No Russian officials on charter plane to and from Moscow, Medvedchuk says

Viktor Medvedchuk, widely recognized as Russian
President Putin’s pointman in Ukraine, acknowledged on Jan. 14 that a charter
plane he uses flew from Moscow to Oman at the time of President Zelensky’s
visit to the country, but denied any Russian officials were
on board. No one flew to Oman on his plane on Jan. 7, and the returning flight
the next day consisted only of his elder daughter, her husband and their three
children, Medvedchuk told the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty news service.
They had been in Oman since the end of December, he said.

Presidential Aide Andriy Yermak, the single
high-ranking official who accompanied Zelensky on his trip to Oman, identified
the speculation surrounding the president’s meetings in Oman as a deliberate
political attack. “All the speculations and conspiracy theories about the
plane, Medvedchuk, where and how this plane flew, don’t have any basis and are
a continuation of dirty technologies that had their place during the
presidential campaigning. Since then, neither those ordering them, nor their
methods, have changed,” he said in an interview with the pravda.com.ua news
site published on Jan. 14. Zelensky has not directly commented on the
speculation.

Zelensky’s plane left Oman nine hours after
Medvedchuk’s plane, which departed at 11:53 local time, casting doubt on the
president’s claim that he left Oman for Kyiv as soon as it was possible,
Mykhaylo Tkach, among the journalists investigating Zelensky’s Oman trip, wrote
on his Facebook page on Jan. 14. President Zelensky had drawn public criticism
for leaving Oman nearly a full day after the Ukrainian airlines Flight 752
crashed in Tehran. In explaining the late departure, Yermak claimed in the Jan.
14 interview that the flight airspace between the two countries was restricted
until the evening of Jan. 8.

Recall, a report published on Jan. 9
on the texty.org.ua news site speculated that Zelensky met tacitly with Russian
officials in Muscat on Jan. 8, who flew from Moscow the night before on a
charter plane reserved by Zelensky. They allegedly discussed resolving the war
in Donbas, prompting Zelensky to remain in Muscat until the evening of Jan. 8,
rather than flying to Kyiv in the morning, immediately after learning of the
Tehran plane crash, the report speculated. The report also questioned whether
Zelensky truly paid for his charter plane (as alleged by his press secretary),
which flew from Stockholm before making a stop in Moscow. The same plane flew
from Muscat to Kyiv the night of Jan. 8. The texty.org.ua news site is
sponsored by the Global Investigative Journalism Network.

Zenon Zawada: Apparently,
it was all an uncanny coincidence that Medvedchuk’s family was flying from
Muscat to Moscow on the very same day that Zelensky was. This mini-scandal was
revealing on several levels. The political team of former president Poroshenko
likely has many contacts remaining in the higher ranks of the Security Service and
Foreign Ministry, yet they were not able to gain any conclusive information on
Zelensky’s visit to Oman. This indicates that Zelensky is resorting to
increasingly secret measures in foreign affairs (regardless of what activities
he engages in abroad), in order to shield himself from a hostile pro-Western
opposition. It also further confirms Zelensky’s increasing willingness to bend
rules and protocols in order to achieve political aims.

This event also reveals the Zelensky administration’s
ability to extinguish scandals rather effectively. Unless evidence surfaces, no
one can say with certainty who was on Medvedchuk’s charter plane and who
Zelensky met with in Oman. We also have no basis to doubt the claims of
Medvedchuk and Zelensky, though many questions remain on why Zelensky remained
in Muscat until the night of Jan. 8. It’s also unclear why Zelensky would have
made such an expensive visit to Muscat at the last minute on his own personal
funds.

This incident served as valuable experience for the
Zelensky administration in how to handle future sensitive foreign visits and
meetings with foreigners, particularly in order to avoid a hostile reaction
from the pro-Western opposition. With Zelensky planning to reach a
groundbreaking deal on the Minsk Accords by April (amid a hostile pro-Western
opposition), we can expect more of such international travel intrigues.