Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko (Ukrainian: Віктор Андрійович Ющенко) (born 23 February 1954) is the President of Ukraine. As leader of the Our Ukraine (Nasha Ukrayina) political coalition, he was the main opposition candidate in the October–November 2004 Ukrainian presidential election. Ukraine's Central Election Commission declared him the winner of the 26 December 2004 re-run of the runoff election, by 52% to 44% over Viktor Yanukovych. The popular protest movement which brought him to power is today dubbed the "Orange Revolution."
Yushchenko had previously served as the chairman of the country's central bank from 1993 to 1999 and as the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 1999 to 2001.
Born on February 23, 1954 in the village of Khoruzhivka, Sumy oblast, Viktor grew up in a family of teachers. His father, Andriy Andriyovych Yushchenko (1919-1992), took part in the Second World War, after which he taught English at a local school. His mother, Varvara Tymofiyovna Yushchenko (1918-2005), was both a Physics and Math teacher. Marital Status : Married, with five children and two grandchildren; sons Andriy and Taras, daughters Vitalina, Sofia and Christina, grandchildren Yarynka and Victor. Wife – Kateryna Mykhailivna Yushchenko. Education: Higher. In 1975 he graduated from the Ternopil Finance and Economics Institute as a Candidate of Economic Sciences. The topic of the candidate thesis – “Development of Money Demand and Supply in Ukraine”. A member of the National Academy of Economic Sciences and the Academy of Economic Cybernetics.
Work Experience and Socio-Political Life: 1975 Chief accountant assistant, collective farm “40th Anniversary of the October Revolution.” 1975–1976 Service in the Soviet Army (frontier troops, the Soviet-Turkish border near Leninakan). 1976–1985 Acting economist, chief of the Ulyanovsk department of the State Bank. 1985–1987 Deputy Director of the Administration at the Ukrainian Republican Office of the USSR State Bank. 1988–1990 Department head, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Ukrainian Agro-Industrial Bank. 1990–1993 Deputy, First Deputy Chairman of the Board at the Republican Bank “Ukraina.” 1993–1999 Chairman and Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). 1999–2001 Prime Minister of Ukraine. 2001–2002 Director of the Borys Yeltsin Ukrainian-Russian Institute of Management and Business. 2002 – January 2005 People’s deputy of Ukraine, member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee for Human Rights, National Minorities and Inter-national Relations. Leader of the “Our Ukraine” parliamentary faction. 2003 – January 2005 Chairman, All-Ukrainian “Our Ukraine” civil organization. Head of the Supervisory Council of the “Ukraine 3000” International Foundation (Victor Yushchenko Foundation). December 2004 Elected President of Ukraine.
Early life
Viktor A. Yushchenko was born on February 23, 1954 in Khoruzhivka, Sumy Oblast, Ukraine in a family of teachers. Later on, he graduated from the Ternopil Finance and Economics Institute with a degree in economics, to which he wrote a thesis on “The Development of supply and demand of money in Ukraine”. After completing his studies he served in the Army in a frontier regiment on Soviet–Turkish border.
He had been working in a bank system since 1976. Since 1983 he was the Deputy Director for Agricultural Crediting at the Ukrainian Republican Office of the USSR State Bank. In 1993 he became the First Deputy Chairman of the Board at agro-industrial bank “Ukraine”.
Central banker
In 1993, Yushchenko was invited by Vadym Hetman to work in the newly-formed National Bank of Ukraine (Ukraine's central bank). After Hetman's resignation in 1993, Yushchenko was appointed the head of the supervisory board of the Bank. Later, in 1997, he was reappointed as the head of the Bank by the parliament.
As a central banker, Yushchenko played an important part in the creation of Ukraine's national currency, the hryvnia, and the establishment of a modern regulating system for commercial banking. He also successfully overcame a debilitating wave of hyper-inflation that hit the country and managed to defend the value of the currency following the 1998 financial crisis in Russia.
Prime Minister
In December 1999, Yushchenko was unexpectedly nominated as prime minister by President Leonid Kuchma after the previous candidate, Valeriy Pustovoytenko, fell short of one vote to get ratified by the parliament. Yushchenko was confirmed to the post by an overwhelming majority of 296–12.
Significant economic progress was made during Yushchenko's cabinet service, though critics argue that this was made possible by the general situation of the economy, and was not the result of his actions. Soon, his government (particularly, deputy prime minister Yuliya Tymoshenko) became embroiled in a confrontation with influential coal mining and natural gas industry leaders. The conflict resulted in a 2001 no-confidence vote by the parliament, which was mainly the work of Communists, who had opposed Yushchenko's economic policies, and centrist groups associated with the country's powerful "oligarchs". The vote was carried by 263 to 69 and resulted in Yushchenko's removal from office.
The fall of his government was viewed with dismay by many Ukrainians; four million votes were gathered in support of a petition supporting him and opposing the parliamentary vote and a 10,000-strong demonstration was held in Kiev.
Our Ukraine leader and political portrait
In 2002, Yushchenko became the leader of the Our Ukraine (Nasha Ukrayina) political coalition, which received a plurality of seats in the parliamentary election that year. However, the number of seats won wasn't enough for a majority, and the efforts to form it together with other opposition parties failed. Since then, Yushchenko has remained the leader and public face of the Our Ukraine group (Ukrainian: fraktsiya "Nasha Ukrayina", фракція "Наша Україна").
Yushchenko was widely regarded as the leader of anti-president opposition in the government, since other opposition parties were less influential and had fewer seats in the parliament.
Since the end of his term as prime minister, Yushchenko has become a charismatic political figure and he is popular among Ukrainians in the western and central regions of the country. As of 2001–2004, his rankings in popularity polls were higher than those of the president at the time, Leonid Kuchma. [1]
As a politician, Viktor Yushchenko is widely perceived as a mixture of West-oriented and moderate Ukrainian nationalist. He is also an advocate of massive privatization of the economy. His opponents (and allies) sometimes criticize him for indecision and failure to reveal his position, while advocates argue that these are the signs of Yushchenko's commitment to teamwork, consensus, and negotiation. He is also often accused of being unable to form a united and strong team that is free of inner quarrels. One of his political allies is Yulia Timoshenko who, during the Kuchma presidency, was arrested and then cleared of fraud charges relating to gas privatization, while serving as deputy prime minister in a Yushchenko cabinet.
Presidential election of 2004
In 2004, as President Kuchma's term came to an end, Yushchenko announced that he was an independent candidate for president. His major rival was Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Since his term as prime minister, Yushchenko had slightly modernized his political platform, adding social partnership and other liberal slogans to older ideas of European integration, including Ukraine joining NATO, and fighting corruption. Supporters of Yushchenko were organized in the "Syla Narodu" ("Power to the People") electoral coalition, which was led by himself and his political ally Yuliya Tymoshenko, with the Our Ukraine coalition being the main constituent force.
Yushchenko's campaign was built on face-to-face communication with the voters, since the government prevented most major TV channels from providing equal coverage to the candidates. Meanwhile, his rival, Yanukovych, frequently appeared in the news, even accusing Yushchenko, whose father was a Red Army soldier imprisoned at Auschwitz, of being "a Nazi."
Dioxin poisoning
The campaign was often bitter, controversial, and violent, with accusations of "dirty tricks" from both sides. Yushchenko became seriously ill in early September 2004. He was flown to Vienna's Rudolfinerhaus clinic for treatment and diagnosed with "acute pancreatitis, accompanied by interstitial edematous changes", said to be due to "a serious viral infection and chemical substances which are not normally found in food products", which Yushchenko claimed to be the work of agents of the government. After the illness, his face became pale, heavily disfigured, bloated, and pockmarked.
After seeing Mr. Yushchenko's deformed face on the evening news, the Dutch toxicologist Bram Brouwer contacted the Rudolfinerhaus to test some of Yushchenko's blood at the Free University of Amsterdam for dioxin. According to Dr Michael Zimpfer, president of the Rudolfinerhaus, these tests provided conclusive evidence that Yushchenko's condition resulted from "high concentrations of dioxin, most likely orally administered". [2] This hypothesis had already been suggested by British toxicologist John Henry of St. Mary's Hospital in London, as the marks on Yushchenko's face are chloracne, a characteristic symptom of dioxin poisoning. Other scientists suggested that the illness might have been the result of rosacea but this theory failed to account for the severe internal medical problems suffered by Yushchenko. On December 11, Austrian doctors confirmed Yushchenko was poisoned with TCDD dioxin, and has more than 1,000 times (other sources say 6,000 times) the usual concentration in his body [3]. This is the second highest dioxin level ever measured in a human. Yushchenko's chief of staff Oleg Ribachuk has suggested that the poison used was a mycotoxin called T-2, also known as "Yellow Rain", a Soviet-era substance which was reputedly used in Afghanistan as a chemical weapon.
Yushchenko has linked the poisoning to a dinner with a group of senior Ukrainian officials, including the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Ihor Smeshko, on the evening before Yushchenko fell ill. This hypothesis is disputed by some toxicologists, who claim that symptoms of dioxin poisoning usually take 3-14 days to appear—John Henry, professor of accident and emergency medicine at St Mary's Hospital in London, said "a few months after swallowing" or other contact[4]—and experiencing them a few hours after ingesting the poison would be unusual.
Unprecedented three rounds of voting
Main articles:
The initial vote, held on 31 October 2004, saw Yushchenko obtaining 39.87% in front of Yanukovych with 39.32%. As no candidate reached the 50% margin required for outright victory, a second round of run-off voting was held on 21 November 2004. Although a 75% voter turnout was recorded, observers reported many irregularities and abuses across the country, such as organized multiple voting and extra votes for Yanukovych after the polls closed. Exit poll results put Yushchenko ahead in the western and central provinces of the country.
The alleged electoral fraud, combined with the fact that the exit polls recorded a result (an 11% margin of victory for Yushchenko in one poll) so radically different from the final vote tally (a 3% margin of victory for Yanukovych), prompted Yushchenko and his supporters to refuse to recognize the results.
After thirteen days of massive popular protests in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, known as the Orange Revolution for the wearing of orange ribbons by Yushchenko supporters in a sign of solidarity, the election results were overturned by the Supreme Court and a re-run of the run-off election was ordered for December 26. Yushchenko proclaimed a victory for the opposition and declared his confidence that he would be elected with at least 60% of the vote. He did win the third round, but with a smaller, 8% margin.
President
Inauguration
| On January 23, 2005, 12pm (Kyiv time), the inauguration of Viktor Yushchenko as the President of Ukraine took place. The event was attended by various foreign dignitaries, including Arnold Rüütel, Adrienne Clarkson, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, Vladimir Voronin, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Traian Băsescu, Ivan Gašparovič, Ferenc Mádl, Artur Rasizade, Jan Peter Balkenende, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nino Burjanadze, Artūras Paulauskas, Colin Powell, special guest Václav Havel, and numerous other guests.
States|CIS]] meeting.]] The first 100 days of Yushchenko's term, January 23, 2005, through May 1, 2005, were marked by numerous dismissals and appointments at all levels of the executive branch. Yuliya Tymoshenko was ratifed by the Verkhovna Rada as the Prime Minister. Oleksandr Zinchenko was appointed the head of the presidential secretariat with a nominal title of the Secretary of State. Petro Poroshenko, a cut-throat competitor of Tymoshenko for the post of the Prime Minister, was appointed the Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council. Yushchenko extensively traveled abroad, having spent the yearly travel budget by mid-April. His most notable visits include Moscow (January 24), Strasbourg and European Parliament (February 23), and the United States (early April). On September 8 2005, Yushchenko fired his government, led by Yulia Tymoshenko, after resignations and corruption claims. On September 9, acting Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov tried to form a new goverment.[5] On September 22, Mr. Yekhanurov was ratified by the parliament on second attempt (289 ayes). In the first attempt (September 20), Mr. Yekhanurov fell short of 3 votes (223 ayes, 226 needed). Also in September, former president of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk has accused exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky of financing Yushchenko's presidential election campaign, and provided copies of documents showing money transfers from companies he said are controlled by Berezovsky to companies controlled by Yuschenko's official backers. Berezovsky has confirmed that he met Yushchenko's representatives in London before the election, and that the money was transferred from his companies, but he refused to confirm or deny that the companies that received the money were used in Yushchenko's campaign. Financing of election campaigns by foreign citizens is illegal in Ukraine and might potentially lead to Yushchenko's impeachment.[6]. Family and private lifeYushchenko is married to Kateryna Yushchenko-Chumachenko (his second wife). She is a Ukrainian-American born in Chicago and a former official with the U.S. State Department, where she worked as a special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. Opponents of Yushchenko have criticized her for remaining a U.S. citizen. During the recent election campaign, Kateryna was accused of exerting the influence of the U.S. government on her husband's decisions, as an employee of the U.S. government or even a CIA agent. Russian television journalist Mikhail Leontyev had earlier accused her of leading a U.S. project to help Yushchenko seize power in Ukraine; in January 2002, she won a libel case against him. Ukraine's pro-government Inter television channel repeated Leontyev's allegations in 2001 but in January 2003 she won a libel case against the channel as well. Yushchenko has five children and two grand children: sons Andriy and Taras, daughters Vitalina, Sophia and Khrystyna, grand children Yaryna and Viktor. Yushchenko's main hobbies are Ukrainian traditional culture (including folk ceramics and archaeology), mountaineering and beekeeping. Mr. Yushchenko is keen on painting, apiculture, collects antiques, objects of folk-customs and Ukrainian national clothes, and restores objects of Tripilya culture. Each year he climbs Hoverla, Ukraine's highest mountain. After receiving a checkup in which doctors determined he was healthy despite the previous year's dioxin poisoning, he successfully climbed the mountain again on July 16, 2005. |