The biography of Bolotov before the 2014 is very scarce. There is a video which shows that Bolotov participated in voting at a local referendum and showed a Ukrainian passport which indicated that he was born in Taganrog, Rostov Oblast on 13 February 1970.[2] According to other sources, Bolotov was born in Stakhanov.[1] Bolotov moved to Stakhanov in the Luhansk Oblast of eastern Ukraine in 1974.[3] According to the Russia Today, he held two university degrees.[4]