A friend of Igor Girkin, Alexander Borodai is the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People鈥檚 Republic. A Russian citizen who previously worked in public relations, he says he met Mr. Girkin in 1996 in Chechnya and calls him a Borodai was allegedly a when he was in Chechnya. Additionally, he allegedly fought in Transnistria. He's on the .
He claims that his rebellion is a local uprising. 鈥淭he people of Donbas rose on their own. It is normal and natural that we ended up heading this movement because of certain competences, our abilities.鈥� Borodai denies any past role with the Russian security services; he told Retuers that he worked as a Malaysia's prime minister Najib Razak to recover the black boxes from downed flight MH17. Malaysian officials upset Ukrainian officials by referring to Borodai as "excellency."
