Yuriy Ivanovych Yekhanurov ( uk, Юрій Іванович Єхануров, ; born August 23, 1948) is a

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

politician who was

Prime Minister of Ukraine The prime minister of Ukraine ( uk, Прем'єр-міністр України, ) is the head of government of Ukraine. The prime minister presides over the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is the highest body of the executive branch of th ...

from 2005 to 2006 and

Minister of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in s ...

from 2007 to 2009.

Background and professional career

Yekhanurov was born in the village Belkachi in the far-north Yakut ASSR, which is currently the

Sakha Republic Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia),, is the largest republic of Russia, located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of roughly 1 million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far E ...

within the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. His father, Ivan Mikhailovich Yekhanurov is an ethnic Buryat, while his mother, Halyna (her real name is Helena) Ivanivna is an ethnic

Pole Pole may refer to: Astronomy *Celestial pole, the projection of the planet Earth's axis of rotation onto the celestial sphere; also applies to the axis of rotation of other planets *Pole star, a visible star that is approximately aligned with the ...

. Between 1955 and 1963 Yuriy Yekhanurov attended a school in the village of Buy,

Bichursky District Bichursky District (russian: Бичу́рский район; bua, Бэшүүрэй аймаг, ''Beshüürei aimag'') is an administrativeResolution #431 and municipalLaw #985-III district (raion), one of the twenty-one in the Republic of Burya ...

, Buryatia. In 1963 he moved to Kyiv, Ukraine, where he has spent most of his life and career. He holds a PhD-equivalent degree in Economics, is married, and has one son. Yekhanurov graduated from a construction Technical School in 1967, and the

Kyiv National Economic University The Kyiv National Economic University ( uk, Київський національний економічний університет імені Вадима Гетьмана, lit=Vadym Hetman Kyiv National Economic University) is a self-govern ...

in 1973. As his first job in 1974, he was assigned as a manager of a reinforced concrete plant at the state company "Kyivmiskbud-4". Yekhanurov quickly rose through the ranks, moving on to the "Stroydetal'" industrial group from 1985 to 1988. In that year, he was appointed deputy chairman of the Kyiv construction directorate, the "GolovKyivMiskBud".

Statesman and politician

When Ukraine gained independence in 1991, Yekhanurov started working for the Kyiv municipal government, overseeing economic reforms. He was appointed Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine in 1993, and later headed the State Property Fund of Ukraine (which coordinated the privatisation) from 1994 to 1997. Yekhanurov also served for a short time as Minister of Economy in the cabinet of Pavlo Lazarenko in 1997. He was elected member of the Ukrainian parliament, the

Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...

, in 1998. When

Viktor Yushchenko Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko ( uk, Віктор Андрійович Ющенко, ; born 23 February 1954) is a Ukrainian politician who was the third president of Ukraine from 23 January 2005 to 25 February 2010. As an informal leader of th ...

was appointed as Prime Minister of Ukraine in 1999, Yekhanurov joined his cabinet as First Vice Prime Minister. After the ousting of the government in 2001, Yekhanurov joined Yushchenko's People's Union Our Ukraine and was elected again a member of parliament. In June 2002, he was appointed Head of the State Committee for Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship. After the

Orange Revolution The Orange Revolution ( uk, Помаранчева революція, translit=Pomarancheva revoliutsiia) was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate afterm ...

in 2005, Yekhanurov was appointed Head of the

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Dnipropetrovsk Oblast ( uk, Дніпропетро́вська о́бласть, translit=Dnipropetrovska oblast), also referred to as Dnipropetrovshchyna ( uk, Дніпропетро́вщина), is an oblast (province) of central-eastern Ukra ...

State Administration (i.e. a governor) on April 1, 2005. He was also elected head of the Central Executive Committee of People's Union Our Ukraine party.

Prime minister

On September 8, 2005, Yekhanurov was appointed Acting Prime Minister by President Viktor Yushchenko, after the President had sacked the previous

Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine ( uk, Кабінет Міністрів України, translit=Kabinet Ministriv Ukrainy; shortened to CabMin), commonly referred to as the Government of Ukraine ( uk, Уряд України, ''Uriad Ukrai ...

. He was succeeded by Victor Yanukovich on August 4, 2006. Yekhanurov's candidacy was hotly contested in

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

, most notably by former Prime Minister and Yushchenko's ally

Yulia Tymoshenko Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko ( uk, Юлія Володимирівна Тимошенко, ; Hrihyan ();CPU and SDPU(o) factions abstained from voting. Yekhanurov was widely regarded as an experienced administrator, a caretaker rather than a politician. Like Yushchenko, he is a supporter of economic liberalization and privatisation, but opposed "reprivatization" of previously sold companies that were thought to have been privatized illegally under the administration of President

Leonid Kuchma Leonid Danylovych Kuchma ( uk, Леоні́д Дани́лович Ку́чма; born 9 August 1938) is a Ukrainian politician who was the second president of Ukraine from 19 July 1994 to 23 January 2005. Kuchma's presidency saw numerous corru ...

. Yekhanurov government lost a vote of no confidence on January 10, 2006 but stayed in power until the

parliamentary election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

two months later. After the signing of a coalition agreement (June 22, 2006) by the political parties behind the "Orange Revolution" it was agreed that

Yulia Tymoshenko Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko ( uk, Юлія Володимирівна Тимошенко, ; Hrihyan ();Party of Regions The Party of Regions ( uk, Партія регіонів, Partiia rehioniv, ; russian: Партия регионов, Partiya regionov) was a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine formed in late 1997 that then grew to be the biggest party of U ...

Communist Party of Ukraine The Communist Party of Ukraine, Abbreviation: KPU, from Ukrainian and Russian "" is a banned political party in Ukraine. It was founded in 1993 as the successor to the Soviet-era Communist Party of Ukraine which was banned in 1991 (accord ...

) blocked the parliament from Thursday, June 29, 2006 till Thursday, July 6, 2006YANUKOVYCH CALLED OFF THE BLOCKADE / Ukrayinska Pravda
because they felt they hadn't got enough chairmen in

parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

committees A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

Yekhanurov was skeptical about the new government and he wanted the

Party of Regions The Party of Regions ( uk, Партія регіонів, Partiia rehioniv, ; russian: Партия регионов, Partiya regionov) was a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine formed in late 1997 that then grew to be the biggest party of U ...

to be a part of the new government He felt that would have been better for the

stability Stability may refer to: Mathematics *Stability theory, the study of the stability of solutions to differential equations and dynamical systems ** Asymptotic stability ** Linear stability ** Lyapunov stability ** Orbital stability ** Structural sta ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Gas crisis of 2005–2006 and fallout

Late 2005/January 2006,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

and Ukraine had a serious dispute over the import of gas. Russia had been charging Ukraine traditionally low prices for gas, but decided to increase them to reflect the market price, breaking the previously signed contract that was to last through 2010. After cutting off the flow of gas to Ukraine for several days, a complicated deal was struck on January 4, 2006. According to President Yushchenko and Yekhanurov, it was a compromise. Nonetheless, the Ukrainian parliament was not happy with the deal, and passed a vote of no-confidence on January 10, 2006. But President Yuschenko "quickly dismissed the vote as a publicity stunt by the opposition" Yekhanurov continued to perform his duties until the newly elected

convened and formed a majority in July. He was succeeded by

Viktor Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych ( uk, Віктор Федорович Янукович, ; ; born 9 July 1950) is a former politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 until he was removed from office in the Revolution of D ...

Minister of Defense of Ukraine

As part of the President quota of Ministers in the Ukrainian cabinet appointed on December 18, 2007, Yekhanurov became Minister of Defense in the second Tymoshenko cabinet. Accusing him of corruption Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko turned to President Yushchenko with a request to dismiss Yekhanurov as Defense Minister of Ukraine on May 20, 2009. Yekhanurov immediately denied the accusations and told journalists "Decisions must be made every day. But, not to be busy with budget problems, they organize such shows as today". on May 26, 2009, President Yushchenko stated he had no intend to dismiss Yekhanurov claiming “there is nothing but a political attack and a staff war”. According to Yushchenko similar political attacks had been launched against the foreign minister, State Property Fund head, and the

National Bank of Ukraine National Bank of Ukraine ( uk, Національний банк України) or NBU ( uk, НБУ) is the central bank of Ukraine – a government body responsible for unified state policy in the field of country's monetary circulation, includ ...

governor. The same day Yekhanurov threatened to sue Prime Minister Tymoshenko "to defend his honor and dignity", if she did not apologize, and if Supervision and Revision Department head Mykola Syvulskiy did not resign. June 5, 2009, the

Ukrainian parliament The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...

dismissed Yuriy Yekhanurov as defense minister. 363 MPs out of the 398 registered in the parliament's session hall voted for his dismissal, includeding 161 MPs of the

, 152 MPs of the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko, four MPs of the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense Bloc, 27 MPs of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

, and 19 MPs of the Bloc of Lytvyn. Yekhanurov challenged his dismissal in court, but the Kyiv District Administrative Court rejected his relevant appeal on July 9, 2009.

Later career

From July 2009 till February 2010 Yekhanurov was first deputy head of the Ukrainian Presidential Secretariat.Ex-defense minister Yekhanurov appointed first deputy head of presidential secretariat
, Interfax-Ukraine (July 14, 2009)/(website has automatic

Google Translate Google Translate is a multilingual neural machine translation service developed by Google to translate text, documents and websites from one language into another. It offers a website interface, a mobile app for Android and iOS, and an API ...

option)''
Short bio
LIGA After his political career he became a professor at the

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv Kyiv University or Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv ( uk, Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка), colloquially known as KNU ...

. In the October 2015 Ukrainian local elections Yekhanurov was a candidate for

Mayor of Kyiv The Head of Kyiv City ( uk, Київський міський голова, translit=Kyivskyi miskyi holova), unofficially and more commonly the Mayor of Kyiv ( uk, Мер Києва, translit=Mer Kyieva), is a city official elected by popular ...

for the party Revival.Yuriy Yekhanurov elected as a candidate for mayor of Kyiv from the "Renaissance"

UNIAN The UNIAN or Ukrainian Independent Information Agency of News ( uk, Українське Незалежне Інформаційне Агентство Новин, УНІАН, translit=Ukrayins'ke Nezalezhne Informatsiyne Ahentstvo Novyn) is a ...

(September 29, 2015) He did not survive the first round of the Mayoral election.

References

External links

"Approval of Yekhanurov: The Price of the Deal"
(''

Ukrayinska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' ( uk, Українська правда, lit=Ukrainian Truth) is a Ukrainian online newspaper founded by Georgiy Gongadze on 16 April 2000 (the day of the Ukrainian constitutional referendum). Published mainly in Ukrai ...

'''s critical article on the agreement that preceded the approval in parliament; September 2005) * BBC News story
"Ukraine leader sacks government"
September 8, 2005 * BBC News story
"Profile: Ukraine's caretaker PM"
September 8, 2005 * RFE/RL News story

September 15, 2005 *RFE/RL News story

September 22, 2005 * AXIS Information and Analysis
"Yuri Yehanurov: Ukraine's New Number Two"
September 8, 2005
Autobiography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yekhanurov, Yuriy 1948 births Living people People from Ust-Maysky District Russian emigrants to Ukraine Russian people of Buryat descent Russian people of Mongolian descent Russian people of Ukrainian descent Kyiv National Economic University alumni People's Democratic Party (Ukraine) politicians Independent politicians in Ukraine Our Ukraine (political party) politicians Revival (Ukraine) politicians Directors of the State Property Fund of Ukraine Prime Ministers of Ukraine First vice prime ministers of Ukraine Defence ministers of Ukraine Economy ministers of Ukraine Third convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Fourth convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Fifth convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Sixth convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Governors of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 4th class Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 5th class