Andriy Portnov was a close associate of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted from power in 2014. He held the position of Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration and oversaw matters related to the country’s judicial system.

Portnov is considered one of the main architects of the legal and judicial reforms of that period, which gave him significant influence over Ukraine’s justice system.

According to experts, he maintained this influence until fairly recently. Prior to the 2010 presidential election, he was part of then-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s legal team, but later joined Yanukovych’s administration. After the Euromaidan protests, Portnov left the country along with other members of Yanukovych’s circle. In 2019, shortly after Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president, Portnov briefly returned to Ukraine but soon left again.

His name has repeatedly appeared in law enforcement investigations into various criminal cases — ranging from land and property fraud to alleged involvement in the killings during the Maidan protests.

After Yanukovych fled the country, the European Union imposed sanctions on Portnov, which he successfully had lifted in 2015.

In 2021, the United States imposed its own sanctions against Portnov. The U.S. Department of the Treasury stated that he had built extensive ties within Ukraine’s judicial and law enforcement systems through bribery. U.S. authorities noted that Portnov was known as someone who could “fix” cases in Ukrainian courts, thereby undermining progress in judicial reforms.