Davyd Arahamiya

Biography

David Arakhamia became a Member of Parliament of Ukraine of the 9th convocation in 2019 and was appointed head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction. He is also known in online communities as David Brown. In the Verkhovna Rada, he joined the Committee on National Security, Defence and Intelligence.

Originally from Mykolaiv, prior to 2019 he was a successful IT entrepreneur and an active volunteer who worked closely with the military and state institutions. During the 2015 mayoral election in Mykolaiv, he supported Oleksandr Senkevych, a candidate from the Self Reliance (Samopomich) party.

He has his own international connections, including with Republicans in the United States, as he lived and conducted business there until 2013. As head of the parliamentary faction, he gained significant influence in parliament by securing votes for legislative initiatives supported by the ruling party. On the one hand, Arakhamia contributed to the Verkhovna Rada losing its independence and becoming an instrument of the Presidential Office; on the other hand, he managed to retain a degree of influence through his personal relationship with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He remains one of the few figures to have maintained direct access to the President despite resistance from the Head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak.

During the August 2025 government crisis, when parliament took part in a Presidential Office-led operation aimed at dismantling the independence of NABU and SAPO, Arakhamia helped secure votes for Draft Law No. 12414 (while violating several provisions of parliamentary procedure). The bill was signed the same day by Speaker of Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk and the President. Following public protests and a series of statements by international partners condemning this undemocratic approach and the rollback of anti-corruption efforts, the President submitted a new bill to parliament, which was adopted and restored all powers to the anti-corruption institutions.

Publicly, David Arakhamia expressed support for the President’s decision. Privately, however, in published Servant of the People faction chat messages, he promised full support to MPs who demanded guarantees of protection from SAPO and NABU in exchange for voting again. At present, he himself enjoys no such guarantees, despite being regarded as one of the key business power brokers within the government. This is reflected in his ties to Danylo Hetmantsev, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Tax Policy, as well as his consistent political support for former Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, whose prolonged tenure in office and subsequent appointment as Minister of Defence, overseeing multi-billion budgets, were widely linked to that backing.

Timeline of Key Events

2026

Voted in favour, at first reading, of the controversial Civil Code draft (No. 15150) submitted by Speaker of Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk. The draft, spanning 803 pages, was fast-tracked through parliament before even the Ministry of Justice had sufficient time to review it within three weeks of registration. The initiative contained provisions that could facilitate the transfer of state and municipal assets — including forests, coastlines and natural resources — into private hands. It also posed risks to freedom of expression. Following the parliamentary vote, street protests took place across several regions. Demonstrators were particularly angered by provisions viewed as restricting the rights of women and the LGBT community. A petition calling on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to veto the bill gathered more than 25,000 signatures on its first day. Judges of the Supreme Court also raised substantial concerns. The draft Civil Code, which had not undergone proper public consultation, would effectively have dismantled more than twenty years of judicial practice developed since the adoption of the current Civil Code.

2025

Supported the so-called “Ihor Mazepa Law” (Draft Law No. 12089). The legislative initiative largely reflected the demands of vested business interests. It provided for the effective “reset” of claims regarding illegally acquired forests and coastal lands if ten years had passed since they entered private ownership. This meant that land grabs carried out over the previous decade could potentially be legalised. Where the ten-year period had not yet elapsed, state or local authorities would be required to deposit into court an amount equal to the value of the property before filing a claim to recover it. Despite a petition calling for a veto that gathered more than 25,000 signatures, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the law. The first known victim of the legislation was the case concerning Protasiiv Yar, a green area defended by the late military intelligence officer and Kyiv activist Roman Ratushnyi.

The same year, he voted for Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk’s controversial initiative abolishing the Commercial Code of Ukraine (Draft Law No. 6013). While the authors presented the law as expanding economic freedoms, it removed key principles governing relations between the state and business, as well as the management of economic activity in state-owned and municipal sectors. A number of civil society organisations warned that the law posed risks to national security and could trigger a large-scale redistribution of assets, particularly as parliament had not approved a list of property exempt from privatisation.

In July 2024, the ruling party promoted a draft law on increasing the effectiveness of plea agreements, which was criticised by experts, anti-corruption organisations, NABU and SAPO. Plea agreements require a full admission of guilt, full or partial compensation for damages, and cooperation with investigators. In other words, all of these conditions should apply together, rather than as alternatives, as proposed in the draft law submitted by Servant of the People MPs led by David Arakhamia. Critics argued that the proposal introduced an excessively simplified procedure that was unlikely to assist investigations. The draft law (No. 11340) was eventually withdrawn.

2023

Serviceman Oleksandr Yabchanka submitted a petition calling for a veto of Arakhamia’s law, which only partially restored asset declarations for politicians and public officials. At the time, the petition set a record, receiving support from more than 84,000 citizens within 24 hours. The President vetoed the law, and parliament subsequently restored asset declarations in full.

Voted in favour of the Law on the Legalisation of Medical Cannabis, allowing the production of medical cannabis in Ukraine for the rehabilitation of wounded military personnel, including the treatment of PTSD. The adoption of the law was advocated by the Patients of Ukraine NGO.

The same year, he supported legislation aimed at restricting the activities of clergy affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate.

2022-2023

Arakhamia crossed the border at least four times using vehicles belonging to Odesa businessman Boris Kaufman, who has been the subject of investigations by NABU and SAPO. This was reported by Bihus.Info. The head of the ruling parliamentary faction explained this by referring to a long-standing friendship with the businessman’s family. Media reports also suggested that Kaufman had negotiated with the authorities to preserve his tobacco business interests.

2022

Voted for the urban planning “reform” bill No. 5655 authored by Olena Shuliak, head of the Servant of the People party. Civil society organisations and the media criticised the initiative, while Chatham House warned that such rules could create favourable conditions for construction cartels. The European Parliament urged President Zelenskyy not to sign the law, and the European Commission also expressed serious concerns.

2021

Proposed a 30% reduction in excise tax on heated tobacco products by introducing an amendment to Draft Law No. 4278 on international postal consignments. The proposal granted unjustified privileges to a specific category of tobacco products and would have deprived the state budget of up to UAH 3 billion in revenue — roughly equivalent at the time to almost the annual budget of the city of Poltava.

2020

Became head of the Servant of the People party branch in Mykolaiv. The same year, after attending the World Economic Forum in Davos at the invitation of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, Arakhamia reimbursed the costs of the trip to avoid falling foul of anti-corruption legislation. This was reported by Schemes. Also that year, he suggested that Ukraine should agree to restore water supplies to Crimea in exchange for Russia withdrawing its troops from Donbas. The statement drew strong criticism from Crimean Tatars, after which Arakhamia apologised.

Another controversy arose the same year when media outlets published a conversation between MP Oleksandr Korniienko, then head of the Servant of the People party, and David Arakhamia. During the conversation, Korniienko made sexist remarks about fellow party member and MP from Mykolaiv Iryna Allahverdiieva, while Arakhamia was present and appeared to agree with the comments. Korniienko later claimed the recording had been edited but nevertheless apologised to Allahverdiieva.

Subsequently, Arakhamia agreed to act as a guarantor for Allahverdiieva, who had by then changed her surname to Kormyshkina, after NABU and SAPO served her with a notice of suspicion.

2019

Elected to parliament on the Servant of the People party list as number four. The same year, he was appointed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Supervisory Board of the state defence conglomerate Ukroboronprom. He also headed the Subcommittee on Oversight of Special State Law Enforcement Bodies, Law Enforcement Agencies, Special Law Enforcement Bodies and Intelligence Agencies.

2015

Obtained Ukrainian citizenship. He had moved to Ukraine in 1992 with his parents, who were fleeing the war in Abkhazia.

2014

Awarded the Order of Merit, Third Class, for his volunteer work. Arakhamia founded People’s Project and organised the volunteer initiative Narodnyi Proiekt (“People’s Project”). He also became an adviser to the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration on volunteer affairs.

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