Ruslan Koshulynskyi

Ruslan Volodymyrovych Koshulynskyi (; born 9 September 1969) is a Ukrainian politician, nationalist, soldier, and former People's Deputy of Ukraine who served as the 9th Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada (2012–2014). He is also the Deputy Leader of Svoboda party.

Early life and education

Koshulynskyi was born in Lviv to Victor Kosulynskyi and Natalia Koshulynska (née Etkind). He attended the Lviv Sports Boarding School, graduating in 1986. In 1987, he was conscripted to the Soviet Army and served in East Germany for two years. After the army service, he enrolled to the Lviv Cooperative College of Economics and Law, which he completed in 1991. He then moved to the Kolomyia region, where he found work as production manager in a local restaurant. In 1995, he travelled to Krasnoyarsk Krai to work at a gold mining company for a year. Upon his return to Lviv in 1996, he became involved in politics and joined the Svoboda party. In the early 2000s, he took up post-secondary studies again at the Ternopil National Economic University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in law in 2006.

Political life

In August 2008, Koshulynsky was appointed the deputy head of the Svoboda an ultranationalist political party in Ukraine. In November 2010 he became the leader of the Svoboda party caucus at the Lviv City Council, as well as the member of the Council's standing committee on finance and budgetary planning.

He was Svoboda's campaign manager during its national breakthrough at the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election. The Parliament elected him the Deputy Speaker by absolute majority of the vote. During his time in office he co-chaired the Poland-Ukraine interparliamentary group. Koshulynsky actively supported the 2013-2014 demonstrations against the regime of president Viktor Yanukovych and was one of a handful of parliamentary opposition members who remained with the protesters during the police gunfire in February 2014. In March 2014 he stated that the decision to hold Crimea referendum was unconstitutional, citing the absence of Ukrainian legislative framework on local referendums.

In Ukraine's 2014 snap parliamentary election Koshulynskyi ran 2nd on the party list, but the party ended up 0.29% short of the minimum required 5% national vote.Poroshenko Bloc to have greatest number of seats in parliament
, Ukrainian Television and Radio (8 November 2014)
People's Front 0.33% ahead of Poroshenko Bloc with all ballots counted in Ukraine elections - CEC
Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014)
Poroshenko Bloc to get 132 seats in parliament - CEC
Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014)

On 25 October 2015 he unsuccessfully ran for Lviv city mayor, losing in the second round to the incumbent Andriy Sadovyi with 36.8% of the vote.

He was elected as member of the Lviv Oblast Council in the 2015 election.

He believes that Ukraine's government can finance the armed forces by levying increased war tax on the oligarchs.

On 19 November 2018 Svoboda and fellow Ukrainian nationalist political organizations Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, Right Sector and C14 endorsed Koshulynskyi candidacy in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election. In the election he received 1.6% of the votes.

In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Koshulynskyi was placed fifth on the joined list of Svoboda with National Corps, the Governmental Initiative of Yarosh and Right Sector. But in the election they won 2.15% of the votes, less than half if the 5% election threshold, and thus no parliamentary seats via the national party list.CEC counts 100 percent of vote in Ukraine's parliamentary elections
Ukrinform