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At the same time, the SBU hasn’t initiated sanctions against most of Ukraine’s top pro-Russian politicians: out of at least 32 such politicians, only seven became subject to Ukrainian sanctions. The property of only one of them,
Viktor Yanukovych, was confiscated.
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Among them are the once highly influential ex-head of Yanukovych's presidential administration,
Andriy Klyuyev, and former Deputy Secretary of the NSDC,
Volodymyr Sivkovich, against whom the U.S. imposed sanctions back in 2015 and 2022, respectively.
After 2014, the Prosecutor General's Office pointed to Klyuyev, Sivkovich, and ex-Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko as the organizers of the police crackdown on anti-government protesters during the
EuroMaidan Revolution. In 2023, the State Bureau of Investigation, in cooperation with the SBU,
published evidence that Klyuyev and Sivkovich engaged in subversive activities in Ukraine before Russia’s full-scale invasion. According to the
investigation, in cooperation with the FSB, the Russian security service, they created a so-called "political office" to recruit influential Ukrainian politicians, high-ranking officials, and law enforcement officers to work in Russia’s interests in Ukraine.
Another notorious former official under the sanctions of the U.S., but not Ukraine, is Klyuyev's ex-deputy
Andriy Portnov, infamous for his open support for Russia, denial of the riot police’s killings of EuroMaidan activists, and conflicts with journalists. In December 2021, the U.S.
imposed sanctions against Portnov
for corrupting Ukrainian courts under the so-called "Magnitsky Act,” a global law that applies to all citizens who violate human rights and freedoms or are involved in corruption.
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When asked by StateWatch whether they had initiated sanctions against Portnov, the SBU declined to comment. The agency also refused to address questions on its reluctance to initiate sanctions against pro-Russian top politicians in Ukraine.
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According to a StateWatch source in the government, many notorious pro-Russian figures in Ukraine would have been sanctioned a long time ago if the SBU had shared information about the progress of its own terrorism probes into those individuals during the meetings of the cross-government working group on sanctions. But this is not happening.
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