|
Anton Gerashchenko
Anton Yuriyovych Gerashchenko (Ukrainian: Антон Юрійович Геращенко, romanized: Anton Yuriyovych Herashchenko, born 10 February 1979) is a current official advisor and a former deputy minister at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.[1][2][3][4] He is a former member of the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) from 2014 to 2019,[3][5] and was the subject of an assassination attempt in part because of his actions, which was prevented by the SBU.[6] BiographyWhen Arsen Avakov became the Minister of Internal Affairs in 2014, Gerashchenko became his adviser.[3] In this role, Gerashchenko briefed journalists about the formation of the Donbas Battalion,[7] the Azov Battalion,[8] and the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.[9][10] Gerashchenko was elected to parliament in the 26 October 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, representing the People's Front in the multi-mandate nationwide district, he was placed 21st (as an independent candidate) on the party's election list.[11][5] Gerashchenko was one of the founders of a database of separatists called "Myrotvorets" (Peacekeeper).[12] He was secretary of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's national parliament) Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement.[5] In parliament, one of his assistant-consultants was the future Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky.[13] In January 2017, it was announced that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) had prevented an assassination attempt against Gerashchenko.[6] The SBU had had the two assassins under surveillance for over a month and arrested them in the act with an explosive device in their possession. The SBU stated that the assassins had been in prison in the Russian-occupied Crimea, until they agreed to assassinate Gerashchenko. The SBU claimed that the assassins were coordinated by Andrey Tikhonov. Tikhonov currently lives in Belgorod in Russia, and used to be a Ukrainian citizen, who had fought against Ukraine on the side of the Luhansk People's Republic.[6] After the July 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Gerashchenko did not return to parliament because he did not take part in the election.[11][3] On 25 September 2019, the Cabinet of Ministers appointed him one of six or seven deputy ministers at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.[3][4] The minister was Arsen Avakov.[3] After Avakov stepped down as Interior Minister on 15 July 2021, Gerashchenko became an official advisor for the new minister, Denys Monastyrsky.[2] On 4 August 2021, he was dismissed as deputy minister.[1] In late September 2021, Gerashchenko was appointed the coordinator of the new "Office for Business Protection"[nb 1] within the Ministry of Internal Affairs.[14] NotesReferences
External links
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
