2023-09-04 11:37:00
Roustem Umerov will be the next Ukrainian Defense Minister, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday (3). He replaces Oleksiy Reznikov, who submitted his resignation to Parliament on Monday (28). Roustem Umerov is a prominent leader of the Crimean Tatar community who represented Kiev in negotiations with Russia at the start of the invasion in 2022.
Published on: 09/04/2023 – 11:37
3 min
In Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense has been at the center of several corruption scandals for months, reports the correspondent of the RFI in Kiev, Emmanuelle Chaze. Even in January, there were suspicions of buying food for the army at overpriced prices. Several investigations by the Ukrainian press further revealed the supply of faulty equipment to soldiers, including summer clothes in the middle of winter. The possible departure of Oleksiy Reznikov’s government began to be discussed in February.
Prior to the resignation of the Defense Minister, President Volodymyr Zelensky had announced on 11 August the dismissal of all regional officials responsible for military recruitment in order to eradicate a system of corruption that allowed recruits to avoid the army.
All this has weakened Oleksiy Reznikov’s position, although Zelensky points out that he has overseen the Ministry of Defense since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian president says he wants changes in this ministry, which, according to him, needs new formats and a new approach for both the military and the population.
Career of Roustem Umerov
Roustem Umerov, a 41-year-old former Crimean Tatar deputy, was born in the then-Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, where his family went into exile during Stalin’s rule, and was a child when they moved to Crimea once Tatars were allowed to return, in the 1980s and 1990s. He began a professional career in the telecommunications sector in 2004 and has been a deputy since 2019.
In Parliament, he was co-chairman of the Crimean Platform, which coordinated international diplomatic efforts to reverse Russia’s annexation of the peninsula in 2014. For many years he was an adviser to the historical leader of the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Dzhemilev.
Russia’s annexation of Crimea was ratified in a referendum deemed illegitimate by Ukraine and its Western allies. Tatars, who make up 12% to 15% of Crimea’s population, largely boycotted the vote. As a result, Moscow banned the Mejlis, the traditional assembly of the Muslim Tatar minority, labeling it an extremist organization, and many of its members were arrested.
After the annexation of Crimea, and after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Roustem Oumerov participated, on several occasions, in discreet negotiations with Moscow, namely on prisoner exchanges and the withdrawal of civilians.
He was part of the Ukrainian delegation in the negotiations with the Russians, under the auspices of Turkey and the UN, which allowed the establishment of a maritime corridor for the transport of Ukrainian cereals through the Black Sea. An agreement from which Russia recently withdrew.
In September 2022, Oumerov was appointed head of the State Property Fund, a top post in a country where the privatization process has favored corruption. Parliament must approve the appointment of the new defense minister, a decision that the leader of Zelensky’s political party has already announced his support.
In naming himself, Zelensky said he would present Umerov’s nomination to parliament this week. “Parliament knows this person well, Umerov needs no further introductions,” assured the Ukrainian president.
(with AFP)
#Ukraines #defense #minister #deputy #Crimea #region #annexed #Russia