'Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko' (
Ukrainian: ) (born
February 23 1954) is the
President of Ukraine (from January 2005).
As an informal leader of the
Ukrainian opposition coalition, he was one of three main candidates in the October–November 2004
Ukrainian presidential election. Yushchenko won the election through a revote of the
runoff between him and
Viktor Yanukovych, the government supported candidate. The
Ukrainian Supreme Court called for the revote due to widespread
election fraud in favor of Viktor Yanukovych in the original run-off. The court determined that Yushchenko had won (52% to 44%). Public protests prompted by the electoral fraud played a major role in that presidential election, and the term
Orange Revolution, which Yushchenko promoted, refers to the protests over that disputed election.
Early life
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko was born on
February 23,
1954 in
Khoruzhivka,
Sumy Oblast,
Ukrainian SSR, into a family of teachers. His father, Andriy Andriyovych Yushchenko (1919-1992), fought in the
Second World War, where German forces captured and placed him in the
Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as a
POW. He survived the ordeal. After returning home, Andriy Yushchenko taught
English at a local school. Viktor's mother, Varvara Tymofiyovna Yushchenko (1918-2005), taught physics and mathematics at the same school.
Viktor Yushchenko graduated from the
Ternopil Finance and Economics Institute, and began his profession as an accountant. After completing his studies (1975), he worked as a deputy to the chief accountant in a
kolkhoz, then served as a
conscript in the
Border Guard unit of
KGB on the
Soviet–
Turkish border (1975-1976).
Central banker
Yushchenko started a career in banking in 1976. In 1983, he became the Deputy Director for Agricultural Credit at the Ukrainian Republican Office of the USSR State Bank. From 1990 to 1993, he worked as vice-chairman and first vice-chairman of the JSC Agroindustrial Bank ''Ukraina''. In 1993,
Vadym Hetman invited him to work in the newly formed
National Bank of Ukraine (Ukraine's
central bank). After Hetman resigned in 1993, Yushchenko was appointed the head of the bank's supervisory board. In 1997, Ukraine's parliament re-appointed him as the bank's head.
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 regulatory 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
Russian financial crisis.
In 1998, he wrote a thesis entitled "The Development of supply and demand of money in Ukraine" and defended it in the Ukrainian Academy of Banking. He therby earned a doctarate in economics.
Prime Minister
In December 1999, Ukrainian President
Leonid Kuchma unexpectedly nominated Yushchenko to be the
prime minister after the parliament failed to ratify, by one vote, the previous candidate,
Valeriy Pustovoytenko.
In 2001, Yushchenko refused to support the
mass protests against Kuchma's regime that erupted after the murder of journalist
Georgiy Gongadze. Moreover, he co-signed with Kuchma a highly critical public address that called the protesters "
fascists" -- despite the fact that many of them were supporters of Yushchenko's cabinet.
Ukraine's economy improved during Yushchenko's cabinet service. Critics, however, say that Yushchenko's actions had little impact in the improvement. Soon, his government (particularly, deputy prime minister
Yulia Tymoshenko) became embroiled in a confrontation with influential leaders of the
coal mining and
natural gas industries. The conflict resulted in a 2001
no-confidence vote by the parliament, orchestrated by the
Communists, which had opposed Yushchenko's economic policies, and by centrist groups associated with the country's powerful "
oligarchs". The vote passed 263 to 69 and resulted in Yushchenko's removal from office.
Many Ukrainians viewed the fall of Yushchenko's government with dismay, and they gathered four million votes on a petition supporting him and opposing the parliamentary vote. Supporters also organized a 10,000-strong demonstration in
Kiev, the country's capital.
"Our Ukraine" leader and political portrait
Official image of Yushchenko, also used in Yushchenko and
Our Ukraine political campaigns.
In
2002, Yushchenko became the leader of the
Our Ukraine (''Nasha Ukrayina'') political
coalition, which received a plurality of
seats in the year's
election to
Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) . 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" ("Nasha Ukrayina") parliament
faction.
Yushchenko was widely regarded as the moderate political leader of the anti-Kuchma opposition, since other opposition parties were less influential and had fewer seats in parliament.
Since the end of his term as prime minister, Yushchenko has become a
charismatic political figure 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.
As a politician, Viktor Yushchenko is widely perceived as a mixture of Western-oriented and moderate Ukrainian
nationalist. He also advocates the massive privatization of the economy. His opponents (and allies) sometimes criticize him for indecision and secrecy, while advocates call the same attributes signs of Yushchenko's commitment to teamwork,
consensus, and negotiation. He is also often accused of being unable to form a unified team free of inner quarrels. Ukrainians often view as more decisive and charismatic one of his former political allies,
Yulia Tymoshenko, who was arrested and then cleared of fraud charges relating to gas privatization during Kuchma's presidency.
Since becoming the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushenko has been an honorary leader of "Our Ukraine" party. In the latest parliament election in March 2006, the party, led by Prime Minister
Yekhanurov received less than 14% of the national vote and took third place behind the
Party of Regions, and the
Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc.
Presidential election of 2004
Main articles: Ukrainian presidential election, 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's joining
NATO, and fighting
corruption. Supporters of Yushchenko were organized in the "Syla Narodu" ("Power to the People") electoral coalition, which he and his political ally
Yulia Tymoshenko led, with the
Our Ukraine coalition as the main constituent force.
Yushchenko built his
campaign on face-to-face communication with
voters, since the government prevented most major
TV channels from providing equal coverage to candidates.
[1][2] Meanwhile, his rival, Yanukovych, frequently appeared in the news and even accused Yushchenko, whose father was a Red Army soldier imprisoned at
Auschwitz, of being "a Nazi".
[3][4]
Dioxin poisoning
The campaign was often bitter and violent. 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", due to "a serious viral infection and chemical substances that are not normally found in food products". Yushchenko claimed such poisoning to be the work of government agents. After the illness, his face became heavily disfigured: grossly jaundiced, bloated, and pockmarked.
After seeing 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". This hypothesis had already been suggested by British toxicologist
Prof John Henry of
St Mary's Hospital in
London because the marks on Yushchenko's face were
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 that Yushchenko suffered. On
December 11, Austrian doctors confirmed Yushchenko had been poisoned with TCDD dioxin, and had more than 1,000 times (other sources said 6,000 times) the usual concentration in his body.
[5]
This was the second highest dioxin level ever measured in a human. Yushchenko's chief of staff Oleg Ribachuk suggested that the poison used was a
mycotoxin called
T-2, also known as "Yellow Rain", a Soviet-era substance 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. In connection to that, theories of links to the Russian
FSB arose. This hypothesis is disputed by some toxicologists, who claim that symptoms of dioxin poisoning usually take 3-14 days to appear—
Prof John Henry, professor of accident and emergency medicine at
St Mary's Hospital in London, said "a few months after swallowing" or other contact
[6] —and experiencing them a few hours after ingesting the poison would be unusual, though, given the extremely high concentration of dioxin found in his system, not impossible.
Poisoning controversy
On
September 28,
2004 a report issued by the
Reuters news agency based on a faxed statement assumed to be from Vienna's Rudolfinerhaus Hospital has claimed that "the information disseminated about an alleged poisoning (of Ukrainian presidential candidate Victor Yushchenko) is absolutely unfounded in medical terms". On
October 3,
2004 the administration of the Rudolfinerhaus hospital issued an official statement signed by Prof. Dr.
Michael Zimpfer, President of the Hospital and Prof. Dr.
Lothar Wicke, Managing Director and Chief Doctor of the hospital that revealed this initial report was falsified as part of a black political PR campaign. It was learned that disinformation was circulated by the "Trimedia" PR Agency - but this agency got it from another PR company
Euro RSCG (reported to be linked with Kuchma's daughter
Elena Franchuk [7]).
[8][9]
During Yushchenko's third visit to Vienna on
December 8,
2004 (about two weeks before the runoff elections), Dr.
Nikolai Korpan claimed in a press conference that there was certain proof that his patient had been poisoned.
[10] The next day, however, Prof. Dr. Lothar Wicke (who had disagreed with Korpan's statement, and the manner in which it was issued) was removed from his post as medical director. Wicke subsequently sued the Rudolfinerhaus for substantial damages, claiming that he was forced out of his job for refusing to go along with the poisoning diagnosis. The case was scheduled to be heard in
March 2005.
[11][12]
Unprecedented three rounds of voting
Main articles: Orange Revolution,
Post-election developments in Ukraine, 2004
The initial vote, held on
October 31,
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
November 21,
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
Kiev and other Ukrainian cities, that became known as the
Orange Revolution, 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 51.99% of the vote.
President
Inauguration
VIP Guests at the inauguration.
On
January 23,
2005, 12pm (
Kiev time), the
inauguration of Viktor Yushchenko as the
President of Ukraine took place. The event was attended by various foreign dignitaries, including:
★
Arnold Rüütel,
President of Estonia
★
Adrienne Clarkson,
Governor General of Canada
★
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga,
President of Latvia
★
Vladimir Voronin,
President of Moldova
★
Aleksander Kwaśniewski,
President of Poland
★
Traian Băsescu,
President of Romania
★
Ivan Gašparovič,
President of Slovakia
★
Ferenc Mádl,
President of Hungary
★
Artur Rasizade,
Prime Minister of Azerbaijan
★
Jan Peter Balkenende,
Prime Minister of the Netherlands
★
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer,
Secretary General of NATO
★
Nino Burjanadze, Speaker of the
Parliament of Georgia
★
Artūras Paulauskas, Speaker of the
Seimas (Parliament of
Lithuania)
★
Colin Powell,
United States Secretary of State
★ Special guest
Václav Havel, former
President of the Czech Republic
Presidency
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.
Yulia Tymoshenko was ratified 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 cutthroat competitor of Tymoshenko for the post of the Prime Minister, was appointed the Secretary of the
Security and Defense Council.
Yushchenko extensively traveled abroad, having spent the yearly travel budget by mid-April. His most notable visits include
Moscow (
January 24), the
European Parliament in
Strasbourg (
February 23), and the
United States (early April).
In August 2005, Yushchenko joined with Georgian President
Mikheil Saakashvili in signing the Borjomi Declaration, which called for the creation of an institution of international cooperation, The
Community of Democratic Choice, to bring together the democracies and incipient democracies in the region around the Baltic, Black and Caspian Seas. The first meeting of presidents and leaders to discuss the CDC took place on December 1-2, 2005 in Kiev.
Dismissal of other Orange Revolution members
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 government.
[13] 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 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 Yushchenko'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.
In August 2006, he appointed his onetime opponent in the presidential race,
Viktor Yanukovych, to be the new Prime Minister. This was generally regarded as synonymous with a move by Ukraine back into the Russian fold.
[14]
Dissolution of Verkhovna Rada
Main articles: 2007 Ukrainian political crisis,
Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2007
On
April 2,
2007, Yushchenko signed an order to dissolve Parliament and call early elections.
[15][16] Some consider the dissolution order illegal because none of the conditions spelled out under of the
Constitution of Ukraine for the president to dissolve the legislature had been met. Yushchenko's detractors argue that he is attempting to usurp the functions of the
Constitutional Court by claiming constitutional violations by the
Verkhovna Rada as a pretext for his action; the Verkhovna Rada is taking this to the Constitutional Court itself and promises to abide by its ruling. In the meantime, competing protests are being staged and this crisis is escalating. The Verkhovna Rada continues to meet and has banned the financing of any
new election pending the Constitutional Court's decision.
Family and private life
Yushenko's family after the inaugural address.
Yushchenko 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. Much criticized for her US citizenship by her husband's opponents, Kateryna became a Ukrainian citizen on March 31, 2005. 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. A
Russian state television journalist 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 that journalist. Ukraine's then anti-Yushchenko ''Inter'' TV channel repeated the allegations in 2001, but in January 2003 she won a libel case against that channel as well.
Yushchenko has five children and two grandchildren: sons Andriy and Taras, daughters Vitalina, Sophia and Khrystyna, grandchildren Yaryna and Viktor.
A practicing member of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Yushchenko often emphasizes the deep role of his religious convictions in his life and worldview.
Yushchenko's speech is heavily loaded with
Surzhyk elements.
[17] [18] His main hobbies are
Ukrainian traditional culture (including
art ceramics and
archaeology),
mountaineering and
beekeeping. He is keen on painting, collects antiques, objects of folk-customs and Ukrainian national clothes, and restores objects of
Trypillya 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.
During that climb Yushchenko and a group of his bodyguards were reportedly struck by a
lightning bolt. The incident has never been officially described, although the media cited witnesses stating that President and all but one guard fell unconscious. However, the President's office later admitted that other climbers had been injured or killed by that lightning strike.
[19][20][21]
See also
★
List of national leaders
★
Orange Revolution
★
Politics of Ukraine
★
Ukrainian presidential election, 2004
★
Ukrainization
★
Victims of poisoning
References
1. Open Letter to the Speaker of the Verhkovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Lytvyn and Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
2. Temniki. No comments Requests from Administration of President Kuchma to media.
3. Hard lessons for Our Ukraine in Donetsk Jan Maksymiuk
4. Yushchenko's Auschwitz connection Malcolm Haslett
5. Doctors: Yushchenko was poisoned Jill Dougherty
6. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?ObjectID=3613230
7. Yushchenko links poison to meal with secret police Tom Warner
8. Issue №054
9. Fake letter from Yushchenko's doctor questions poisoning claim Taras Kuzio
10. Who poisoned Yushchenko?
11. I received death threats, says doctor who denied that Ukrainian leader was poisoned Bojan Pancevski
12. The doctor who diagnosed Mr. Yushchenko’s poisoning admits that he can prove nothing
13. ttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4228650.stm
14. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5242860.stm
15. Ukraine president dissolves Parliament and calls for elections
16. On stopping ahead of schedule powers of Verhovna Rada of Ukraine
17. in Surzhyk" ''Trud'' 27.06.2006 (in Russian)
18. http://www.korrespondent.net/main/188829/p4
19. http://pravda.com.ua/news/2005/8/11/32345.htm
20. http://pravda.com.ua/news/2005/7/22/6367.htm
21. http://pravda.com.ua/news/2005/7/22/6408.htm
★ Сandidate Viktor Yushchenko wins first round of Ukraine election (
10 November 2004). ''Rule of Law Foundation''. Retrieved from http://www.rol.org.ua/eng/newsitem.cfm?unid=20.
External links
:'Web sites and pages'
★
My Ukraine — Personal website of Viktor Yushchenko
★
President of Ukraine — Official website
★
razom.org.ua — Nasha Ukrayina website
★
Verbatim Account of the Inaugural Ceremony, January 23, 2005 — Official site of the parliament
★
youtube.com — video file of Viktor Yushchenko speaking to the Ukrainian nation]
:'News and articles'
★
BBC News profile
★
''Who poisoned Viktor Yushchenko?'' (from the Times Online)
★
''Approval of Yekhanurov: The Price of the Deal'' (''
Ukrayinska Pravda's critical article on the agreement between Yushchenko and Yanukovych; September 2005)
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