Sergey Abeltsev

Sergey Nikolayevich Abeltsev
Born	(1961-05-06) May 6, 1961 Lyubertsy, Russian SFSR
Occupation(s)	Politician, bodyguard (former)
Years active	1991–present
Known for	Former deputy of the State Duma of Russia, member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), bodyguard to Vladimir Zhirinovsky

Sergey Nikolayevich Abeltsev (; born 6 May 1961 in Lyubertsy, Russian SFSR) is a former deputy of the State Duma of Russia and previously served as a bodyguard to Vladimir Zhirinovsky. From December 2003 onward, he was a member of the State Duma Committee on National Security and represented the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR). Prior to his parliamentary role, Abeltsev was involved in the LDPR Supreme Council. His academic background includes qualifications in management, law, and military science.

Career

Abeltsev began working as an aide to LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky in 1991. By December 1992, he had joined the Supreme Council of the party and held the position of deputy chairman.

He secured election to the 1st State Duma in 1993 and was re-elected to the 2nd State Duma in 1995. In 2001, he completed his studies at the Law Institute affiliated with Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. He later won a seat again in the 5th State Duma during the 2007 elections.

Abeltsev acted as a trusted representative for LDPR presidential hopeful Zhirinovsky in both 2000 and 2018. In 2021, although he aimed to return to the State Duma, he was excluded from the LDPR candidate list by the party’s highest council. Between April 2022 and November 2023, he fulfilled duties as assistant to the first deputy head of the LDPR faction within the State Duma.

Controversial activities

Known for making contentious remarks, Abeltsev once proposed that Yevgeny Adamov, former minister of atomic energy, be eliminated to prevent sensitive state information from being revealed in Switzerland. In June 2009, during an interview broadcast on Georgian channel Rustavi 2, he insulted U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip H. Gordon, suggesting Gordon should change his last name and abandon politics to operate a sex shop at the White House. Although Abeltsev later described this as provocation, he did not retract these statements.

Academic Degrees

In 1997, Abeltsev was awarded a candidate degree in legal sciences after defending a dissertation titled “Greed and Violence in Serious Crimes Against the Person”. He later earned a doctoral degree in legal sciences in 2001 with a thesis on “Criminological Study of Violence and the Protection of the Individual from Violent Crimes”.

Investigations by Dissernet uncovered significant unattributed copying within his doctoral dissertation from other authors’ works as well as from his earlier candidate dissertation. Furthermore, this doctoral thesis was reportedly used without proper citation as a foundation for Vladimir Vasilyev’s candidate dissertation; Vasilyev served as Deputy Secretary of Russia’s Security Council at that time.

Arrest on Suspicion of Fraud

On July 18, 2024, Sergey Abeltsev was detained and subsequently arrested by order of the Zamoskvoretsky District Court on allegations involving large-scale fraud under Part 4, Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code. Authorities suspect him of misappropriating funds amounting to 10 million rubles. Investigators claim that Abeltsev falsely asserted connections with senior State Duma officials and promised to secure an assistant deputy position in exchange for payment.

External links

• Official website (in Russian)
• Instagram (in Russian)
• VK (in Russian)
• Profile on State Duma site (in Russian)
• Profile on LDPR site (in Russian)
• Article about Abeltsev at grani.ru (in Russian)