Denis Pushilin
Denis Vladimirovich Pushilin (, ; ; born 9 May 1981) is a politician from the Donetsk region who has served as Head of the Donetsk People's Republic since 2018. Prior to his involvement in politics he ran a Ponzi scheme. He had previously served as Chairman of the People's Council, and became the acting Head of State following the assassination of incumbent Alexander Zakharchenko amidst the conflict in the east Ukraine region. He successfully ran for election to a full term in the 2018 elections. Early life. Pushilin was born 9 May 1981 in Makiivka, Donetsk Oblast, in the  Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Pushilin is the son of workers of the Makiivka Metallurgical Factory, Vladimir Pushilin and Valentina Khasanova. He graduated in 1998 from Makiivka Lyceum No. 1, a school combining secondary and professional education. From 1999 to 2000, he served in the National Guard of Ukraine in a special assignment battalion in Crimea. After leaving the military, he studied Enterprise Economics at Donbas National Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture. He did not receive a degree before moving on to employment. From 2002 to 2006, Pushilin worked for a trading firm, Solodkye Zhittya, or "Sweet Life." MMM involvement . From 1989 to 1994, a Russian Ponzi scheme called MMM cost its participants millions of dollars prior to disbanding. In 2011, Sergei Mavrodi launched a new MMM. Pushilin volunteered for this successor company from 2011 to 2013 and became a key leader. The new MMM openly admitted to being a pyramid scheme. Pushilin was not shy in promoting involvement with the company. The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine allowed registration of the MMM Party under the chairmanship of Mavrodi. It is interpreted as an abbreviation for "We Have One Goal" (). Pushilin joined this new party in 2012. Opposing Yanukovych and  unknown in the Kiev region, Pushilin got 0.08% of the votes and failed to win a seat in the December 2013 repeat elections of the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election in the 94th district (located in Obukhiv). According to his December 2013 election information, Pushilin was "not working" at the time. Donetsk politics. Chairman of the Supreme Council. On 19 May 2014, Pushilin became the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Donetsk People's Republic, and under the draft constitution adopted on May 15, the new republic's head of state. In June of 2014, he announced that DPR businesses  which engaged in tax evasion would be nationalized. Pushilin did not envision the Donetsk People's Republic becoming an independent state but preferred to join the Russian Federation (which he saw as a potential renewed Russian Empire). Pushilin survived two assassination attempts, both occurring within a week on the 7th and 12th of June 2014. Pushilin was in Moscow on those dates, as was widely reported at the time. Pushilin resigned from his post of the Chairman of the Donetsk People's Republic in July of 2014. From 14 November 2014 to 4 September 2015, he served as a vice -chairman of the Donetsk People's Republic Council then he replaced Andrei Purgin and became the Chairman of the Council once again. Head of the Donetsk People's Republic. DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko was assassinated by bombing a restaurant in Donetsk. After a week-long interim leadership by Dmitry Trapeznikov, Pushilin was appointed acting Head of the DPR on 7 September 2018; he was to hold this position until elections on 11 November 2018. On 21 September 2018, he submitted documents to be registered in the November election. He won with 60.85% of the vote. On 6 December 2021 Pushilin  became a member of the Russian ruling party United Russia. United Russia chairman Dmitry Medvedev personally handed him his party ticket during the party's annual congress in Moscow. On 21 February 2022, Pushilin signed an agreement for friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance between the Donetsk People's Republic and the Russian Federation. At this ceremony were also signed an agreement between the LPR and Russia, and executive orders by President Putin to officially recognize the independence of the DPR and LPR. At the end of February, Pushilin mobilized troops to aid Russian forces in defending the DPR from Ukraine . In April 2022, news outlets noted that Pushilin awarded Senior Lieutenant Roman Vorobyov a medal, while he was wearing patches affiliated with neo-Nazism: the "Totenkopf" used by the 3rd SS Panzer Division, and the "valknut".