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Alexander Borodai | |
|---|---|
Александр Бородай | |
.jpg) Borodai in 2017 | |
| Member of theState Duma | |
| Assumed office 12 October 2021 | |
| First Deputy Prime Minister of Donetsk People's Republic | |
| In office 8 August 2014 – 24 October 2014 | |
| Prime Minister | Alexander Zakharchenko |
| Succeeded by | Dmitry Trapeznikov |
| Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic[1] | |
| In office 16 May 2014 – 7 August 2014 | |
| Deputy | Andrei Purgin Vladimir Antyufeyev |
| Succeeded by | Alexander Zakharchenko |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1972 (age 52–53) |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Political party | United Russia (since 2021) |
| Alma mater | Moscow State University |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Transnistria Donetsk People's Republic |
| Battles/wars | War in Transnistria[2] 1993 Russian constitutional crisis War in Donbas |
Alexander Yurevich Borodai (Russian:Алекса́ндр Ю́рьевич Борода́й,IPA:[ɐlʲɪkˈsandrˈjʉrʲjɪvʲɪdʑbərɐˈdaj];Ukrainian:Олександр Юрійович Бородай,romanized: Oleksandr Yuriiovych Borodai; born 25 July 1972)[3][failed verification] is a Russian member of theState Duma of the8th convocation for the partyUnited Russia.[4] Borodai was Prime Minister of the self-proclaimedDonetsk People's Republic in 2014 following its declaration of independence fromUkraine on 12 May 2014.[5][6][7][8] Borodai was appointed as prime minister by the republic's Supreme Council on 14 May 2014.[9] Borodai, aRussian citizen, had earlier worked as a political adviser toSergey Aksyonov, the prime minister of theRepublic of Crimea.[8] On 7 August 2014, Borodai announced his resignation.[citation needed] He was succeeded byAlexander Zakharchenko;[citation needed] under Zakharchenko, Borodai became deputy prime minister.[10]
In an interview toNovaya Gazeta Borodai acknowledged that he has knownIgor Girkin since after thewar in Transnistria.[2]
Alexander Borodai lives inMoscow.[11] He is a son ofYury Borodai, a scholar in philosophy.[3] Both his father and Borodai himself were "friendly" withLev Gumilyov, a Eurasianist philosopher.[12]
Borodai has a degree in philosophy fromMoscow State University. In 1994 he worked for theRIA Novosti as a military correspondent during theFirst Chechen War. Since 1996 he worked for the openly anti-semiticZavtra [ru] newspaper, which has called for pogroms against Jews.[13][14] Since 1998 he worked as a "political technologist" specialising in elections. Since 2001 he has headed the consulting business "Sotsiomaster" specializing in crisis management.[3] Borodai and the future military commander of the Donetsk People's RepublicIgor Strelkov were close associates of the far-right nationalist Russian businessmenKonstantin Malofeev.[3][15][16]
According to Russian media, he was appointed as a deputy director of RussianFSB State Security in 2002 at the age of 35,[17][18] when he held the rank of major general – Borodai dismissed this as a hoax. He currently has a consultancy in Moscow and worked at a major investment fund.[11]
In the 1990s he edited a Russian[19][20][21] newspaper[22]Zavtra [ru] (Завтра -"Tomorrow"), run by journalistAlexander Prokhanov.
In December 2011, Borodai and Prokhanov co-founded the "patriotic" Web TV channel Den-TV (“Day”).[23][24] Den-TV's programming has regularly included Konstantin Dushenov, who has previously been imprisoned for anti-semitic incitement.[25]
Borodai refers to himself as "professional consultant" with expertise in ethnic conflict. “I have resolved all kinds of complicated conflict situations,” he told journalists.[11]
In 2002, according to the Moscow Times newspaper, he also dismissed reports that he had been appointed a deputy director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB)[17][18] as a hoax arranged for his 30th birthday.[11]
Borodai worked as an advisor to appointed Crimea governorSergei Aksyonov.[11] Borodai claims he worked as a “political strategist” during theannexation of Crimea by Russia, and states that the political forces that facilitated the takeover are the same as those active in the Donetsk Republic: "Naturally the people who set up these popular movements and were the initiators are the same people, they are connected to each other... So when I finished the work in Crimea I automatically... came here to work in southeast Ukraine.”[11]
Following the2014 Donetsk status referendum; on 16 May 2014 Borodai was appointed Prime Minister of theDonetsk People's Republic.[26] As a Russian citizen with no ties to Donbas, he was unknown in Donetsk and his nomination came as a surprise to the other prominent figures of the separatist movement. According to one of the organizers of the "Donetsk referendum" Alexey Aleksandrov, Borodai was sent from Moscow with "credentials from 'respected individuals' from Moscow" which were followed by "requests-orders to accept and appoint him". Borodai on his side boasted that he was sent to coordinate "a special operation of Russian special services".[27]
On 28 July 2014, Borodai leftDonetsk for Russia[28] and returned on 4 August.[10]
In a press conference in Donetsk on 7 August 2014, Borodai announced his resignation as prime minister.[citation needed] In this press conference he stated “I came here as acrisis manager, a start-upper, if you want. I’ve managed to achieve a lot in the past several months, the DPR has been established as a state”.[citation needed] As prime minister he was replaced byAlexander Zakharchenko.[citation needed] Borodai (also) stated he would become Zakharchenko's Deputy Prime Minister.[10] He further stated in the 7 August 2014 press conference that he believed a "nativeMuscovite" like him should not lead the Donetsk People's Republic.[29] In 2017 Boroday claimed (talking toReuters) that Zakharchenko succeeded him in a Russian government effort "to try to show the West that the uprising was a grassroots phenomenon".[30] In an interview to Semen Pegov in 2024 Borodai explained that in military terms, the Russian intervention in Ukraine should have started already in 2014 but Russia was not ready for that in economic, military and propaganda sense, which is why Russia entered theMinsk Agreements which gave it time to prepare the full-scale invasion.[31]
In 2017 in an interview for a Russian nationalist TV channel "Tsargrad" Borodai complained that "colossal organization effort and enormous sums of money were spent to keep Ukraine in the zone of influence of the 'Russian world'" by Russia, yet it did not happen because all the pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine who received the funds have ultimately "forgiven" themselves the "debt" and did nothing.[27]
As of 2023, Borodai was sanctioned by theUK government in 2014 in relation to theRusso-Ukrainian War.[32]
In the2021 Russian legislative election Borodai was elected to theState Duma for the partyUnited Russia.[4]
On 7 November 2022, a car driven by Borodai was nearly struck by a French land mine HPD-2A2 in the Kherson region. The security vehicle in front of his was reportedly hit by the land mine, blowing out windows and tires. Video showed a camouflaged HPD-2A2 which his own vehicle missed by "millimetres".[33]
On December 22, 2021,amid Russia's troop buildup on the Ukrainian border,Alexei Navalny's team published its own investigation into the war crimes committed by Alexander Borodai and the corruption schemes associated with them, calling on Russians not to take part in potential military actions against Ukraine[34].
{{cite web}}:Check|url= value (help)| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Inaugural | Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic 2014 | Succeeded by |
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