Report: Ukraine’s Yanukovych in Moscow

Russian news organization says it has government confirmation that former president is in a sanatorium

Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych addresses the nation in Kiev on February 19, 2014 (photo credit: AFP/Presidential Press Service pool/STR)

MOSCOW — A respected Russian news organization is reporting that Ukraine’s fugitive president is staying in a Kremlin sanatorium just outside Moscow.

Viktor Yanukovych has not been seen publicly since Saturday. While the West has recognized the new Ukrainian government, whose forces drove Yanukovych from the capital, Russia still considers him the legitimate president.

RBK reports that Yanukovych is staying at the Barvikha sanatorium, which is run by the presidential administration’s property department. The spokesman for this department, Viktor Khrekov, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he has no information about this.

RBK says the information came from one of Russia’s wealthiest businessmen and was confirmed by a government official, neither of whom was identified. The article was under the byline of respected journalists, including RBK’s editor in chief.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.

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