You're reading: Financial Times: Putin’s friend emerges from shadows in Ukraine

Viktor Medvedchuk has an unusually powerful godfather to his daughter: Vladimir Putin, the Russian president. The Ukrainian is also under US sanctions for “threatening the peace, security, stability, sovereignty or territorial integrity” of his country. So why is Mr Medvedchuk involved in negotiations over the future of separatist-held east Ukraine — on Kyiv’s side?

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