His name had been circulating for several days. On the evening of Sunday, September 3, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced his intention to appoint Roustem Oumerov as the new Minister of Defense, after the resignation of Oleksiy Reznikov amid suspicions of corruption. If this choice is validated by the Ukrainian parliament, this 41-year-old man will take the head of a highly strategic ministry, especially in times of war.
This proposal is not trivial. Appointing a Crimean Tatar to this post, at a time when Ukraine is showing more and more clearly its ambition to take back the annexed peninsula, sends an eminently symbolic signal. However, Roustem Oumerov was not born in Crimea, but in Uzbekistan. His people were deported to Central Asia by Stalin in 1944. He was nevertheless able to settle there again with the fall of the USSR and Oumerov grew up in the peninsula.
The man has subsequently maintained very close ties with the land of his ancestors. Elected to the Rada in 2019 from the opposition Holos party, he was co-chairman of the Crimean Platform, launched by Zelensky, which coordinates international diplomatic efforts to reverse the annexation of the peninsula by Russia in 2014. The Tatars, who make up 12-15% of Crimea’s population, had largely boycotted the referendum. For years, Umerov was also an adviser to the historical leader of the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Dzhemilev.
A graduate of the National Academy of Management in Kiev, Roustem Oumerov began his career in the telecoms industry in 2004, before creating and managing an investment fund from 2013 to 2019. His political career began with his election to the Rada in 2019, and continued with his appointment in September 2022 as head of the State Property Fund. A crucial post, in a country where the privatization process is riddled with corruption.
In this capacity, he led the largest privatization operation in Ukrainian history. Under his governance, the Fund has managed the sale and restructuring of more than 3,600 state-owned enterprises, from iron mines to seaports and other factories, a recent note from the think tank Eastern Circles points out. The very large number of internal audits and privatizations that Oumerov carried out earned him virulent criticism from oligarchs and politicians who lost a lot of money. His appointment at the head of a ministry suspected of being plagued by corruption is therefore certainly not the result of chance.
However, Roustem Oumerov’s career does not indicate any real military experience. But since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, he has proven to be very invested in resolving the conflict. The Tatar has repeatedly participated in low-key talks with Moscow, including on prisoner swaps and civilian evacuations. According to Eastern Circles, he has thus negotiated the release of more than 2,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war since February 24, 2022.
Oumerov was also part of the Ukrainian delegation which negotiated with Moscow, under the aegis of Turkey and the UN, the establishment of a maritime corridor allowing the delivery of Ukrainian cereals through the Black Sea. An agreement which was not renewed by Russia when it expired last July, but which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will try to relaunch during a trip to Sochi on Monday.
Since the start of the war, Umerov has also worked hard behind the scenes to convince Western countries to supply weapons to Ukraine. The gains obtained through privatization operations – more than 900 million euros since the start of 2023, according to Eastern Circles – would also be mainly used to purchase offensive equipment. By accessing the Ministry of Defense, Oumerov would therefore naturally continue the seduction operation carried out with conviction by his predecessor Reznikov among Ukraine’s allies.
