Quick Facts
Biography
Oleg Lvovich Mitvol (Russian: Олег Львович Митволь) (born October 3, 1966) is a Russian environmentalist, businessman and government official, known for his activity in the chair of environmental protection department.
Business career
In 1997 - 2003 Mitvol was the chairman of the JSC newspaper Novye Izvestiya.
As media tycoon Boris Berezovsky, owner of the newspaper, had fled from Russia to London, Mitvol obtained a 76% share in the newspaper from him, but Berezovsky effectively continued to support the newspaper financially. However, on February 20, 2003, Oleg Mitvol, citing a decision of a meeting of the board, kept secret from the journalists despite their 24% share, accused Director General of Novye Izvestiya Igor Golembiovsky of misappropriation of funds and fired him. The publication was suspended.
Berezovsky claimed that Mitvol's move was politically motivated, as the newspaper was opposed to President Vladimir Putin and on that very day had published an article by Vladimir Pribylovsky about the allegedly emerging cult of Putin's personality.
Accusation of plagiarism
According to examination performed by Dissernet, both doctoral and higher doctoral theses of Mitvol contain gross plagiarism from several doctoral and higher doctoral theses.
Environmental supervisor career
Since April 2004 he has been Deputy Head of the Russian Federal Service for the Oversight of Natural Resources. He soon became attracting media attention with environmental crimes investigations.
One of the famous campaigns by Mitvol was "Dacha war", against elite cottage settlements that were illegally built in the gallery forest area on Istra River shores. The "Piatnitsa" cottage settlement was ordered to be deconstructed. It was followed by protests of cottage owners.
Another his activity was about Sakhalin environment and its possible damage by oil-gathering companies. In September 2006, he threatened to revoke environmental authorisation for Royal Dutch Shell's Sakhalin II oil and gas production project. He brought in London lawyer Mark Stephens to take proceedings to preserve the Russian Far East.
On December 14, 2006, Sergei Sai, Head of the Service, tried - and failed - to fire Mitvol from this position.