Former MP and ex-official of occupied Crimea Ruslan Balbek detained in Kabarda–Balkaria
In Kabarda–Balkaria, officers of the Interior Ministry have detained Ruslan Balbek, a former MP and former deputy head of the Crimean government in Russian-occupied Ukraine.
According to the Interior Ministry in Russian-occupied Crimea, a criminal case has been opened against 48-year-old Balbek under two articles of the criminal code: unlawful access to computer information committed by a group of persons or by an individual using their official position, and defamation involving the accusation of a person of a serious or especially serious crime, or of a crime against sexual integrity.
No further details of the criminal cases against Balbek have been disclosed by the ministry. The circumstances under which Balbek was found in Kabarda–Balkaria have also not been specified. The former MP had not previously been publicly linked to the North Caucasus, although at various times in his career he maintained contacts with public organisations representing the Crimean Tatar and Muslim communities of Russia, including those originating from the Caucasus.
The ministry’s statement noted that the court chose custody as a preventive measure for the politician. The maximum prison term for each of the charges is up to five years.
Balbek was born in Tashkent, then-Soviet Uzbekistan, in 1977 and completed school and university in Crimea. Between 2007–2012, he was a delegate of the Crimean Tatar parliament — Qurultay. During this period, he criticised the activities of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, which was later recognised in Russia as an extremist organisation and banned. In 2011, Balbek headed the public organisation ‘Generation Crimea’, which positioned itself as an opposition to the Mejlis.
After Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, Balbek was appointed deputy head of the Council of Ministers of Crimea. In 2016, he was elected as a deputy of the Russian Duma from occupied Crimea, a position he held until 2021. In the same year, regional-level criminal proceedings against him began.
In 2016, Balbek was included in the sanctions lists of the US and the EU.
In August 2025, it was reported that Balbek had been declared wanted. At the time, he told Russian media outlet RBC that he considered the criminal prosecution to be pressure from regional authorities. According to the former deputy, his conflict with the authorities was linked to his parliamentary appeals concerning the ‘unlawful change of permitted land use for the benefit of developers, the alienation of municipal land on fictitious documents, as well as the development of cultural heritage sites and their exclusion from the register’.
Balbek claimed that following these appeals, the Head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, asked him to stop such actions.
One of the criminal cases concerns defamation. According to the former deputy, it relates to complaints about corruption in the Health Ministry of Crimea. His former aide Fatima Sovkhoz and journalist Anna Gazhala are also named in this case.
The press service of the Interior Ministry of Crimea stated that investigative actions are continuing. The ministry also emphasised that at present, an inquiry is underway into all the circumstances connected with the alleged offences.
No comments from Balbek himself were available at the time of publication.
Elizaveta Chukharova
