Former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev received Ukrainian citizenship

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a decree granting Ukrainian citizenship to former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev. Ponomarev wrote about this on his Facebook.

“I will use the new status to receive new foreign investments for the country, create new jobs, increase the state budget - all this to increase the welfare of Ukrainians,” Ponomarev said.

According to him, Poroshenko made this decision “on the last working day of his term” in the interests of the state. “The prosperity of Ukraine is the key to change in Russia,” he said.

Ponomarev was a State Duma deputy from the Just Russia faction of the 5th and 6th convocations, but he was deprived of his mandate due to his systematic failure to attend meetings. In 2015, a criminal case was opened against him for complicity in the embezzlement of 22 million rubles belonging to the Skolkovo innovation center. Ponomarev has been in the United States since 2014, so he was arrested in absentia and put on the international wanted list.

Ponomarev was the only State Duma deputy who voted against the annexation of Crimea to Russia in 2014.