Lieutenant-General Yuri Viktorovich Zhadobin ( Belarusian: Юрый Віктаравіч Жадобін) was the Chairman of the KGB of the Republic of Belarus from 2007 to 2008 and the Minister of Defence of Belarus from 4 December 2009 to 27 November 2014. He replaced Leonid Maltsev and was succeeded by Andrei Ravkov. Zhadobin was subject to international sanctions as a person responsible for political repressions and

human rights violations Human rights are universally recognized moral principles or norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both national and international laws. These rights are considered inherent and inalienable, meaning t ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

Biography

Yuri Viktorovich Zhadobin was born on 14 November 1954 in

Dnipropetrovsk Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

. In 1976, he was admitted to the

Kazan Higher Tank Command School Kazan Higher Tank Command School () is a Russian higher military school conducting commissioned officer programmes (specialitet). It is located in Kazan. History The Kazan Tank School was founded in 1941 on the base of the former Kazan Infantry ...

. In 1985, he joined the command department of the

Malinovsky Military Armored Forces Academy The Malinovsky Military Armored Forces Academy (Военная академия бронетанковых войск имени Маршала Советского Союза Р. Я. Малиновского) was one of the Soviet military academ ...

. In 1999, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs. In September 2003, he became the head of the Presidential Security Service. He was appointed chairman of the KGB on 17 July 2007. He served as the State Secretary of the Security Council from 2008 to 2009 when he became Minister of Defence.

Accusations, international sanctions

As part of the

international sanctions International sanctions are political and economic decisions that are part of diplomatic efforts by countries, multilateral or regional organizations against states or organizations either to protect national security interests, or to protect i ...

against the regime in

following a crackdown of the opposition following the

2010 Belarusian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Belarus on 19 December 2010. The elections had originally been planned for the beginning of 2011. However, the final date was set during an extraordinary session of the National Assembly on 14 September 2010. ...

, Zhadobin became subject to travel ban and asset freeze by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

as part of a list of Belarusian officials responsible for political repressions, vote rigging and propaganda. In its 2012 decision, the EU Council stated regarding Zhadobin:

As a member of the Security Council, he approves the repressive decisions agreed at ministerial level, including the decision to repress the peaceful demonstrations on 19 December 2010. After December 2010, he praised the "total defeat of destructive forces", when referring to the democratic opposition."'' Council Decision 2012/642/CFSP of 15 October 2012 concerning restrictive measures against Belarus

EUR-Lex EUR-Lex is the official online database of European Union law and other public documents of the European Union (EU), published in 24 official Languages of the European Union, languages of the EU. The Official Journal of the European Union, Offici ...
, 2012

Personal life

He is married to Larisa Alexandrovna, a doctor who teaches at the Faculty of Humanities of the

Belarusian State University The Belarusian State University (BSU) (, ; ) is a university in Minsk, Belarus. It was founded on October 30, 1921. The university was ranked 387th in the world in the 2023 QS World University Rankings. History 1919–1949 On February 25, 1919, ...

where she is currently a senior lecturer. He has one daughter named Aliaksandra, who is a captain of the internal services and a senior legal advisor to the department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations where he husband works. He also has one son named Viktor, who commanded unit 7434, the security unit for Astravets Nuclear Power Plant.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhadobin, Yuri 1954 births Belarusian generals Defence ministers of Belarus Government of Belarus Living people Soviet colonels Chairmen of the KGB of Belarus Military personnel from Dnipro