Russian government official found dead in Donbas

ALONA MAZURENKO – MONDAY, 15 AUGUST 2022, 17:40

Yevgeny Novikov, deputy head of the Altai region civic chamber, was found dead in the occupied territory of Ukraine, in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). Novikov allegedly went to Donbas with a "volunteer mission" but came under fire near Shakhtarsk on 10 July.

Source: Russian Kremlin-aligned media TASS referring to Yury Shamkov, the head of the civic chamber

Quote: "It was confirmed that Yevgeniy Novikov was killed in the DPR. He went there at the beginning of July on a volunteer mission.

On 10 July he came under fire; it happened in the Shakhtarsk district. We and his family didn’t lose hope that he was alive but recently he has been identified. This week, the body must be taken to Barnaul".

Details: Shamkov claims it was the first time that Novikov went to the occupied territory of Ukraine with a "volunteer" mission.

His relatives declared him missing in Donetsk-based social media groups: "Novikov has a bear tattooed on his chest".

It is reported that on 10 July, two "volunteers" of the all-Russian public youth "patriotic" organisation Naslediye (Heritage) were injured and 4 more went missing after they came under fire in the Shakhtarsk district of the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast.

Denis Pushilin, leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, reported that as a result of the attack on the Shakhtarsk district, 11 people were injured and 3 people died. 

Synopsis: The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation is a consultative civil society institution with 168 members, created in 2005. Members of the Chamber are not paid but the authority itself is funded by the government; it participates in public procurement procedures.

The Civic Chamber is elected every three years. It is supposed to interact with the authorities and local self-government bodies in order to "monitor the needs and interests of the citizens of the Russian Federation, protect their rights and freedoms in the formation and implementation of state policy, as well as to conduct public oversight of the activities of the authorities of the Russian Federation. 

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