Oleg Anatolievich Voloshyn (russian: Олег Анатольевич Волошин, uk, Олег Анатолійович Волошин; born 7 April 1981,

Mykolaiv Mykolaiv ( uk, Миколаїв, ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Southern Ukraine, the Administrative centre, administrative center of the Mykolaiv Oblast. Mykolaiv city, which provides U ...

) is a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

journalist, political pundit on

112 Ukraine 112 Ukraine ( uk, 112 Україна) was a private Ukrainian TV channel which provided 24-hour news coverage. 112 Ukraine was available on satellites AMOS 2/3, via the DVB-T2 network, and was also available in packages of all major Ukrainian ca ...

, politician, and former government official under Ukrainian prime ministers

Mykola Azarov Mykola Yanovych Azarov ( uk, Мико́ла Я́нович Аза́ров, ; née, né Pakhlo; Cyrillic: Пахло; born 17 December 1947) is a Ukraine, Ukrainian politician who was the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 11 March 2010 to 27 January ...

and

Viktor Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych ( uk, Віктор Федорович Янукович, ; ; born 9 July 1950) is a former politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 until he was removed from office in the Revolution of Di ...

. He was a presidential

attaché In diplomacy, an attaché is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified accor ...

in the former

Embassy of Ukraine in Moscow The Embassy of Ukraine in Moscow was the chief diplomatic mission of Ukraine in the Russian Federation. It was located at 18 Leontyevsky Lane (russian: Леонтьевский переулок, 18) in Moscow. In March 2014, as a result of the ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. He was the spokesman and director for the Information Department of the

Foreign Ministry of Ukraine The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine ( uk, Міністерство закордонних справ України) is the ministry of the Ukrainian government that oversees the foreign relations of Ukraine. The head of the ministry is th ...

from 2010 to 2013.

Biography

Voloshyn graduated from

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv Kyiv University or Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv ( uk, Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка), colloquially known as KNU ...

's Institute of International Relations in 2003. As a political pundit, he has made claims that there is a "growing volume of obvious violations of the rights of journalists, opposition, religious organizations, national minorities." He considers himself a defender of the

Russian language in Ukraine Russian is the most common first language in the Donbas and Crimea regions of Ukraine and the city of Kharkiv, and the predominant language in large cities in the eastern and southern portions of the country. The usage and status of the langu ...

. On the Russian military intervention in Ukraine, he has stated that "the Russian Federation is struggling to hold Ukraine in its sphere of influence, and not for its transformation into another province f Russia and argues that "in Russia there was no overall goal to occupy Ukraine", that in general, "Ukraine is now governed by

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

." Voloshin is alleged to have been a Ukrainian business partner of

Paul Manafort Paul John Manafort Jr. (; born April 1, 1949) is an American lobbyist, political consultant, and attorney. A long-time Republican Party campaign consultant, he chaired the Trump presidential campaign from June to August 2016. Manafort served ...

and to have ties to Russian intelligence agencies; prosecutors in the

2017 Special Counsel investigation The Mueller special counsel investigation was an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials, and possible obstruction of justice by Trump and his ...

, led by former director of the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

Robert Mueller Robert Swan Mueller III (; born August 7, 1944) is an American lawyer and government official who served as the sixth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013. A graduate of Princeton University and New York ...

into

Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections The Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the goals of harming the campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the candidacy of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. Acc ...

, alleged that he and Manafort had worked on an

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...

piece in the

Kyiv Post The ''Kyiv Post'' is the oldest English-language newspaper in Ukraine, founded in October 1995 by Jed Sunden. History American Jed Sunden founded the ''Kyiv Post'' weekly newspaper on Oct. 18, 1995 and later created KP Media for his holdings. ...

praising Manafort's efforts in strengthening

European Union–Ukraine relations European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

while Manafort was out on bail, which prosecutors claim was written in order to boost public opinion of Manafort in Ukraine. Voloshyn, however, claims that he wrote the op-ed piece, emailing a version of the rough draft of the op-ed to colleague

Konstantin Kilimnik uk, Костянтин Килимник , birth_date = , birth_place = Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, Soviet Union , death_date = , death_place = , citizenship = UkraineRussiaSoviet Union , oc ...

. As a result, in early December 2017, a court filing requested that the judge revoke Manafort's

bond Bond or bonds may refer to: Common meanings * Bond (finance), a type of debt security * Bail bond, a commercial third-party guarantor of surety bonds in the United States * Chemical bond, the attraction of atoms, ions or molecules to form chemical ...

agreement. On 20 June 2019, it was announced that Voloshyn would be on the electoral list of the

Opposition Platform — For life The Opposition Platform – For Life ( uk, Опозиційна платформа – За життя; russian: Оппозиционная платформа – За жизнь, OPZZh) was a parliamentary and now banned pro-Russian and Eurosc ...

party for the

2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Snap elections to the Ukrainian parliament were held on 21 July 2019. Originally scheduled to be held at the end of October, these elections were brought forward after newly inaugurated President of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dissolv ...

. He was elected to parliament in this election as number 30 on the party list.

U.S. investigation and sanctions

In July 2021, upon his arrival in the U.S., he was pulled away at

Dulles International Airport Washington Dulles International Airport , typically referred to as Dulles International Airport, Dulles Airport, Washington Dulles, or simply Dulles ( ), is an international airport in the Eastern United States, located in Loudoun County and Fai ...

agents for a three-hour long questioning session; according to Voloshyn, the agents also extracted the information from his cellphone. On 20 January 2022, against the backdrop of mounting tensions over Ukraine, the U.S. government imposed sanctions on Voloshyn along with three other Ukrainian nationals. The statement released by the

U.S. Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

said, "Russia has directed its intelligence services to recruit current and former Ukrainian government officials to prepare to take over the government of Ukraine and to control Ukraine’s critical infrastructure with an occupying Russian force. At the heart of this effort are

Taras Kozak Taras Romanovych Kozak ( uk, Тарас Романович Козак; born 6 April 1972, Sokilnyky, Pustomyty Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union) is a Ukrainian politician, state servant, businessman and media proprietor, and a clos ...

(Kozak) and Oleh Voloshyn (Voloshyn), two current Ukrainian Members of Parliament from the party led by Victor Medvedchuk (Medvedchuk), who is already subject to U.S. sanctions for his role in undermining Ukrainian sovereignty in 2014. Medvedchuk maintains close ties with the Kremlin, and also took part in directing these activities. ..Voloshyn has worked with Russian actors to undermine Ukrainian government officials and advocate on behalf of Russia. Voloshyn also worked with U.S.-designated

, a Russian national with ties to Russian intelligence who was sanctioned for attempts to influence the U.S. 2020 presidential election, to coordinate passing on information to influence U.S. elections at the behest of Russia."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Voloshyn, Oleg 1981 births Living people People from Mykolaiv Ukrainian television presenters Ukrainian journalists Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections Ukrainian diplomats Ukrainian people of Russian descent Ninth convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Opposition Platform — For Life politicians People associated with Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections Politicians from Mykolaiv