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Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko (born February 23, 1954) is the third
and current President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005.
As an informal leader of the Ukrainian opposition coalition, he was one of the two
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. Yushchenko had won in the revote (52% to 44%). Public
protests prompted by the electoral fraud played a major role in that presidential
election and led to Ukraine's Orange Revolution.
 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 numerous concentration camps throughout Poland and
Germany, including 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, Yushchenko was appointed Chairman
of the National Bank of Ukraine (Ukraine's central bank). 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 -- 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. He
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 to ratify, by one
vote, the previous candidate, Valeriy Pustovoytenko.
Ukraine's economy improved during Yushchenko's cabinet service. 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. Yushchenko gave a moving speech before the crowd,
vowing one day to return.
"Our Ukraine" leader and political portrait
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 moving
Ukraine in the direction of Europe and NATO, promoting free market reforms,
reforming medicine, education and the social system, preserving Ukraine's culture,
rebuilding important historical monuments, and remembering Ukraine's history,
including the Holodomor famine-genocide of 1932-33. 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.
Since becoming the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko 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. In
2008 Viktor Yushchenko popularity has plunged even lower to less of 10 % .
Presidential
election of 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
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. 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".
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.
Though there was much speculation in the first weeks after the poisoning, soon it
became apparent to experts around the world that the signs on Yushchenko's face
were due to chloracne, which can only be the result of dioxin poisoning.
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 also been suggested by British toxicologist Prof John Henry of
St Mary's Hospital in London.
On December 11, Austrian doctors confirmed Yushchenko had been poisoned with TCDD
dioxin, and had more than 6,000 times the usual concentration in his body. This was
the highest dioxin level ever measured in a human.
Since 2005, Yushchenko has been treated by a team of doctors led by Professor Jean
Saurat at the University of Geneva Hospital. Saurat has recently published academic
papers on the metabolism of dioxin in the human body.
Many have linked Yushchenko's poisoning to a dinner with a group of senior
Ukrainian officials. In connection to this, theories of links to the Russian FSB
have also arisen.
In June 2008, David Zhvania, a former political ally of Yushchenko and an
ex-minister in the cabinet of Yulia Tymoshenko, claimed in an interview with BBC
that Yushchenko had not been poisoned in 2004 and that laboratory results in the
case had been falsified.
Unprecedented three
rounds of voting
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.
Elected
President
On January 23, 2005, 12pm (Kiev time), the inauguration of Viktor Yushchenko as the
President of Ukraine took place.
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.
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.
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. 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.
On April 2, 2007, Yushchenko signed an order to dissolve 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 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
Yushchenko is married to Kateryna Yushchenko-Chumachenko (his second wife). She is
a Ukrainian-American born in Chicago who received a degree in Economics from
Georgetown University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. She also studied
at the Ukrainian Institute at Harvard University. Her resume includes working at
the Ukrainian Congress Committeee of America, the Bureau for Human Rights and
Humanitarian Affairs at the U.S. State Department, the Reagan White House, US
Treasury Department and Joint Economic Committee of Congress. In Ukraine she first
worked with the US-Ukraine Foundation, then as Country Director for KPMG Barents
Group.
Kateryna Yushchenko heads up the Ukraine 3000 Foundation, which emphasizes
promoting civil society, particularly charity and corporate resposibiltiy. The
Foundation implements programs in the areas of children's health, integrating the
disabled, improving education, supporting culture and the arts, publishing books,
researching history and particularly Ukraine's famine genocide of 1932-33. From
1995 to 2005, she worked closely with "Pryately Ditey" an organization that helps
Ukrainian orphans.
Criticized for her US citizenship by her husband's opponents, Kateryna became a
Ukrainian citizen on March 2005, and renounced her US citizenship, as required by
Ukrainian law, in March 2007. During the 2004 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 (1985) and Taras
(2004), daughters Vitalina (1980), Sophia (1999) and Chrystyna (2000),
grandchildren Domenika (2000) and Victor (2005). A practicing member of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Yushchenko often emphasizes the deep role of his
religious convictions in his life and worldview.
His main hobbies are Ukrainian traditional culture (including art, ceramics, wood
working and archaeology), mountain climbing 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.
Source : Some of the information on
this page came from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU
Documentation License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Viktor
Yushchenko - Projector - Biography
