In September Kyiv and Moscow exchanged prisoners. 56 people went to Russia, 215 to Ukraine, among whom were the commanders of the Azov regiment and the defenders of Azovstal. The exchange caused deep disappointment among Russian propagandists and representatives of the “party of war”, who furiously called for a tribunal over the prisoners. At the same time, Moscow, obviously, sought an exchange for the sake of the release of a single person – Viktor Medvedchuk, godfather of Putin and a pro-Russian politician who was arrested in Ukraine shortly after the start of the war. According to US intelligence, the Kremlin was going to appoint Medvedchuk as head of a puppet government in Kyiv. Where Medvedchuk is now is unknown. However, Meduza, together with the University Transparency Laboratory (a project founded by experts studying corruption in the Russian Federation), found out that Medvedchuk’s family is probably already living in Moscow – his wife Oksana Marchenko and their 19-year-old daughter Daria.
“University Transparency Laboratory”
The University Transparency Laboratory (Lupa) is an educational project founded in 2019 as a branch of the Living Projects of opposition politician Yulia Galyamina (declared a foreign agent in the Russian Federation) and Transparency International Russia (also declared a foreign agent) . The laboratory teaches students to investigate corruption in Russian universities. Participants issue their own anti-corruption investigations.
On April 12, the Security Service of Ukraine detained the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, the head of the political council of the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform – For Life, Viktor Medvedchuk. Prior to that, in May 2021, he was charged with high treason, including the transfer of secret information about the Ukrainian army to Russian special services, as well as an attempted “plunder of national resources.” And in October last year, Medvedchuk was placed under house arrest, from which he escaped immediately after the invasion began.
A few more months later, in September 2022, Medvedchuk exchanged for Ukrainian militarywho were in Russian captivity. The terms of the exchange turned out to be unprecedented: for him and another 55 Russian military, Moscow gave 215 people, including the defenders of Azovstal, the command of the Azov regiment, and 10 more foreigners who fought on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Since then, Medvedchuk’s exact whereabouts have been unknown. In November, Ukrainian telegram channels distributed the videoin which Medvedchuk and his wife were allegedly seen in the annexed Crimea (namely, in Yalta), but there was no other confirmation of this.
As Meduza found out together with the University Transparency Laboratory, Viktor Medvedchuk’s youngest daughter Daria has been living in Russia since at least 2021. Her mother is Medvedchuk’s third wife, Ukrainian TV presenter Oksana Marchenko. In 2004, “at the request” of Marchenko and Medvedchuk Godfather Daria became Russian President Vladimir Putin, and her godmother was Svetlana Medvedeva (wife of Dmitry Medvedev, at that time he served as head of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation). Medvedchuk himself thus became Putin’s godfather.
The fact that Oksana Marchenko was in Moscow in February 2022, shortly before the start of a full-scale war, and met with singer Nikolai Baskov (he later supported the invasion), with links to her social networks Ukrainian journalists wrote. In April, after the invasion began and her husband was arrested, she also performed at press conferences in Moscow.
Daria Medvedchuk is currently studying in Moscow. Meduza and the University Transparency Lab found out about this from the order on the admission of Medvedchuk and two other students to the Graduate School of Business faculty of the Higher School of Economics (HSE) dated August 31, 2021, published on the university’s website. All three were enrolled at the HSE for one of the most sought-after specialties of the faculty – “business management” – according to a special procedure for foreigners (they are citizens of Ukraine). This method of admission makes it possible for foreign citizens not to take the Unified State Exam – instead, they need to pass the internal entrance exams of the university.
According to information on the site educational program “Business Management”, applications for admission within this quota are accepted until August 14, and contracts for the provision of paid educational services are concluded no later than August 28. At the same time, at the beginning of 2022, Viktor Medvedchuk said that Daria entered the University of Geneva and planned to leave for Switzerland, but her visa was canceled two days before her studies.
Three Ukrainians – Daria Medvedchuk, Daniil Kosovsky and Valentina Shust – study at the HSE on a paid basis (there are no state-funded places under the program for foreign citizens). Kosovsky and Shust are not just students from Ukraine – they are the children of people close to Viktor Medvedchuk. Daniil’s father Vitaliy Kosovsky is a well-known archpriest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Valentina’s father Dmitry Shust is a member of the board of the Viktor Medvedchuk Charitable Foundation and a former head of the investment company Ukrkapital, which is now managed by Medvedchuk’s wife Oksana Marchenko.
During the summer session, Medvedchuk, Shust, and Kosovsky missed the same exam (which one, Meduza was unable to find out). After that, all three sent certificates of temporary disability (that is, illness) from the Morozov City Children’s Clinical Hospital to the training office.
How the educational process is managed at the HSE
The study office at the HSE is analogous to the study department at other educational institutions: it is the link between students and the university administration. Each course has its own administrator – a representative of the study office, who helps students, supervises them, issues certificates and documents, restores, translates and does all the work that is related to the interaction between students and the university.
In accordance with the internal regulations of the university, the administrator of the course from the study office is obliged to confirm the authenticity of the sick leave. A source at the Higher School of Economics (who asked to remain anonymous) told Meduza and the University Transparency Lab that the administrator sent an official request to the medical facility. Two days later, a response came from the clinic, stating that Medvedchuk, Shust, and Kosovsky had not gone to the hospital and had not received any certificates (the hospital’s response is at Meduza’s disposal).
Usually, students who provide fake certificates are threatened with expulsion from the Higher School of Economics: this is a violation of the internal rules of the university, orders for sanctions for this regularly appear on the HSE website. Under these conditions, according to a Meduza and University Transparency Lab source, the administrator continued to act according to the instructions: he sent the students a notice of expulsion and termination of the contract, and prepared an order that the manager of the study office had to approve.
After that, according to the source, the administrator began to receive threatening calls from strangers. They pretended to be “representatives of the parents” of the students and urged them to stop the expulsion procedure, because it allegedly “destroys the life and destiny of students.”
The students sent new certificates to the study office, allegedly confirming the authenticity of the first documents. However, in negotiations with the HSE administration, the clinic continued to insist that it did not give Daria Medvedchuk and her fellow students any papers (this response from the hospital is also at the disposal of Meduza).
At that moment, according to a source for Meduza and the University Transparency Lab at the HSE, the educational program manager intervened and told the administrator that she “got a call from Roshchin (Sergey Roshchin, vice-rector of the National Research University Higher School of Economics — Meduza’s note). ) and these students were asked not to be expelled, since they are from Ukraine and have a difficult life situation.” A letter was sent from Roshchin’s reception to the study office, which was accompanied by the third certificate of temporary disability of three students.
According to a former HSE employee who read this letter, this time the certificates came from another polyclinic – and, according to a representative of the Vice-Rector’s reception, turned out to be genuine. At the same time, the text of the letter from Roshchin’s office, according to Meduza’s interlocutor, allegedly contained fabricated quotes from a previous correspondence between the course administrator and the university administration. They, according to the source, were compiled in such a way as to shift all responsibility for confusion with certificates to the training office (Medusa was unable to obtain a copy of the letter).
At the same time, according to a Meduza and University Transparency Lab source, the study office manager allegedly forbade the course administrator to use the “expressive button” (this is a section on the HSE website where students and university staff can file a complaint about non-observance of their rights) . She referred to the fact that “the situation is very strange, these students are asked for at a very high level, and it is not clear what to expect from all this,” Meduza’s interlocutor recounts this conversation.
Despite the support of the HSE administration, all three students failed to pass the summer session. Each of them had more than three retakes, which, according to the rules of the university, also leads to expulsion. They were sent notifications of expulsion “for unfair development of the educational program.”
Soon, according to a source from Meduza and the University Transparency Laboratory, who at the time was working at the Higher School of Economics, a man and a woman “of a bandit-like appearance, in leather jackets and with evil eyes” came to the study office. They brought certificates (available to Meduza) about the transfer of Shust and Kosovsky to MGIMO, as well as alcohol and sweets. After handing over documents and gifts, the visitor inquired about the fate of Darya Medvedchuk. One of the employees of the study office told her that Daria “was given the opportunity to write a letter of motivation and study further” – to which the woman nodded with satisfaction and left.
The opportunity to write a motivation letter in case of poor academic performance, according to a former HSE employee, is sometimes given to foreign citizens. With its help, students can try to transfer to another university – before the release of an official order for their expulsion for dishonest development of an educational program. This allows you to continue studying without losing a year.
Meduza and the University Transparency Lab were unable to find out whether Valentina Shust and Daniil Kosovsky really study at MGIMO, or to verify the authenticity of certificates of their transfer to the institute, provided to the HSE Academic Office (the papers themselves are at the disposal of Meduza). Shust’s profile on VKontakte indicates that she is a student at MGIMO.
Judging by the internal schedule of the HSE, Daria Medvedchuk failed to be expelled from the university twice: she is still listed as a student at the Higher School of Economics. Medvedchuk studies all the same, taking a place at the bottom of the rating of student performance of the faculty.
Daria Medvedchuk, Vitaly and Daniil Kosovsky, and Valentina and Dmitry Shust did not respond to Meduza’s questions sent via instant messengers. The MGIMO press service also did not respond to Meduza’s request. In response to Meduza’s inquiry about the academic performance of three students and the circumstances of the transfer of Shust and Kosovsky to MGIMO, the HSE press service stated that “HSE adheres to high standards of education and carefully monitors the academic performance of all students.” hard to learn. We study only those who have a basis for this and successfully pass all the exams.
The university refused to comment on the “details of personal affairs” of individual students.
