Oleksiy Azarov

Oleksiy Mykolayovych Azarov (Ukrainian: Олексій Миколайович Азаров; born on 13 July 1971), is a Russian-born Austrian and former Ukrainian businessman and former politician. He was the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance and Banking, People's Deputy of Ukraine, and a member of the Party of Regions faction in the Verkhovna Rada of the VII convocation.

He is hiding from the investigation together with his father.

Biography

Oleksiy Azarov was born on 13 July 1971 in the city of Kaluga to his father, Mykola Azarov, and his wife Lyudmyla Mykolaivna. He is married and has three children.

Between 1992 and 1993, he graduated from Moscow State University with a degree in mining engineering.

From 1993 to 1995, he worked as a chief engineer, and then as a deputy director of the Coordination Council of heads of enterprises and organizations in Donetsk.

From 1996 to 1997, he headed the Donetsk department of the State Securities Commission.

Between 1998 and 2001, he worked in the embassies of Ukraine in Finland and Switzerland, and the mission of Ukraine to the United Nations.

In 2000, he graduated from the Ukrainian Academy of Foreign Trade and received a law degree in international law.

In 2001, he successfully defended his scientific dissertation on the topic "Peculiarities of Ukraine's accession to the WTO.

Between 2000 and 2002, he was an employee of the Ukrainian Trade Representation in Switzerland.

From 2002 to 2003, Azarov was an adviser to the then Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych ("on a voluntary basis")

From 2007 to 2012, he served as Director-Representative of the International Investment Promotion Fund - Sustainable Ukraine gemeinnützige Forschung GmbH in Vienna.

In the 2012 parliamentary elections, Azarov was nominated as a candidate for the Verkhovna Rada from the Party of Regions in the single-mandate majority constituency No. 47. According to the election commission, he won, gaining 76.10% of the vote.

International connections

In the Verkhovna Rada of the seventh convocation, Azarov heads the group for inter-parliamentary relations with Austria, as he is the deputy head of the group for inter-parliamentary relations with Spain and is a member of the Verkhovna Rada groups for inter-parliamentary relations with countries such as Japan, Lithuania, Switzerland, Germany, Bulgaria, Italy, Saudi Arabia, France, the United States, Finland, United Arab Emirates, and Iraq. As part of inter-parliamentary activities, Azarov regularly meets with diplomatic representatives of various countries and international organizations.

Criminal proceedings

On 5 March 2014, the European Council approved the blocking of funds of the ousted Verkhovna Rada from the post of President of Ukraine, Yanukovych, his sons Oleksandr Yanukovych