Rudy Giuliani’s top Ukraine allies accused of working for Putin

Rudy Giuliani’s top Ukraine allies have been accused of working for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinsky joined a criminal organization financed by Russia’s military intelligence, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said in a statement on Monday.

He was not named as the politician suspected of treason in the SBU statement, but Reuters reported that he was identified by two Ukrainian lawmakers on the messaging platform Telegram.

The SBU said the criminal group received more than $10 million to “take advantage of the tense political situation in Ukraine and discredit our state in the international arena.”

Newsweek has contacted an attorney for Giuliani for comment via email. Dubinsky could not immediately be reached for further comment.

Dubinsky allegedly spread disinformation about Ukraine’s military and political leadership, including that high-ranking Ukrainian officials were interfering in U.S. presidential elections. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison and a forfeiture of his assets.

Dubinsky denied the allegations in a post on Telegram, saying they were “based on the absolute lies of top state officials,” according to Reuters.

The SBU said former Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach and former prosecutor Kostyantyn Kulyk also joined the organization. Both are in hiding abroad, Politico reported.

Giuliani met with a number of Ukrainian officials, including Dubinsky and Derkach, as he searched for political dirt on President Joe Biden on former President Donald Trump’s behalf. He met with both during a visit to Kyiv in December 2019 while filming a documentary aimed at discrediting an impeachment probe against Trump.

Dubinsky was among seven Ukrainians sanctioned by the Trump administration in January 2021 for being “part of a Russia-linked foreign influence network” that disseminated “fraudulent and unsubstantiated allegations involving a U.S. political candidate.”

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Derkach in September 2020, describing him as an “active Russian agent” who has “directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in foreign interference in an attempt to undermine the upcoming 2020 U.S. presidential election.”

Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and Trump attorney, was indicted alongside Trump and 17 others in connection with efforts to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Both Giuliani and Trump have pleaded not guilty to the charges in the case.

“This is a big deal,” Anders Aslund, an economist, author and former senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, of the charges against Dubinsky.

“Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) claims that Giuliani’s top Ukraine allies: Oleksandr Dubinsky, ex-Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach and ex-prosecutor Kostyantyn Kulyk, had joined Russia’s Military Intelligence (GRU). Giuliani was a Putin agent.”