KYIV — A Ukrainian MP who in 2019 helped former U.S. President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani in his search for dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden has been charged with treason.
Oleksandr Dubinsky, together with ex-Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach and ex-prosecutor Kostyantyn Kulyk, had joined an organization formed by chiefs of Russia’s Military Intelligence (GRU), Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said in a statement on Monday.
Although SBU did not name the MP in the statement, the photos and video materials attached to it identify Dubinsky, whose alias, “Buratino,” was taken from a 1930s Soviet “Pinocchio” knockoff.
Dubinsky met Giuliani during his visit to Kyiv in December 2019 while the former New York City mayor and failed U.S. presidential candidate was filming a documentary aimed at discrediting an impeachment probe into Trump.
“The main task of this organization was to take advantage of the tense political situation in Ukraine and discredit our state in the international arena. For this, the group was getting money from Russian military intelligence. Financing amounted to more than $10 million,” SBU said.
According to SBU, Dubinsky, guided by GRU, spread fake news about Ukraine’s military and political leadership, including claims that high-ranking Ukrainian officials were interfering in U.S. presidential elections. SBU said the Ukraine group was run by GRU deputy head Vladimir Alekseyev and his deputy Oleksiy Savin.
If found guilty, Dubinsky faces up to 15 years in prison and forfeiture of his assets, SBU added. Both Derkach and Kulyk are now in hiding abroad.
Dubinsky denied wrongdoing and called the investigation against him political persecution in a Telegram statement on Friday.
In October and November 2019, Dubinsky and Derkach gave several press conferences in Kyiv at which they claimed that based on an investigation by Kulyk, they had uncovered corruption and money-laundering schemes related to Burisma, a gas company which had future U.S. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter on its board of directors.
They also claimed U.S. investment funds were involved in money laundering in Ukraine.
In 2020 the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Derkach as a Russian agent undermining America’s political system. In 2021 Dubinsky and Kulyk were also sanctioned by the U.S. as foreign actors involved in spreading fraudulent allegations involving a U.S. political candidate.