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Taras Kozak | |
|---|---|
Тарас Козак | |
 Official portrait of Taras Kozak | |
| People's Deputy of Ukraine | |
| In office 27 November 2014 – 29 August 2019 | |
| In office 29 August 2019 – 13 January 2023 (terminated) | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 6, 1972 Sokilnyky, Lviv Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Citizenship |  Russia |
| Nationality | Ukrainian |
| Political party | Opposition Bloc Opposition Platform — For Life |
| Alma mater | Lviv National Agrarian University University of Lviv |
| Occupation | politician, entrepreneur |
Taras Romanovych Kozak (Ukrainian: Тарас Романович Козак; born 6 April 1972)[1] is a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician, state servant, businessman and media proprietor, and a close associate of the pro-Russian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk. He was elected in the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election as a People's Deputy of the 8th convocation for the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc party. In 2019, he was elected a People's Deputy of Ukraine of 9th convocation for the now banned pro-Russian Opposition Platform — For Life party.
In June 2019, Kozak created the media holding Novyny (lit. 'news'), which includes the NewsOne, ZIK and 112 Ukraine TV channels, which have been shut down under accusations of hosting Russian propaganda. On 2 February 2021 the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine imposed sanctions on Kozak,[2] with the reason given for the sanctions being that according to the Security Service of Ukraine investigation, Kozak controlled a group of coal mines in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions not under government control whose profits contributed to the financing of terrorism,[3] as well as being implicated in the use of profits from the Samara-Western Direction oil product pipeline to fund the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic.[4]
On 11 May 2021 the Prosecutor General of Ukraine accused Kozak of treason and attempted looting of national resources in (Russian annexed, but internationally recognised as Ukrainian) Crimea; he is believed to be in Belarus and the Security Service of Ukraine received permission to detain Kozak on 20 May 2021.[5] On 20 January 2022, the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned Kozak for acting under the direction of Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agents and helping “to prepare to take over the government of Ukraine and to control Ukraine’s critical infrastructure with an occupying Russian force."[6]
In January 2023 Kozak was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship[7] and his term as People's Deputy of Ukraine was terminated.[8]
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- ^ "РНБО ввів санкції проти Медведчука і Марченко: що це означає". РБК-Украина (in Russian). Retrieved 2022-10-26.
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