Oleg Kozhemyako

Oleg Nikolayevich Kozhemyako (Оле́г Никола́евич Кожемя́ко; born 17 March 1962) is a Russian politician serving as Governor of Primorsky Krai since 2018. Previously, he served as Governor of Sakhalin Oblast from 2015 to 2018. He also served two terms as Governor of Amur Oblast and one term as the head of Koryak Autonomous Okrug.

Career
Kozhemyako was appointed as the representative of the Legislative Assembly of Primorsky Krai in the Federation Council in 2002. Then, he was elected as the head of Koryak Autonomous Okrug on 15 April 2005 and held it until the okrug merged with Kamchatka Oblast on 30 June 2007.

On 16 October 2008 President Dmitry Medvedev appointed him to the Amur governorship to replace Nikolai Kolesov. On 14 October 2012, after direct elections of governors were restored, Kozhemyako ran for re-election. He was re-elected, collecting over 76% of the votes.

President Vladimir Putin appointed Kozhemyako to the governorship of Sakhalin Oblast on 25 March 2015 to replace Alexander Khoroshavin, who was arrested and charged with accepting bribes.

On 26 September 2018 Kozhemyako was appointed as the acting governor of Primorsky Krai. On 16 December 2018 he won the recall election for the governorship of Primorsky Krai.

Sanctions
In May 2022, Oleg Kozhemyako was included in the Myrotvorets Ukrainian database.

In February 2023, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Department of the Treasury added Kozhemyako to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List due to his involvement in the “the implementation of Russian operations and aggression against Ukraine, as well as the illegal management of the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine in the interests of the Russian Federation”, especially in enforcement of the conscription of Russian citizens to fight in the invasion. Earlier in October 2022, he was sanctioned by Ukraine due to him being "the head of a state body that supported / encouraged / publicly approved the policy of the Russian Federation aimed at conducting military operations and genocide of the civilian population in Ukraine." On February 2024, he was added to Australia’s sanctions list for involvement in the abductions of Ukrainian children during the war. In May 2024, he was sanctioned by the European Union over his role in facilitating weapons deliveries to North Korea.