Alexander Boroday

Alexander Yurevich Borodai (; ; born 25 July 1972)

Borodai was Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic in 2014 following its declaration of independence from Ukraine on 12 May 2014. Borodai was appointed as prime minister by the republic's Supreme Council on 14 May 2014. Borodai, a Russian citizen, had earlier worked as a political adviser to Sergey Aksyonov, the prime minister of the Republic of Crimea. Both his father and Borodai himself were "friendly" with Lev Gumilyov, a Eurasianist philosopher.

Career and education Borodai has a degree in philosophy from Moscow State University. In 1994 he worked for the RIA Novosti as a military correspondent during the First Chechen War. Since 1996 he worked for the openly antisemitic newspaper, which has called for pogroms against Jews. Since 1998 he worked as a "political technologist" specialising in elections. Since 2001 he has headed the consulting business "Sotsiomaster" specializing in crisis management.

According to Russian media, he was appointed as a deputy director of Russian FSB State Security in 2002 at the age of 35, when he held the rank of major general – Borodai dismissed this as a hoax. He currently has a consultancy in Moscow and worked at a major investment fund. newspaper (Завтра – Tomorrow), run by journalist Alexander Prokhanov.

In December 2011, Borodai and Prokhanov co-founded the "patriotic" Web TV channel Den-TV ("Day"). Den-TV's programming has regularly included Konstantin Dushenov, who has previously been imprisoned for antisemitic incitement.

Politics Borodai refers to himself as "professional consultant" with expertise in ethnic conflict. “I have resolved all kinds of complicated conflict situations,” he told journalists.

Donetsk Following the 2014 Donetsk status referendum; on 16 May 2014 Borodai was appointed Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic. As a Russian citizen with no ties to Donbas, he was unknown in Donetsk and his nomination came as a surprise to the other prominent figures of the separatist movement. According to one of the organizers of the "Donetsk referendum" Alexey Aleksandrov, Borodai was sent from Moscow with "credentials from 'respected individuals' from Moscow" which were followed by "requests-orders to accept and appoint him". Borodai on his side boasted that he was sent to coordinate "a special operation of Russian special services".

On 28 July 2014, Borodai left Donetsk for Russia and returned on 4 August. He further stated in the 7 August 2014 press conference that he believed a "native Muscovite" like him should not lead the Donetsk People's Republic. In 2017 Boroday claimed (talking to Reuters) that Zakharchenko succeeded him in a Russian government effort "to try to show the West that the uprising was a grassroots phenomenon". In an interview to Semen Pegov in 2024 Borodai explained that in military terms, the Russian intervention in Ukraine should have started already in 2014 but Russia was not ready for that in economic, military and propaganda sense, which is why Russia entered the Minsk Agreements which gave it time to prepare the full-scale invasion.

In 2017 in an interview for a Russian nationalist TV channel "Tsargrad" Borodai complained that "colossal organization effort and enormous sums of money were spent to keep Ukraine in the zone of influence of the 'Russian world'" by Russia, yet it did not happen because all the pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine who received the funds have ultimately "forgiven" themselves the "debt" and did nothing.

Russia In the 2021 Russian legislative election Borodai was elected to the State Duma for the party United Russia.

Investigation On December 22, 2021, amid Russia's troop buildup on the Ukrainian border, Alexei Navalny's team published its own investigation into the war crimes committed by Alexander Borodai and the corruption schemes associated with them, calling on Russians not to take part in potential military actions against Ukraine.

Awards

Order of Courage (October 2023) — for heroism and bravery displayed during the special military operation Order “For Loyalty to Duty” (May 2016, Republic of Crimea) — for courage, patriotism, active socio-political activity, personal contribution to strengthening unity, development and prosperity of the Republic of Crimea Honorary Citizen of the Donetsk People’s Republic (11 May 2018)