Fifteen years ago, on June 16, 2005, Viktor Medvedchuk, who headed the Social Democratic Party United (SDPU), responded to the possibility of his arrest as an ally of former President Leonid Kuchma and for his suspected role in corruption schemes in Ukraine.
Mr. Medvedchuk, in an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda, said he was not ready to flee abroad to escape prosecution, as many of his fellow pro-Kuchma allies had done. He said he would under no circumstances leave Ukraine, that he would remain as party leader and that he was prepared for his legal defense.
Two other SDPU national deputies – Ihor Pluzhnykov, president of Inter Television, and Volodymyr Satsiuk, second deputy SDPU leader and deputy chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine – had fled abroad to seek “health treatment.”