Deputy Head of the Presidential Office has traveled to Russia almost 10 times since 2014

Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Oleh Tatarov flew to Russia at least 9 times after 2014.

This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations (CPI).

The report says that according to journalists, Tatarov, who was practicing law at the time, visited Russia three times in 2017, four times in 2018, and twice in 2019. The last time Tatarov flew to Russia was the day after Zelenskyy won the presidential election on April 21, 2019. A request for comment on his trips to the capital of the aggressor country sent by journalists to the Presidential Office was left unanswered by Oleg Tatarov at the time of publication.

The journalists analyzed and compared data on Oleg Tatarov's travels by accessing information from the border crossing databases of three countries - Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Since air traffic between Ukraine and Russia was suspended after 2014, Tatarov traveled to Moscow from Kyiv via Minsk on most of his trips.

Image: "Schemes"

Also, according to investigators, in 2015 Tatarov traveled to the occupied Crimea - on June 6, he crossed the Dzhankoy checkpoint. Tatarov returned back on June 8 through the Armyansk checkpoint. The car in which Tatarov traveled to the occupied territory belonged at the time to an employee of a company owned by Halyna Farynnyk, the wife of lawyer Vasyl Farynnyk.

After leaving the law enforcement agencies, Oleg Tatarov practiced law, received his lawyer's license in March 2015, and later became the managing partner of Tatarov, Farynnyk, Holovko Law Firm. Tatarov combined his legal practice with work at the Ukrbud construction corporation, where he headed the legal department. It is noted that as a lawyer, Tatarov defended the former first deputy head of the Yanukovych presidential administration, Andriy Portnov, Ukrainian oligarch Vadym Novynskyi, former head of the Crimean Court of Appeal Valeriy Chornobuk, and Ukrbud CEO Oleg Mayboroda. The journalists also recorded Tatarov accompanied by oligarch Rinat Akhmetov during his interrogation by the NABU.

Oleh Tatarov became deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine on August 5, 2020.