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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
UNIANFormer representatives of the "Party of Regions" and officials from Viktor Yanukovych's presidency have taken leadership positions on committees of the Russian State Duma. As the Russian opposition outlet "Mozhem obyasnit" writes, an unofficial "Yanukovych faction" has formed in the State Duma.
One of the best-known appointees was Serhiy Arbuzov, the last prime minister under Yanukovych and a former head of the National Bank of Ukraine. He entered the State Duma from the party "A Just Russia" and was appointed first deputy chair of the Energy Committee. The publication notes that investigative journalists previously reported on Arbuzov's hidden income and his lavish life in Moscow.
Another former Ukrainian senior official, Dmytro Vorona, served under Yanukovych as deputy minister of internal affairs and justice, and later headed the State Registration Service of Ukraine. In 2022 the occupation authorities appointed him as a Russian senator from the captured part of Zaporizhzhia region. He is now a State Duma deputy.
Among other appointees is Halyna Danylchenko, who, after the seizure of Melitopol, became head of the city. In the Russian parliament she became the first deputy chair of the Committee on Family Protection. Yanina Pavlenko, the former director of the Massandra enterprise and head of the Russian occupation administration of Yalta, was appointed deputy chair of the Committee on Agricultural Affairs. Tetiana Lobach, who previously represented the "Party of Regions" in Sevastopol, became the first deputy chair of the Tourism Committee.
At the same time, criminal proceedings are ongoing in Ukraine against some of these politicians. Vorona was sentenced in absentia to 12 years' imprisonment with confiscation of property for aiding the aggressor state. Danylchenko is accused of collaborationist activity, Pavlenko is suspected of the same, and Lobach is accused of high treason.
Russian State Duma
As UNIAN wrote, at the end of September so-called elections to the Russian parliament were held in Russia and in the occupied Ukrainian territories. The Russian Supreme Court preemptively removed the opposition party "Yabloko" from the race — the only party that called for ending the war with Ukraine. The reasons given for the ban included alleged copyright violations, foreign financing of campaigning, support for the "international LGBT movement," and even calls for peace with Ukraine, which the plaintiffs characterized as encroachment on Russia's territorial integrity.
We also reported that one-third of the new composition of the State Duma, or 148 deputies, are connected to the war against Ukraine; among them are combatants, military commanders, "war correspondents," and individuals who supported the Russian army. Among the newly elected deputies are subjects of Ukrainian investigations into war crimes, including Nursultan Mussagaleyev, Oleksandr Lapin, and Adam Delimkhanov.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "У Держдумі з'явилася "фракція Януковича" з колишніх українських політиків, - ЗМІ". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: UNIAN.
