Rustem Umerov is to replace Oleksii Reznikov as Minister of Defence. What is known about the future minister?
On September 4, Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov submitted his resignation. He wrote about it on his X (Twitter) account. He is to be replaced by Rustem Umierov, who has also submitted his resignation from the post of head of the State Property Fund.
Rustem Umierov is a Ukrainian politician, businessman and philanthropist of Qirimli (Crimean Tatar) origin. In 1944, his family was forcibly deported from Qirim. They managed to return to the peninsula only in the early 1990s.
Umierov received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in economics and finance and started working for a telecommunications company.
In 2013, Umierov founded the investment company ASTEM and the ASTEM Foundation.
In 2019, the businessman became a politician. Then he was elected as a member of the Verkhovna Rada from the Holos (Voice) political party.
In 2021, Umierov initiated a bill to abolish the Crimean-free economic zone. The President signed the bill in July 2021.
In August of the same year, the President of Ukraine awarded Umierov the Order of Merit, III class.
Umierov became a co-chair of the Crimean Platform parliamentary association and was a member of the Ukrainian negotiating team with Russia in February 2022.
From July 2022, Umierov headed the Temporary Commission of Inquiry on issues of monitoring the receipt and use of international material and technical aid during martial law.
In September of the same year, Rustem Umierov became the head of the State Property Fund.
In addition, the MP has always worked to protect the rights of Crimean Tatars and preserve their culture and representation in Ukraine.
Thus, in 2007, he co-founded the public organisation "Community of Qirimtatarlar" and the organisation "Bizim Qırım", which aim to protect the national interests of the Qirimtatarlar.
In 2007 and 2012, Rustem Umierov was a delegate to the Qırımtatar Milliy Qurultayı, as well as an adviser to the leader of the Qirimtatarlar Mustafa Dzhemilev in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth convocations of the Council.
It will be recalled that the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has repeatedly been involved in corruption scandals related to the procurement of clothing and supplies for the army.
In August, it was reported that the Ministry of Defence had purchased "camouflage" jackets, which turned into "winter air protection" jackets on the way from Türkiye, and their price had almost tripled.
In January 2023, journalists published an investigation into inflated purchase prices for food for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In addition, in February, the Security Service exposed the head of a department of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine for embezzling over UAH 100 million in public funds.
