Volodymyr Zelensky Nominates Rustam Umarov as Minister of Defense

Volodymyr Zelensky nominated the head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine Rustam Umarov for the post of Minister of Defense, replacing former Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.

Who is Rustam Omarov?

Rustam Umarov was born on April 19, 1982 in the city of Bolungur, Samarkand region, Uzbek SSR, in a family of immigrants from the city of Alushta, located on the southern coast of the Republic of Crimea. A Muslim of Tatar origin. Rustam is not the only child in the family, he has a brother named Aslan Omar Karemli.

Education

Rustam graduated from the Crimean boarding school for gifted children in the Republic of Crimea, has a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in finance from the National Academy of Management. Studied in the USA on an exchange program.

Career and Business

After graduating from the university, he became the founder of the Crimean Development Fund and for five years participated in this socio-political project, during which he met Mustafa Dzhamlev, and their acquaintance led Rustam to become Dzhamlev’s assistant.

Between 2004 and 2010, Rustam held several senior positions at the mobile company Lifecell, and in 2007 Umarov founded a public organization called the Crimean Tatar Brotherhood.

He was an adviser to the leader of the Crimean Tatars and Ukrainian MP Mustafa Dzhamiliev.

In 2019, Rustam Umarov ran in the early parliamentary elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine from the party “Voice” of Svyatoslav Vakarchuk at number 18, achieved success and became a deputy of the ninth session, and also entered the “Rada” (Ukrainian parliament) as an independent deputy.

And in the spring of 2022, Rustam Umarov, then a deputy, became a member of the Ukrainian delegation, which participated in several rounds of negotiations with Russia. He was present at the talks in Belarus and at the stage of the talks in Istanbul (March 29, 2022).

On September 7, 2022, the Verkhovna Rada appointed Rustam Umarov as the new head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine.

Source: RT