Former head of the National Bank of Ukraine and former acting Prime Minister of Ukraine under Viktor Yanukovych, Serhii Arbuzov, has received a mandate in Russia’s State Duma. He joined the faction of the A Just Russia party. This was reported on Telegram by Ruslan Tatarinov, head of the faction’s staff, according to UNN.
Details
It is noted that Tatarinov named Arbuzov among the faction’s newcomers and introduced him as a politician who "did not support the Zelenskyy regime in Ukraine."
Additionally
Before fleeing the country in 2014, Arbuzov held key government positions:
- Head of the National
Bank of Ukraine (December 2010 - December 2012);
- First
Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine in Mykola Azarov’s government (December 2012 - January 2014);
- Acting
Prime Minister of Ukraine (January 28 - February 27, 2014) - following Azarov’s
resignation during the Revolution of Dignity
After the victory of the Euromaidan, Arbuzov fled to Russia, where he later settled in an elite area of the Moscow region ("Rublyovka"). Since April 2014, he has been wanted by the Ukrainian Interior Ministry. He is suspected of misappropriating and embezzling property on an especially large scale (Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) - in particular, through fraud involving the financing of the BTV television channel, amounting to approximately UAH 120 million. In early 2020, a court ordered pretrial detention for him in absentia.
In 2014, he was subjected to European Union sanctions (lifted in 2021). However, in April 2025, Ukraine imposed indefinite sanctions against him by a decision of the National Security and Defense Council, providing for the full blocking of assets and deprivation of state awards.
Recall
The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv found former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov guilty of high treason and actions aimed at the violent change of the constitutional order, sentencing him to 15 years in prison.