who is he and what is he accused of?

The FSB opened criminal cases against ex-State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev (declared by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent and included in the list of terrorists and extremists) for treason, participation in a terrorist organization and public calls for terrorism. All cases are combined into one proceeding. What the former deputy is known for is in the Kommersant certificate.

Ponomarev Ilya Vladimirovich was born on August 6, 1975 in Moscow. Since 1992, he studied at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University, and in 2011 he graduated from the Russian State Social University with a degree in state and municipal management.

Since 1989, he worked as a programmer at the Institute for Problems of Safe Development of Nuclear Energy of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1991, he founded the software development company Russprofi, first serving as commercial and then executive director. Since 1995 – in the Russian-American joint venture International Network Connections, since 1996 – director of development in the CIS countries of the oil company Schlumberger.

In 1998, he headed the information technology directorate of ZAO YUKOS EP, which was involved in oil exploration and production, and was deputy director in the project management directorate. In 1999, he was one of the founders of a subsidiary of the Yukos Oil Company, the Siberian Internet company Sibintek. In 2000, he became a co-founder and president of the YUKOS subsidiary Arrava Internet Management, which provided consulting services and developed an interactive television system.

In 2001, after the sale of Arrava IMC, he joined the board of the information company IBS, where he headed the direction of strategic projects and relations with government agencies, and was involved in the implementation of projects within the framework of the Federal Target Program “Electronic Russia”.

In 2002, he joined the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, headed the information technology center of the Central Committee, was involved in youth policy, and was the author of the Internet portal KPRF.ru.

Since 2005, he has been director of the Center for New Politics at the Institute for Problems of Globalization (its successor, the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements, is recognized as a foreign agent), and has been involved in the implementation of research and consulting projects in the field of macroeconomics and public administration. From 2006 to 2011 – Advisor to the Deputy Minister for Communications and Information, coordinated the work of the program for the development of technology parks in the field of high technologies in the regions.

In 2007 he moved to A Just Russia, where he became a member of the Central Committee. In the same year, he was elected from the party to the State Duma of the fifth convocation, was a member of the committee on information policy, technology and communications, and headed the subcommittee on technological development. In 2008 he became one of the founders of the Left Front.

In June 2010, he received the position of Advisor to the President of the Skolkovo Foundation for international development and commercialization of technologies.

In 2011, he was again elected as a State Duma deputy (of the sixth convocation) from A Just Russia, and became a member of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, Innovative Development and Entrepreneurship. He was one of the participants and organizers of the protests that followed the Duma elections. He was the founder and member of a number of opposition movements and initiatives. In 2012, the State Duma suggested Ilya Ponomarev and some other deputies will have to surrender their mandates if they continue to participate in unauthorized rallies. In the same year, the State Duma deprived Ilya Ponomarev of speaking for a month because he called his colleagues “swindlers and thieves” from the parliamentary rostrum.

In 2013 came out from A Just Russia as a protest against the exclusion of Gennady and Dmitry Gudkov from it. In 2014, he ran for mayor of Novosibirsk from the Alliance of Greens and Social Democrats party, but withdrew his candidacy in favor of State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Anatoly Lokt.

In March 2014, he became the only member of the State Duma who voted against the entry of Crimea and Sevastopol into Russia. In July of the same year, he moved first to the USA, then to Ukraine.

In April 2015, he was deprived of parliamentary immunity at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office; in June of the same year, a case was opened against Ilya Ponomarev for complicity in the embezzlement of 22 million rubles. from the funds of the Skolkovo Foundation, he was announced on the international wanted list. In 2016, he became the first to be deprived of parliamentary powers for failure to fulfill his duties for 30 days or more. In the same year, he received a residence permit in Ukraine, and in May 2019, he received citizenship of the country.

In August 2022, he was arrested in absentia for spreading fake news about the Russian army. In October of the same year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs put Ilya Ponomarev on the wanted list under a criminal article. In January 2023, Rosfinmonitoring added Ilya Ponomarev to the register of extremists and terrorists. In September of the same year, a criminal case was opened against the former deputy for organizing the activities of an undesirable organization, the “Congress of People’s Deputies,” created in 2022 in Poland. In November 2023, he was fined 30 thousand rubles. for violating the rules of foreign agent activity.