Yevhenii Muraev

Biography

Early life and professional career

Murayev was born on 2 December 1976 in Zmiiv, Kharkiv Oblast in then the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. Murayev's father Volodymyr Kuzmych was the general director of a construction company Rapid CJSC. His mother Olha Oleksiivna was associate professor of the department of chemistry at National University of Kharkiv.

In 1994 Murayev entered the Faculty of Economics of Kharkiv State University, from which he graduated in 1999. He completed with distinction. He received his second higher education at the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, he graduated there in 2014.

From 2000 Murayev worked in several companies in senior positions. He held the position of director of LLC "Anklav" (wholesale trade in petroleum products). From 2001 to 2007 he was director of MKM-Khirkov LLC and from 2009 to 2010 (he was director) of Eastern Financial Group LLC.

Political and media career

In the 2006 Ukrainian local elections Murayev was elected for the party Viche in the Kharkiv Oblast Council. In the same election he failed to get elected to the Kharkiv City Council for the same party.

In the 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election Murayev failed to win a seat as part of the electoral alliance KUCHMA. At that elections this bloc failed to enter parliament winning only 0,10% of the national vote.

Murayev was reelected in the Kharkiv Oblast Council during the 2010 Ukrainian local elections, this time for Party of Regions.

In 2010, Murayev was appointed head of Zmiiv Raion by President Viktor Yanukovich.

In the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election he was elected in electoral district 181 located in Zmiiv. He, as a candidate of Party of Regions, won the district with 56.15% of the votes. He was Chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign Economic Relations and Cross-Border Cooperation. Following his election he resigned as head of Zmiiv Raion.

In July 2019, Murayev told Dmitry Gordon that in February 2014 he had taken the fleeing former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov out of Ukraine from Kharkiv to Belgorod during the final days of Euromaidan.

In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election Murayev was reelected as an independent candidate in (the same) district 181. In 2014 he won reelection with 48.95%. From 2015 to 2016 he was a member of the Opposition Bloc faction. In the Verkhovna Rada, he was a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Tax and Customs Policy.

In 2018 Murayev became chairman of the political council of the For Life (Za zhyttia) party. In September 2018, he left Za zhyttia and (five days later) created the new political party Nashi (Ours).

On 10 January 2019, Murayev's party elected him as their candidate in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election. On 7 March 2019, Murayev pulled out of the election in favor of Oleksandr Vilkul. He also announced that Vilkul's party Opposition Bloc and Nashi would soon merge. In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Murayev headed the nationwide list of Opposition Bloc that won 3.23% of the votes and thus did not overcome the 5% election barrier, thereby keeping Murayev out of parliament.

Views

Murayev considered the February 2014 Maidan revolution a Western-backed coup d’etat. He claimed that the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation is recognized by the world and that the annexation is favorable to the government of Ukraine.

With the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War, Murayev said that it was a "civil conflict", noting that both sides received support from foreign states: Ukraine from the United States, and the separatists from Russia. Murayev speculated, falsely, that US private military companies such as Greystone and Blackwater took part in the battle of Mariupol.

Murayev believes that "NATO does not wait for Ukraine." He believes that the issue of Ukrainian NATO membership should be decided at a referendum.

Murayev is a supporter of decentralisation in Ukraine and expansion of the powers of the regions.

Murayev opposes decommunization and has advocated for the preservation (in Ukraine) of the symbols of the Soviet Union as "historical and cultural memory".

In an interview with the 112 Ukraine TV channel on 7 June 2018 Murayev described the, at the time imprisoned in Russia, Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov as a "person who was plotting arsons and explosions" and thus Sentsov was "a terrorist for one part of the population." In response to this in June 2018 the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine launched criminal proceedings against then MP Murayev on charges of treason and deliberately spreading false information about a crime. On 13 June 2018 Murayev published a video in which he apologizes to Sentsov. He said he did not know whether the accusations of terrorism against Sentsov were fair, he also stated that he had not express his personal attitude Sentsov. Murayev claimed he had made his remarks "to show how the government works." And used what he called the example of Nadiya Savchenko "when they did their best to create an idol and a new hero of Ukraine, which was used for political confrontation with the northern neighbor and as an instrument of pressure on the world community."

Personal life

Murayev is divorced (since 2017). He has three sons and one daughter.