Putin’s men on the inside The Ukrainians Moscow is keeping close
Mr Murayev, a 45-year-old former politician from Kharkiv close to the Russian border, has long advocated closer ties with Moscow and even founded his own pro-Russia party, Nashi. Mr Murayev ran for the Ukrainian presidency in 2019 before dropping out of the race to endorse another Kremlin-friendly candidate. He owns a major television channel, Nash, and appeared on it last week accusing the US of using Nato to “occupy” Europe after the Second
World War. He is the only one of those named by the UK yesterday to still live in Ukraine.
Mykola Azarov
Mr Azarov, 74, was Ukraine’s prime minister from 2010 to 2014, when he resigned amid major prodemocracy protests that eventually also toppled pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych. He fled to Russia and now occasionally makes public appearances describing the current Ukrainian government as Nazi sympathisers. He negotiating a friendship treaty with Russia in 2010. He denies the charges. prime minister after Mr Azarov resigned in January 2014. A close associate of ex-president Mr Yanukovych, he is being investigated in Ukraine for defrauding the Central Bank out of around £3million. He denies the charges. Mr Arbuzov was initially sanctioned by the EU for his role in stoking Russian aggression in Ukraine but the measures were lifted last year due to a lack of evidence. Andriy Kluyev Mr Klyuev, 57, was once deputy prime minister and chairman of the Ukrainian National Defence and Security Council. He is better known as the nominal owner of Mezhyhirya, a lavish estate outside Kyiv that was used by ex-president Mr Yanukovych. Mr Klyuev fled Kyiv with Mr Yanukovych on a helicopter to Crimea in 2014 following the protests before eventually surfacing in Russia. He also faced sanctions by the EU that were later lifted.
Mr Sivkovich, 61, is Ukraine’s former deputy secretary for the National Security and Defence Council. He was placed on the US sanctions list earlier this week, with the Treasury saying he worked with a network of Russian intelligence officials “to carry out influence operations that attempted to build support for Ukraine to officially cede Crimea to Russia”. US officials said they also suspect him of coordinating with Russian intelligence to promote disinformation during the 2020 presidential campaign.
Volodymyr Sivkovich