Yury Chaika

Yury Yakovlevich Chaika (Russian: Юрий Яковлевич Чайка; born 21 May 1951) is a Russian lawyer and statesman, Presidential Envoy to the North Caucasian Federal District since 2020. Previously he served Prosecutor General of Russia from 2006 to 2020 and Minister of Justice from 1999 to 2006.

Yury Chaika
Юрий Чайка
Presidential Envoy to the North Caucasian Federal District
Assumed office
22 January 2020
PresidentVladimir Putin
Preceded byAleksandr Matovnikov
Prosecutor General of Russia
In office
23 June 2006 – 22 January 2020
PresidentVladimir Putin
Dmitry Medvedev
Vladimir Putin
Preceded byVladimir Ustinov
Succeeded byIgor Krasnov
In office
2 April – 29 July 1999
Acting
PresidentBoris Yeltsin
Preceded byYury Skuratov
Succeeded byVladimir Ustinov
Minister of Justice
In office
17 August 1999 – 23 June 2006
PresidentBoris Yeltsin
Vladimir Putin
Prime MinisterVladimir Putin
Mikhail Kasyanov
Mikhail Fradkov
Preceded byPavel Krasheninnikov
Succeeded byVladimir Ustinov
Personal details
Born (1951-05-21) 21 May 1951
Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Alma materUral State Law University
OccupationLawyer

He has the federal state civilian service ranks of State Councillor of Justitia of the Russian Federation[1] and 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation,[2] and also the prosecutor's rank of Active State Councillor of Justitia.[3]

Career

In 1995, he became first deputy Russian prosecutor general. He was appointed by then Prosecutor General Yury Skuratov, his former classmate from Sverdlovsk Institute of Law.[4] Following Skuratov's suspension, Chaika served as acting prosecutor general for a brief spell between April and August 1999. From August 1999 to June 2006, he served as justice minister.

On 23 June 2006, Chaika became Russian prosecutor general, effectively swapping jobs with his predecessor Vladimir Ustinov who took up the post of justice minister.[5]

A "Crown prosecutor" (likely a reference to Chaika) was mentioned in an email chain released on 11 July 2017 by the son of then Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump, Don Jr, in regards to the Russian government and their alleged attempts to provide damaging information during the U.S. Presidential election of 2016. The email thread resulted in the Trump campaign–Russian meeting of June 2016.[6][7]

On 20 January 2020, he resigned in connection with the transition to another job. The resignation request is expected to be considered by the Federation Council on 22 January.[8]

On 22 January 2020 he was appointed Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to North Caucasus Federal District.[9]

Notable cases

On 14 June 2006, the Prosecutor General's Office reported that it had reopened the "Three Whales" corruption investigation, a case in which nineteen high-ranking FSB (Federal Security Service) officers were allegedly involved in furniture smuggling cases, as well as illegally importing consumer goods from China. The mass media revealed that the officials dismissed around that time had worked in the Moscow and federal offices of the FSB,[note 1] the Prosecutor General's Office,[note 2] the Moscow Regional Prosecutor's Office, the Federal Customs Service and the Presidential Executive Office. Deputy heads of the FSB Internal Security Department also figured in the report authored by Viktor Cherkesov. The purge occurred while FSB head Nikolai Patrushev was on vacation.[10][11][12][13][14]

On 27 December 2006, he accused Leonid Nevzlin, a former vice president of Yukos, exiled in Israel and wanted by the Russian authorities for a long time, of involvement in Alexander Litvinenko poisoning, a charge dismissed by the latter as a nonsense.[15]

On 16 January 2007, Chaika announced that the Tambov Gang had recently forcefully taken over 13 large enterprises in Saint Petersburg and was subject to an investigation.[16][17] The leader of the gang, Vladimir Kumarin, was arrested on 24 August 2007. His associate and member of Putin's cooperative "Ozero" Vladimir Smirnov was dismissed from his position of Tekhsnabexport director.[18]

On 1 December 2015, Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) published a large investigation on Yuri Chaika, and his family. The Report comes with a 40-minute film Chaika.[19] An English version of the film was published two months later.[20] On 3 February 2016, the group Pussy Riot released a satirical music video titled Chaika, alluding to Navalny's findings.[21]

On March 15, 2017, the Ministry of Justice in Russia filed a claim with the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation seeking "to declare the religious organization, the Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses, extremist, ban its activity, and liquidate it."[22] Yury Chaika will be heading the prosecution.

Sanctions

In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, on 6 April 2022 the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Department of the Treasury added Chaika to its list of persons sanctioned pursuant to Executive Order 14024. [23]

In July 2022 the European Union imposed sanctions on Chaika in relation to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[24]

Sanctioned by the UK government in 2022 in relation to Russo-Ukrainian War. [25]

In 2016 Russian punk music group Pussy Riot released the music video "Chaika", sardonically commenting on corruption in the Russian judiciary. The song itself does not directly refer to Chaika, but the music video features women wearing seagull masks or making hand gestures of a seagull in dance (chaika (чайка) is the Russian word for seagull). [26][27]

Awards
  • Order of Honour (Armenia)
  • Order of Friendship (Armenia) (2016)

Notes
  1. Colonel General Sergei Shishin, former head of the Internal Security Directorate of FSB and current head of the FSB Activities Support Directorate, Colonel General Vladimir Anisimov, former head of the Internal Security Directorate of FSB, Lieutenant General Alexander Kupryazhkin, current head of the Internal Security Directorate.
  2. Prosecutors Dmitry Shokhin and Kamil Kashaev who had prosecuted YUKOS, head of the department for Investigations of High Importance Cases Vladimir Lyseiko, oversight directorates heads Alexander Kizlyk and Vladimir Titov.

References
  1. "О присвоении классного чина Чайке Ю.Я.". Decree No. 1133 of 31 August 1999 (in Russian). President of Russia.
  2. "О присвоении классных чинов государственной гражданской службы Российской Федерации федеральным государственным гражданским служащим Администрации Президента Российской Федерации". Decree No. 163 of 5 March 2020 (in Russian). President of Russia.
  3. "О присвоении классного чина Чайке Ю.Я.". Decree No. 1091 of 3 October 2006 (in Russian). President of Russia.
  4. Gridneva, Marina (20 June 2006). "Что в прошлом у будущего генпрокурора". Moskovskiy Komsomolets.
  5. Official biography on Prosecutor General's website (in Russian)
  6. Becker, Jo; Goldman, Adam; Apuzzo, Matt (11 July 2017). "Russian Dirt on Clinton? 'I Love It,' Donald Trump Jr. Said". New York Times.
  7. Ioffe, Julia (11 July 2017). "What the Heck Is a Russian 'Crown Prosecutor'?". The Atlantic.
  8. Генпрокурор Юрий Чайка покинул свой пост
  9. Yury Chaika appointed Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to North Caucasus Federal District
  10. "Property Fund's Confistated Goods Dealer Fired - Kommersant Moscow". Archived from the original on 6 February 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
  11. "Mass Dismissals at the FSB - Kommersant Moscow". Archived from the original on 12 May 2011. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
  12. Zapodinskaya, Ekaterina (20 September 2006). "Прокуроры ЮКОСа остались без работы [Prosecutors of YUKOS are left without work]". Kommersant.
  13. "Уволенные указом Путина генералы ФСБ продолжают работать [The FSB generals dismissed by Putin's decree continue to work]". Грани.Ру. 13 November 2006.
  14. Yasmann, Victor (26 September 2006). "Russia: Corruption Scandal Could Shake Kremlin". Radio Free Europe. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007.
  15. Gardham, Duncan (28 December 2006). "Oil billionaire named in Litvinenko inquiry". The Telegraph.
  16. "Тамбовская группировка захватила в Петербурге 13 предприятий". spbland.ru. 16 January 2007.
  17. "Генпрокурор: арестованы 27 членов тамбовской ОПГ". Archived from the original on 18 January 2007.
  18. "Что произошло с убийством Политковской". Echo of Moscow. 1 September 2007.
  19. "Russia's mafia state | Alexey Navalny's group publishes startling revelations linking the Attorney General's son to the mob". Meduza. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  20. Navalny, Alexei (26 January 2016). "Chaika. An investigative documentary". Anti-Corruption Foundation. Archived from the original on 2021-12-19 – via YouTube.
  21. "Pussy Riot is back in high heels to tackle corruption". Deutsche Welle. 4 February 2016.
  22. "Russia's Ministry of Justice Moves to Ban Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia". 16 March 2017.
  23. Office of Foreign Assets Control. "Notice of OFAC Sanctions Actions." Published 2022-0418. 87 FR 23023
  24. "COUNCIL IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2022/1270 of 21 July 2022". Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  25. "CONSOLIDATED LIST OF FINANCIAL SANCTIONS TARGETS IN THE UK" (PDF). Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  26. Pussy Riot is back in high heels to tackle corruption Archived March 27, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, Deutsche Welle, February 4, 2016.
  27. Pussy Riot is back in high heels to tackle corruption Archived March 27, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, Deutsche Welle, February 4, 2016.

See also
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