The man murdered this Wednesday morning in Madrid, (Spain) is Andriy Portnov, a controversial Ukrainian lawyer and politician, 52 years old, best known for being one of the main former advisors to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. He held the position of Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration between 2010 and 2014, being responsible for judicial affairs.
Born on October 27, 1973, in Lugansk (Ukraine), Portnov started his professional career as a lawyer and in 2004 was honored with the title of Honored Lawyer of Ukraine. However, his career was later tainted by controversy, being accused of corruption, embezzlement of state funds, and human rights violations in Ukraine, which led to his inclusion in the sanctions blacklist of the European Union.
His political career began with the bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko, whose legal department he led, and he was part of her list for the 2006 parliamentary elections, becoming a member of the Verkhovna Rada.
However, after Tymoshenko's defeat in the 2010 presidential elections against Viktor Yanukovych, he accepted the latter's offer to become the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration and oversee judicial reform.
During the Euromaidan protests (2013-2014), triggered by Yanukovych's sudden decision to break the Association Agreement with the European Union and strengthen ties with Russia, Portnov was identified as one of the architects of the so-called "dictatorship laws" passed by the Verkhovna Rada on January 16, 2014.
These laws, enacted amidst intense protests and unrest in Ukraine, introduced measures restricting the right to demonstrate, tightening control over media and NGOs, penalizing the use of helmets or masks in demonstrations, and limiting procedural rights through summary judicial proceedings.
Their approval, without real parliamentary debate and through a show of hands vote, drew criticism from national and international observers and sparked a wave of public outrage. Most of these provisions were later repealed on January 28, 2014.
In February 2014, following Yanukovych's departure from Ukraine, Portnov also left the country and temporarily resided first in Russia and then in Vienna. In March 2014, the European Union and Canada imposed sanctions on him for alleged embezzlement of state funds and human rights violations. However, in 2015, the European Court of Justice overturned these sanctions, deeming them insufficiently justified.
He returned to Ukraine in 2019, sparking strong controversy in society and the media. He is a controversial figure, perceived by some as a skilled jurist and by others as a symbol of the excesses of the former regime.
In December 2021, the US Department of the Treasury sanctioned Portnov under the Global Magnitsky Act. US authorities accused him of corruption, alleging that he used bribes to influence the Ukrainian judicial system, appoint loyal officials, and manipulate judicial decisions. Additionally, he was linked to attempts to influence the Constitutional Court and the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
Furthermore, Portnov had been identified by Ukrainian media outlets as a Russian collaborator during the war, with his family accused of having real estate investments in Moscow with friends of the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov.