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Dmytro Serhiyovych Bulatov (; born August 13, 1978) is a Ukrainian civic activist who was the Minister of Youth and Sports during the first Yatsenyuk Government in 2014. Bulatov was the leader of the AutoMaidan, which was the mobile car-based arm of the anti-government
Euromaidan Euromaidan ( ; , , ), or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of Political demonstration, demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv. The p ...
movement. He was also in charge of the "Socially Responsible Society" NGO. Due to his activism, he was kidnapped and tortured outside the villas of the Ukrainian government and business figures.


Biography

Bulatov is a graduate of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. In 2001, he graduated from the Electronics Department with a degree in Engineering of Microelectronics and Semiconductor Devices. Between 1998 and 2014, Bulatov had his own business and held key positions in state and private companies. He worked as the Director of the Tsentr-K Private Enterprise (1998-2003), as the Chief of Q-Service Group of Companies (2003-2007, marketing, advertisement and design), as the deputy director of ITERA Group of Companies (2007-2008, building activity), the Director of “Promlohistyka” LLC (2008-2009, metallurgy), and as the Director of “Torhovo-Promyslovyi Holding” LLC (2009-2010, oil and gas trade). In conjunction with this, he held consulting activities in the areas of marketing, advertisement and sales. Between 2010 and 2013, he was the owner of Stolnik Autocenter, but after certain events, the business vector was changed and Bulatov began to work mainly in consulting. Between May and October 2010, he worked as the Director of the “Ukrrybproekt” Designing Institute for Fisheries and Fishery Industry and in the State Committee of Fishing of Ukraine under the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine. During this half of the year, he turned the institute from a losing organisation to a profitable one. At the beginning of 2013, he created the "Socially Responsible Society" NGO. Together with the Ukrainian Philanthropists Forum, this organisation began the National Philanthropists Top List. In April 2013, Bulatov organised the dismantling of alcohol sale points in Muromets Park. In September 2013, he agitated for the prohibition of alcohol festivals at playgrounds. After his 12-year-old son got stuck in an open drain while riding a bicycle, he and the members of his organisation took to the streets to cover up open drains in the city of Kyiv. Bulatov is married and has three children. He was active in
wakeboarding Wakeboarding is a water sport in which the rider, standing on a wakeboard (a board with foot bindings), is towed behind a motorboat across its wake and especially up off the crest in order to perform aerial maneuvers. A hallmark of wakeboarding ...
and took part in national competitions.


AutoMaidan

On November 30, 2013, Bulatov found out about the forceful dispersal of Euromaidan and, together with his friend Oleksii Hrytsenko, decided to organise a car run across Kyiv in order to involve people in the protest. On the first day, about 300 drivers partook in the action. On the morning of December 1, Bulatov gathered with other participants (most notably Vasyl Futin, Tetiana Chornovol, Andrii Dzidzia, Volodymyr Kadura, and others) to delegate responsibility. This was the beginning of AutoMaidan. Bulatov was the organizer and took part in most of AutoMaidan's actions, particularly in a drive to Mezhyhiria, in visits to other high-ranking person and troop leader of “Berkut”, and also in blocking of “Berkut” in Sviatoshynskyi District, Kyiv.


Kidnapping and torturing

On January 22, 2014, activists of AutoMaidan announced that Bulatov went missing. The last time Bulatov got in touch was the evening of January 22. On January 23, at approximate four o'clock in the morning, “Berkut” arrested a minimum of 15 activists of AutoMaidan who patrolled Hospital No. 17 in Kyiv and piled up nine cars. AutoMaidan announced a reward of ten thousand US dollars for information to help find Dmytro Bulatov and save his life. Subsequently, this amount was increased up to twenty-five thousand US dollars. On January 30, Bulatov got in touch with friends and claimed he had been kidnapped, and tortured by captors who spoke with Russian accents. After these tortures, he was brought outside the city and thrown out of a car. Bulatov managed to get to the village of Vyshenky, Boryspil district. and asked for help. The same day, Bulatov was admitted to the Boris Clinic, where he received first medical care. According to Petro Poroshenko, Dmytro Bulatov, Oleksandr Danyliuk, and Oleksii Hrytsenko (participant of AutoMaidan) were entered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine into the foreign travel ban list. This list was observed by the frontier guards. On February 2, Shevchenko District Court in the City of Kyiv rejected to uphold a motion of investigation to arrest Dmytro Bulatov. That same day, Bulatov went to Lithuania to be treated there in transit through Riga. On 6 February 2014, while undergoing treatment in
Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
, Bulatov stated at a
press conference A press conference, also called news conference or press briefing, is a media event in which notable individuals or organizations invite journalism, journalists to hear them speak and ask questions. Press conferences are often held by politicia ...
in
Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...
that he was tortured to admit that his organisation was funded and aided by Americans and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, especially, and that he was hired to organise the Automaidan and the riots against the current government. During the press conference, Bulatov repeatedly stressed that he believed he was abducted by the Russian special forces and that the leader of Ukrainian Choice, oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, might have been involved in his abduction. After one session of torture, "they made me say into a camera that I was a spy for the United States, that I was a spy for the CIA, that Americans were giving me money, that Automaidan was funded by Americans, and that I was specifically hired to organise the Automaidan and the riots against the current government." Bulatov also said: "After this torture, I said to the camera everything they asked me to say, and they recorded it all on video. I said that the U.S. ambassador gave me $50,000, which I used to buy gasoline for the Automaidan, to repair cars for the Automaidan activists, for whom I had bought several video cameras to film trips. That is, I lied only to get them to torture me less." The kidnapping of Bulatov was widely condemned, including by the
High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission (HR/VP) is the chief co-ordinator and representative of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) within the European Un ...
,
Catherine Ashton Catherine Margaret Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland (born 20 March 1956) is a Labour Party (UK), British Labour politician who served as the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of th ...
. Fresh from medical care in
Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
, Bulatov went to Germany to visit his relatives. On 15 February 2014, he held a press conference at Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin where he again accused Medvedchuk of his kidnapping, but said: “That’s only a suspicion.” He confirmed that he would re-join protests in Ukraine and would not seek asylum. On February 24, Dmytro Bulatov returned to Ukraine. Now hen? the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine is carrying out an investigation into the kidnapping of Dmytro Bulatov. Operational-Investigations Group is investigating five cases, including intimidation in relation to social and political activity.


Politics

In February 2014, Bulatov was appointed as the Minister of Youth and Sports in the first Yatsenyuk Government. He began reforms in the areas of sports and physical culture. However, in the second Yatsenyuk Government, he did not return. Bulatov also did not participate in the
2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an un ...
. Six months before the end of his ministership, Bulatov was drafted into the Ukrainian army, where he fought in the War in Donbas until his draft period ended in July 2016. In the summer of 2018, Bulatov was appointed Deputy Chairman of the State Reserve Agency. He was fired from this position in September 2019.


See also

* List of kidnappings * List of solved missing person cases


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulatov, Dmytro 1978 births 2010s missing person cases Businesspeople from Kyiv Formerly missing Ukrainian people Kidnapped Ukrainian people Kidnappings in Ukraine Living people Missing person cases in Ukraine People of the Euromaidan Politicians from Kyiv Youth and sport ministers of Ukraine 21st-century Ukrainian politicians