Oleksandr Dubinsky

Dubinsky was born on 18 April 1981[4] in Kyiv. He studied at the 187th school in Kyiv and later graduated from the National University of Food Technologies, majoring in accounting and auditing, and the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute as an electrical engineer.[5]

He worked at the Economic News newspaper ("Ekonomichni vidomosti" in Ukrainian) from 2004 to 2009, where he became known as an economic journalist. From May 2009 to May 2010 he worked as Editor-in-Chief of Weekly.ua. Since 2009 he has been blogging on Ukrayinska Pravda. At some point, Ukrayinska Pravda's editorial staff began to warn that the journalist was biased.[6] Dubinsky's last blog post on Ukrayinska Pravda was published in mid-2015.

He became a creative producer for the Journalistic Investigations Department on 1+1 TV channel in 2010. In 2014, he was the host of the "Money" show. Since 2012, Oleksandr Dubinsky has directed the program Ukrainsky Sensatsii (literally Ukrainian Scoops) since its launch on 1+1. He also serves as the show's creative producer, as well as that of the Secret Materials show on 1+1.

In April 2017, he launched the personal blog site Dubinsky.Pro.[7] Since May 2017, he has been actively blogging on YouTube.[8]

According to Media Detector, when Oleksandr Dubinsky started working as the head of the Journalistic Investigations department in 2010, he became a clear and consistent advocate of [1+1 channel's owner Ihor Kolomoisky. For instance, some productions of Ukrainsky Sensatsii have signs of political put-up job, particularly the edition of 23 March 2019 called "50 Shades of Poroshenko" where then President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko was accused of creating a criminal group in Moldova and involvement in the murder of his brother Mykhailo. Solomiia Vitvitska, a journalist at 1+1, called such investigations "strange" and assured that the TSN studio is not related to them.

During the 2019 presidential election, Dubinsky released a lot of critical materials about Poroshenko and only one about Yulia Tymoshenko. At the same time, he devoted positive coverage of Volodymyr Zelensky. In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election ran in constituency 94 located in Kyiv Oblast (Vasylkiv and Obukhiv cities, Vasylkiv and Obukhiv raions) representing Zelensky's Servant of the People party[4] as a political neophyte.[9] The Vidsich (Response) movement opposed Dubinsky within the Red Lines campaign. He won the election with 40.95% of the votes cast and became a People's Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the 9th convocation.[4] Member of the "Servant of the People" party.[10]

Dubinsky headed the Servant of the People electoral list for deputies of the Kyiv Oblast Council in the 2020 Ukrainian local elections held on 25 October.[11][12] Although the party won 22 seats[13] he did not take up his mandate.[14]

On 1 February 2021 Dubinsky was expelled from the Servant of the People's parliamentary faction after the United States imposed sanctions on him the previous month for alleged interfering in the 2020 United States presidential election.[3] On 11 January 2021 the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control put Dubinsky on its sanction list because he was claimed to be part of a "Russia-linked foreign influence network" associated with fellow People's Deputy Andrii Derkach.[15] In May 2020, Derkach had released audio recordings that claim to disclose the influence of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on former President Poroshenko.[15] On 19 January 2021 the Prosecutor General of Ukraine opened a criminal case against Dubinsky regarding the legalization of criminally obtained property and non-payment of taxes according to a statement filed by Ukraine's Anti-Corruption Action Center.[15]

On 14 March 2021 Dubinsky was removed as chairman of the Servant of the People Kyiv regional organization.[16] The next day he was expelled from the party due to "violating the statute and disobeying the party's governing bodies."[1]

On 3 August 2023, Dubinsky was placed under investigation by the Security Service of Ukraine for allegedly going on holiday in Spain under false pretenses despite travel restrictions imposed on politicians and civil servants following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[17]

In 2007, 2008 and 2009 Dubinsky was recognized as the best financial and economic journalist of Ukraine according to the results of the Business circles "PRESSZVANIE" contest.[18]

On 29 January 2019, representatives of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc gathered at the forum "From Kruty to Brussels. We are following our own way" which took place in Kyiv, after which then-president Petro Poroshenko announced his decision to run for a second term. After that, Dubinsky posted on Facebook about it: "Poroshenko's forum today was our chance. Chance to use gas. Just everyone was there". He deleted the post later following an uproar. On 1 February, during the live broadcast of the talk show People Are Against It on ZIK TV channel, five guests left Oleksandr Dubinsky's studio over his post.[19]

On 2-3 May 2019, Dubinsky's dubinsky.pro website posted information on the introduction of a fee for placing electronic records on the Health Ministry's website about passing medical examinations, as well as budgetary funds for the training of health care workers, which were allegedly directed for a project implemented by the NGO "Patriot Protection". The Ministry called these reports untrue, noting that Dubinsky used a fake document in his materials.[20] Acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun then filed a lawsuit against him for the protection of honour, dignity and business reputation. On 8 November 2019, the Solomianskiy District Court of Kyiv dismissed Suprun's claim.[21]

Media and primary sources point to a number of other cases where Oleksandr Dubinsky or his 1 + 1 projects disseminate fake or manipulative information.

In June 2019, a video in which Dubinsky said the motto "Glory to Ukraine!" was Nazi went viral, he also mentioned the legalization of this motto in the modern Ukrainian army was "absurd and lunatic".[22][23]

In August 2019, shortly after being elected, Dubinsky defended Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife Sara after she threw bread on the floor at Boryspil airport, saying in the past five years the former authorities had glorified Nazi collaborators.[24]

On 17 June 2019, Dubinsky shared a photo of him on Facebook in the company of controversial pro-Russian figures Andriy Portnov and Igor Guzhva.

In August 2019, Dubinsky supported the newly elected deputy Maxym Buzhansky, his colleague from the "Servant of the People", who called a journalist of "New Time" a "dopey cow".

On 11 November 2019, an investigation of "Nashi Hroshi" ("Our Money" in Ukrainian) about the property of the Dubinsky family was brought out on Bihus.Info. Investigators believe that Dubinsky refused to show his fortune immediately after his election because of the large number of cars and real estate he owns with his mother and wife. Dubinsky did reject this information, but said that the property was purchased before he took office.[25]

After top managers of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) filed a lawsuit against Dubinsky, on 29 November 2019, he posted expletive messages against the NBU management on social media and publicly accused its past and present leadership of and other wrongdoings.[26][27][28]

Dubinsky called a foreign journalist a "stray animal" for photographing a meeting between Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk and the head of President's Office Andriy Yermak in a restaurant in Kyiv. He expressed indignation at the work of the journalist in his post on his Facebook page where he called Radio Svoboda odious, empty and idle. Dubinsky also called the journalist "dumb and deceitful.".[29][30]

Dubinsky intimidated the director of the state-owned PrivatBank Petr Krumkhanzl (formerly owned by Kolomoyskyi) with Kolomoyskyi's words about the director allegedly being a member of the Waffen-SS, which he said at a birthday party attended by Dubinsky. Even after Krumkhanzl was hospitalized with a suspected heart attack, Dubinsky continued to intimidate him: he posted on his Telegram channel that disgruntled people were going to continue protesting at the hospital where Krumkhanzl was hospitalized. He later added that he was not celebrating a heart attack, but simply saying that "Kolomoyskyi's toasts tend to come true." Messages on Dubinsky's Telegram feed indicate that Kolomoyskyi and his supporters were in favor of returning PrivatBank by any means necessary. In his Telegram, Dubinsky often refers to unknown sources when making statements and sharing information in what is seen as an effort to avoid responsibility.[31][32]

At the end of 2019, Dubinsky, who was said to lead "Kolomoyskyi's influence group in the Ukrainian parliament" and who, on assignment of the oligarch, "joined the public campaign ... aimed at shifting responsibility for interfering in the 2016 US elections from Russia to Ukraine" met with Rudy Giuliani, who was looking for compromising material on Joe Biden.[33]

Dubinsky, as an announcer on 1+1, shot a controversial video after Kolomoyskyi's attempted takeover of the Ukrainian low-cost airline carrier SkyUp with the help of the Baryshivskyi District Court of Kyiv Oblast. He said that low-cost airlines were "cattle cars" and expressed support for the decision against SkyUp.[34][35]

On 7 April 2020, Dubinsky shared a screenshot (supposedly fake) on his Facebook page in which, on behalf of Dnipro mayor Borys Filatov, it was promised to shoot pets that residents walk in parks during quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic. Later on, Dubinsky placed another statement saying that Filatov removed his initial post about pets from his page and affronted the mayor. In the comments section under Dubinsky's post, Filatov threatened Dubinsky using foul language with mutilation to be inflicted once they meet and literally said that Benia's (presumably Kolomoyskyi's) security staff would nor save him. Moreover, Filatov published a post calling (likely) Dubinsky a "Bearded Nana's (a local nickname for Kolomoyskyi) sidekick".[36]

Bihus.Info reported on 2 October 2020 that a December 2013 news report about alleged prostitution on Maidan Nezalezhnosti "that served" Euromaidan demonstrators had been staged by Dubinsky at the request of and paid by then Minister of Revenue and Duties Oleksandr Klymenko.[37] Dubinsky confirmed that he still used the email address that was allegedly used to coordinate the false reporting with Klymenko but denied the accusations.[37]

In November 2019, the media reported that Dubinsky owned 24 apartments and 17 cars. He refused to declare his property, explaining that he earned it before he became a deputy and that he made decent money as a journalist. He called the Bihus.Info investigation "a hit piece". In addition to apartments and cars, he also owns 70 acres of land and two houses. This property is valued at $2.5 million. According to Dubinsky, his salary on 1+1 was only ₴72,000. A part of the property is registered in his name, another part was in the name of his ex-wife Lesia Tsybko and his mother. Moreover, until 2016 the only official source of his mother's income was a pension. Much of the mother's property in the capital appeared in 2019, an election year.[38]

"Mum likes the speed" — so explained Dubinsky that 7 cars, including Mercedes and Maserati, are registered in the name of his mother.[39][40]

Dubinsky is divorced from Lesia Tsybko.

Media related to Oleksandr Dubinskiy at Wikimedia Commons