Vadym Novynskyi

Vadym Novyn­skyi, born June 3, 1963, in Staraya Rus­sa, Rus­sia, is a Russ­ian-born Ukrain­ian busi­ness­man, for­mer par­lia­men­tar­i­an, and reli­gious fig­ure with Armen­ian roots. After grad­u­at­ing from the Leningrad Acad­e­my of Civ­il Avi­a­tion in 1985, he moved to Ukraine in the 1990s and acquired cit­i­zen­ship in 2012 for his ser­vices to the coun­try. He built his for­tune through the pri­va­ti­za­tion of Ukrain­ian indus­tri­al assets and co-owns Met­invest with fel­low oli­garch Rinat Akhme­tov via his Smart Hold­ing Group. Novyn­skyi served in the Ukrain­ian par­lia­ment from 2013 to 2022 and was a mem­ber of the Ukrain­ian del­e­ga­tion to the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe. A devout fol­low­er of the Ukrain­ian Ortho­dox Church–Moscow Patri­ar­chate, he was ordained as a pro­todea­con in 2020. Despite posi­tion­ing him­self as a peace­builder, Novyn­skyi has been sanc­tioned by the Ukrain­ian gov­ern­ment over alleged pro-Russ­ian ties dur­ing the ongo­ing war. He now resides in Zurich, where he con­tin­ues his reli­gious activities.

Ref­er­ences:

• Wikipedia – Vadym Novynskyi

• Forbes Pro­file – Vadim Novinsky

• Le Monde – A Ukrain­ian oli­garch attends unortho­dox mass­es in Zurich