Ilya Ponomarev

Ilya Vladimirovich Ponomarev (Илья́ Влади́мирович Пономарёв, Ілля Володимирович Пономарьов; born 6 August 1975) is a Russian-Ukrainian politician who was a member of the Russian State Duma from 2007 to 2016.

Following jobs at Schlumberger and Yukos in the late 1990s, he became a successful technology entrepreneur.

In 1995 and 1996, Ponomarev acted as a representative of the networking software company Banyan Systems in Russia, creating one of the largest distributed networks in Russia for the now-defunct oil company Yukos.

From 2002 to 2007, Ponomarev served as the chief information officer of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

Ponomarev held the role of vice president at Yukos Oil Company, at the time the largest Russian oil and gas corporation.

Ponomarev's duties during those four years included those of corporate CIO, and chief executive of Yukos' subsidiary company ARRAVA IMC, which specialized in advanced oilfield technologies and services.

Ponomarev later founded the Siberian Internet Company, which was the origin of prominent Internet projects in Russia such as Gazeta.ru.

He also spent time as the Director for Business Development and Marketing for Schlumberger Oilfield Services, and the vice president for strategy, regional development, and government relations at IBS, which was at that time the largest Russian system integration and software consulting company.

During his political career, he was a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation from 2002 to 2007, and a member of the Central Committee of the social-democrat political party A Just Russia from 2007 to 2013.

From 2006 to 2007, Ponomarev served as the national coordinator for the "high-tech parks task force", a $6 billion private-public project to develop a network of small communities across the country to foster innovation and R&D activities.

In December 2007, Ponomarev was elected to the State Duma, representing Novosibirsk.

In the Duma, Ponomarev chaired the Innovation and Venture Capital subcommittee of the Committee for Economic Development and Entrepreneurship, and the Technology Development subcommittee of the Committee of Information Technologies and Communications.

He introduced and secured passage of legalization of limited liability partnerships in Russia, the Net Businesses Act, and tax breaks for technology companies.

Ponomarev's political views are considered to be "unorthodox left": a progressive libertarian position.

Some people describe him as "neo-communist", and critics inside the Communist Party of Russia have identified him as "neotrotskyist".

Ponomarev's policy goals included the following:

Internationally, Ponomarev advocated a broader "Northern Union" between the nations of Europe, the Americas, and the former USSR, but strongly criticizes the American model of globalization exemplified by the IMF, the WTO and the G8 structures.

He describes his proposals as "social globalism", and is critical of nationalism and clericalism.

He also criticized the privatization process in Russia, and blamed its neoliberal architects for the failure to establish a true democracy in Russia.

In 2010 Ponomarev co-founded the Korean-Russian Business Council (KRBC)..

From 2012 to 2014, Ponomarev was involved in International Business Development, Commercialization and Technology Transfer for the Skolkovo Foundation, managing the project initiated by Pres.

Dmitry Medvedev to create Skoltech: a university established jointly by Russia and MIT.

He was the only member of the State Duma not to vote in favour of the Russian gay propaganda law (he abstained) and to vote against Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014.

In April 2014, Ponomarev organized a coalition of opposition groups for the election of the Mayor of Novosibirsk, and withdrew his own candidacy to support the coalition's candidate: Communist Anatoly Lokot, who won the election.

He was a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (IT), Council for Foreign and Defense Policies, and the Council for National Strategy, and a fellow at the Open Russia foundation.

He also chaired the Boards of Trustees of the Institute of Innovation Studies (a think tank working on legislation for high-tech industries) and the Open Projects Foundation (an investment vehicle for projects in crowdfunding, crowdsourcing and open government).

In 2014, Ponomarev founded the Institute of Siberia, an analytical center focused on the regional development of Siberia.

In 2015, while in the United States, Ponomarev was formally charged in Russia with embezzlement, which he called politically motivated.

In 2016, he was impeached for not performing his duties, and he went into exile in Ukraine, where he obtained Ukrainian citizenship in 2019.

Following the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ponomarev stated that he had joined Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, and he denounced the invasion.

Ponomarev also endorsed acts of sabotage and arson in Russia, and launched a Russian-language opposition television channel called February Morning.

Following the killing of Darya Dugina, Ponomarev has claimed to have been in contact with a hitherto-unknown group called the National Republican Army which he said claimed responsibility for the killing.

He claims not to be a member but a supporter who is trusted to receive press releases.

Ponomarev's claims have been treated by observers with scepticism.

Ponomarev is the author of the book, Does Putin Have to Die?: The Story of How Russia Becomes a Democracy after Losing to Ukraine, released 2022-10-04 by Skyhorse Publishing.

Ponomarev was born in Moscow.

He holds a BSc in physics from Moscow State University and a Master of Public Administration from the Russian State Social University.

He started his career when he was 14 years old at the Institute for Nuclear Safety (IBRAE), Russian Academy of Sciences.

Ponomarev was one of the founders of two successful high technology start-ups in Russia, the first one (RussProfi) when he was sixteen years old.

His first job position was at the Institute for Nuclear Safety (IBRAE) at the Russian Academy of Sciences.