DPR finds a replacement for fugitive Minister of Revenues and Duties
Authorities of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) found a replacement for Alexander Timofeev aka Tashkent, the minister of Revenues and Duties who fled to Russia.
According to Russian media and separatist sources, Evgeny Lavrenov from Nikopol City has become the Donetsk People’s Republic’s new Minister of Revenues and Duties.
Lavrenov resides in Donetsk but is a registered resident of Pervomaiskaya street in the city of Nikopol. Ukrainian Myrotvorets website states that Lavrenov has a nom de guerre Tamplier (Templar). He moved to Donetsk in December 2014 where he got a top government position. Before becoming the Minister, he managed the "Office of Strategic Industrial Development " in Zakharchenko’s.
According to the website Nikopolnews, Lavrenov used to work for the company Protech, which is registered in Alchevsk in the Luhansk region. He provided consulting services on taxation. The company’s name appears in five judicial decisions, four of them on criminal cases. He also allegedly worked for LLC VIP in the Solone village in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The company is provides wholesale intermediary serices.
On August 31, the leader of the DPR, Alexander Zakharchenko, who had led the Russian-backed separatist administration since 2014, was fatally wounded during in an explosion at Café Separ in the center of Donetsk. His inner circle fled to Russia right afterwards, including Tashkent who was also injured during the explosion.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor’s office for the Donetsk region charged Timofeev in absentia with a crime under s.1 of the Article 258-3 of the Criminal code (participating in the terrorist group or terrorist organization). He faces up to 15 years in prison.