As he went to get into his Mercedes sedan after dropping his children at an international school near Madrid, a Ukrainian lawyer named Andriy Portnov was approached by gunmen who shot him five times, the last time in the head.
Portnov’s brazen daylight killing on May 21 stunned Spaniards. It sent bigger shockwaves through Ukrainian political circles, where Portnov circulated for years: as a lawyer, a fixer, and a political operative.
Here’s what you need to know about Portnov, his political importance, and what his killing means.
Who Was He Exactly?
A lawyer by training, Portnov was closely associated with Viktor Yanukovych, who served as Ukrainian president until February 2014, when months of street protests erupted in violence and Yanukovych fled the country. Portnov served as the deputy head of Yanukovych’s administration.
He was known for being litigious -- filing threatening lawsuits against journalists, in particular.
In 2019, Portnov threatened Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, posting personal data of some of the unit’s journalists.
"Portnov was very closely tied to the judicial system. At one time, he led a large number of different trials. He influenced judges, he influenced security officials,” Ivan Stupak, a military analyst who formerly worked for Ukraine’s SBU security agency, told Current Time.
Under Yanukovych, Portnov took charge of an effort to update the country’s Criminal Code and procedures. The effort was criticized for, among other things, making it harder to conduct fair trials and for obstructing official investigations into corruption and bribery.
Before he advised Yanukovych, Portnov worked alongside Yulia Tymoshenko, Yanukovych's political archrival who lost the 2010 presidential election to him.
Portnov also crossed paths with veteran US political lobbyist Paul Manafort, who helped engineer Yanukovych's political comeback in the 2000s, and his election victory over Tymoshenko. Yanukovych later ordered Tymoshenko jailed.
In 2013, Portnov traveled to Washington, D.C., as part of Manafort’s effort to tamp down US criticism of Tymoshenko’s jailing.
"The success of Andriy's visit is important and timely. It shows that a continued presence by key Ukraine leaders coming to the US is effective, and can change the rhetoric,” Manafort wrote in a February 2013 e-mail. “We need to have Andriy come back to the US on a semiannual or quarterly basis.”
The e-mail, which was addressed to a former chief of staff for Yanukovych, was included in US court filings after Manafort was indicted in 2017 on tax and fraud charges stemming from his work for Yanukovych.
Manafort was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison, but later was pardoned by President Donald Trump.
Portnov, meanwhile, was hit by financial sanctions in 2021 by the US Treasury Department.
“Widely known as a court fixer, Portnov was credibly accused of using his influence to buy access and decisions in Ukraine’s courts and undermining reform efforts,” the department said in a press release. “Portnov took steps to control the Ukrainian judiciary, influence associated legislation, sought to place loyal officials in senior judiciary positions, and purchase court decisions.”
What Was He Doing In Spain?
It wasn’t immediately clear how long Portnov and his family had lived in Spain.
He left Ukraine for Russia after Yanukovych fled the country, in the wake of the February 2014 street protests known commonly as the Maidan. Portnov was outspoken in his criticism of the Maidan events.
He later ended up in Austria, where he practiced law, and traveled back to Ukraine several times.
In 2018, the SBU announced it had opened a treason investigation of Portnov, alleging he had a role in Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula that Moscow seized in the weeks after the Maidan.
The case was launched after intercepted telephone conversations from 2014 showed Portnov speaking with a top Kremlin adviser. It was later closed without charges being brought.
In 2019, he returned to Ukraine shortly after the election of Volodymyr Zelenskyy as president.
"Friends, I haven't been to my country for over five years,” he wrote on his Telegram channel at the time. “And today I want to give a strong signal to the thousands of people who left Ukraine. It's time to return, build, and restore. Hello, my dear Motherland!"
He was a part owner of a pro-Russian TV channel linked to a Kremlin-allied politician Viktor Medvedchuk. Ukrainian authorities shuttered the station in 2021.
In March 2022, a month after Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine, Schemes uncovered real estate holdings belonging to Portnov’s family in the Moscow region. That June, Portnov left Ukraine for good.
Yanukovych fled to Russia after the Maidan events, and lived in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don. His current whereabouts are unclear.
Who Killed Him?
Portnov was shot around 9:15 a.m., reportedly just after he dropped off his two daughters at the American School of Madrid, a private institution located in Pozuelo de Alarco, on the Spanish capital’s outskirts.
Spanish authorities have said little about the progress of their investigation.
Outside observers pointed to Portnov’s past run-ins with Ukrainian intelligence as possible indications that he was targeted by a Ukrainian assassin. Others said it was possible Portnov had had clashes due to his business interests.
“Perhaps, someone had a big business taken away from him at one time, perhaps, the money from this business was not divided correctly, and one of the partners decided to take revenge,” Stupak said. “We can’t rule this out.”
