At the Securities Commission In January 1997, Portnov began working in
Kyiv at the State Commission on Securities and Stock Market. First, he held the position of chief specialist of the department of methodology and standardization of accounting and reporting of the corporate finance department. A few months later, he was appointed deputy head of the control and legal department and head of the law enforcement department. In June 2003, he returned to the State Commission and until July 2004, he worked as First Deputy Executive Secretary (Head of the Central Office). At the early
parliamentary elections in 2007, he re-entered parliament on the BYuT list, becoming a deputy of the
Verkhovna Rada of the
6th convocation. From August to September 2008, on behalf of
Tymoshenko, Portnov worked on joint bills with the
Party of Regions that weakened the power of President
Viktor Yushchenko. In 2008, together with the legal team, he prevented early parliamentary elections from being held. He was involved in support of gas contracts in
Moscow in 2009 that ended the
2009 Russia–Ukraine gas dispute. On 2 April 2010, he accepted the offer of President Yanukovych to take the position of Deputy Head of the
Administration of the President of Ukraine and the Head of the Main Directorate for Judicial Reform and Judicial System. To the BYuT faction, Portnov's transfer to the Yanukovych administration was negatively perceived as treason. Yanukovych introduced Portnov to the council of the
National Bank of Ukraine, as well as to the supervisory boards of OJSC State Savings Bank of Ukraine and OJSC
State Export-Import Bank of Ukraine. In April 2011, as a result of the administrative reform, Portnov was transferred to the position of adviser to the president and head of the Main Directorate for the Judicial System of the Presidential Administration.
Euromaidan protests During the
Euromaidan, Portnov was a member of the working group on resolving the political crisis together with President Yanukovych and Minister of Justice
Olena Lukash.
16 January laws Portnov is called the initiator of the development of the so-called "
dictatorial laws" of 16 January 2014, which significantly limited the constitutional rights of Ukrainian citizens and were directed against Euromaidan. These laws were passed by the majority of the then parliament in violation of the rules, without discussion, by show of hands, without the use of the "Rada" system. On 24 January 2014, by Decree No. 39/2014, President Yanukovych appointed Portnov as the First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration. On 22–24 February 2014, Portnov left Ukraine. He stated that he had been assaulted. On 26 February 2014,
Oleksandr Turchynov was sworn as acting President of Ukraine, and dismissed Portnov from the post of first deputy head of the administration. On 28 February 2014, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine sent a request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Security Service of Ukraine to immediately detain those involved in the mass killings of activists in the center of Kyiv from 18 to 22 February 2014, which they suspected Portnov who was involved in those incidents within 10 days.
Sanctions On 5 March 2014, the
European Council approved the blocking of a total of 17 former government officials and people close to former President Yanukovych on suspicion of misappropriation of budget funds. Former Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Portnov was also included in this list. On 6 March 2014, the
European Union and
Canada announced that Portnov was on the list of high-ranking Ukrainian officials against whom financial sanctions were being imposed. Portnov himself declared that he had no financial assets abroad. On 25 May 2014, the FMS of Russia granted him a temporary residence permit for a period of 3 years. On 25 August 2014, the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv partially satisfied Portnov's claim against the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine for the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation, ruling to declare unreliable information about his alleged involvement in the massacres of activists at Euromaidan during the early winter events of 2014. On 9 October, the court ruled unreliable information about Portnov's alleged involvement in the plundering of land and real estate in
Mezhyhirya and the legalization of funds, made public by the leadership of the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine addressed to him at a press conference on 20 May and ordered the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine within 10 days to publicly refute this. At the end of December 2014, Portnov, who was living in
Moscow (
Russia) at that time, announced plans to return to Ukraine in 2015 due to the absence of legal charges against him. In the fall, the European Union received a written message that the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies had no procedural actions against the
Klyuyev brothers and Portnov on charges of
embezzlement. During the process of high treason against Yanukovych, the special services of Ukraine provided recordings of telephone conversations between the assistant to the Russian President
Sergey Glazyev, according to which Portnov during the
annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation participated in the development of a statement by the
Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. In October 2015, the EU court ruled in the case of Portnov v. European Council, recognizing that the imposition of sanctions solely on the basis of cooperation with the previous regime was unacceptable. On 5 May 2015, Portnov, along with
Oleksiy Azarov, and former
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) leaders
Oleksandr Yakymenko and
Ihor Kalinin were removed from the EU sanctions list. In October 2015, the
Court of Justice of the European Union, based in
Luxembourg, ruled in Portnov v. EU Council in favor of Portnov and ruled that the imposition of sanctions was illegal. In July 2019, the GPU (Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine) sent a request to the Ukrainian Embassy in
Canada to lift sanctions against Portnov. This was explained by the fact that no criminal cases and pre-trial investigations were being conducted against him in Ukraine,. In November 2019, representatives of the Canadian government told reporters that Canada could lift sanctions on Portnov if the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine did not provide grounds for their extension. The GPU declined to comment on whether they intended to do so, citing the secrecy of the investigation. On 27 November 2019, the
Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Riaboshapka announced in the Verkhovna Rada that the GPU was still negotiating with the official authorities of Canada on sanctions against Portnov, but did not provide details.
Emigration At that time, he continued to provide legal advice to Kolomoisky, cooperation with whom began in 1999. From 27 August to 5 October 2018, he was the owner of the corporate rights to the news channel
NewsOne, which eventually passed to the business partner and political associate of
Viktor Medvedchuk, and
Taras Kozak. He also managed the NewsOne TV channel, receiving 100% of the channel's shares from Volodymyr Murayev (
Yevheniy Murayev's father).
Return to Ukraine On 29 February 2019, at the request of Portnov's lawyer, the Pechersk Court of Kyiv set a deadline of 1 month for investigators of the Prosecutor General's Office to complete the pre-trial investigation and make procedural decisions in criminal proceedings against Portnov. The lawyer said that the proceedings of 6 March 2014 have been going on for four years and 10 months and violated reasonable deadlines. The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine refused to comply with the court's decision to close all criminal proceedings against Portnov by 20 March and filed a petition to clarify the court's decision. After that, he began filing applications with the
State Bureau of Investigation against former President Poroshenko: accusations of "criminal actions" during the 2018
Kerch Strait incident, "economic crimes", illegal purchase of the
Pryamiy kanal TV channel, and "seizure of power" during the election of the
Groysman Government in 2016. This activity was approved by the business partner of President Zelensky, Kolomoisky, who also had a conflict with Poroshenko during the latter's presidency. At the same time, he was summoned for interrogation in cases of murders during the Euromaidan as a witness. At the same time, he was lobbying for the closure of criminal cases against video blogger
Anatoliy Shariy and the editor-in-chief of Strana.ua, Huzhva. He also openly clashed with Prosecutor General
Ruslan Riaboshapka.
Viktor Andrusiv, the executive director of the Ukrainian Institute of the Future, accused Prosecutor General
Yuriy Lutsenko of inaction because Portnov had returned freely and had not been summoned for questioning, including on the 16 January laws. Lutsenko wrote in response: "Do you have evidence of a crime committed by him?" On 20 May, Portnov stated that he was guarded by Ukrainian law enforcement. On 27 May, Portnov announced that he had submitted a fourth statement to the DBR (State Bureau of Investigation) requesting that criminal proceedings be opened against former President Poroshenko. The State Bureau of Investigation has registered Portnov's statement against President
Petro Poroshenko. Portnov said he considered Poroshenko involved in "treason, attempts to seize state power, excess of power and official authority." In June 2019, he was renewed as a professor at Shevchenko University at the Department of Constitutional Law, Faculty of Law. On 19 June, it became known about Portnov's employment at the Department of Constitutional Law of the Law Faculty of the
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv under a fixed-term employment contract for a period from 1 September 2019 to 30 June 2020, prior to the competition for the position of professor of the department. Students of the educational institution announced protests against such a decision, and the next day the rector of the educational institution announced the cancellation of the decision to hire Portnov. On 21 June 2019, the host of the Crime and Punishment program on NewsOne, co-host − TV channel producer,
Vasiliy Holovanov, also participated in the
Epicenter program. Because of this, students at Shevchenko University staged protests on 20 June near the "red" building. As a result, the university's leadership, including the rector of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
Leonid Hubersky, read in the presence of students and members of the press an order to cancel the previous order appointing Portnov to the position of professor at the Department of Constitutional Law. On 4 July 2019, Portnov wrote on Facebook that he had drafted a bill banning people holding public office from holding positions between Maidan's victory and Zelensky's inauguration. On 11 July, Zelensky himself took the same initiative, stating that "his team" had drafted a bill to "strengthen lustration." According to Texty.org.ua journalists, this indicates that Zelensky is openly cooperating with Portnov. After a year of Zelensky's presidency, the country is witnessing the emergence of a strong non-parliamentary opposition, which believes that the replacement of “new and inexperienced” personnel in power with such professional and consistent ones as Portnov can bring Ukraine out of the crisis. On 17 June 2020, Portnov, commenting on the most relevant topics in the Ukrainian Format program on the NewsOne TV channel, formulated the necessary urgent measures to consistently fight the radical gangs. On 8 January 2021, Portnov criticized those who, using double standards, deny the clear similarity between the
2021 United States Capitol attack and the Ukrainian
Euromaidan, which the
Democratic Party actively supported in 2014.
Conflict with journalists of Radio Liberty On 31 October 2019, Portnov released the personal data of a member of the film crew of the "Schemes: Corruption in Detail" program of the Ukrainian edition of
Radio Liberty, as well as data indicating the surveillance of this person. The editors considered this publication to be direct pressure on the Scheme team, which was preparing an investigation into Portnov's influence and his connections with the new Ukrainian government, as well as a violation of a number of articles of the law on the protection of personal data and the Criminal Code. Later, Portnov published the personal data of four more people associated with the program. The former official himself later accused the journalists of illegally spying on himself, and also appealed to his status as a journalist for Channel 112, whose management gave him an editorial task to inform the promise of illegal actions of people who are engaged in illegal operational-search activities. On 14 November, the first meeting of the Council on Freedom of Expression and Protection of Journalists was held in the President's office, where the police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs heard about the cases on the statements of journalists and Portnov. Both cases were investigated by the Investigation Department of the National Police. On 19 November, it became known about Portnov's trip to the president's office, where he complained to the deputy head of the OP,
Kyrylo Timoshenko, about the "threat to freedom of speech and an obstacle to his advocacy and journalistic activities" by the journalists of Radio Liberty. In the statement of the office, the guest was called "a lawyer and a journalist", and it was also promised to take note of his arguments. On 20 November, the Presidential Council for the Protection of Freedom of Expression and the Rights of Journalists condemned the pressure exerted by ex-deputy head of the Yanukovych Administration, Portnov on the Schema investigation program and urged him not to use his journalist ID, because he "is primarily a politician and professional lawyer." The decision was reviewed electronically and was supported by 9 out of 15 council members, it was not supported by representatives of the Novosti TV channels (
Nataliya Vlashchenko with ZIK and
Lyudmila Pysanko from 112 Ukraine), several people were abroad and did not take part in the voting. Portnov himself promised to take note of this decision, continuing to threaten to publish personal data of RS employees if he noticed them within a radius of 10 km.
Escape from Ukraine According to the Schemes: Corruption in Details project of
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, on 3 June 2022, during the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, Portnov fled the country through
Zakarpattia Oblast. According to
Serhii Sternenko, he fled the country with the help of Presidential aide
Oleh Tatarov. His son had previously fled Ukraine on 23 March 2022. ==Criminal cases==