Umerov Rustem

Rustem Enverovich Umerov – Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine (2022-2023). Member of Parliament of Ukraine IX convocation (2019-2022).

Rustem Umerov was born on April 19, 1982, in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) in a family of resettlers from Alushta (Crimea, Ukraine). He belongs to the Crimean Tatars and is a Muslim. Due to the conditions of deportation, he lived in exile for 50 years, and after the beginning of the repatriation of the Crimean Tatars in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was able to return to his historical homeland in Ukrainian Crimea.

Rustem Umerov graduated from the Crimean Boarding Gymnasium for Gifted Children of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine. He was also a student of the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program in the USA.

Rustem received his university education at the National Academy of Management, where he obtained bachelor's degrees in economics and a master's in finance.

From 2004 to 2010, Rustem held various managerial positions at lifecell. In 2013, he founded the investment company ASTEM, which manages investments in telecommunications, information technology, and infrastructure.

In politics, Rustem Umerov served from 2019 to 2022 as a Member of Parliament of Ukraine from the 'Holos' party. He was the secretary of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Human Rights, De-occupation and Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories in Donetsk, Luhansk regions, and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Sevastopol, National Minorities, and Interethnic Relations. He was also the deputy head of the permanent delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Rustem Umerov is a delegate of the Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar people and an advisor to the leader of the Crimean Tatar people, Mustafa Dzhemilev. He participated in the development of the state strategy for the de-occupation of Crimea and Sevastopol at the NSDC.

Since July 2022, Rustem Umerov was elected head of the Temporary Investigative Commission on Monitoring the Receipt and Use of International Material and Technical Assistance during Martial Law.

In February 2022, he was part of the Ukrainian delegation for negotiations with the Russian Federation to prepare and agree on a draft agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine.

From September 7, 2022, to September 5, 2023, he held the position of head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, and from September 6, 2023, he became the Minister of Defense of Ukraine.

In 2021, Rustem Umerov was awarded the Order of Merit, III degree.

Rustem Umerov is married and has three children.

Date of publication: 06.09.2023.