Viktor Yanukovych

Infobox Prime Minister
name = Viktor Yanukovych
Віктор Янукович
pre-name =
post-name =


order = 9th & 12th
office = Prime Minister of Ukraine
term_start = November 21, 2002 – December 7, 2004
December 28 2004 – January 5, 2005
August 4, 2006
term_end = December 18, 2007
president = Leonid Kuchma
Viktor Yushchenko
predecessor = Anatoliy Kinakh
Mykola Azarov
Yuriy Yekhanurov
successor = Mykola Azarov
Mykola Azarov
Yulia Tymoshenko
birth_date = birth date and age|1950|7|9
birth_place = Zhukovtse, Donetsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
death_date =
death_place =
party = Party of Regions
spouse = Lyudmila Yanukovych
religion = Ukrainian Orthodox
riding =

Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych (Ukrainian: Audio|Janukowytsch.ogg|Віктор Федорович Янукович "Viktor Fedorovyč Janukovyč"; _ru. Виктор Фёдорович Янукович) (born on July 9, 1950 in Yenakiieve, Donetsk Oblast) is a Ukrainian politician, the current leader of the influential Party of Regions.

Yanukovych was the Prime Minister of Ukraine twice - from November 21, 2002 to December 31, 2004 and from August 4, 2006 to December 18, 2007. He was also the appointed Governor of Donetsk Oblast between 1997 and 2002. He was the runner-up in the 2004 Presidential election.

Biography

Yanukovych was born in Yenakiieve, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, in the working class neighborhood. His father, an ethnic Belarusian, was a locomotive driver and his mother, an ethnic Ukrainian, was a nurse; she died when Viktor was 2 years old. As a teenager, he lost his parents and was brought up by his grandmother. Yanukovych regards himself as Ukrainian.

Twice, in 1968 and 1970, Yanukovych was convicted and imprisoned for robbery and bodily injury . During the 2004 presidential election, he announced his acquittal in 1978. However, a lack of documentation raised suspicions of forgery.

Georgi Beregovoi, a Soviet cosmonaut of Ukrainian background, has long been a patron of Yanukovych. As the then-Soviet member of parliament for Donbas, Beregovoi was said to be protecting an unjustly convicted youngster and promoting his future 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 graduation, Yanukovych was appointed chief manager of a transportation company in Yenakiieve and admitted to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This appointment marked the start of managerial positions in regional, automotive transport. Yanukovych's political career began when he was appointed as a vice Head of Donetsk Oblast Administration in August, 1996. On May 14th, 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, Yanukovych 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.

Yanukovych's opponents have accused him of having been connected to local organized crime since the late 1980s and being its lobbyist up to national-level politics. He is closely linked to the so-called clan of Donetsk, an eastern-Ukraine-based business and political group, and its leader Rinat Akhmetov.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 to Lyudmyla Oleksandrivna they have two sons, Oleksandr and Viktor. [cite web|url=http://www.partyofregions.org.ua/eng/meet/leader/ |title=About us : The Leader |accessdate= |accessmonthday=January 19 |accessyear=2008 |work=for-www.partyofregions.org.ua ] He enjoys tennis, hunting and pigeon-breeding. When young he participated in international auto racing competitions.

Prime Minister before 2004

In foreign affairs, Yanukovych's cabinet was considered to be close to Russia but declared looking forward to membership in the European Union for Ukraine. Although Yanukovych's coalition was not supporting country's membership in the NATO, his cabinet agreed commission of Ukrainian troops to the war in Iraq in support of America's War on Terror.

2004 presidential election in Ukraine

In 2004, as 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%. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4014881.stm Ukraine rivals clash in TV debate] ] 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.Fact|date=July 2007 Five days after the defeat in the presidential election, Yanukovych declared his resignation from the post of prime minister.

For the election, Yanukovych wrote an autobiography for the CEC (Central Election Committee), in which he misspelled his academic degree as "proFFessor". Thereafter, he came to be widely referred to under this nickname in oppositional media and opponents' speeches.

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. [cite web|url=http://www.korrespondent.net/display_print.php?arid=143172 |title=Lutsenko accepts the fact of falsification with the clearing of charges on Yanukovych |accessdate= |accessmonthday=January 15 |accessyear=2007 |work=Korrespondent |language=Russian] However, the latter statement was corrected within days by Lutsenko himself who conceded 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. [cite web|url=http://www.lenta.ru/news/2006/01/29/yanukovich/_Printed.htm |title=The head of MVD of Ukraine did not find a way to remove Yanukovych from the election ballot |accessdate= |accessmonthday=January 15 |accessyear=2007 |work=Lenta.ru |language=Russian] [cite web|url=http://www.korrespondent.net/main/143686 |title=Yanukovych can go to the elections, even with falsifications |accessdate= |accessmonthday=January 15 |accessyear=2007 |work=Korrespondent |language=Russian]

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. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5245330.stm |title=Yanukovych approved as Ukraine PM |accessdate= |accessmonthday=January 15 |accessyear=2007 |work=BBC News ]

On May 25, 2007, Viktor Yanukovych was assigned the post of appointed chairman of the Government Chiefs Council of the Commonwealth of Independent States. [cite web|url=http://en.for-ua.com/news/2007/05/25/160059.html |title=Viktor Yanukovych was appointed chairman of the Government Chiefs Council of the CIS |accessdate= |accessmonthday=May 25 |accessyear=2007 |work=for-ua ]

In the parliamentary elections on 30 September 2007, the Party of Regions won 175 out of 450 seats (34.37% of the votes) in the Verkhovna Rada. Despite, increasing its overall percentage of support compared to the 2006 election (when it was 32.14 %), the party lost 130,000 votes and 11 parliamentary seats. [http://www2.pravda.com.ua/en/news/2007/10/9/9151.htm Yanukovych Loses 300,000 While Tymoshenko Receives Additional 1.5 Million] , "Ukrainska Pravda"] After Our Ukraine, and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc formed a government on December 18 2007 the Party of Regions went into opposition.

ee also

* 2007 Ukrainian political crisis

References

External links

* [http://www.ya2006.com.ua/eng/ ya2006.com.ua] — Viktor Yanukovych Personal Information Server (previously known as [http://www.ya2004.com.ua/ ya2004] )
* [http://janukovicha.clan.su/ CLAN of Yanukovich: YANUKOVICH]