square meters and a house in Gnidyn village of Kyiv Oblast, an 850 square meter apartment in Lviv Oblast’s Zhovkva and also a 127-square meter apartment in Kyiv under construction.
Artemenko also owns three luxury watches: De Grisogono (Hr 127,500), De Grisogono –Geneve (Hr 123,450), Franck Muller (Hr 118,950) and several luxury cars.
Kuchma owns a company OKSY GLOBAL LLC, registered in the U.S. and also the private avian-transportation company, the Aviation Company Special Avia Alliance registered in Kyiv at the same address as the company Global Business Group GMBh, Artemenko used to work as a deputy director before he came to Rada after the parliament elections in 2014.
According to the Ministry of Justice registry, the Global Business Group GMBh provides the variety of services: vehicles trade, various goods trade, restaurants business and business consulting.
The shareholder of the Global Business Group GMBh is also a U.S. based company Global Assets Inc., registered in Miami, Florida.
In 2015 Artemenko declared Hr 138,275 lawmaker’s wage and Hr 162,032 in a bank account. In 2015 Artemenko was even refused a British visa because of his low lawmaker’s income of Hr 4,800 a month, according to a fellow lawmaker. But as a family, the Artemenkos had more than $200,000, 110,000 Canadian dollars and 60,000 euros in cash.
Start from Kyiv
Artemenko came into politics after business and jail. According to the biography on his official website, in the early 1990s he founded a law firm that advocated the interests of professional athletes and then he became a president of CSK Kyiv soccer club. In 1998-2000, he was the adviser of than Kyiv Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko, a member and one of the founders of his party Unity.
In 2002, Artemenko was arrested by the Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine on accusations of money laundering and kept in pre-trial detention for more than two years. However, he successfully challenged his imprisonment as illegal and groundless. He said prosecutors were persecuting him in hopes of getting Omelchenko, who was also suspected of money laundering.
In 2004, Artemenko released from pre-trial detention center Lukyanivske on bail of Mikhail Dobkin, a Party of Regions lawmaker.
But in 2006 he became the head of the Kyiv department of Batkivshchyna Party, led by now ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
In 2007-2013 Artemenko founded several companies that provided military logistics services into the conflict zones and traveled to Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Qatar for business trips.
Since 2013 he has his own charity foundation that helps internally displaced persons from the war-torn Donbas.
True patriot?
Artemenko came to the Verkhovna Rada in 2014 as a Radical Party lawmaker (16th on the party’s list). According to the parliament’s website, Artemenko is the deputy head of the European Integration Committee and responsible for diplomatic connections with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United States, Kuwait, Lithuania and Belarus.
The lawmaker took an active part in EuroMaidan Revolution in 2013-2014 that deposed President Viktor Yanukovych.
In 2014 he joined the Right Sector political party and was rumored to be one of the sponsors of its leader, Dmytro Yarosh, during his presidential election campaign in 2014.
There is even a photo of Artemenko, seating among the Right Sector Party founders at the first party meeting in March 2014.
Right Sector spokesperson Artem Skoropadsky told the Kyiv Post on Feb. 20 that he couldn’t confirm or deny whether Artemenko financed the Right Sector Party.
“I was never into all the ‘financial stuff,’ but I have no information about him giving the money. I remember all those guys like him (Artemenko) and (Borislav) Bereza just came to us after March 22. They weren’t Right Sector members during the Revolution of Dignity,” said Skoropadsky.
He said that after the end of EuroMaidan Revolution there was a “mess” in Right Sector. Dozens of people a day was coming to the activists only in Kyiv.
“The ones who could afford it gave us money, others help in different ways. But as soon as we started building the structure of the organization, the guys like Artemenko and Bereza went to the other parties, came in Rada or other government structures,” Skoropadsky recalled.
