Anatoly Shariy

Anatoly Anatoliiovych Shariy (Анатолій Анатолійович Шарій, Анатолий Анатольевич Шарий; born 20 August 1978) is a Ukrainian journalist and videoblogger.

Following his investigative work, earlier in his career, Shariy received death threats.

Shariy began to engage in journalism in early 2005.

Shariy's first wife was Olga Rabulets, who, he says, saved him from compulsive gambling.

Shariy began to engage in journalism in early 2005.

In 2008, Shariy became a permanent author at the online editions of From-UA and Obozrevatel, From 2008 to early 2012 he was the head of the Investigation Department of the website Obozrevatel.

In 2008–2011 Shariy authored a number of publications on organized crime in Ukraine.

In 2011 Shariy shot at a man with rubber bullets at a McDonald's restaurant after the man, according to Shariy, insulted his wife.

Shariy reported the incident to police.

Shariy later claimed that the case was later trumped-up due to his investigation of illegal drug trade, which he alleged was covered up by high rank members of Ukrainian law enforcement.

In 2011, journalists of the 1+1 TV channel and Shariy carried out a series of investigations of the alleged protection of the illegal controlled substance trade in Kyiv pharmacies by the Office for Combating Illegal Drug Trafficking (Ukrainian abbreviation: UBNON).

On 7 June 2011 Shariy published the first part of the article "Does UBNON Spit in the Face of the Minister?".

On 11 June Shariy was summoned for interrogation in the McDonald's shooting case, which had allegedly been closed already.

On 20 June Shariy gave a press conference about the situation and claimed that the Ministry of Internal Affairs and UBNON ordered the pressure on him.

The next day, 21 June, the criminal case for hooliganism was initiated against Shariy related to McDonald's shooting.

Next month Shariy and journalists of the "1+1" TV channel issued several publications alleging the involvement of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in covering up illegal casinos in Kyiv.

On 12 July 2011 Shariy and the film crew of the "1+1" channel were locked on the casino premises.

Shortly thereafter criminal investigators arrived and seized 34 slot machines and video recordings of the hall, resulting in a criminal case on gambling business.

A few hours after the incident in the casino, a shot was fired at Shariy's car, but the journalist was not injured.

In August 2011, a criminal case on an attempted assassination was opened.

The car shooting incident was cited as an example of attacks on journalists in the Human Rights Watch report for year 2011.

After the attempted murder Shariy continued his journalistic activities.

On 21 September 2011, after another publication exposing corruption in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the case on the assassination attempt on Shariy was closed, and a criminal case was initiated against the journalist himself for "staging an assassination attempt".

After being placed on the all-Ukrainian wanted list, Shariy left the country and asked for political asylum in the European Union claiming persecution by the Ukrainian law enforcement for his journalist activities, basing on the 2011 incidents.

In 2012 he received asylum in the European Union, asserting prosecution by Ukrainian law enforcement bodies related to his journalism.

Shariy currently lives in Spain.

Anatoliy Shariy was born in Kyiv and lived there until 2012.

In 2012 he was granted asylum in the European Union.

He received a permanent residency permit in Lithuania for 5 years.

In 2013 Shariy became engaged to journalist Olga Bondarenko (now Olga Shariy, and they married in 2017. The couple now have a child. Olga Shariy, together with Anatoly, co-manages the Sharij.net website.

In June 2019, he launched the right wing euroskeptic Party of Shariy, which took part in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, winning 2.23% of the vote.

During the 2020 local elections, the party candidates entered several city and oblast councils.

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the party was banned because of alleged ties with Russia.

Shariy was a strong critic of Euromaidan and the subsequent governments.

He considered the Russo-Ukrainian War prior to 2022 to be an internal conflict and a civil war inside Ukraine, although he did not deny Russian involvement in the conflict.

Following the 24 February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Shariy has called this “This war is Russia's aggression and invasion against the Ukrainian people.”

In February 2021, Shariy was accused of treason and incitement to ethnic or racial hatred by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

On 4 May 2022 he was detained by Spanish authorities at the request of the SBU, accusing him of treason.

On the same day, Shariy was released with precautionary measures as reported by his lawyer, Gonzalo Boye.

On 5 October 2022, Judge Santiago Pedraz agreed to close the consideration of his extradition because Ukraine had not presented the demand for the reporter's surrender, nor the "relevant documentation".