As he was getting into his Mercedes after dropping his children off at an international school near Madrid, a Ukrainian lawyer named Andriy Portnov was shot five times by gunmen. The last bullet hit him in the head.
The murder of Portnov in broad daylight on May 21 shocked the Spanish.
But it caused even more shock in Ukrainian political circles, where Portnov had been active for years: as a lawyer, mediator, and political operative, A2 reports.
Who was he?
A law graduate, Portnov had close ties to Viktor Yanukovych, the president of Ukraine until February 2014, when street protests erupted into violence and Yanukovych fled the country.
Portnov served as deputy head of his administration.
He was known for using the courts as a tool of pressure – particularly by filing threatening lawsuits against journalists.
In 2019, Portnov threatened the investigative team of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's (RFE/RL) Ukrainian Service, Schemes, by publishing personal data of some of its journalists.
"Portnov was very connected to the judicial system. For a long time, he presided over many different trials. He influenced judges, he influenced security officials," Ivan Stupak, a military analyst and former member of the Security Service of Ukraine, SBU, told Current Time.
Under Yanukovych, Portnov took on the task of reforming the Criminal Code and procedures. The initiative was criticized for making it more difficult to conduct fair trials and hindering investigations into corruption and bribery.
Before advising Yanukovych, Portnov had worked with Yulia Tymoshenko, Yanukovych's sworn political rival who lost the 2010 presidential election.
Portnov also collaborated with veteran American lobbyist Paul Manafort, who helped Yanukovych's political comeback and victory over Tymoshenko. Yanukovych then imprisoned Tymoshenko.
In 2013, Portnov traveled to Washington as part of Manafort's effort to soften American criticism of Tymoshenko's imprisonment.
“The success of Andriy’s visit is significant and timely. It shows that the continued presence of Ukrainian leaders in the U.S. is effective and can change the rhetoric,” Manafort wrote in a February 2013 email. “We should bring Andriy to the U.S. every six months or every quarter.”
This email, addressed to a former Yanukovych chief of staff, was included in US court documents after Manafort was indicted in 2017 on tax and financial fraud charges related to his work for Yanukovych.
Manafort was sentenced to 7 and a half years in prison, but was later pardoned by President Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, Portnov was hit with financial sanctions from the US Treasury Department in 2021.
“Portnov, widely known as a middleman in the courts, was credibly accused of using influence to buy access and decisions in the judiciary and undermine reform efforts,” the State Department said in a statement. “He sought to control the Ukrainian judiciary, influence relevant legislation, place loyalists in senior judicial positions, and buy judicial decisions.”
What was he doing in Spain?
It is not clear how long Portnov and his family had been living in Spain.
He fled Ukraine for Russia after Yanukovych fled in 2014, following the protests known as “Maidan.” Portnov was a fierce critic of those events.
Later, he moved to Austria, where he practiced law and traveled to Ukraine several times.
In 2018, the SBU opened a treason investigation against him, alleging his role in Russia's annexation of Crimea. The investigation was sparked by phone taps in 2014 in which Portnov was heard speaking with a Kremlin adviser. The case was closed without charges.
In 2019, he returned to Ukraine shortly after the election of Volodymyr Zelensky as president.
“My friends, I have not been to my country for more than five years,” he wrote on his Telegram channel at the time. “And today I want to give a strong signal to the thousands of people who have left Ukraine. It is time to return, build and rebuild. Hello, my beloved homeland!”
He was a co-owner of a pro-Russian television channel linked to Kremlin-friendly politician Viktor Medvedchuk. Ukrainian authorities shut down the channel in 2021.
In March 2022, a month after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Schemes discovered Portnov's family properties in the Moscow region. In June of that year, Portnov left Ukraine for good.
Yanukovych fled to Russia after the Maidan events and resided in the southern city of Rostov. His whereabouts are now unknown.
Who killed him?
Portnov was shot at around 9:15 a.m., according to reports, shortly after dropping his two daughters off at the American School of Madrid, a private institution in Pozuelo de Alarcon, on the outskirts of the Spanish capital.
Spanish authorities have not provided many details about the progress of the investigation.
Outside observers cited his past with Ukrainian intelligence services as a possible reason for an assassination attempt by Ukrainian authorities. Others suggested the killing could be linked to business conflicts.
"Maybe he once took a big business away from someone, maybe the money wasn't divided properly and one of the partners decided to take revenge," Stupak said.
"We cannot rule this out."/ REL (A2 Televizion)
A2 CNN Livestream
MUND TE LEXONI GJITHASHTU
