page_title: Natalia Poklonskaya
section_title: Prosecutor of Crimea
hierarchical_section_title: Natalia Poklonskaya / Career / Prosecutor of Crimea
caption_attribution_description: Русский: 1-й Прокурор Крыма Наталья Владимировна ПоклонскаяEnglish: Natalia Poklonskaya, Prosecutor General of the Republic of Crimea from 2014 onwards, at the expanded board meeting of the office of the Prosecutor General of Russia on 24 March 2015.中文: 娜塔莉亚·波克隆斯卡娅在2015年3月24日的俄罗斯总检察长董事会议
context_page_description: Natalia Vladimirovna Poklonskaya is a Russian politician, serving as Deputy of the State Duma of Russia, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs from 18 September 2016.
  She was the Prosecutor of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea from 11 to 17 March 2014. From 2 May 2014 to 6 October 2016, she served as Prosecutor of the Republic of Crimea and in 2015 as State Counselor of Justice 3rd Class.
  Poklonskaya was a Ukrainian prosecutor from 2002 to February 2014, working in various Prosecutor's Offices or as an assistant district attorney. During the 2014 Crimean crisis, she resigned from Ukrainian service and was appointed Prosecutor General of Crimea on 11 March 2014; a press conference given by Poklonskaya on that day resulted in her becoming an Internet phenomenon. After Crimea was annexed by Russia during the 2014 Crimean crisis, Poklonskaya's appointment was confirmed by Russian authorities on 25 March, around the same time Ukrainian judicial authorities declared her a wanted criminal.
  Poklonskaya resigned as Prosecutor General on 6 October 2016 due to her election to the State Duma during the 2016 Russian legislative election.
context_section_description: On 11 March 2014, when Crimea was not controlled by Ukraine, Poklonskaya was appointed Prosecutor of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Poklonskaya was appointed to the position by Sergei Aksyonov after the position had been reportedly rejected by four others, including the former Vice-Prosecutor of Crimea, Vyacheslav Pavlov. Her previous criticism of the opposition protests in Ukraine, and the "anti-constitutional coup" led the Ukrainian government to launch a criminal case against her and strip her of the civil service rank of Counsellor of Justice.  For her part, Poklonskaya refers to the change of power in Ukraine as an "unconstitutional coup and armed seizure of power", and called Ukraine's new parliamentarians "devils from the ashes."
  Immediately following her appointment as Prosecutor, she was involved in an investigation into the violent attacks committed against Crimean Berkut members. On 19 March 2014, Poklonskaya confirmed that investigations were ongoing into a shooting in Simferopol which killed two while denying reports that the shooter had been detained. She compared the shooting to the "sniper attacks on Independence Square in Kiev" from 18 to 21 February, and stated her belief that the shooting was meant to "provoke violence between the military forces" of Ukraine and Crimea.
  Crimea, which in the meantime had come under Russian control and become a federal subject of Russia (since then Crimea is under dispute by Russia and Ukraine), saw the creation of its new Prosecutor's Office, now subordinated to Russia's Prosecutor General Yury Chaika. On 25 March, Chaika appointed Poklonskaya as acting Prosecutor of the Republic of Crimea for this new office. Around the same time, Poklonskaya was listed as a wanted criminal on the website of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, due to alleged involvement in conspiracy to overthrow constitutional order or seize state power. The Federation Council of Russia declared the charges against Poklonskaya a "bluff". On 27 March, Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika granted Poklonskaya the rank of Senior Counsellor of Justice. On 4 April, Poklonskaya gave the approval for the Russian FSB to begin an operation to arrest Yevgeniy Pomelov, the assistant attorney of Yalta, as part of a larger bribery case.
  On 11 April, the Prosecutor General of Russia personally presented Poklonskaya with her official papers as a Russian legal officer. On 2 May, Russian president Vladimir Putin appointed Poklonskaya Chief Prosecutor of Crimea. On 4 May, Poklonskaya accused the Crimean Tatars' self-governmental body (the Mejlis) of extremist activity, warning that the Mejlis could be dissolved and outlawed across Russia.
  On 12 May, the European Union added Poklonskaya to its sanctions list. This barred her from entering EU countries and any of her assets there, if existent, were to be frozen. Canada imposed similar sanctions on Poklonskaya a month later, followed by Japan on 4 August. Australia followed soon after, sanctioning the Russian prosecutor on 2 September. On 19 December, the United States introduced its individual sanctions against several Ukrainian separatists and Russians, of which Poklonskaya was the only woman.
  In June, Poklonskaya was appointed as a judge to "guarantee impartiality in the selection of winners" for Russia's Five Stars singing competition, which would select Russia's entrant for the Intervision Song Contest. In September, Poklonskaya declared that those who did not recognize the annexation of Crimea by Russia, as well as those who incited ethnic strife, would be deported. Also in November 2014, Poklonskaya was rated as the sixteenth out of the hundred most promising politicians in Russia by the Institute for Social-Economic and Political Studies.
  In March 2015, Poklonskaya was appointed as the head of the Japanese-Russian Friendship Society. On 11 June 2015, Russian president Vladimir Putin granted Poklonskaya the rank of 3rd Class State Counsellor of Justice which corresponds with the military rank of Major General.
  Poklonskaya resigned as Prosecutor General
caption: Poklonskaya in uniform as Prosecutor General, March 2015
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