Viktor Yanukovych

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Viktor Yanukovych Віктор Янукович
Prime Minister of Ukraine
Incumbent
Assumed office  November 21, 2002 – December 7, 2004 December 28, 2004 – January 5, 2005 August 4, 2006 – present
Preceded by	Anatoliy Kinakh Mykola Azarov Yuriy Yekhanurov
Succeeded by	Mykola Azarov Mykola Azarov Incumbent
Born	July 9, 1950 (age 56) Yenakiieve, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine
Political party	Party of Regions
Religion	Ukrainian Orthodox

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Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych (Ukrainian: Віктор Федорович Янукович; Russian: Виктор Фёдорович Янукович) (born on July 9, 1950 in Yenakiieve, Donetsk Oblast) is the Prime Minister of Ukraine. He is also the leader of the Party of Regions, one of the main political parties in Ukraine.

Yanukovych was the Prime Minister of Ukraine from November 21, 2002 to December 31, 2004 and the appointed Governor of Donetsk Oblast between 1997 and 2002. He was the runner-up in the 2004 Presidential election. He was again made Prime Minister on August 4, 2006.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Governmental strategy 3 2004 presidential election in Ukraine 4 Post-2004 political career 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Biography

Yanukovych was born in Yenakiieve, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, in the working class neighborhood of Makiivka. His father, an ethnic Belarusian, was a locomotive operator and his mother, an ethnic Ukrainian was a nurse; she died when Viktor was 2 year old. When a teenager, he was orphaned and was brought up by his grandmother. Yanukovych regards himself as being Ukrainian.

Twice, in 1968 and 1970, Yanukovych was convicted and imprisoned for robbery and bodily injury. During 2004 presidential election, he announced having been acquitted of guilt back in 1978. However, no documentation has been presented, which raised suspicions of forgery.

Yanukovych has been long patronized by Georgi Beregovoi, a Soviet cosmonaut of Ukrainian background. Being, then, the Soviet member of parliament for Donbas, Beregovoi was said to be protecting an unjustly convicted youngster and promoting his further career.

In 1972, Yanukovych became an electrician in a local bus company and later finished tekhnikum. In 1980, he graduated (by correspondence) from Donetsk Polytechnic Institute, with a major in mechanical engineering. Immediately after that, Yanukovych was appointed chief manager of a transportation company in Yenakiieve and admitted to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This was the start of a quick management career in regional automotive transport. Yanukovych's political career began when he was appointed as a vice Head of Donetsk Oblast Administration in August of 1996. On May 14, 1997 he was appointed as the Head of the Administration (Governor). Between May 1999 and May 2001 he was also the Head of Donetsk Oblast Rada (Council).

In 2001, he graduated from the Ukrainian Academy of Foreign Trade as a Master of International Law. Later, Yanukovych was granted the titles of Doctor of Science and Professor.

Publication of documents that Yanukovych wrote by hand revealed numerous spelling mistakes; in particular, he was unable to write properly his position, professor title or wife's name in Ukrainian language. For this he was much ridiculed through the media, and the questions about his professional abilities were raised, particularly because Ukrainian is adopted as the only state language in Ukraine and state officials are required to have sufficient knowledge of the language to be able to perform their duties. [In fairness it is worth pointing out that Ukrainian is the language of Western and Central Ukraine. People in Eastern and Southern Ukraine speak Russian.]

Yanukovych has been accused by his opponents of being connected to local organized crime since the late 1980s and being its lobbyist up to national-level politics. Indeed, he is closely linked to the so-called clan of Donetsk, an eastern-Ukraine-based business and political group, and its leader Rinat Akhmetov. It is commonly alleged that these businessmen have connections to organized crime although such allegations were never proven in court.

Some allegations reached the Ukrainian press that Yanukovych had a secret relationship with the KGB (which supposedly started during his imprisonment). There was no documented proof provided to support such allegations, however. Proponents of this story argue that as an ex-convict, Yanukovych could not enter the Donetsk Polytechnic Institute, travel to the West, and later make a career, unless he was protected by some powerful "shadow force".

Viktor Yanukovych is a devoted Orthodox Christian and a member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He is married and has two sons. He enjoys tennis, hunting and pigeon-breeding. When young he participated in international auto racing competitions.

[edit] Governmental strategy

During 2003-2004 Ukrainian Governmen headed by Viktor Yanukovych implemented the series of economic (tax, pensionary, fiscal, ets.) and political (the Constitution amendments) reforms that led to two-digit annual growth of GDP. Annual growth of GDP achieved 109.6% in 2003 and 112.1% in 2004 (cf. 102.7% in 2005), capital investments 131.3% and 128.0% (cf. 101.9% in 2005) correspondingly. The highest rate in processing industry, viz. engineering industry, building sector.

[edit] 2004 presidential election in Ukraine

Further information: Ukrainian presidential election, 2004, Orange Revolution

In 2004, being the prime-minister, Yanukovych participated in the controversial Ukrainian presidential election, but eventually lost the election to the opposition candidate, Viktor Yuschenko. In the 31st October first round he took the second place with 39.32% of the votes to Viktor Yuschenko with 39.87%.^[1] A second round was scheduled because no candidate got 50% of the votes. In the second round of the election, Yanukovych was initially declared the winner. However, the legitimacy of the election was questioned by many Ukrainians, international organisations, and foreign governments. The second round of the election was subsequently annulled by the Supreme Court of Ukraine, and in the repeated run-off, Yanukovych lost to Yushchenko.

The Ukrainian parliament also passed a non-binding motion of no confidence in his government, urging outgoing president Leonid Kuchma to dismiss Yanukovych and appoint a caretaker government. Five days after the defeat in the presidential election, Yanukovych declared his resignation from the post of prime minister.

[edit] Post-2004 political career

Following his electoral defeat in 2004, Yanukovych led the Party of Regions in the 2006 parliamentary election. These elections determined the next government's makeup as, due to constitutional changes that came into force on January 1, 2006, the Prime Minister and his cabinet are now appointed by the parliament.

In January 2006, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine started the official investigation of the allegedly false acquittal from the criminal convictions Yanukovych received in his youth. Yuriy Lutsenko, the head of the ministry, announced that forensic test has proven the forgery of the respective documents (issued in 2002-2004 instead of 1978) and initially claimed that lack of the formal acquittal precluded Yanukovych from running for the seat in the 2006 parliamentary election.^[2] However, the latter statement was corrected within days by Lutsenko himself who conceeded that the outcome of the investigation into the legality of the Yanukovych's acquittal could not affect his eligibility to run for the parliament seat since the deprivation of his civil rights due to the past convictions would have expired anyway due to their statute of limitations.^[3][4] Despite having ruled out any post-election deals with the parties headed by either Yushchenko or former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko as well as the animus between himself and the President, Yanukovych and Yushchenko alike were forced to come to terms following the former's electoral victory. In exchange for Yanukovych's assurance that he will not interfere with the pro-Western international ambitions of the President, Yushchenko commissioned Yanukovych to form a government in cooperation with his own Our Ukraine party on 3 August 2006 (several hours after the deadline for doing so expired). The so-called "humanitarian" ministries, as well as the army and the police, remain headed by Yushchenko's allies, but the ministries dealing with the economy and finances, as well as all deputy Prime Ministerial posts came under Yanukovych's control. Erstwhile Yushchenko ally and former Prime Minister Tymoshenko announced her intention to lead her party into opposition immediately afterwards.^[5]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• ya2006.com.ua — Viktor Yanukovych Personal Information Server (previously known as ya2004)

Preceded by Anatoliy Kinakh	Prime Minister of Ukraine November 21, 2002–December 7, 2004	Succeeded by Mykola Azarov
Preceded by Mykola Azarov	Prime Minister of Ukraine December 28, 2004–January 5, 2005	Succeeded by Mykola Azarov
Preceded by Yuriy Yekhanurov	Prime Minister of Ukraine August 4, 2006–present	Succeeded by Incumbent