Nikolay Azarov led his country's government until the Western-backed 2014 Euromaidan coup

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov has been elected an academician by the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), the country's leading scientific organization has announced.

Azarov, who is a Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences and a professor at Donetsk National Technical University, was Ukraine's head of government between 2010 and 2014. He resigned during the Western-backed Euromaidan protests in Kiev and fled to Russia after the overthrow of democratically-elected President Viktor Yanukovich in February 2014.

The former prime minister became an academician alongside 84 other scientists, including 39 from foreign countries, the Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement on Friday. During the vote the previous day, his candidacy was supported by 521 members of RAS, it added.

Azarov became an academician in the Department of Earth Sciences; his specialty is the mining sciences, the statement read.

According to RAS, Azarov, who has written more than a hundred scientific papers, made a significant contribution to the theory of the rational industry-related transformation of Earth's depth during the development of solid mineral deposits.

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Through his scientific work, the 77-year-old also facilitated the development of efficient and safe technologies for the extraction of ore, diamonds, coal and gas deposits, it added.

Azarov, who is a critic of Vladimir Zelensky and the current Ukrainian authorities, has been accused of treason by Kiev. A warrant was issued for his arrest in 2021; he stands accused of working in the interests of Moscow during the 2010 negotiations of a deal to prolong the stay of the Russian fleet in Crimea by another 25 years in exchange for discounts on gas supplies. The former prime minister has denied any wrongdoing, saying that the case against him was fabricated.