You're reading: A guide to Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine

For short-lived unrecognized states, the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” have rotated their governments quite a bit since April.

In May, Russian nationals jumped into the top positions of the self-styled republic’s government, replacing less enigmatic locals.

But the latest sweeping change, earlier this month, reversed that move and re-installed Ukrainian nationals in top roles.

Analysts think the move could be due to the Kremlin’s desire to make its meddling in Ukraine less visible. However, the new leaders seem to play an insignificant role in decision making.

Vladimir Kipen, head of the Donetsk Institute for Social Research and Political Analysis, believes the reshuffle could also have been done because previous leaders’ links to Russian intelligence agencies had been exposed, discrediting what Moscow would like to be viewed as a grassroots movement.

Kyiv Post+ is a special project covering Russia’s war against Ukraine and the aftermath of the EuroMaidan Revolution.

“Moscow is maneuvering and trying to present its policy in a more decent way,” Kipen said. “That would make Moscow’s hand less visible.”

Moreover, Kyiv might be more willing to negotiate with separatist leaders who are Ukrainian citizens. The government said previously it would not negotiate with Russian citizens it deemed “terrorists.”

The move to install the Ukrainian citizens as leaders comes ahead of a meeting between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Minsk scheduled for Aug. 26, Kipen said.

However, the new appointees don’t play a significant role in decision making and are wholly dependent on their Kremlin handlers, he added.

Journalists and Ukrainian authorities have presented a good deal of evidence, including recordings of telephone conversations between separatists and Russian intelligence officers, in an effort to prove that rebel leaders take orders from Moscow.

Kipen said another possible reason for the new appointments was the Kremlin’s unhappiness with the previous leadership’s failure to combat the advances of Ukrainian forces, which have made big gains in recent weeks, reclaiming about 75 percent of the territory once controlled by separatists.

“Factional infighting for leadership and resource allocation” and former Defense Minister Igor Girkin’s rumored injury may have also contributed to the reshuffle, according to Kipen.

Here are the new leaders of the self-declared, ever-shrinking republics that Ukraine considers terrorist organizations.

Alexander Zakharchenko, Donetsk People’s Republic prime minister

Alexander Zakharchenko, Donetsk People’s Republic prime minister

Alexander Zakharchenko is a local who has risen to the top. He stepped into the role after Russian public relations specialist Alexander Borodai  resigned his post as prime minister on Aug. 7.

Zakharchenko, 38, was born in Donetsk and graduated from the Donetsk Industrial Automatic Equipment College. He used to work as a mechanic and a businessman. According to Ukrainian media, he also used to smuggle goods across the Russian-Ukrainian border.

He previously headed the Donetsk branch of Oplot, a Kharkiv-based anti-EuroMaidan fight club with close links to former President Viktor Yanukovych. After the anti-terrorist operation began in Donetsk Oblast in mid-April, Zakharchenko became the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic’s Oplot military unit.

On April 16, Zakharchenko headed a group of seven armed men who seized Donetsk City Hall. He became the military commandant of Donetsk in May and was subsequently appointed a deputy interior minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic.

Vladimir Kononov, defense minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic.

Vladimir Kononov, defense minister

The notorious 43-year-old rebel commander Igor Girkin, better known by his nom de guerre Igor Strelkov, or “the Shooter,” was replaced by Vladimir Kononov on Aug. 14, amid reports of fractures within the rebels’ ranks. Girkin, separatist leaders said, is now on “vacation” and will “take on a new position” upon his return in a month. Some reports said Girkin had been injured or killed.

Unlike Girkin, a Russian citizen and Moscow resident, Kononov is Ukrainian. Born in 1974 in the city of Gorsky, Luhansk Oblast, he is a graduate of the Sloviansk National Aviation College (1995) and Sloviansk State Pedagogical Institute (1999).

In an interview with Russia’s LifeNews in Moscow, Borodai, the former self-proclaimed prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, said Kononov is known simply as “Tsar. Just Tsar. That’s his name.”

Rebel fighters in Donetsk told the Kyiv Post that the short but fiery Kononov, a former judo instructor, is a “strong, fierce commander” who “has our respect.” He fought alongside Strelkov during the rebels’ notorious occupation of Sloviansk, they said. The rebel militia retreated to the regional capital of Donetsk on July 5 after enduring weeks of heavy shelling by Ukrainian government forces in Sloviansk.

Boris Litvinov, speaker of parliament, Donetsk People’s Republic

Boris Litvinov, speaker of parliament

One of the less prominent new rebel leaders is Boris Litvinov, who replaced local separatist Denis Pushilin as speaker of the republic’s parliament, the so-called supreme council, on July 23.

Litvinov, born in the city of Dzerzhinsk, Donetsk Oblast, in 1954, holds degrees in music, mining and management. He used to work as a teacher and business executive. He was a member of the Donetsk city council and headed the Communist Party faction of Donetsk’s Kirovsky district before becoming the republic’s speaker.

He describes himself as a fan of Vladimir Lenin’s New Economic Policy (NEP) and the Chinese economic model.

Vladimir Antyufeyev, first deputy prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic

Vladimir Antyufeyev, first deputy prime minister

Unlike the others above, Vladimir Antyufeyev, is not a local. He was appointed first deputy prime minister in charge of law enforcement agencies on July 10, and is sometimes called the “grey cardinal” of the Donetsk People’s Republic.

Antyufeyev was acting prime minister from July 29 until Aug. 3, when Borodai visited Moscow. When Borodai stepped down on Aug. 7, Antyfeyev moved to his office, and now he regularly holds meetings with militia commanders and Zakharchenko there, according to a Novaya Gazeta article published in early August.

Antyufeyev, born in the Russian city of Novosibirsk in 1951, graduated from a secondary school run by the Interior Ministry in 1974, and later from the Russian Civil Service Academy in 1999.

In 1991, Antyufeyev headed a Soviet riot police unit in Riga. Latvian authorities at the time opened a criminal case against him on charges of killing supporters of the country’s independence during a pro-Soviet coup attempt in August 1991. He fled to Russia that September.

Not long after, though, he moved to Moldova’s breakaway republic of Transdniester, where he became state security minister in 1992. In 1999, he was nominated for the list of Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s LDPR nationalist party in Russian parliamentary elections but did not run.

In 2004, Antyufeyev, along with other leaders of Transdniester, was declared a persona non grata in the EU.

He resigned as state security minister in 2012, after Yevgeny Shevchuk replaced Igor Smirnov as president of Transdniester. Antyufeyev then accused Shevchuk of being a tool of Western influence.

He then returned to Russia, and Transdniester’s State Security Committee, or KGB, opened two criminal cases against Antyufeyev, accusing him of abuse of power.

He was subsequently appointed to supervise the creation of intelligence and law enforcement agencies in Donetsk during the separatist uprising, because “he has experience in state building,” Transdniester-based political analyst Andrei Safronov said.

Kipen agreed with this assessment.

“Russia has carried out an operation in Transdniester,” he said, referring to the Kremlin supporting Transdniester’s independence from Moldova and sending peacekeepers to the republic in the early 1990s. “This experience was deemed useful and a decision was made to multiply it.”

Novaya Gazeta reported earlier in August that Antyufeyev had also helped Georgia’s Russian-backed breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia create their state institutions.

Antyufeyev brought a team of Transdniester residents to Donetsk. Oleg Beryoza and Andrei Pinchuk, retired officers of Transdniester’s KGB, were appointed the positions of interior minister and state security minister, respectively, in July. Meanwhile, former Transdniester Vice President Alexander Karaman became deputy prime minister for social issues.

Igor Plotnitsky, Luhansk People’s Republic prime minister

Igor Plotnitsky, Luhansk People’s Republic prime minister

Formerly the defense minister of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, Igor Plotnitsky, was appointed earlier this week as the virtual statelet’s new prime minister.

He replaces Valeriy Bolotov, a Luhansk local, who stepped down due to injuries but said he would continue to fight for the “republic.”

Plotnitsky is also a Ukrainian, and was born in Luhansk on June 25, 1964, but he was educated in Russia. In 1987, he graduated from Artillery Chief Marshal Voronov Higher Artillery Engineering College in the Russian city of Penza. Later, in 2008, he earned a master’s degree in civil service at Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University.

Plotnitsky served in the USSR Armed Forces from 1982 to 1991, earning the title of Reserve Major. From 1992 forward, he worked as a business manager for several companies before joining the separatist movement in April.

By May, Plotnitsky had been appointed defense minister and top military commander for the Luhansk separatist militia.

On Aug. 20, he was tapped to be the prime minister.

Kyiv Post editor Christopher J. Miller contributed to this story.