Alexander Borodai
Alexander Yurevich Borodai (Russian: Алекса́ндр Ю́рьевич Борода́й, IPA: [ɐlʲɪkˈsandr ˈjʉrʲjɪvʲɪdʑ bərɐˈdaj]; Ukrainian: Олександр Юрійович Бородай, romanized: Oleksandr Yuriiovych Borodai; born 25 July 1972)[3] is a Russian member of the State Duma of the 8th convocation for the party United Russia.[4] Borodai was Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic in 2014 after the Donetsk People's Republic declared its independence from Ukraine on 12 May 2014,[5][6][7][8] Borodai was appointed as Prime Minister by the republic's Supreme Council on 14 May 2014.[9] Borodai, a Russian citizen, had earlier worked as a political adviser to Sergey Aksyonov, the prime minister of the Republic of Crimea.[8] On 7 August 2014, Borodai announced his resignation. He was succeeded by Alexander Zakharchenko; under Zakharchenko, Borodai became Deputy Prime Minister.[10]
In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Yurevich and the family name is Borodai.
Alexander Borodai
In his interview to Novaya Gazeta Borodai acknowledged that he has known Igor Girkin since after the war in Transnistria.[2]
Personal[edit]
Alexander Borodai lives in Moscow.[11] He is a son of Yury Borodai, a scholar in philosophy.[3] Both his father and Borodai himself were "friendly" with Lev Gumilyov, a Eurasianist philosopher.[12]
Career and education[edit]
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 anti-semitic Zavtra newspaper, which has called for pogroms against Jews.[13][14] Since 1998 he worked as a "political technologist" specialising in elections. Since 2001 he has headed the consulting business "Sotsiomaster" specializing in crisis management.[3] Borodai and the future military commander of the Donetsk People's Republic Igor Strelkov were close associates of the far-right nationalist Russian businessmen Konstantin Malofeev.[3][15][16]
According to Russian media, he was appointed as a deputy director of Russian FSB State Security in 2002 at the age of 35,[17][18] 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.[11]
Nationalism[edit]
In the 1990s he edited a Russian[19][20][21] newspaper[22] Zavtra (Завтра -"Tomorrow"), run by journalist Alexander Prokhanov.
In December 2011, Borodai and Prokhanov co-founded the "patriotic" Web TV channel Den-TV (“Day”).[23][24] Den-TV's programming has regularly included Konstantin Dushenov, who has previously been imprisoned for anti-semitic incitement.[25]