Website accused Andriy Portnov of being a traitor
On May 22, Andriy Portnov, 51, was assassinated in Madrid, just after dropping off his children at the American School.
A lawyer by training, Portnov was a leading opposition figure in Ukraine who was forced to flee the country after the February 2014 U.S.-backed Maidan coup.
A top aide to President Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown in the Maidan coup because of his pro-Russian leanings, Portnov was accused of being the architect of a set of measures meant to curb street violence that the Maidan Square rioters claimed was a major attack on democracy.[1]
After returning in 2019 to support Volodymyr Zelensky’s election, Portnov left Ukraine again in 2022 after he was accused of being “aligned with pro-Russian media outlets” that had been shut down by Zelensky, and of making disparaging remarks about the Maidan coup.
After his death, the Myrotvorets website published a photo purportedly of Portnov’s body, with a big red diagonal banner across it reading “Liquidated”—its trademark terror tactic.
Founded in 2014, Myrotvorets is run by Ukraine’s top intelligence agency (SBU) and lists its headquarters as being in Langley, Virginia.
Functioning jointly with the Ukrainian government’s Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD), which is financed by the British government and, until recently, the U.S. State Department, Myrotvorets features gruesome photos of dead Russians along with inflammatory statements of Ukrainian officials and American generals calling for the killing of Russians.
Myrotvorets additionally publishes a hit list of alleged national traitors who are crossed off with bullseyes when they are killed.
These “traitors” are usually “pro-Russian” journalists and bloggers, along with Russian military officers and politicians like Portnov who opposed the 2014 Maidan coup and are critics of the Zelensky government.
Americans who are critical of U.S. policy in Ukraine have also been placed on the hit list.
Local reports emphasized that Portnov was shot in the back and head by a gunman who then fled into a wooded area in a nearby public park. The gunman was assisted by an accomplice allegedly on a motorbike.
Oleksiy Arestovych, a former adviser to President Zelensky, asserted that the murder of Portnov was “99% likely Zelensky preparing for elections. Threats of murder from Telegram channels associated in Ukraine with the Office of the President, immediately directed at me and Anatoliy Shariy, and a possible threat to Oleksiy Goncharenko, reveal the intent: to deprive the so-called ‘OPZZh’ (The Opposition Platform-For Life) electorate of potential ‘leaders’….The political terror unleashed by Zelensky’s regime has turned into blatant international terrorism; a Ukrainian citizen was killed on the territory of a NATO and EU country.”
U.S. and UK Media Bias
Arestovych’s assessment was ignored in U.S. media accounts, which failed to even raise the possibility that the Ukrainian intelligence services were behind Portnov’s killing.
A CNN article by Al Goodman, Lauren Kent and Jack Guy, characteristically, made it seem that Portnov was the victim of a random crime. The article emphasized that he had been sanctioned by the U.S. government, beginning in 2021, for corruption and bribery under the Magnitsky Act, making him seem like a bad guy.[2]
CNN’s coverage was similar to the The Kyiv Independent, which depicted Portnov’s assassination as retribution for Portnov’s alleged bad acts.[3]
Radio Free Europe, a CIA front, quoted from an SBU agent who suggested that Portnov was killed because of his allegedly corrupt business dealings.
The BBC reported that, “although Ukraine’s intelligence services have been linked to several killings in Russia and occupied areas of Ukraine, a fatal attack in Spain in February last year was linked to Russian hitmen.”
Shifting focus away from Ukraine and onto Russia in a not so subtle way, this latter statement fits well with the “red peril” propaganda driving the new Cold War.[4]
The Guardian followed the same approach, suggesting that Portnov’s murder was part of a series of violent acts in Spain primarily linked to Russia.
An article by Jakub Krupa highlighted the case of a Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine who was killed in Spain under murky circumstances, and said that the culprit in a rash of bombings targeting Spanish government officials showed sympathy for Russia in social media posts.
Krupa failed at the same time to discuss cases where the Ukrainian intelligence services took credit for murdering dissidents and carrying out terrorist acts like planting bombs in cafés.[5]
RT’s Journalistic Integrity Is Much Higher
The coverage of Portnov’s death by Russia Today (RT) was far better than that of Western outlets.
A May 21 article quoted Rodion Miroshnik, Russia’s ambassador-at-large overseeing a special mission on Ukrainian war crimes, who stated that the circumstances of Portnov’s murder “suggested it may have been an extrajudicial assassination,” as Portnov “may have had access to information that could threaten figures in Zelensky’s administration.”
This assessment was given added weight by several other sources, which reported that Portnov was planning to release a large investigation into Zelensky’s corruption.
The RT article specified that Portnov had “been listed since at least 2015 by Myrotvorets, a controversial semi-official public database that catalogs individuals deemed enemies of Ukraine. Several people listed by the site have been murdered over its decade of operation.”
The article continued: “Ukrainian intelligence services have previously claimed or implied involvement in a number of targeted killings of individuals labeled as enemies by Kiev. Some of those assassinations have occurred outside Ukraine, including the December 2023 shooting of former Ukrainian lawmaker Ilya Kiva near Moscow.”[6]
The above statements are factual, presenting important information omitted from U.S. and British media accounts, which apparently lack journalistic integrity.
Alleged Treachery of Agent Kazbek
Besides the gruesome death photos, the Myrotvorets website features a nine-part series on Portnov, whom it calls “Agent Kazbek,” that accuses him of being a Kremlin agent and traitor to the Ukrainian motherland.
The basis for these charges are:
- Portnov controlled all judicial appointments under President Viktor Yanukovych whom Myrotvorets called a “traitor”;
- Working through loyal agents[7] inside Ukraine after he fled to Moscow following the 2014 Maidan coup, Portnov spread “disinformation” under the guise of anti-corruption newsletters in an attempt to discredit Ukrainian leadership from 2014 to 2019;
- He created a human rights organization with Kremlin money that sought to expose the crimes of the post-Maidan government, including its involvement in the Odessa Trade Union Building massacre;
- He ensured that only Russian television and radio stations could operate in Donetsk;
- He worked to destabilize Ukraine’s agro-industrial complex, the lifeblood of Ukraine’s economy, according to alleged secret communications with the Russians that Myrotvorets uncovered;
- He worked to sabotage efforts to build up Ukraine’s military capabilities following the Maidan coup; and
- He worked to dismember Ukraine by supporting Russian efforts to set up “people’s republics” loyal to Russia in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kherson and other eastern Ukrainian cities.[8]
Supposedly, Portnov was given a luxurious apartment in Kharkiv for passing secret information to Russian “handlers”[9] that was used to benefit Russian political and Special Forces operations in Ukraine.
The information that he obtained from a high-level mole in the Ukrainian government, according to Myrotvorets, included reports on bills before the Ukrainian Parliament that would impact Russia and plans for administering Luhansk and Donetsk, which were seeking greater autonomy.
Myrotvorets claimed that “Portnov’s deliberate subversive activities against Ukraine in favor of the Kremlin during the war with Russia” caused “irreparable damage” to Ukraine.
Portnov was such a key figure, the website claims, because he allegedly controlled judges, prosecutors, lawyers and so-called “people’s deputies” who helped enable the Kremlin’s continued penetration of state institutions in Ukraine and tipped off the Kremlin about security issues and operations of the Ukrainian security services.
Portnov Wins His Days in Court
The SBU and its CIA and British MI6 patrons are specialists in advancing disinformation, so the accusations directed against Portnov should be viewed with suspicion—even more so since he was vindicated on several occasions in court.
The BBC reported that the SBU had opened a case against Portnov for suspected treason over Russia’s annexation of Crimea but that the case was dropped when it concluded no offense had been committed. Portnov also won a legal case against the European Union after it tried to impose sanctions on him.
Myrotvorets’ attacks on Portnov assume that Russia is an illegal aggressor in eastern Ukraine and that Ukrainian government policy is just, which is simply not the case.
One of Many Death-Squad Victims
CNN acknowledged the existence of a widespread Ukrainian government assassination campaign when it reported that Portnov was “not the only ally of former Ukrainian President Yanukovych who was killed after he was ousted from power.”
The CNN article referenced a 2015 CNN report on two high profile shooting deaths in the Ukrainian capital—one of a former member of parliament with ties to Yanukovych and the other of a Ukrainian journalist “known for his pro-Russian views.”
Goodman, Kent and Guy wrote that, “at the time, those killings renewed speculation about a conspiracy to kill people close to Yanukovych, after three former members of parliament from his political party died by suspected suicide, found dead in their homes.”
The passive voice and use of the term speculation is highly revealing as is the CNN journalists’ unwillingness to implicate Ukraine’s neo-Nazi gangs in the killings that they described.
Their reporting generally helps sanitize the violent nature of the Maidan coup and obscures the existence of a methodical assassination program by the Ukrainian government modeled after the Phoenix Program in Vietnam that makes use of CIA/SBU-generated blacklists.[10]
Portnov was elected to the Ukrainian Parliament in 2006 as a member of a political bloc led by then-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and went on to head Tymoshenko’s legal team. ↑
Additionally, the article specified that Portnov’s assets had been frozen by Canada and that, in December 2024, media and civil society organizations in Ukraine had launched a petition that gathered 25,000 signatures, demanding sanctions against Portnov, alleging continued corruption aimed at controlling the Ukrainian judiciary, and highlighting concerns that he was going after critical journalists with lawsuits and threats. Goodman, Kent and Guy reported that Portnov had supposedly once released the personal data of several members of an investigative journalism project run by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a known CIA-front organization, who were looking into his dealings with the Ukrainian government and had accused him of owning a mansion outside Kyiv that was bought with illicit funds. It was acknowledged that Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers rejected the petition, citing insufficient grounds for sanctions. ↑
The head of a judicial watchdog group was quoted in the piece saying that Portnov was “an architect of Yanukovych’s corrupt system and personally influenced the appointment of judges,” while a lawmaker from the liberal Holos Party said that “it didn’t matter whether [Portnov] was a useful idiot or a paid agent, he undoubtedly acted in Russia’s interests.” The article went on to editorialize that Portnov was “the epitome of the Kremlin-friendly Ukraine of President Viktor Yanukovych, where fair trial was a luxury and civil liberties were a dream. His life ended in a way that symbolized that long-gone system—killed without a trial.” ↑
See Jeremy Kuzmarov and John Marciano, The Russians are Coming, Again: The First Cold War as Tragedy, the Second as Farce (New York: Monthly Review, 2018). ↑
It is important to emphasize that the Kremlin’s involvement in the cases Krupa cites is extremely unlikely, whereas we know that Ukraine carried out assassinations; in fact, it has openly bragged about them. ↑
Kiva had been the head of the Socialist Party in Ukraine’s parliament. ↑
The main agent identified by Myrotvorets was Marina Parinova. ↑
Portnov’s alleged treachery included his efforts to try to disrupt Ukrainian government plans for a referendum on the question of federalization in eastern Ukraine that the Ukrainian government was confident would help better consolidate Ukrainian government control there at a time when Russia was attempting to set up the “people’s republics.” ↑
A key handler was identified by Myrotvorets as Boris Rapoport. There is also mention of a Vladislav Surkov. ↑
Besides Phoenix, another parallel is with the CIA supported Central American death squads that targeted leftist dissidents in the 1980s. See Douglas Valentine, The Phoenix Program (New York: William & Morrow, 1990). ↑
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About the Author
Jeremy Kuzmarov holds a Ph.D. in American history from Brandeis University and has taught at numerous colleges across the United States. He is regularly sought out as an expert on U.S. history and politics for radio and TV programs and co-hosts a radio show on New York Public Radio and on Progressive Radio News Network called “Left on Left.” He is Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine and is the author of five books on U.S. foreign policy, including Obama’s Unending Wars (Clarity Press, 2019), The Russians Are Coming, Again, with John Marciano (Monthly Review Press, 2018), and Warmonger. How Clinton’s Malign Foreign Policy Launched the U.S. Trajectory From Bush II to Biden (Clarity Press, 2023). Besides these books, Kuzmarov has published hundreds of articles and contributed to numerous edited volumes, including one in the prestigious Oxford History of Counterinsurgency . He can be reached at jkuzmarov2@gmail.com and found on substack here.
Virtually no media coverage either of likely CIA involvement in the 1988 bombing of an airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. 270 dead.
On board were a number of DIA (the Pentagon’s own intelligence agency) personnel headed by Major Charles McKee. He was staunchly anti-drugs and is believed to have clashed with the CIA which is notorious for its involvement with drugs.
“Victor Marchetti, former executive assistant to the CIA’s deputy director and co-author of The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, believes that the presence of the (DIA) team on Flight 103 is a clue that should not be ignored. His contacts at Langley agree. “It’s like the loose thread of a sweater,” he says. “Pull on it, and the whole thing may unravel.” In any case, Marchetti believes the bombing of Flight 103 could have been avoided. “The Mossad knew about it and didn’t give proper warning,” he says. “The CIA knew about it and screwed up.”
https://time.com/archive/6720109/pan-am-103-why-did-they-die/
There is also an unsolved mystery regarding the murder of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. Possibly the FSB Federal Security Service of Russia, a successor to the Soviet-era KGB may have been involved. Russian authorities have dismissed these allegations.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60878663