Official In Ukrainian President's Office Was Frequent Flier To Russia, Investigation Finds

The last known time Oleh Tatarov flew to Moscow was on April 22, 2019, a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy won his first term in office.

A little over one year later, Tatarov was a controversial high-ranking member of Zelenskiy's administration in Kyiv.

Tatarov's appointment to serve as deputy head of the presidential office in August 2020 raised eyebrows, with critics pointing out that he was a key police official under former pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, has been accused of representing pro-Russian figures as a lawyer in Ukraine, and was himself once named as a suspect in a corruption investigation.

Now, a new investigation by the Schemes investigation unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service has uncovered that Tatarov traveled to Russia from Ukraine at least nine times from 2017 to 2019.

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The investigation suggests that shortly before his appointment to work in the presidential office, Tatarov, while working as a lawyer, was traveling to an avowed enemy of Ukraine.

The investigation also reveals that Tatarov's trips to Russia came three years after Russia's illegal invasion and annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and support for anti-Kyiv separatists in eastern Ukraine in February 2014.

Zelenskiy has been in office the entirety of the current war that began with Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Tatarov, was a deputy head of the Main Investigation Department of the Interior Ministry who was dismissed following the pro-Western Euromaidan protests of November 2013 to February 2014, which he had worked to suppress.

Amid the protests, Schemes later reported, Tatarov was awarded as an "honored lawyer of Ukraine" by former pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia in February 2014 after being ousted from power by the Euromaidan protests.

Shortly afterward, Russia occupied Crimea and backed pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine fighting against Kyiv.

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In the ensuing years, Tatarov went on to become a high-profile lawyer who has been accused of representing Vadym Novinskiy, a Russian-born tycoon who made his fortune in Ukraine and was involved with the pro-Russian opposition, and Andriy Portnov, a former deputy head of Yanukovych's office.

As a lawyer, Tatarov also headed the legal department of the Ukrbud construction company.

Three months after becoming deputy head of Zelenskiy's administration in 2020, which drew fierce criticism from Euromaidan activists, the president's office was notified that a deputy head of the office was among three suspects, along with the owner of Ukrbud, in a case looking into allegations of corruption.

Tatarov denied any wrongdoing or involvement in the alleged crimes, and highlighted his role as the head of the anti-corruption body within the president's office. The case was eventually transferred to Ukraine's Security Service and dropped in April 2022.

Tatarov’s position in the presidential administration nevertheless continued to attract scrutiny, and the latest Schemes investigation has raised new questions after it found that Tatarov traveled nine times to Russia from Ukraine after 2014.

The investigation, published on November 7, determined that Tatarov traveled to Russia three times in 2017, four times in 2018, and twice in 2019 -- once just two weeks before the first round of Ukraine's presidential election, and the second a day after Zelenskiy won the runoff.

Direct air travel between Ukraine and Russia was suspended by Kyiv in 2014, requiring Tatarov to reach Moscow from Kyiv via Belarus. Schemes came to its conclusions based on its analysis of border-crossing data from three countries -- Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.

The data from Russia and Belarus, a key Moscow ally in the full-scale invasion Russia launched against Ukraine in February 2022, was based on leaked databases obtained by Schemes.

There is no evidence that Tatarov, who was working as a lawyer at the time, broke any laws.

Schemes sent questions to Zelenskiy's office requesting comment on the investigation's findings and asking what the purposes of Tatarov's trips to Russia were and with whom he met.

Neither the president's office nor Tatarov has responded to the requests. However, in comments to BBC Ukraine on November 7, Tatarov denied traveling to Russia or communicating with representatives of Russia.

"It is absolutely unacceptable to spread unreliable data and even hints about the alleged existence of my communication with someone from Russia or trips to its territory. Especially with reference to enemy-controlled sources," Tatarov told BBC Ukraine in written comments.