SBU charges Medvedchuk's "political analyst" hiding in Crimea

The Security Service of Ukraine has collected evidence against pro-Kremlin "political analyst" Oleksandr Lazarev, who is helping the aggressor in the war against Ukraine, reported the press service of the SBU.

"Even before the full-scale invasion, the suspect was a member of the pool of public pseudo-experts who worked for [Viktor] Medvedchuk, [Yevhen] Muraiev and [Anatoliy] Shariy," the statement said.

According to the SBU, Lazarev himself was directly involved in promoting the media images of the Kremlin's henchmen and helping them promote hostile narratives in the information space. To do this, he was a frequent guest on the air of the sanctioned Nash, Zik, NewsOne, 112 and Russia Today channels.

In his comments, he repeatedly justified Moscow's aggressive policy and called the fighting in eastern Ukraine a "civil war," the SBU noted.

After February 24, 2022, Lazarev secretly went abroad. Later, he arrived in the temporarily occupied Crimea and joined the inner circle of the head of the occupation administration, Sergey Aksyonov, whom he helps to conduct hostile information campaigns on the peninsula.

Based on the evidence collected, SBU investigators served the suspect a notice of suspicion of high treason, as well as violation of the equality of citizens based on their race, nationality, or region.

On April 3, the SBU served a notice of suspicion to Yuriy Podolyaka, a prominent blogger who works in the interest of the Kremlin.