Serhiy Leshchenko

Serhiy Leshchenko (Сергій Анатолійович Лещенко, 30 August, 1980 ) is a Ukrainian ex-journalist, politician and public figure, Member of Parliament (8th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada).

His career in journalism began in 2000 after the probation at the news program Reporter on the Novyi Kanal channel chaired by Andriy Shevchenko.

In September 2000, he became a correspondent of the online version of Ukrainska Pravda.

He continued working at the regional news department of "Novyi Kanal" until Spring 2001 while working for Ukrainska Pravda.

In March 2001 he quit working for Novyi Kanal.

From 2002 until 2014 Leshchenko was working as a Deputy Editor-in-Chief and as a special correspondent for Ukrainska Pravda online newspaper.

In 2002 he became deputy editor-in-chief of the Ukrainska Pravda.

Leschenko is famous for his investigative journalism on corruption in Ukrainian politics.

In 2003, Leschenko graduated the Institute of Journalism at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

In 2010 he joined the movement "Stop Tsenzuri!"

("Stop Censorship!") aimed for the protection of free speech, prevention of censorship and obstruction of journalism in Ukraine.

In 2012, Leschenko joined a civil movement "Chesno" aiming for transparency and accountability of government officials.

In 2012 was studying in the United Kingdom as a part of the scholarship program of John Smith Fellowship.

In 2013-2014 undertook an internship at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington D.C. through the Reagan–Fascell Democracy Fellowship.

In 2013 he took part in the Draper Hills Summer Fellowship at Stanford University in the United States.

In June 2013, Leschenko published a documentary book the "American saga of Pavlo Lazarenko" based on the US law enforcement agencies' investigation materials.

In 2014, Leschenko was elected a people's deputy to the 8th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada with the party Petro Poroshenko Bloc "Solidarity".

He chaired a subcommittee on International Partnership and Anticorruption Law Implementation as part of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Corruption Prevention and Counteraction.

After the Euromaidan Leschenko wrote another book the "Mezhyhirya Syndrome. Diagnoses of Viktor Yanukovych Ruling", which was published in September 2014.

On 27 November 2014, Serhiy Leschenko became a people's deputy of the 8th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada.

He was elected as a member of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc (No 19).

In the Ukrainian parliament, he became a member of the Committee on preventing and combating corruption.

Leschenko became a member of the Interfactional union "Eurooptimists".

From 2015 to 2016, Leschenko was lecturing journalism at the Ukrainian Catholic University (Lviv) and delivering a course of lectures on anticorruption at National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

In 2015, Leschenko became a co-author of the bill "The changes to be made to certain legislation acts of Ukraine about preventing and counteracting corruption".

The bill foresees a decrease in the risks of political corruption due to complex changes to Ukrainian legislation in the sphere of political parties and pre-election agitation direct financing that increases parties' financial dependency.

The bill was a part of the "visa free package" laws, necessary for the liberalization of visa free regime for Ukraine.

On 26 November 2015, Leschenko presented the documents that he believed had justified the criminal case in Switzerland on bribery and money laundering.

The case was begun against then people's deputy from the "People's Front" party Mykola Martynenko.

Due to the data provided, Mykola Martynenko was placed under investigation.

Since 2017, Leschenko has his video blogs live on channel "24", where he talks about the current political situation in Ukraine, opens up his political activity and presents the agenda of the modern reformists.

In fall 2017, together with other people's deputies and civil society representatives, Leschenko held an agitation campaign in support of "Vseukrayinskyi zbir" initiative, which had its focus on "a large political reform".

The main points of the reform were a creation of an anticorruption court, abolition of deputies' immunity, a switch to a proportional representation election system with open lists.

Serhiy advocates for putting a limit on pre-electoral agitation campaigns on television, which will increase the candidates' ability to compete.

In 2017, Leschenko publicly revealed that Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko had not been receiving members of the public as was required by legislation.

This caused the Prosecutor General to start receiving members of the public.

After election to the Verkhovna Rada, Leschenko gradually began to criticize the Petro Poroshenko Bloc (PPB) more and more and stopped voting in sync with it.

Since September 2018, on the same "24", Leschenko presents the political talk show "What was this" with journalist Yevgeniya Motorevska.

According to deputy head of the PPB faction Oleksiy Honcharenko, by February 2019 Leschenko had not attended PPB faction meetings for several years.

On 28 February 2019, Leschenko voluntarily left the Petro Poroshenko Bloc "Solidarity" faction.