Sergei Tsekov

Tsekov was born on 28 September 1953 in Simferopol, which was then part of the Russian SFSR in the Soviet Union.^[4] In 1979, he graduated from the Medical Crimean Federal University, with a speicalty in general medicine.^[4] Afterwords, he worked at the Dzhankoy Central District Hospital until 1979 as a surgeon, before becoming a surgeon and later Head of the Surgical Department at the Saki Central District Hospital until 1994.^[4]

A longtime pro-Russian activist as a member of the Party of Regions (until 2009) and then the Russian Unity party, he voted against the ratification of the Ukrainian declaration of independence in 1991 while serving as a member of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet, which was then succeeded by the Verkhovna Rada. He became the Chair of the legislature of his native Crimea in 1994, serving for one year. As an experienced member of the council, he was chosen by his successors as their deputy several times.^[5] During this time, he was Executive Director and Chairman of the Russian Community of Crimea.^[4] As a deputy, he was strongly supportive of Viktor Yanukovych and his call for a repeat of the second round of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election and was anti-Orange Revolution.^[6] In line with this, in 2008 he called for the recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and supported Russia during 2008 Russo-Georgian War.^[7]

Tsekov was a key player on the Supreme Council of Crimea in the events following the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution, during which he refused to recognise the legitimacy of the new government that came to power and successfully pushed for the peninsula's integration with Russia. After the annexation, he was placed on the sanctions list of the United Kingdom and has since been added to similar lists of other countries.^[8]

Tsekov took office as a Russian Federation Senator in 2014 after being appointed to represent his region by the Supreme Council. Since 2019, he serves on the Committee on International Affairs.

• Verkhovna Rada website