Natalia Poklonskaya

Natalia Vladimirovna Poklonskaya is a Russian lawyer. She has served as the adviser to the Prosecutor General of Russia since 14 June 2022 year. State Counselor of Justice 3rd Class.
Deputy of the head of Rossotrudnichestvo. Russian Ambassador to Cape Verde. Deputy State Duma Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the VII convocation. Prosecutor of Republic of Crimea.
An employee of the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine. Senior prosecutor of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. Prosecutor of Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
Holds a Master's degree in International Relations.

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Biography

Poklonskaya was born 18 March 1980 in the village of Mikhailovka, in the Voroshilovgrad Oblast of what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic; later in 1990, her family moved to Yevpatoria in Crimea. Her parents are both retired, living in Crimea, and both her grandfathers died during the Second World War, with only her grandmother surviving the German occupation.
She chose the profession of law enforcement officer in memory of her uncle, who died at the hands of bandits.
She graduated from the University of Internal Affairs in Yevpatoria in 2002. In 2016, she completed professional training at the University of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation. In 2021, she defended her master's thesis at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
During her studies, she worked as a waitress and bartender at the local cafe "Izyuminka" in the Crimea.

Work in the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine

She worked in the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, having worked her way up from assistant district Prosecutor to senior prosecutor of the Department of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine.
In 2002-2006 — she was an assistant prosecutor of the Krasnogvardeysky district of Crimea.
In 2006-2010 — she was an assistant prosecutor in Yevpatoria.
Between 2010 and 2011, she was the prosecutor, deputy chief department supervision of Prosecutor Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
In 2011 in Simferopol, she acted as the state prosecutor in the high-profile trial of Ruvim Aronov, a former deputy of the Supreme Council of Crimea and a former manager of the Saki soccer club. Aronov was prosecuted for his leadership role in the Bashmaki gang, an organized crime group that emerged in Crimea, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, and Kyiv after the 1991 dissolution of the USSR. The gang had been "known for its cruelty" and had been implicated in racketeering, robberies, eight abductions, and 50 murders.
As a state prosecutor in the case of the Bashmaki gang, she was poisoned during a business trip to Odesa. Poklonskaya described the situation as follows:

"I drank a bottle of ordinary water at the hotel when I was on a business trip in Odesa. There was an unknown substance in the water. At the hotel, there was water on the nightstand, as usual. It happened at night - nausea, intestinal and stomach upset. A wild headache, my head was splitting to such an extent that I wanted to die."

Subsequently, the unidentified substance was removed from the body; after the poisoning, Poklonskaya filed a report, telling the manager that she would no longer be able to work on this matter.
She also acted as a state prosecutor for members of other organized criminal groups, such as Imdat, Seilem, the organized crime group of Alexei Yukhnenko, and the organized crime group of Andrei Laptev.
In 2011-2012, she headed the Simferopol Interdistrict Environmental Prosecutor's Office.
Later, from December 2012 up until March 2014, she worked as a senior prosecutor of the department of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine.
On 25 February 2014, Poklonskaya handed in her resignation, but she was instead given a vacation and left Kyiv for Crimea where her parents lived.

Prosecutor of Crimea

On March 11, 2014, she was appointed Prosecutor of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
On March 25, 2014, in connection with the formation of the Prosecutor's offices of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol in the Russian Prosecutor's Office system, Poklonskaya was appointed Acting Prosecutor of the Republic of Crimea by order of the Prosecutor General of Russia Yuri Chaika.
On March 27, she was awarded the class rank of Senior Adviser to Justice.
On May 2, 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree appointing Poklonskaya Prosecutor of the Republic of Crimea for a five-year term.
On May 7, she took the oath of office of an employee of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation.
On June 11, 2015, Poklonskaya was awarded the class rank of State Adviser of Justice of the 3rd class.
In 2016, Poklonskaya completed professional training at the University of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation
On September 26, 2016, she sent an application to the Russian Prosecutor General's Office for her dismissal from the post of Prosecutor of the Republic of Crimea in connection with her election to the State Duma of the Russian Federation.
On October 6, 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed Poklonskaya from the post of prosecutor of Crimea.
Prior to her resignation, she was the youngest female general in Russia, at age 36.

Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation

On June 27, 2016, Poklonskaya took part in the second stage of the XV Congress of the United Russia political party in Moscow.
By the decision of the Supreme and General Councils of the United Russia Party, at the suggestion of the chairman of the party, the Chairman of the Government of Russia Dmitry Medvedev — included in the election list of the United Russia party for the 2016 elections to the Russian State Duma.
On August 22, 2016, she officially became a candidate for deputy of the State Duma of the VII convocation.
From October 5, 2016 to October 12, 2021 — Deputy The State Duma of the VII convocation on the list of the party "United Russia"; however, Poklonskaya is not a member of the party.
Member of the United Russia faction from 2016 to 2021.
On September 24, 2016, she participated in a joint meeting of the Supreme Council and the General Council of the United Russia political party.
On September 25, 2016, United Russia nominated her for the post of chairman of the State Duma Commission for the control of the authenticity of income declarations of deputies.
On December 20, 2016, she took part in an off-site meeting of the United Russia faction.
From October 5, 2016 to September 10, 2019 — Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption.
On September 13, 2018, she was deprived of the post of chairman of the State Duma commission for the control of the reliability of information on income, property and in connection with the merger with the Ethics Commission.
From September 10, 2019 to October 12, 2021 – Deputy Chairman of The State Duma Committee on International Affairs..
On April 16, 2021, she announced that, that she submitted documents to the Crimean regional organizing committee to participate in the preliminary voting of the United Russia Party.
On May 28, 2021, she withdrew her candidacy from the pre-voting, transfer to a new job, application form The parliamentarian was sent to the federal organizing committee of the United Russia party.. According to the results of the primaries, almost 125,000 residents of Crimea supported Poklonskaya's candidacy, having become one of the leading candidates in the party primaries for participation in the elections of the State Duma of the Russian Federation in 2021.
On June 17, 2021, she took part in the last meeting of the State Duma The State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the VII convocation.

Legislative activity

On October 14, 2016, she did not support the draft law "On Municipal Police in the Russian Federation".
In 2017, she developed a draft law on Russian citizenship on "law of the soil". The document received a positive opinion from the Duma Committee on Nationalities and was subsequently reviewed.
Poklonskaya, together with deputies of the State Duma, proposed a bill on responsibility for establishing conflicts of interest in the work of deputies of the State Duma and senators of the Federation Council of Russia. On December 11, 2018, the bill was passed by the lower house of parliament, and on December 28 it was signed by the President.
On June 25, 2018, she co-authored a draft law on the establishment of a memorable date in Russia.: April 19 is the Day when Crimea, Taman and Kuban were accepted into the Russian Empire. The bill was adopted and published on August 3, 2018.
On July 19, 2018, Poklonskaya became the only member of the United Russia faction, who participated in first reading
draft law Pension reform in Russia and those who voted against raising the retirement age despite the faction's decision on consolidated voting on this issue. On August 29, 2018, after an explanatory speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the pension bill, Poklonskaya proposed her author's amendments before the second reading, maintaining the old retirement age, but providing for increased payments at a later retirement.
From 2016 to 2019, during her term as a deputy of the State Duma of the VII convocation, she co-authored more than 18 legislative initiatives and amendments to draft federal laws.
On January 14, 2020, she proposed to grant Russians the right to influence the revision or repeal of laws. According to the MP, if laws get in the way, they need to be reviewed or repealed. It would be possible to register such citizens' appeals on portal of Public Services.
On January 4, 2020, through her Telegram channel, she proposed renaming the draft law "On the Prevention of Domestic Violence in the Russian Federation" and calling it the Law on Strengthening and Preserving the Family, explaining that one should not "expose the family to a place of horror and constant beatings." In her opinion, serious changes should be made to the bill. On January 30, 2020, she did not support this law, proposing the following changes: changing the procedure for obtaining a protective order..
On January 24, 2020, she announced the development of a law on the responsibility of officials for insulting citizens. On December 16, 2020, the State Duma adopted in the third reading amendments on the administrative responsibility of officials for insulting citizens.
She also acted as the subject of the right of legislative initiative for a number of important bills.
On November 24, 2020, she initiated the removal of her name from among the authors of the draft law N1057895-7 "On Amendments to the Federal Law on Education in the Russian Federation".
On January 26, 2021, supported the draft Federal Law No. 1043391-7 "On Amendments to Chapters 23 and 25 of Part Two of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation".
On January 27, 2021, supported the draft Federal Law No. 1101332-7 "On Ratification of the Agreement on the Extension of Treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of America on Measures for Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms dated April 8, 2010".

Russian Ambassador to Cape Verde

On October 13, 2021, by Decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin, she was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Cape Verde.
On January 19, 2022, Poklonskaya announced the cancellation of plans for her assumption of the post of Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Cape Verde due to personal circumstances.
Two weeks later, on February 2, 2022, by Decree of the President of Russia, Natalia Poklonskaya was relieved of her duties as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to the Republic of Cape Verde.

Deputy Head of Rossotrudnichestvo

February 2, 2022 Decree of the President of the Russian Federation appointed assigned Deputy Head of Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States and Compatriots Living Abroad, and for international humanitarian cooperation Evgenia Primakova
On February 7, 2022, she announced that, as deputy head of Rossotrudnichestvo, she would be in charge of protecting the rights of compatriots and culture.
June 13, 2022 Released by decree of President of the Russian Federation from the post of Deputy Head of Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation.

Advisor to the Prosecutor General of Russia

On June 14, 2022, she was appointed advisor to Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation.

Personal life

Internet attention

After a video of Poklonskaya at a press conference on 11 March 2014 was uploaded to YouTube, she went viral among mainly Japanese and Chinese internet users, and also became the focus of attention of Internet communities such as Reddit, 4chan and VKontakte, which was reported by international news outlets. Within a month, the press conference was viewed over 1.7 million times. Many fan-created anime-style moe images of her uploaded to the Internet also attracted international media attention.
In 2014, Poklonskaya was among the most searched-for celebrities on the internet in both Russia and Ukraine. According to Google, she was the year's 7th most searched-for person in Russia and the 8th in Ukraine, and according to the Russian search engine Yandex – the 2nd most searched-for female in Ukraine and the 4th in Russia. She was described as a sex symbol by the New York Observer and Die Welt. Poklonskaya told the website Novorossia Today in March 2016 that she views her beauty as an asset: "My looks have never been an obstacle – I hope they deceive my enemies."

Family

Due to the international media coverage she received in 2014, Poklonskaya has been intentionally reticent about her personal life. Although Russian media reported her as being married, when Poklonskaya failed to disclose her husband's name in her financial declarations, she was forced to admit that she had broken up with her fiancé, and had only stated she was married to prevent unwanted attention from male fans who may have wanted to date her. Poklonskaya has a daughter named Anastasiya. In June 2017, Poklonskaya said in an interview that she was not married, although she noted that she previously “had a relationship with a man with whom we intended to formalize it,” but “it just so happened that we broke up.”
On 13 August 2018, a number of media reported that Poklonskaya married 47-year-old, a veteran of law enforcement agencies, honoured lawyer of Russia, and head of the office of the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia. The wedding took place in Crimea. A year later, in September 2019, Soloviev revealed that he and Poklonskaya had separated. In May 2020, in an interview with journalist Dmitry Gordon, she denied rumors that her first husband was the deputy mayor of Mariupol, Vladimir Klimenko.

Views

During the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, Poklonskaya voted for successful candidate Viktor Yushchenko.
Poklonskaya said that since March 2014 she has not been a citizen of Ukraine. In April 2022, she referred to Russia and Ukraine as her "two native countries". Also in April 2022, she said Ukrainian society has "changed" in the eight years since the beginning of the war in Donbas with pro-Russian separatists and that "Ukraine is not Russia".
During the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election, Poklonskaya expressed admiration for successful candidate Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling him "a wonderful actor and politician" and saying that she considers Zelenskyy "a talented person" and "would be ready to vote for him."
In March 2024, after the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, Poklonskaya advocated the return of the death penalty.

Religion

In March 2017, she claimed that a bronze bust of Tsar Nicholas II in Simferopol was seeping fragrant myrrh. The Russian Orthodox Church stated that they did not detect traces on the bronze bust, but instructed the church priest to continue observation; in the past some Roman Catholic worshippers had made claims of weeping statues of the Virgin Mary. Poklonskaya's statement drew ridicule from some Russian netizens.
In February 2017, Poklonskaya led a campaign to block the release of the film Matilda for its allegedly blasphemous portrayal of the affair between Tsar Nicholas II and the ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya. In April, Poklonskaya released a 39-page report attempting to denounce the film and alleging, among other claims, that the historically evidenced and well-documented affair could not have happened as Kshesinskaya was, in the opinion of the report's authors, "too ugly to have attracted the attention of the Tsar". Poklonskaya was accused of being the head of an unofficial "Orthodox Taliban" by Deutsche Welle. Poklonskaya has argued that Nicholas II's abdication in 1917 was legally null and void.
In 2025, she converted to Rodnovery and legally changed her first name to Radveda.

Criticism of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

In April 2022, the Moscow Times reported that Poklonskaya had labelled the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a "catastrophe". In a video address to an international forum she said, "People are dying, houses and entire cities are destroyed leaving millions of refugees. Bodies and souls are mutilated. My heart is bursting with pain. My two native countries are killing each other, that's not what I wanted then and it's not what I want now."
Also in April 2022, she had told a popular YouTube blogger that Ukraine's society has "changed" in the eight years since the beginning of the war in Donbas with pro-Russian separatists and that Ukrainians "would not greet Russia with flowers."
Later that month Poklonskaya also criticized the Z military symbol as used by the Russian invasion force. After doing this she received an immediate response from Rossotrudnichestvo head Yevgeny Primakov who claimed that the letters Z and V are "symbols of the very liberation of Ukraine from the obvious evil of terrorists and bandits."
According to the Moscow Times Poklonskaya's break with Russia's official line that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a "special military operation" to "de-Nazify and demilitarize Ukraine" was practically unheard of for a sitting official.

Other details

According to the declaration published on the website of the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Crimea, Poklonskaya has an apartment of 116.6 m² in use, and her income for 2014 amounted to 1.926 million rubles. According to the declaration published by the Central Election Commission in 2016, Poklonskaya’s income for 2015 amounted to 2.3 million rubles. From 1 January to 31 December 2016, Poklonskaya’s income, according to the declaration published on the website of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, amounted to 2.6 million rubles; for 2017, income increased noticeably and amounted to more than 4.5 million rubles; for 2018, income amounted to 4,736,578.30 rubles. She also owns a land plot for individual housing construction of 1014 ±11 m².On 8 February 2018, the Book World publishing house published Poklonskaya’s book Devotion to Faith and Fatherland, dedicated to the events of 2013-2014: “My public speeches during the Crimean Spring, the life and achievements of the staff of the prosecutor’s office of the Republic of Crimea are the first criminal case against a Euromaidan activist in Kiev, who caused bodily harm to employees of the Berkut special forces unit, the reasons and grounds for the decision to recognize the activities of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people as extremist and other decisions made in the position of the prosecutor of the republic.” The second part of the book is devoted to “activities to protect historical reality and human rights in the activities of cultural representatives.” The publication is supplied with photographs from Poklonskaya’s personal archive, taken in Kiev and other places.
In February 2019, Poklonskaya published an autobiographical book Crimean Spring: Before and After in the Prospekt publishing house. A first-hand story,” where she told about a huge period of life and the events of March 2014: “The text itself is a story about my childhood and youth, professional development, service in the Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, Kiev Maidan, moving to Crimea, national referendum, creation and formation the prosecutor's office of the Republic of Crimea, the election campaign for elections to the State Duma, the work and liquidation of the anti-corruption commission, criminal prosecution in Ukraine. The book is prepared in unique format - with illustrations in anime style, with epigraphs and unique photographs from the personal archive".
Poklonskaya plays the piano. On her visit to the summer residence of Tsar Nicholas II, she played Masquerade, a waltz by Soviet Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian.

Criminal case and sanctions

Following her appointment as Prosecutor General of Crimea on 11 March 2014, 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. Poklonskaya's 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.
Poklonskaya was sanctioned by the United Kingdom on 5 May 2014 in relation to "actively implementing" Russia's annexation of Crimea. 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 Poklonskaya 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.

Honours

Order "For Loyalty to Duty" — for courage, patriotism, active social and political activity, personal contribution to strengthening unity, development and prosperity of the Crimea.
Order of Saint Anastasia
Order of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna
Order of the Holy Empress Alexandra Feodorovna