Russian ex-president Medvedev on Kyiv wanted list

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has been on a list of wanted persons compiled by Ukrainian security officials for more than half a year, Ukraine’s SBU security service said on Monday.

The statement said Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security, was wanted under a section of the criminal code dealing with attempts to undermine Ukraine’s territorial integrity and the inviolability of its borders. Most of the Russian Security Council’s members are on the list.

It was not immediately clear why the Ukrainian authorities have not released the information sooner or why they made it public now.

The statement said other prominent Russians figured on the wanted list, including Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the lower house of parliament, Valentina Matviyenko, chairman of the upper house, and Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council.

“The Security Service of Ukraine confirms that Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council and former president of the aggressor state, is declared a wanted person,” the SBU said in a statement.

“This occurred in March 2022 at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale aggression.”

Medvedev was seen as something of a moderate when he served as president from 2008 to 2012, when he swapped jobs with Vladimir Putin, who became prime minister. In recent years, he has voiced some of Russia’s most hard-line views on Ukraine.