The Ukraine Salvation Committee (; ) is a Russia-backed initiative by former high-ranking Ukrainian officials from the

Viktor Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych (born 9 July 1950) is a Ukrainian politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 to 2014. He also served as the prime minister of Ukraine several times between 2002 and 2007 and was a member of t ...

administration, that claims to be a

government in exile A government-in-exile (GiE) is a political group that claims to be the legitimate government of a sovereign state or semi-sovereign state, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile usu ...

for

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. The headquarters of the Ukraine Salvation Committee is located in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Creation

In February 2015, former

Prime Minister of Ukraine The prime minister of Ukraine (, , ) is the head of government of Ukraine. The prime minister presides over the government of Ukraine, Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is the highest body of the executive branch of the government of Ukrain ...

Mykola Azarov Mykola Yanovych Azarov (; ; née, né Pakhlo, Cyrillic: Пахло; born 17 December 1947) is a Ukraine, Ukrainian politician who was the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 11 March 2010 to 27 January 2014. He was the First Vice Prime Minister an ...

announced his intention to a create a Ukrainian "government in exile". The official announcement that the organization had been created came on 29 July from Azarov's representatives. On 3 August 2015 in

, in Hotel Ukraina, a press conference was held by Azarov - who was now head of the committee - along with other former

people's deputies of Ukraine A people's deputy of Ukraine (, ) is a member of parliament and legislator elected by popular vote to the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine. They are often referred to simply as "deputies". Prior to 1991, the Verkhovna Rada had been cal ...

Volodymyr Oliynyk and Ihor Markov. Azarov announced the creation of the Committee for the Salvation of Ukraine, along with his reasonings for doing so and the position of the committee regarding the political situation.

Membership and structure

The Ukraine Salvation Committee has emerged as a platform for former high-ranking Ukrainian officials from the

administration, who moved to

in late 2013 and early 2014 during and following the

Revolution of Dignity The Revolution of Dignity (), also known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution, took place in Ukraine in February 2014 at the end of the Euromaidan protests, when deadly clashes between protesters and state forces in the capit ...

that ousted Yanukovych. Many of the members are under sanctions from

Western countries The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also constitute the West. ...

or have arrest warrants in Ukraine or other countries. In addition to Azarov, Oliynyk and Markov, the committee includes former Ukrainian parliamentarian Oleg Tsaryov, and Yury Kot. Azarov has called himself the "shadow prime minister of Ukraine", and Oliynik the "probable presidential candidate". The committee is financed by Ukrainian oligarch

Serhiy Kurchenko Serhiy Vitaliiovych Kurchenko (, In Russia: Sergey Vitaliovich Kurchenko; born 21 September 1985) is a former Ukrainian, Russian businessman and founder/owner of the group of companies "Gas Ukraine 2009" specializing in trading of liquefied natu ...

. ;Members *

- Chair * Ihor Markov *Volodymyr Oliynyk *Yury Kot

Positions

At the 3 August 2015 press conference, Azarov announced his vision for the key positions of the committee, stating how he wanted to bring Ukraine out of "crisis". He called the post-revolution government a " junta", and recommended to stop resisting Russia and stop moving towards a Western alignment. Azarov also spoke in favor of regionalism in Ukraine, and making the

Russian language Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...

official on a federal level. The committee uses common Russian propaganda tropes.

Reactions

The committee has been featured prominently in propaganda from Russian state media. The

Russian government The Russian Government () or fully titled the Government of the Russian Federation () is the highest federal executive governmental body of the Russian Federation. It is accountable to the president of the Russian Federation and controlled by ...

claimed that it had nothing to do with the creation of the group. Ukrainian and

Russian opposition Opposition to the government of President Vladimir Putin in Russia, commonly referred to as the Russian opposition, can be divided between the parliamentary opposition parties in the State Duma and the various Non-system opposition, non-systemi ...

outlets have mainly dismissed the group as Russian puppets.

Legal prosecution

Ihor Markov, was detained on 12 August 2015 in

Sanremo Sanremo, also spelled San Remo in English and formerly in Italian, is a (municipality) on the Mediterranean coast of Liguria, in northwestern Italy. Founded in Roman times, it has a population of 55,000, and is known as a tourist destination ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, at the request of Ukrainian

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of the government or other social institutions who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by investigating, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms gove ...

. The committee protested his arrest and called on Italy and Interpol to release Markov. Italy eventually refused to

extradite In an extradition, one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, into the custody of the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdict ...

Markov to Ukraine, citing perceived political motives for the request. The General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine has designated the creation of the committee as criminal, as per laws prohibiting calling for the overthrowing of the Ukrainian government on mass media. The investigation is ongoing. The Committee initiated a case in the Moscow District Court seeking for Russia to recognize the Revolution of Dignity as a coup, which was successful. Ukrainian authorities have said such actions are legally void.

Sanctions

In September 2016, the

United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business and governmental decision making, establishing industrial standards, catalyzing econ ...

sanctioned the committee as part of an expansion of sanctions on organizations involved in the

war in Donbas The war in Donbas, or the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. The war Timeline of the war in Donbas (2014), began in April 2014, when Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, Russian para ...

. This means that the committee and Azarov himself cannot have any commercial relations with American citizens or residents, and any of their money, if under American control, will be frozen.

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

Ukraine Salvation CommitteeUkraine Salvation Committee on VKFounding press conference, 3 August 2015
Information operations and warfare Propaganda in Russia Russia–Ukraine relations 2015 in Moscow Politics of Ukraine 2015 establishments in Russia Governments in exile Organizations of the Russo-Ukrainian War Exiled Ukrainian politicians Russian entities subject to U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions