Natalia Zinets

KYIV (Reuters – Britain accuses the Kremlin in trying to place a proRussian leader in Ukraine. It also claimed that Russian intelligence officers were in touch with ex-Ukrainian politicians in preparation for a military offensive.

Britain’s foreign minister claimed Russia was looking at Yevhen Morayev as a candidate to run a new country. Russia denies this claim. Murayev also slammed the claim in comments made to the Observer newspaper.

WHO IS YEVHEN MOURAYEV

Murayev was born near the Russian frontier in Kharkiv in 1976.

His political career began in Kharkiv, where he was an ally for the former President Viktor Yanukovich. He fled Russia shortly after the Maidan uprising.

Murayev worked as a lawmaker between 2014 and 2019. Murayev was a founding member of the Opposition Bloc party, which is a group that was formed out of fragments of Yanukovich’s Party of Regions. He disassociated himself from the Opposition Bloc faction in June 2016 and started his own party For Life. It had a similar ideology.

He founded Nashi in 2018, another political party. Murayev was registered to run for the presidency in 2019, but he withdrew before voting.

WHAT ARE THE POLICITICAL VIEWS OF MURAYEV?

Murayev presented views closely aligned with Russian narratives about Ukraine. Murayev considered the Maidan protests to be a Western-backed coup de tat.

He referred to Ukraine’s war in the eastern Donbass as an internal conflict among the government and rebels last year. This is contrary to Ukraine’s and West’s views that it’s a conflict between Russia-backed proxies and Ukraine.

He said that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zeleskiy was under West control and suggested, like Russia, that Ukraine could retake territory held in force by Russian-backed separatists. Kyiv strongly denies that such a plan exists.

“Zelenskiy has been taken hostage by MI6, the CIA and anyone else. They can make him launch an offensive against Donbass today, leading to a full-scale conflict,” he stated.

Russia’s involvement in an escalation will “mean the death of many thousands of Ukrainians at one end and the other side of the line delimitation,”

HOW MUCH INFLUE DOES MURAYEV HAS?

Murayev’s prominence is lower than that of Viktor Medvedchuk. Viktor Medvedchuk is a pro -Moscow businessman, and lawyer who asserts Russian President Vladimir Putin to be godfather for his daughter. Last year, Murayev was put under house arrest in a case for treason.

However, Murayev still holds the power through his television channel called Nash. It began broadcasting on November 2018, and was officially controlled by Volodymyr, his father.

According to a poll by the Razumkov Centre think tank in December 2021, Murayev ranked seventh with 6.3% support among prospective candidates in the next presidential election in 2024. He was also ranked fifth in a poll conducted by Rating.

As a lawmaker, it was a required requirement that he file an asset declaration in 2017. He reported cash assets totalling $2,000,000, 13 Million Hryvnias, ($460,971), and 1,000,000 Euros ($1.13million).

What do MURAYEV and other people have to say about British Accusations?

Murayev refuted Britain’s claims, telling The Observer that it was “not very logical”. In a post on Facebook (NASDAQ) he promised to add more comments, along with a photo of himself dressed up as James Bond.

He called on the end of Ukraine’s division into pro-Western or pro-Russian political leaders in a post later. And he said that Ukraine needed new leaders.

Russia rejected Britain’s claim of “disinformation” The government of Ukraine did not immediately respond to the accusations.

Volodymyr Fezenko, an Ukrainian political analyst found Murayev to be an unusual candidate.

Fesenko said that Murayev is not, despite his pro-Russianness. He is also far from the Kremlin’s most close friend, particularly when compared with Medvedchuk.

($1 = 28.2013 hryvnias)

($1 = 0.8818 euros)