Anatoly Shariy

Anatoly Anatoliiovych Shariy (born 20 August 1978) is one of the most famous Ukrainian YouTubers. and journalist, described as pro-Russian by Ukrainian and foreign media, former president Petro Poroshenko, and the Security Service of Ukraine, among others. However, Shariy denies having a pro-Russian stance.

In 2012, he received asylum in the European Union, asserting persecution by Ukrainian law enforcement bodies related to his journalism. As of June 2023, he lived in Roda de Berà, Spain, where he owns a villa whose value was estimated at around €1 million by Ukrainian investigative outlet Slidstvo.Info. In June 2019, he launched the Party of Shariy, a euroskeptic, which took part in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, winning 2.23% of the vote. During the 2020 local elections, the party candidates entered to city and oblast councils, including councils of cities with millions of residents. Following the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the party was banned because of alleged ties with Russia. The party is also described as a Ukrainian opposition force critical of both the government and the media.

Shariy was a strong critic of Euromaidan and subsequent governments formed after it. He considered the war in Donbas before 2022 to be an internal conflict and a civil war.

In February 2021, Shariy was accused of treason and incitement to ethnic or racial hatred by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). In May 2022, he was detained by Spanish authorities at the request of the SBU. On the same day, Shariy was released with precautionary measures as reported by his lawyer. In October, a Spanish judge agreed to close the consideration of his extradition.

Anatoliy Shariy was born in Kyiv and lived there until 2012. Shariy began to engage in journalism in early 2005.

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

Shariy began to engage in journalism in early 2005. In particular, he was a journalist of the online edition Obozrevatel.

In 2011, Shariy shot at a man from a traumatic pistol 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 2019, a Kyiv court dismissed the case and revoked the request for the search and extradition to Ukraine of the journalist.