Vitaly Portnikov

VitaliyEduardovich Portnikov is a Ukrainian analyst and journalist.

Brief biography

Born in Kiev, May 14, 1967. Portnikov's first materials were published back in 1983. In 1985 he moved to Dnipro, where he spent three years studying at the Oles Gonchar Dniprovsk National University at the Faculty of Philology. Later he transferred to Moscow State University, where he graduated in 1990 with a degree in journalism.

He worked for Nezavisimaya Gazeta since 1989, and in 1990 he joined Radio Liberty. Later he published in Vedomosti, Korrespondent, Delovaya Gazeta and Zerkalo Nedeli.

In 2009-2011, he appeared on the TVi TV channel with the author's program "The Truth of Vitaly Portnikov".

Since 2013, he has been hosting the author's program "Evening Political Club" on the Espreso TV channel.

He was an active participant of the Revolution of Dignity and a member of the council of the Maidan movement. In 2014, fearing possible provocations by the GRU, he was forced to temporarily leave Ukraine and move to Warsaw. From there he returned after the Revolution was over.

Materials and articles

In his articles and publications, Vitaly Portnikov thoroughly analyzes contemporary Russian politics, predicts the actions of the Kremlin, reveals the plans of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The journalist points out Russia's interests in Syria and Belarus, ridicules the mistakes of the occupation administrations in Crimea and Donbass, writes in detail about American-Russian relations and such foreign operations of the Russian GRU as the poisoning of the Skripals and the protests of the "yellow vests" in France.

He also touches on Ukrainian politics: he writes about the presidential election and candidates such as Volodymyr Zelensky. He analyzes the actions of other Ukrainian politicians. He focuses on acute social and criminal issues related to Ukraine: from the murder of Kherson social activist Kateryna Gandzyuk and the hunger strike of Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian political prisoner in Russia, to the Eurovision National Selection scandal.

Portnikov's economic news is also popular: about sanctions against Russia, about the conflict between Gazprom and Naftogaz, about the financial background of the Kuril Islands issue.

He is the author of four books: "Why Medvedev?", "Evora", "Prison for Angels" and "The Virgin in the Synagogue".

Blog, website and online activity

To date, in addition to his official website, Vitaly Portnikov maintains his column on "Grani.ru" and "Radio Liberty". In addition, his Twitter page is read by 282 thousand people, and 205 thousand users are subscribed to the journalist's Facebook .