Viktor Yushenko

Viktor Andriiovych Yushchenko (, ; born 23 February 1954) is a Ukrainian politician who was the third president of Ukraine from 23 January 2005 to 25 February 2010. He aimed to orient Ukraine towards the West, European Union, and NATO.

Yushchenko's first career was in the banking industry. In 1993, he became governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, presiding over their response to hyperinflation and the introduction of a national currency. From 1999 to 2001 he was prime minister under President Leonid Kuchma. After his dismissal as prime minister, Yushchenko went into opposition to President Kuchma and founded Our Ukraine Bloc, which at the 2002 parliamentary election became Ukraine's most popular political force.

As an informal leader of the Ukrainian opposition coalition, he was one of the two main candidates in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, the other being Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. During the election campaign in late 2004, Yushchenko became the victim of an assassination attempt when he was poisoned with dioxin. He suffered disfigurement as a result of the poisoning, but survived. The runoff election in November 2004, won by Yanukovych, was marred by widespread accusations of election fraud, leading to the Orange Revolution and an order by the Ukrainian Supreme Court to repeat the vote. Yushchenko won the revote 52% to 44%.

Yushchenko's influence declined soon after assuming the presidency, especially after falling out with his prime minister and leading political ally Yulia Tymoshenko, as did his and his party's popularity and electoral standing. The rest of his presidency was marked by infighting, legislative deadlock and coalition crises in 2007 and in 2008. He lost re-election to Yanukovych in the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election, finishing in fifth place in the first round with 5.5% of the vote. Yushchenko again led Our Ukraine in the 2012 parliamentary election, but they failed to win representation.

Early life

Yushchenko was born on 23 February 1954, in Khoruzhivka, Sumy Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, into a family of teachers. His father, Andriy Andriyovych Yushchenko (1919–1992) fought in the Second World War, was captured by German forces and imprisoned as a POW in a series of concentration camps in the German Reich, including Auschwitz-Birkenau. His father survived the ordeal, and after returning home taught English at a local school.

Viktor's mother, Varvara Tymofiyovna Yushchenko (1918–2005), taught physics and mathematics at the same school. The Sumy Oblast region where he was born is predominantly Ukrainian-speaking, and this differentiated him in later life from his political counterparts, for whom Russian was the mother tongue.

Yushchenko graduated from the Ternopil Finance and Economics Institute in 1975. He began work as an accountant, as a deputy to the chief accountant in a kolkhoz. From 1975 to 1976, he served as a conscript in the Transcaucasian Military District on the Soviet–Turkish border.

Central banker

In 1976, Yushchenko began a career in banking. In 1983, he became the Deputy Director for Agricultural Credit at the Ukrainian Republican Office of the Soviet Union State Bank. From 1990 to 1993, he worked as vice-chairman and first vice-chairman of the JSC Agroindustrial Bank ''Ukraina''. In 1993, he was appointed Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (Ukraine's central bank). In 1997, Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine, re-appointed him.

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—he brought inflation down from more than 10,000 percent to less than 10 percent—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 thereby earned a doctorate in economics.

Prime minister

In December 1999, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma unexpectedly nominated Yushchenko to be the prime minister after the parliament failed by one vote to ratify the previous candidate, Valeriy Pustovoytenko.

Ukraine's economy improved during Yushchenko's cabinet service. However, his government, particularly Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, soon became embroiled in a confrontation with influential leaders of the coal mining and natural gas industries. The conflict resulted in a no-confidence vote by the parliament on 26 April 2001, orchestrated by the Communist Party of Ukraine, who opposed Yushchenko's economic policies, and by centrist groups associated with the country's powerful " oligarchs." The vote passed 263 to 187 and resulted in Yushchenko's removal from office.

"Our Ukraine" leader

In 2002, Yushchenko became the leader of the '' Our Ukraine'' (''Nasha Ukrayina'') political coalition, which received a plurality of seats in the year's parliamentary election. However, the number of seats won was not a majority, and efforts to form a majority coalition with other opposition parties failed. Since then, Yushchenko has remained the leader and public face of the Our Ukraine parliamentary faction.

In 2001, both Yushchenko and Tymoshenko broached at creating a broad opposition bloc against the incumbent President Kuchma in order to win the Ukrainian presidential election 2004.

In late 2002 Yushchenko, Oleksandr Moroz (Socialist Party of Ukraine), Petro Symonenko (Communist Party of Ukraine) and Tymoshenko (Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc) issued a joint statement concerning "the beginning of a state revolution in Ukraine". Though the communists stepped out of the alliance and though Symonenko opposed having one single candidate from the alliance in the 2004 presidential election, the other three parties remained alliesUnderstanding Ukrainian Politics: Power, Politics, and Institutional Design
by Paul D'Anieri, M.E. Sharpe, 2006, ; , page 117 until July 2006.Ukraine coalition born in chaos
, BBC News (11 July 2006)

On 2 July 2004, Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc established the ''Force of the people'', a coalition which aimed to stop "the destructive process that has, as a result of the incumbent authorities, become a characteristic for Ukraine", at the time Kuchma and Yanukovych were the incumbent authorities in Ukraine. The pact included a promise by Yushchenko to nominate Tymoshenko as prime minister if he won the October 2004 presidential election.''Revolution in Orange: The Origins of Ukraine's Democratic Breakthrough''
by Anders Aslund and Michael A. McFaul, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2006, ;

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 becoming President of Ukraine in 2005, he has been an honorary leader of the ''Our Ukraine'' party.

From 2001 to 2004, his rankings in popularity polls were higher than those of Kuchma. In later public opinion polls, though, his support plummeted from a high of 52% following his election in 2004 to below 4%.Socis Poll: "25% Of Ukrainians Prepared To Support Yanukovych For President, 20.5% To Vote For Tymoshenko"
, ''Ukrainian News'' (17 August 2009)

However, in the parliamentary elections of March 2006, the Our Ukraine party, led by Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, received less than 14% of the national vote, taking third place behind the Party of Regions and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. In a poll by the Sofia Social Research Centre between 27 July and 7 August 2007 more than 52% of those polled said they distrusted Yushchenko while 48% said they trusted him.

Presidential election of 2004

In 2004, as Kuchma's term came to an end, Yushchenko announced his candidacy for president as an independent. 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 allies 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. Requests from Administration of President Kuchma to media. 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," even though Yushchenko actively reached out to the Jewish community in Ukraine and his mother is said to have risked her life by hiding three Jewish girls for one and a half years during the Second World War.The Jewish card in Russian operations against Ukraine
, Kyiv Post (30 June 2009)

TCDD poisoning

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 abnormalities, due to a serious viral infection and chemical substances that are not normally found in food products. Yushchenko claimed that he had been poisoned by government agents. After the illness, his face has shown signs of chloracne.

British toxicologist Professor John Henry of St Mary's Hospital in London declared the abnormalities in Yushchenko's face were due to chloracne, which results from dioxin poisoning. Dutch toxicologist Bram Brouwer also stated his abnormalities in appearance were the result of chloracne, and found dioxin levels in Yushchenko's blood 6,000 times above normal.

On 11 December, Michael Zimpfer of the Rudolfinerhaus clinic declared that Yushchenko had ingested TCDD dioxin and had 1,000 times the usual concentration in his body.

Many have linked Yushchenko's poisoning to a dinner with a group of senior Ukrainian officials (including Volodymyr Satsyuk) that took place on 5 September.

Since 2005, Yushchenko has been treated by a team of doctors led by Professor Jean Saurat at the University of Geneva Hospital. Analysis of Yushchenko's body fluids and tissues provided useful information on the human toxicokinetics of TCDD and its metabolites.

Yushchenko himself implicated Davyd Zhvania, the godfather of one of his children, of involvement in his dioxin poisoning.

In August 2009, ''The Lancet'' published a scientific paper by Swiss and Ukrainian researchers on the monitoring, form, distribution, and elimination of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD) in Yushchenko in relation to his severe poisoning. The 2004 TCDD levels in Yushchenko's blood serum were 50,000 times greater than those in the general population. This new study also concluded that the dioxin "was so pure that it was definitely made in a laboratory".Associated Press: Study: Dioxin that poisoned Yushchenko made in lab
/ref>

On 27 September 2009, Yushchenko said in an interview aired on Channel 1+1 that the testimony of three men who were at a dinner in 2004 at which he believes he was poisoned is crucial to finishing the investigation, and he claimed these men were in Russia. Ukrainian prosecutors said Russia has refused to extradite one of the men, the former deputy chief of Ukraine's security service, Volodymyr Satsyuk, because he holds both Russian and Ukrainian citizenship. Satsyuk returned to Ukraine in 2012 and tried to relaunch his political career, but did not succeed.

Presidency

Inauguration

At 12 pm ( Kyiv time) on 23 January 2005 the inauguration of Yushchenko as the President of Ukraine took place. The event was attended by numerous foreign dignitaries.Yushchenko woos sceptical Russia
, BBC News (24 January 2005)

Presidency

The first hundred days of Yushchenko's term, 23 January 2005 through 1 May 2005, were marked by numerous dismissals and appointments at all levels of the executive branch. He appointed Tymoshenko as prime minister and the appointment was ratified by parliament. Oleksandr Zinchenko was appointed the head of the presidential secretariat with a nominal title of Secretary of State. Petro Poroshenko, a fierce competitor of Tymoshenko for the post of prime minister, was appointed Secretary of the Security and Defense Council.

In May 2005, Ukraine hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in the capital of Kyiv. Some accused Yushchenko of attempting to gain political capital from the event, with his appearance on stage at the end criticised as 'undignified' by certain commentators. During 2005, Yushchenko was in confident mood, making such pledges as solving the Gongadze case to the removal of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

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 1–2 December 2005 in Kyiv.

According to former Security Service of Ukraine Chairman Oleksandr Turchynov, in the summer of 2005 Yushchenko prevented an investigation into allegedly fraudulent practices in the transport of Turkmen natural gas to Ukraine and the arrest of Yuri Boyko for abuse of office while heading Naftogaz.Gas Lobby Takes Control of Ukraine's Secret Service
by Taras Kuzio (18 March 2010)Ukraine: Battle Against Corruption Grinds To A Halt
, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (26 September 2005)

Dismissal of other Orange Revolution members

On 8 September 2005, Yushchenko fired his government, led by Tymoshenko, after resignations and claims of corruption. On 9 September, acting Prime Minister Yekhanurov tried to form a new government.Ukraine leader to build new team
9 September 2005 His first attempt, on 20 September, fell short by 3 votes of the necessary 226, but on 22 September the parliament ratified his government with 289 votes.

Also in September 2005, former president 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 were controlled by Berezovsky to companies controlled by Yushchenko's official backers. Berezovsky 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 money was used in Yushchenko's campaign. Financing of election campaigns by foreign citizens is illegal in Ukraine.

In August 2006, Yushchenko appointed his onetime opponent in the presidential race, Yanukovych, to be the new prime minister. This was generally regarded as indicating a rapprochement with Russia.Ukraine comeback kid in new deal
4 August 2006

First dissolution of Parliament

On 2 April 2007, Yushchenko signed an order to dissolve the parliament and call early elections. Some consider the dissolution order illegal because none of the conditions spelled out under Article 90 of the Constitution of Ukraine for the president to dissolve the legislature had been met. Yushchenko's detractors argued that he was attempting to usurp the functions of the Constitutional Court by claiming constitutional violations by the parliament as a pretext for his action. The parliament appealed the Constitutional Court itself and promised to abide by its ruling.

In the meantime, the parliament continued to meet and banned the financing of any new election pending the Constitutional Court's decision. Competing protests took place and the crisis escalated. In May 2007, Yushchenko illegally dismissed three members of Ukraine's Constitutional Court, thus preventing the court from ruling on the constitutionality of his decree dismissing Ukraine's parliament.

Second dissolution of Parliament (2007) and conflict with Tymoshenko (2008–2009)

Yushchenko again tried to dissolve the parliament on 9 October 2008 by announcing parliamentary elections to be held on 7 December. Yushchenko's decree was suspended and subsequently lapsed. Yushchenko in defense of his actions said, "I am deeply convinced that the democratic coalition was ruined by one thing alone—human ambition. The ambition of one person." Political groups including members of his own Our Ukraine party contested the election decree and politicians vowed to challenge it in the courts.

In December 2008, following a back room revolt from members of Our Ukraine-Peoples' Self Defense Party a revised coalition was formed between members of Our Ukraine (OU-PSD), the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT), and the Lytvyn Bloc (LB), increasing the size of the governing coalition by an additional 20 members. Yushchenko in responding to journalists questions claimed "The fact is that the so-called coalition was formed on basis of political corruption, this coalition will be able to work only if the Communist Party will join it. Speaking about such a type of coalition, it is even more shameful." Yushchenko also stated that Tymoshenko's desire to keep her job as Prime Minister was the main motive for creating the coalition and that he wanted to expel the OU-PSD lawmakers who supported the creation of the coalition from the list of members of parliament.Yushchenko wants to expel lawmakers who supported coalition
, UNIAN (17 December 2008)Yuschenko Advocates Expulsion Of Our Ukraine People's Union MPs That Support Coalition
, Ukrainian News Agency (17 December 2008)

Yushchenko claimed (19 March 2009) that his conflicts with Tymoshenko are not due to personal differences, but to the incompleteness of the constitutional reforms of 2004.Yuschenko describes his relations with Tymoshenko an internal affair
, Interfax-Ukraine (29 March 2009)

On 23 July 2009, under the terms of Ukraine's Constitution the president cannot dismiss the parliament within six months from the expiration of his five-year term of authority, which ended on 23 January 2010.

2010 presidential election and later career

2010 presidential election

On 10 November 2009, Yushchenko was nominated for a second term as president, with the election to be held on 17 January 2010. In late November 2009, he stated he was going to leave politics after his possible second term.Panorama: Yushchenko will leave politics after second term
, Kyiv Post (28 November 2009) During the campaign, Yushchenko claimed that his fellow candidates "Tymoshenko and Yanukovych are not ideologists who care about the fate of Ukraine and its interests. They are two political adventurers" and that Ukraine's independence and sovereignty were at the time more jeopardized than five to ten years earlier.Yushchenko: Ukraine's independence, sovereignty currently jeopardized
, Kyiv Post (21 November 2009)

The first round of the elections took place on 17 January 2010, and Yushchenko dropped to a distant fifth place with only 5.45% of the vote.TABLE-Ukraine's presidential election results
, Kyiv Post (18 January 2010)Central Election Commission Candidate Results
, CEC Ukraine (19 January 2010) His result became the worst result for any sitting president.Кому достанется трезубец
// Trud, 19 January 2010

Yushchenko stated that he wanted to continue to defend democracy in UkraineUpdate: Yushchenko does not plan to quit politics
, Kyiv Post (20 January 2010) and that he wanted to return to the presidency.Yushchenko says he's quitting presidential post in order to return
, ''Kyiv Post'', 22 January 2010

On 22 January 2010, as outgoing President, Yushchenko officially rehabilitated one of Ukraine's most controversial figures from the era of World War II, the ultranationalist leader Stepan Bandera, awarding him the title of Hero of Ukraine. Yushchenko's decision immediately caused an uproar and was condemned by the European Parliament and Russian, Polish, and Jewish organizationsWiesenthal Center Blasts Ukrainian Honor For Nazi Collaborator
, Simon Wiesenthal Center (28 January 2010)Ukraine: l'UEJF condamne la glorification d'un complice des nazis
Student Union of French Jews, (1 February 2010) and was declared illegal by the following Ukrainian government and a court decision in April 2010. In January 2011, the award was officially annulled.
, President.gov.ua. Retrieved 16 January 2011.

In the second round of Ukraine's presidential election, Yushchenko did not support either of the candidates, Yanukovych or Tymoshenko.Yushchenko not to support either candidate in runoff
, Kyiv Post (23 January 2010)

Yushchenko attributed his low popularity ratings to his adherence to his principles.Yushchenko attributes his low popularity ratings to adherence to his principles
, Kyiv Post (28 November 2009) "Ukraine is a European democratic country", Yushchenko said at the polling station. "It is a free nation and free people."Ukraine. Farewell to the Orange Revolution
, EuropaRussia (19 January 2010) In the following days, he said that "Ukraine doesn't have a decent choice" for his replacement. "Both candidates are alienated from national, European, and democratic values. I don't see a principal difference between them." However, his low approval ratings may also be attributable to his tacit support for his former adversary Yanukovych between rounds one and two. Yushchenko removed the Kharkiv and Dniproptrovsk governors, who had expressed support for Tymoshenko and had refused to provide administrative resources for Yanukovych's campaign.

Yushchenko did not attend the inauguration ceremony of Yanukovych.Half-empty chamber greets Ukraine's new president
, Kyiv Post (25 February 2010)

On 10 March 2010, Yushchenko indicated his future plans would largely depend on Yanukovych's performance.Yushchenko jumps back into political fray, visiting relatively friendly territory in Lviv
, Kyiv Post (11 March 2010) A day earlier, Yushchenko's former ally turned rival, Tymoshenko, took up the mantle as leader of the democratic opposition. But Yushchenko warned that her leadership would end in disaster, noting, " ery political force that united with Tymoshenko ended badly." On 31 May 2010 Yushchenko stated that Tymoshenko was his "worst mistake": "The most serious mistake was to give power to her twice".Yushchenko told about his 'worst mistake'
, Kyiv Post (31 May 2010)

Later career including 2012 parliamentary elections

Yushchenko testified against his former ally Tymoshenko during her trial over a 2009 natural gas treaty she brokered with Russia; a trial he called "a normal judicial process".Ukraine Retreats to a Dark Past
, Der Spiegel (18 October 2011) Yushchenko's view differed from that of the European Union's (EU) foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who said in a statement the Tymoshenko verdict showed justice was being applied "selectively in politically motivated prosecutions".Ukraine ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko jailed over gas deal
, BBC News (11 October 2011)

Late September 2011 Yushchenko stated he intended to run for parliament on an Our Ukraine party ticket at the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary elections. Mid-February 2012 Yushchenko stated he was ready to take part in this election on a list of the united opposition, but not in a majority constituency. In these election Yushchenko headed the election list of Our Ukraine;"Наша Україна" хоче бути альтернативою усім учасникам виборів ''"Our Ukraine" wants to be an alternative to all election participants ''
, BBC Ukrainian (31 July 2012) the party won 1.11% of the national votes and no constituencies and thus failed to win parliamentary representation.Proportional votes


, Central Election Commission of Ukraine

In February 2013 Yushchenko intended to be a candidate during the next presidential election (at the time scheduled to be in 2015).

Euromaidan and 2014 election

In an interview with the French radio station Europe 1 in March 2014, Yushchenko stated that he supported the Euromaidan protests and opposed the Russian invasion in Crimea, noting that in his view "Putin dreams of reconstructing the Soviet empire under the name of Russia. He is so obsessed with this that he hasn't understood power balance." He further stated that "Crimea isn't Russian; rather it is Ukrainian".

With regard to the 2014 presidential election, Yushchenko indicated his support for Vitali Klitschko

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