Documentary evidence emerged on Nov. 20 that Odesa Mayor Hennady Trukhanov is a Russian citizen, according to the database on the site of Russia’s Federal Tax Service.
The database shows his name, date of birth, Russian passport number and Russian individual tax number.
Trukhanov denied having a Russian passport. “Don’t believe in lies and rumors,” he said.
The database on the site of Russia’s Federal Tax Service shows that Odesa Mayor Hennady Trukhanov is a Russian citizen.
Lawmakers Yegor Firsov and Volodymyr Aryev previously published what they said were documents from Russia’s Federal Migration Service, according to which Trukhanov has two Russian passports: one issued in Moscow Oblast and another in the republic of Dagestan.
According to offshore documents leaked as part of the Panama Papers last year, Trukhanov is registered in the city of Sergiev Posad in Moscow Oblast, the Slidstvo.info investigative show reported.
Under Ukrainian law, Ukrainian citizenship is lost once a person who is more than 18 years old voluntarily acquires the citizenship of another state. All Ukrainian public officials, including mayors, must be Ukrainian citizens.
The Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, did not respond to a request for comment on whether it would investigate the evidence. Previously the SBU has said that Trukhanov’s Russian citizenship cannot be proven.
Trukhanov has also been accused of organizing and financing pro-Russian separatists in Odesa in 2014 – an accusation that he denies.
Documents published by Slidstvo.info show that Trukhanov owns a hidden network of offshore firms that control companies that have received city contracts.
Trukhanov and Odesa businessmen Alexander Angert and Vladimir Galanternik have been accused of spearheading corruption in Odesa, and according to an Italian police dossier were members of a mafia gang in the 1990s.
Trukhanov, Angert and Galanternik deny accusations of wrongdoing.
Andriy Aksyonov, mayor of the city of Dobropillya in Donetsk Oblast, is also a Russian citizen, according to the database of Russia’s Federal Tax Service. Aksyonov did not respond to a request for comment.
A document from Russia’s Federal Migration Service shows that Odesa Mayor Hennady Trukhanov is a Russian citizen.
