Recently, a report appeared on the website of an all-Russian state propaganda channel under the headline “Heroes of the SMO and volunteers helping rebuild the new territories will run in elections at various levels this autumn.”

The article mentions the controversial lawyer Valentin Rybin, who plans to run in the autumn elections in the temporarily occupied part of Kherson Oblast.

A Telegram post published by the propaganda channel Readovka on March 21, 2023, provides further evidence of Rybin’s presence in the temporarily occupied parts of Kherson Oblast.

According to the post, Rybin was running as a candidate for the occupation authorities’ so-called “parliament” of Kherson Oblast on behalf of Russia’s ruling United Russia party. At the same time, he was reportedly working for one of the occupation administration’s so-called “ministries” in the region.

Valentin Rybin is suspected of justifying and legitimizing Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, denying the aggression, and glorifying those involved in it.

At the end of March last year, he left Ukraine and traveled to Spain, reportedly exercising his right to leave the country as the father of three children.

The post above was publicly shared by Valentin Rybin on March 19, 2022, just days before he left Ukraine for Spain, where he joined his friend, “Mr.” Shariy.

On April 1, Rybin was notified of suspicion of producing and distributing communist and Nazi symbols and propaganda promoting communist and National Socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes under Part 1 of Article 436-2 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code. The notification was sent to him by post.

Exactly one year later, on March 19, 2023 — a rather striking coincidence of dates — Russia’s Channel One aired the report mentioned above. At first glance, it was an ordinary news segment titled “Heroes of the SMO and volunteers helping rebuild the new territories will run in elections at various levels this autumn.” But among those featured was a particularly notable figure: Valentin Rybin.

For those who didn’t recognize him, or perhaps never knew him in the first place, this is Valentin Volodymyrovych Rybin.

He’s grown a beard, changed his hairstyle and, according to rumors, may have even undergone facial plastic surgery. Whether there is any truth to the latter is for fact checkers to determine. What is clear, however, is that Rybin is now not only a deputy representing Russia’s ruling United Russia party, but also the so called “Minister of Information Policy of Kherson Oblast.”

What this position actually entails and what Rybin’s responsibilities are remains unclear. We’ll also leave you with a video in which Rybin talks about how badly he wants to become a deputy. After failing to achieve that goal in Ukraine, he has apparently decided to pursue it under the occupation authorities instead:https://archive.org/details/20230323_20230323_1308

Registered companies, law firms and public organizations that were active at the time of publication:

• NGO “FPSI ODISSEY” / ГО “ФПСІ “ОДІСЕЙ” (active at the time of publication)
• NGO “Foundation for Legal and Social Assistance to Law Enforcement Officers and Berkut Servicemen” / ГО “ФОНД ПРАВОВОЇ ТА СОЦІАЛЬНОЇ ДОПОМОГИ ПРАВООХОРОНЦЯМ ТА ВІЙСЬКОВОСЛУЖБОВЦЯМ БЕРКУТ” (active at the time of publication)
• “EXTRA YUS” Law Firm / АО “ЕКСТРА ЮС” (active at the time of publication)
• “TRANSPOLIS” Private Enterprise / ПП “ТРАНСПОЛІС” (subject to seizure)
• Individual Entrepreneur registratio / ФОП (liquidated)

Revoked law license
On September 2, 2022, the Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of the Bar of Ternopil Oblast revoked Valentin Rybin’s right to practice law.

The lawyer’s “track record”:

• In March 2023, ran as a candidate for Russia’s United Russia party
• On March 19, 2022, Rybin published a Facebook post criticizing Ukrainians defending their country against the Russian invasion. At the end of the post, he stated that he would return only when “Zakon” would prevail in Ukraine, invoking a symbol associated with the Russian occupation.
• On February 15, 2021, he was registered as a candidate in the by-election to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in constituency No. 50 in Donetsk Oblast, representing Shariy’s Party.
• In February 2021, he became the lawyer for Viktoriia Daskalitsa, who was suspected of treason and was one of the figures in a case involving Telegram channels allegedly linked to Russian intelligence.
• In 2019, Rybin represented Brazilian national Rafael Lusvarghi, who had fought alongside militants in Donbas.
• In 2018, Rybin became the lawyer for Volodymyr Ruban, head of the Officers’ Corps organization, and then MP Nadiia Savchenko in a case concerning their alleged plans to seize state power, stage a coup and organize a terrorist attack.
• In 2017, in an interview with Skrypin.ua, Rybin commented on Russia’s alleged violations of the Budapest Memorandum concerning Ukraine.
• In 2016, Rybin represented Russian GRU officer Oleksandr Aleksandrov, who, together with fellow GRU officer Yevgeny Yerofeyev, was found guilty by the Holosiivskyi District Court of Kyiv of committing a terrorist attack that resulted in the death of Ukrainian serviceman Vadym Puhachov.

Oksana Sokolovska (left) and Valentin Rybin during the trial of Russian GRU special forces officers in Kyiv, April 2016

• That same year, Rybin also represented three former Berkut officers from Kharkiv who had fled to Russia.

Valentin Rybin at a hearing of the Dnipro District Court of Kyiv in the case against Andrii Khandrykin

In addition to the cases mentioned above, Rybin also represented:

– convicted state traitor and spy Stanislav Yezhov, a translator and protocol officer for the Prime Minister;

• Russian tank crewman Ruslan Gadzhiev, captured in combat near Sanzharivka in January 2015. Gadzhiev, a Caucasus-born serviceman fighting for the “LPR,” was involved in the killing of eight soldiers from the 30th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces;
• Daria Mastikashova, who was suspected of treason;
• Farukh Kamalov, a former government official and collaborator from occupied Crimea;
• FSB agent Ihor Kimakovsky;
• Odesa “Anti-Maidan” militant Yevgeny Mefyodov.

Family ties. Former wife

An old photo taken long before they left for Spain. They later divorced, and her Instagram posts indicate that she still lives there.

Family ties. Father

This is Valentin Rybin’s father, Volodymyr Rybin, a pro-Russian figure and collaborator who has openly expressed his support for Russia. He is known not only for publishing anti-Ukrainian articles, but also for continuing to operate his business, EDM LLC, in Crimea after Russia’s war against Ukraine began in 2014. His social media, as well as that of his wife, also indicate that he regularly traveled to occupied Crimea and continued doing business there.

During the Rybin family’s “great relocation,” Volodymyr apparently decided that “bourgeois” Spain was not for him and instead headed to Crimea, where he took a position in the local government in Yalta. This information was quickly removed from public sources and can now only be found in references to his appointment.

According to available information, he remains in the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.