Oleh Liashko

Oleh Valeriiovych Liashko (; born 3 December 1972) is a Ukrainian politician, journalist and soldier who was a long time member of the Verkhovna Rada and leader of the Radical Party.

Liashko was elected as a deputy to the Verkhovna Rada in 2006, in the 2007 parliamentary election for the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (YTB), in the 2012 parliamentary election and 2014 parliamentary election for his Radical Party.Ляшко Олег Валерьевич
, Информационно-аналитический центр "ЛІГА". Prior to this, he was a journalist.

In the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election, he received 8.32% of the vote.
In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Liashko lost his parliamentary seat.

Liashko joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Early life

Liashko was born in Chernihiv on 3 December 1972, but grew up in the village of Lozovivka in Starobilsk Raion, where his mother lived.Marchenko, Yu.
Out of all pitchforks: where did Oleh Liashko come from and what has he achieved?
'. Ukrayinska Pravda. 18 September 2015 When Liashko was two years old, his parents separated, and his mother was forced to send him to an orphanage. Liashko studied in three boarding schools: Yablunivska, Komarovska, and Borznianska. He worked as a shepherd at the Progress collective farm. After completing his secondary education he went to college to study as a tractor operator. In a September 2015 interview, Liashko stated that shepherding was his summer job back in 1987-88: he used to travel to Luhansk Oblast by train and earn up to 300 roubles per summer (around US$500 at the time). After that Liashko would buy clothing and shoes in Starobilsk. When he graduated from boarding school, Liashko had around 2,000 roubles in savings, the value of which was completely wiped out by post-Soviet inflation.

In 1998 he graduated from the Faculty of Law H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University.

From 1990 till 1992 Liashko was a correspondent and head of the newspaper ''Young Guard'' (based in Kyiv). In 1992 he became an editor of ''Commerce'' ''Herald'' of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of Ukraine.

On 21 June 1993 Liashko was arrested and indicted for grand funds embezzlement. On 9 December 1994, the Criminal College of the Kyiv City Court found Liashko guilty according to articles 86–1, 191, and 194 part 3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The court found Liashko guilty of embezzlement of 1,300,000 roubles personally, and 1,100,000 roubles collectively with accomplices. Liashko was sentenced to six years in prison and sequestration of the property. The Supreme Court reduced the time to four years' imprisonment. Liashko was released in May 1995 under an amnesty agreement due to the "50th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany". In 1998, the criminal case was erased. Liashko himself claims the case was payback for his critical journalism. He claims that his case was falsified by deputy minister of Internal Affairs Veniamin Bartashevych.

Career

Reporting career

In 1995 and 1996, Liashko was an editor at the newspapers ''Politika'' and ''Pravda Ukraine''. In August 1996, he became Chief Editor of the newspaper ''Politika''. In 1999, the publication was closed by decision of the Moscow District Court in Kyiv for "divulging state secrets". From 2000 till 2006, Liashko was chief editor of ''Freedom'' (for "Newspaper "Policy").

Political career

Liashko was elected as a deputy to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) in the 2006 parliamentary election for the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (YBT) (No. 26 in the party list). During this term he served as Chairman of the Subcommittee on the organization of the Supreme Council of the Parliamentary Committee on Rules, Ethics and maintenance of the parliament.

In the 2007 parliamentary election, he was re-elected into the Verkhovna Rada for YBT (No. 29 on the party list). He was Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Budget.

On 18 October 2010, he was expelled from the YBT faction "for cooperating with the majority coalition". YTB had previously stated that a video leaked a week before would not be the reason for excluding of Liashko from the faction.

On 8 August 2011, Liashko was elected the new party leader of the Ukrainian Radical Democratic Party during its third party congress. On the same day, the party changed its name to Radical Party of Oleh Liashko (shortened to the Radical Party).

In the 2012 parliamentary election, he was re-elected to the Verkhovna Rada after winning single-member constituency number 208 in the Chernihiv Oblast (as candidate of the Radical Party) with 55.57% of the votes. During this term he was Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance and Banking. He did not join any faction in parliament.

In mid-November 2012, Liashko went on hunger strike in support of jailed fellow opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, and against the recognition of the results of the 2012 parliamentary election.

During the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, he introduced a bill which classified participants of the " separatist rallies for joining Russia", as well as those who obstruct the movement of soldiers and military equipment, to be saboteurs and accomplices of the occupiers. At the time of "military aggression" the death penalty should be applied to them. The bill provided for the introduction of a visa regime with Russia, denunciation of the agreements made with Russia, the prohibition of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Party of Regions, called for the EU to ban the entry of Crimean residents with Russian passports and other events.

During the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine and two days before the 25 May 2014 presidential election, Liashko claimed responsibility for the storming of a local government building in Torez (by "Soldiers from the Liashko Battalion 'Ukraine'") that killed a pro-Russian separatist and supporter of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic while critically wounding another. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have condemned the activities of the Liashko Battalion "Ukraine" and Liashko's actions in Eastern Ukraine. Amnesty International, while noting "abuses perpetrated by both sides of the conflict", pointed to Liashko as "one particularly errant MP" who published videos of his actions on his website. According to Liashko, his actions should be seen as citizen's arrests, and he accused Amnesty International of being "obviously biased".

Liashko was the candidate of the Radical Party in the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election. In the election he received 8.32% of the vote, ranking in 3rd place.

Liashko was elected to the Kyiv City Council, since his party won three seats, and he headed its party list in the 2014 Kyiv local election, he led his party to win 22 seats.

On 14 November 2016 he was physically attacked by Yuriy Boiko after calling him a "Kremlin agent".

In the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election, Liashko gained 5.48% of the votes,Ukraine election: Comedian leads presidential contest
BBC News (1 April 2019). this time ranking in 7th place.

In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Liashko lost his parliamentary seat. His party lost all its parliamentary seats because it only gained about 1%, which was too little to clear the 5% election threshold. The party also did not win any electoral district seats.CEC counts 100 percent of vote in Ukraine's parliamentary elections
Ukrinform

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