Sergey Aksyonov facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sergey Aksyonov
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Сергей Аксёнов
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Aksyonov in 2018
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| Head of the Republic of Crimea | |
| Assumed office 9 October 2014 Acting: 14 April 2014 – 9 October 2014 |
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| President | Vladimir Putin |
| Prime Minister | Himself (2014–2019) Yury Gotsanyuk (2019–present) |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Prime Minister of the Republic of Crimea | |
| In office 27 February 2014 – 20 September 2019 |
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| Preceded by | Anatolii Mohyliov as Prime Minister of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea |
| Succeeded by | Yury Gotsanyuk |
| Deputy of the State Council of Crimea | |
| In office 17 March 2014 – 21 May 2014 |
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| Deputy of the Supreme Council of Crimea | |
| In office 31 October 2010 – 17 March 2014 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 26 November 1972 Bălți, Moldavian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Political party | Russian Unity (2008–2014) United Russia (since 2014) |
| Children | 2 |
Sergey Valeryevich Aksyonov (Russian: Сергей Валерьевич Аксёнов; Ukrainian: Сергій Валерійович Аксьонов, romanized: Serhiy Valeriiovych Aksionov; Romanian: Serghei Valerievici Aksionov; born 26 November 1972) is a Russian politician serving as the head of the Republic of Crimea since 9 October 2014, a territory internationally recognised as part of Ukraine.
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Biography
Sergey Aksyonov was born in Bălți in the Moldavian SSR on 26 November 1972. His father Valery Aksyonov was a Red Army officer and the founder and leader of a group called the Russian Community of Northern Moldova in Bălți. After founding the group at the end of the 1980s, the tensions between Russians and Moldavians soon broke into a war. The Russian army supported Transnistrian paramilitary troops. Transnistria became de facto independent from Moldova in 1992.
In 1989, Sergey Aksyonov moved to Crimea and enrolled in a college for military engineers in Simferopol; however, the fall of the Soviet Union occurred before he could graduate from the academy to become a Soviet Army officer like his father and grandfather. He then refused to swear an oath of allegiance to Ukraine, which he considered "an unjustly severed appendage of Russia".
From 1993 to 1998, he was deputy director of a company named Ellada, a business related to food products. From October 1998 to March 2001, he was deputy director of the Asteriks company and since April 2001 he has been deputy director of the Eskada company. Aksyonov is also the head of Crimea's Greco-Roman wrestling organization, Sports club Hwarang-do. Aksyonov received his Ukrainian passport on 12 August 1997.
Political career
Aksyonov was granted Russian citizenship as a resident of Moldova on 10 January 2003.
In 2008, he became a member of the "Russian Community of Crimea" ("Русская община Крыма") and a member of public organisation "Civic Asset of Crimea" ("Гражданский актив Крыма").
Mykola Kirilchuk, a former Crimean Minister of Industry, stated that in 2008–2009 Aksyonov borrowed almost $5 million from him to develop the Russian Unity party. Kirilchuk has since fled Crimea and has been trying to get his money back though the court system. Since 2009, he has been a member of the board in "Гражданский актив Крыма", co-president of Coordinating Council "За русское единство в Крыму!" ("For Russian Unity in Crimea!"), and leader of the all-Crimean public political movement Russian Unity ("Русское единство").
Since 2010, Aksyonov had been a deputy of the Supreme Council of Crimea, elected as a member of Russian Unity, which had 4% of votes (warranting three seats of total 100 in Crimean parliament) during elections into Supreme Council of Crimea.
During a talk show on the TV channel ATR on 3 March 2012, Aksyonov commented about a possible accession of Crimea to Russia: "I think the time for this process has already passed. Today we live in Ukraine. I have a Ukrainian passport, Ukrainian citizenship, so all problems should be discussed only in friendly relations between our countries".
Head of Crimea
Following the Revolution of Dignity, on 27 February an emergency session was held in the Crimean legislature while it was occupied by Russian forces without insignias. After sealing the doors and confiscating all mobile phones, the MPs who had been invited by Aksyonov to enter the building passed the motion in the presence of the gunmen armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and rocket launchers. The result was that 55 of 64 votes elected Aksyonov Prime Minister. Various media accounts have disputed whether he was able to gather a quorum of 50 of his peers before the session convened that day, and some Crimean legislators who were registered as present have said they did not come near the building. Others denied being in the city, and claimed that duplicate voting cards stolen from the Parliament's safe were used in their name. Opposition deputies have avoided speaking out publicly out of fear of reprisal, due to the threats they received. Crimean Prime Minister Anatolii Mohyliov was barred from attending the session.
Under the Ukrainian constitution, the Prime Minister of Crimea is appointed by the autonomous republic's parliament following consultations with the President of Ukraine. The Director of the Information Analysis department of the legislature's secretariat, Olha Sulnikova, has stated that an agreement exists with ousted president Viktor Yanukovych. The interim President of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, decreed the appointment of Aksyonov as the head of the government of Crimea to be unconstitutional.
On 5 March 2014, the Shevchenko district court of Kyiv issued a warrant for Aksyonov and Vladimir Konstantinov's arrest, and the Security Service of Ukraine was charged to bring them to court.
Due to the Russian annexation of Crimea, on 17 March 2014, he was put on Canadian, EU and US sanction lists; his assets in these countries were frozen, and Aksyonov was banned from entering these countries.
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In the 2014 Crimean parliamentary election, Aksyonov ran as a candidate for United Russia because, according to himself, "The Popular Front" had delegated him to the United Russia party list.
Sergey Aksyonov was re-elected after the 2019 Crimean parliamentary election. But, during his second term, he refused to combine the positions of Head of the Republic and Prime Minister. The new Prime Minister was appointed Yury Gotsanyuk.
Domestic policy
Aksyonov has promised that Ukrainian would cease to be an official language if Crimea joined Russia. "We use two languages on a daily basis – Russian and Crimean Tatar," Aksyonov said. "It's certain that the republic [of Crimea] will have two languages." Aksyonov's main goals for the immediate future of Crimea is to "use the funds, allocated for construction of infrastructures, for healthcare, energy and so on." Aksyonov has also pushed for the Crimean Bridge to be completed by 2018.
Crimean Tatar minority
Sergey Aksyonov has led efforts to stamp out dissent among ethnic Crimean Tatars over the annexation, saying "All activities aimed at non-recognition of Crimea's joining to Russia and non-recognition of the leadership of the country will face prosecution under the law and we will take a very tough stance on this."
Homosexuals
Aksyonov says homosexuals "have no chance" in Crimea, and that "we in Crimea do not need such people." He also promised that if gays tried to hold public gatherings, "our police and self-defense forces will react immediately and in three minutes will explain to them what kind of sexual orientation they should stick to."
Convoy PMC
After the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Aksyonov created a private military company named Convoy. As of 2023, it was operating in Kherson Oblast.
See also
In Spanish: Serguéi Aksiónov para niños
