Ukrainian President Zelensky has appointed Rustem Umerov, a Crimean Tatar, as the Minister of Defense. What do we know about Umerov, who previously a subject of debate and speculation in Turkey?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky nominated Rustem Umerov, who previously served as the President of the State Property Fund of Ukraine and as the Special Representative of the President of Ukraine, to lead the Ministry of Defense.
Following Zelensky’s announcement on Sunday evening, it reported that Oleksii Reznikov, who had held the position since 2021, submitted his resignation to the Speaker of Parliament.
Zelensky expressed confidence that the parliament would approve the proposed appointment, as Umerov’s candidacy requires parliamentary approval.
WHO IS RUSTEM UMEROV?
Born in 1982 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Umerov comes from a Crimean Tatar family deported from Soviet Crimea in the 1940s. Since 2020, Mr. Umerov has been a member of the Ukrainian government task force dedicated to devising a strategy to end the occupation of Crimea.
At 41, Umerov holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in finance. He began his career with one of Ukraine’s leading mobile operators in 2004. In 2013, he founded his own investment company, ASTEM.
In 2022, Umerov was elected to parliament as a member of the Holos party and assumed the role of head of the State Property Fund, an organization responsible for privatizing state assets.
In March 2022, just a month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Umerov was appointed to the Ukrainian team tasked with negotiations with Russia. He was also actively involved in negotiations related to the Black Sea Grain Agreement and prisoner exchanges, including discussions with Ukrainian neo-Nazi-leaning Azov Battalion militiamen captured during the battle for the southern city of Mariupol in 2022.
ALLEGATIONS OF “TIES TO THE FETÖ”
Notably, Umerov’s educational background has been a subject of debate in Turkey. Claims made that the ARC Boarding School for Gifted Students in Crimea, where the new defense minister received his high school education from 1993 to 1999, was associated with the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) in the region.
It’s worth mentioning that Umerov also participated in the Future Leaders Exchange Program (FLEX), a joint initiative involving the same school and the US State Department.
