Head of the Republic of Crimea

The Crimean Peninsula, historically part of Imperial Russia and later an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, was ceded in 1954 to Ukraine, which administered it until the political-military crisis of 2014.

Under Ukrainian rule, an equivalent post, named President of the Republic of Crimea (Russian: Президент Республики Крым, romanized: Prezident Respubliki Krym), was provided by the 1992 Constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (de facto a special statute), with jurisdiction over the autonomous city of Sevastopol too.[2] The first presidential elections took place in 1994, won by the pro-Russian separatist Yuriy Meshkov (leader of a coalition named "Russia"), but on 17 March 1995 the Ukrainian parliament, as part of a wider process of reduction of the Crimean autonomy, abolished both the statute and the post of President of Crimea.[2]

Map of protests by region, indicating the severity of the unrest at its peak

In the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution led by pro-European nationalists hostile to Russia, the rise of pro-Russian protests in Ukraine led to the so-called Crimean crisis, parallel to the outbreak of the war in Donbass. On 6 March 2014, the authorities of the autonomous republic of Crimea, emulated the next day by the authorities of Sevastopol, unilaterally declared independence from Ukraine, formalizing it jointly with a request to join the Russian Federation on March 11.[3][4][5] On March 17, following a joint status referendum held on March 16, the Supreme Council of Crimea and Sevastopol City Council confirmed the independence of the newly unified Republic of Crimea from Ukraine and the popular will to join Russia.[6] On the same day, Russia recognized the Republic of Crimea as a sovereign state.[7][8][9]

Left to right: Aksyonov, Konstantinov, Putin and Chaly, signing the Treaty on Accession of the Republic of Crimea to Russia

On March 18, the Crimean authorities finally signed the accession treaty to the Russian Federation, thus forming the Crimean Federal District, subsequently merged into the Southern Federal District.[10][11]

On April 11, the State Council of the Republic of Crimea consequently ratified a new constitution, providing for the post of Head of the Republic of Crimea, effective from April 14 of the same year.[lower-alpha 1]

• Prosecutor General: Natalia Poklonskaya, appointed by Sergey Aksyonov on 11 March 2014[lower-alpha 1] (although the right of appointment has passed to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, her mandate was confirmed ad interim on March 25 and definitively on 2 May 2014 by Yury Chaika, ending on 6 October 2016);
• Representative to the Federation Council: Olga Kovitidi, appointed by Sergey Aksyonov on 15 April 2014;
• Prime Minister: Yury Gotsanyuk, appointed by Sergey Aksyonov on 20 September 2019.

• 
  Natalia Vladimirovna Poklonskaya
• 
  Olga Fyodorovna Kovitidi
• 
  Yury Mikhailovich Gotsanyuk

Three candidates were nominated for the election:[12]

• Sergey Aksyonov, interim Head of the Republic;
• Gennady Naraev, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Crimea;
• Alexander Terentyev, Deputy of the State Duma.

2019 inauguration of Aksyonov

Three candidates were nominated for the election:[13]

• Sergey Aksyonov, incumbent Head of the Republic;
• Pavel Shperov, Deputy of the State Duma;
• Sergey Bogatyrenko, Deputy of the State Council of Crimea.