Natalia Vladimirovna Poklonskayasince 2025 known as Radveda Poklonskaya () (; born 18 March 1980), is a Ukrainian-born Russian lawyer and civil servant, serving as advisor to the Prosecutor General of Russia since 14 June 2022.
She previously served as deputy director of Rossotrudnichestvo, Ambassador to Cape Verde, a deputy to the Seventh State Duma, and Prosecutor of the Republic of Crimea.Putin dismissed Poklonskaya from the post of prosecutor of Crimea . She has also served Ukraine's civil service as a prosecutor from 2002 to March 2014, working in various Prosecutor's Offices or as an assistant district attorney. She has a Master's degree in International Relations, as well as the formal title of State Counselor of Justice, 3rd Class in the Russia's civil service system.
Poklonskaya became known as a prosecutor of organized crime cases: Alexei Yukhnenko, Andrei Laptev, the organized crime group Bashmaki, Seilem, Imdat, the case of the murder of Andrei Nechepurenko, an accident in Dnepropetrovsk, as well as other high-profile criminal cases while working in the office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
Poklonskaya resigned as Prosecutor Republic of Crimea in 2016 after her election as a Deputy of the State Duma of Russia, where she served as deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Besides her law and diplomatic career, Poklonskaya is also known for her viral 2014 press conference as Prosecutor of the Republic of Crimea amid the Russian annexation of Crimea, which led to many fan-created anime-style moe images of her being created. In 2014, Poklonskaya was among the most searched-for celebrities on the internet in both Russia and Ukraine. She was the year's 7th most searched-for person in Russia and the 8th in Ukraine, and the 2nd most searched-for female in Ukraine and the 4th in Russia. She was described as a sex symbol. Poklonskaya responded in 2016 that she views her beauty as an asset.
Biography Natalia Poklonskaya was born 18 March 1980 in the village of Mikhailovka, in the Voroshilovgrad Oblast of what was and raised in a simple working-class family in Soviet Ukraine, and spent her early years in Crimea.
Later in 1990, her family moved to Yevpatoria in Crimea.
Her parents are ordinary people: her father worked both in the miner and on the collective farm, and her mother took care of the house. Natalia has repeatedly said that she was raised in her family with love for her homeland and a memory of the past.Биография Натальи Поклонской
Her parents are both retired, living in Crimea, and both her grandfathers died during the Second World War, with only her grandmother surviving the German occupation.
She chose the profession of law enforcement officer in memory of her uncle, who died at the hands of bandits.
She graduated from the University of Internal Affairs in Yevpatoria in 2002. In 2016, she completed professional training at the University of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation. In 2021, she defended her master's thesis at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
Natalia started her career at the «Izuminka» cafe in Crimea, working as a bartender and waiter.
Work in the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine She worked in the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, having worked her way up from assistant district Prosecutor to senior prosecutor of the Department of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine.
In 2002-2006 — she was an assistant prosecutor of the Krasnogvardeysky district of Crimea.
In 2006-2010 — she was an assistant prosecutor in Yevpatoria.
Between 2010 and 2011, she was the prosecutor, deputy chief department supervision of Prosecutor Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
In 2011 in Simferopol, she acted as the state prosecutor in the high-profile trial of Ruvim Aronov, a former deputy of the Supreme Council of Crimea and a former manager of the Saki soccer club. Aronov was prosecuted for his leadership role in the Bashmaki gang, an organized crime group that emerged in Crimea, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, and Kyiv after the 1991 dissolution of the USSR. The gang had been "known for its cruelty" and had been implicated in racketeering, robberies, eight abductions, and 50 murders.
As a state prosecutor in the case of the Bashmaki gang, she was poisoned during a business trip to Odesa. Poklonskaya described the situation as follows:"I drank a bottle of ordinary water at the hotel when I was on a business trip in Odesa. There was an unknown substance in the water. At the hotel, there was water on the nightstand, as usual. It happened at night - nausea, intestinal and stomach upset. A wild headache, my head was splitting to such an extent that I wanted to die." Subsequently, the unidentified substance was removed from the body; after the poisoning, Poklonskaya filed a report, telling the manager that she would no longer be able to work on this matter.
She also acted as a state prosecutor for members of other organized criminal groups, such as Imdat, Seilem, the organized crime group of Alexei Yukhnenko, and the organized crime group of Andrei Laptev.
In particular, Poklonskaya conducted a criminal case into the murder of Andrei Nechepurenko, the victim worked in a large recreation and sports complex in the Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky district of the Kiev region. In the summer of 2013, the media reported on the mysterious death of Nechepurenko, which occurred at the elite Senator Beach Club on the banks of the Dnieper River. With reference to the versions of the investigation, it was indicated that during a night walk on a boat, a young man in a state of alcoholic intoxication allegedly fell overboard and got under the screws. However, the reported that Nechepurenko could have been thrown overboard as a result of a conflict member in the UDAR party Artur Palatny and Ruslan Oleksenko, whom journalists call the ex-boxer's financial manager Klitschko. Poklonskaya was appointed the senior procedural head of the criminal proceedings.
In 2011-2012, she headed the Simferopol Interdistrict Environmental Prosecutor's Office.
From October to December 2012, she worked as the head of the Department for the participation of prosecutors in the consideration of cases by the Crimean Court of Appeal.
Later, from December 2012 up until March 2014, she worked as a senior prosecutor of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine in the 2nd Department of procedural management of pre-trial investigation and Maintenance of the Department for Supervision of Law Enforcement by Internal Affairs Bodies of the 4nd Main Directorate for in Criminal Proceedings. By the time she joined the Prosecutor General's Office, she had the class Rank of Advisor, which corresponds to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
In 2013, Poklonskaya acted as a public prosecutor in a criminal case involving a traffic accident in the city of Dnepropetrovsk.[ https://vkvideo.ru/video-59761231_167826492 Заявление старшего прокурора отдела Генеральной прркуратуры Украины Натальи Поклонской, ноябрь 2013 г.]
On 25 February 2014, Poklonskaya handed in her resignation from the post of Senior Prosecutor of the Department of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, but she was instead given a vacation and left Kyiv for Crimea where her parents lived. Poklonskaya was returned her official identification card of an employee of the Ukrainian prosecutor's office.
In March 2014, she completed her career in the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, went down in the history of the as a prosecutor investigating criminal cases and supporting state prosecution in courts against leaders and members of well-known organized criminal groups, as well as other high-profile criminal cases.
Prosecutor of Crimea On 11 March 2014, she was appointed Prosecutor of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea during the early stages of the Crimean crisis, as the region moved toward annexation by Russia. Her press conference that went viral served as Poklonskaya's formal introduction in her new role after she broke with the Ukrainian government in Kyiv. During the session, she denounced the EuroMaidan Revolution, describing the change of government as an "anti-constitutional coup" and an armed takeover. She also stated that she did not propagate Nazism, unlike some functionaries in the new Ukrainian regime, and dismissed legal threats by asserting she was not afraid of the truth. Appearing in her uniform, she detailed specific provisions of the Ukrainian Constitution she believed authorities in Kyiv had violated.
On 25 March 2014, in connection with the formation of the Prosecutor's offices of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol in the Russian Prosecutor's Office system, Poklonskaya was appointed Acting Prosecutor of the Republic of Crimea by order of the Prosecutor General of Russia Yuri Chaika.
On 27 March, she was awarded the class rank of Senior Adviser to Justice.
On 2 May 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree appointing Poklonskaya Prosecutor of the Republic of Crimea for a five-year term.Указ Президента России «О назначении на должность работников органов прокуратуры Российской Федерации»
On 7 May, she took the oath of office of an employee of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation.
On 11 June 2015, Poklonskaya was awarded the class rank of State Adviser of Justice of the 3rd class.
In 2016, Poklonskaya completed professional training at the University of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation
On 26 September 2016, she sent an application to the Russian Prosecutor General's Office for her dismissal from the post of Prosecutor of the Republic of Crimea in connection with her election to the State Duma of the Russian Federation.[ https://web.archive.org/web/20160926184313/https://ria.ru/politics/20160926/1477882918.html]
On 6 October 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed Poklonskaya from the post of prosecutor of Crimea.Поклонская освобождена от должности прокурора Крыма
Prior to her resignation, she was the youngest female general in Russia, at age 36.
Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation
On 27 June 2016, Poklonskaya took part in the second stage of the XV Congress of the United Russia political party in Moscow. By the decision of the Supreme and General Councils of the United Russia Party, at the suggestion of the chairman of the party, the Chairman of the Government of Russia Dmitry Medvedev — included in the election list of the United Russia party for the 2016 elections to the Russian State Duma.
On 22 August 2016, she officially became a candidate for deputy of the State Duma of the VII convocation.
From 5 October 2016 to 12 October 2021 — Deputy The State Duma of the VII convocation on the list of the party "United Russia"; however, Poklonskaya is not a member of the party.
Member of the United Russia faction from 2016 to 2021.
On 24 September 2016, she participated in a joint meeting of the Supreme Council and the General Council of the United Russia political party.
On 25 September 2016, United Russia nominated her for the post of chairman of the State Duma Commission for the control of the authenticity of income declarations of deputies.
On 20 December 2016, she took part in an off-site meeting of the United Russia faction.
From 5 October 2016 to 10 September 2019 — Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption.
On 13 September 2018, she was deprived of the post of chairman of the State Duma commission for the control of the reliability of information on income, property and in connection with the merger with the Ethics Commission.
From 10 September 2019 to 12 October 2021 – Deputy Chairman of The State Duma Committee on International Affairs.