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Viktor Yushchenko
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Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko (Ukrainian: Viktor Andrijovyc Jušcenko) (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 re-vote of the runoff between him and Viktor Yanukovych, the government-supported candidate. The Ukrainian Supreme Court called for the run-off election to be repeated because of widespread election fraud in favor of Viktor Yanukovych in the original voting.
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Quotations
Ukraine is facing a serious threat of isolation as some local political forces want to put an end to democracy and democratic reforms in the country.
Regnum, July 25, 2006
Encyclopedia
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko (Ukrainian: Viktor Andrijovyc Jušcenko) (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 re-vote of the runoff between him and Viktor Yanukovych, the government-supported candidate. The Ukrainian Supreme Court called for the run-off election to be repeated because of widespread election fraud in favor of Viktor Yanukovych in the original voting. Yushchenko 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, was captured by German forces and imprisoned as a POW in a series of concentration camps in Poland and Germany, including Auschwitz-Birkenau. He 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.
Viktor Yushchenko graduated from the Ternopil Finance and Economics Institute in 1975 and began work as an accountant, as a deputy to the chief accountant in a kolkhoz. Then from 1975 to 1976 he served as a conscript in the KGB Border Guard 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 USSR 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 Chairman 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 2001 no-confidence vote by the parliament, orchestrated by the Communists, who 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 to return one day.
"Our Ukraine" leader and political image
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. 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.
As a politician, Viktor Yushchenko is widely perceived as a mixture of Western-oriented and moderate Ukrainian nationalist. He 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 1932–1933. 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.
After the end of his term as prime minister, Yushchenko became a charismatic political figure popular among Ukrainians in the western and central regions of the country. In 2001–2004, his rankings in popularity polls were higher than those of President Leonid Kuchma.
However, in the latest parliament election in March 2006, the Our Ukraine 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 a poll undertaken by the Sofia Social research centre between July 27 and August 7, 2007 over 52% of those polled said they distrusted Ukraine's president. In 2008 Viktor Yushchenko's popularity plunged to less than 10%. According to a poll carried out by the Kiev International Institute for Sociology between January 29 and February 5, 2009, just under 70% of Ukrainian voters believe Yushchenko should leave his post, whereas just over 19% believe he should stay. When asked if Yushchenko should be impeached, over 56% of those polled were in favor with almost 27% against.
Presidential election of 2004
In 2004, as President 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. 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
during the Orange Revolution]]
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 that he had been poisoned by government agents. After the illness, his face was greatly disfigured: jaundiced, bloated, and pockmarked.
British toxicologist Professor John Henry of St Mary's Hospital in London declared the changes in Yushchenko's face were due to chloracne, which can be the result of dioxin poisoning. Dutch toxicologist Bram Brouwer also stated his changes in appearance were the result of chloracne, and found dioxin levels in Yushchenko's blood 6,000 times above normal.
On December 11, Dr. Michael Zimpfer of the Rudolfinerhaus clinic declared that Yushchenko had ingested TCDD dioxin and had 1,000 times the usual concentration in his body. Not all in the medical community agreed with this diagnosis, including the clinic's own chief medical director, Dr. Lothar Wicke, who stated there was no evidence of poisoning and claimed to have been forced to resign because of his disagreement. Wicke also claimed to have been threatened by Yushchenko's associates. Wicke's claims led some to question Yushchenko's truthfulness and motives.
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.
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.
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 the 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, and one poll gave him an 11% margin of victory. However, the final official result was a 3% margin of victory for Yanukovych.
The allegations of electoral fraud and the discrepancy between exit polls and the final tally 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 Supreme Court overturned the election results and ordered a re-vote of the run-off election 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 52% of the vote.
President
Inauguration
At 12 pm (Kiev time) on January 23, 2005, the inauguration of Viktor Yushchenko as the President of Ukraine took place. The event was attended by various foreign dignitaries, including:
- Arnold Rüütel, President of Estonia
- Adrienne Clarkson, Governor General of Canada
- Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President of Latvia
- Vladimir Voronin, President of Moldova
- Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland
- Traian Basescu, President of Romania
- Ivan Gašparovic, President of Slovakia
- Ferenc Mádl, President of Hungary
- Artur Rasizade, Prime Minister of Azerbaijan
- Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
- Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Secretary General of NATO
- Nino Burjanadze, Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia
- Arturas Paulauskas, Speaker of the Seimas (Parliament of Lithuania)
- Colin Powell, United States Secretary of State
- Vuk Draškovic, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia
- Special guest Václav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic
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. He appointed Yulia 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 cutthroat competitor of Tymoshenko for the post of Prime Minister, was appointed 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.
Dismissal of other Orange Revolution members
On September 8, 2005, Yushchenko fired his government, led by Yulia Tymoshenko, after resignations and claims of corruption.
On September 9, acting Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov tried to form a new government. His first attempt, on September 20, fell short by 3 votes of the necessary 226, but on September 22 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, Viktor Yanukovych, to be the new Prime Minister. This was generally regarded as indicating a rapprochement with Russia.
First dissolution of Parliament
On April 2, 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.
Second dissolution of Parliament
Having failed to form a new alliance to preserve the pro-Western coalition with his Orange Revolution partner Yulia Tymoshenko, Yushchenko again dissolved the parliament on October 9, 2008 and announced parliamentary elections under article 90 of the post-Soviet constitution would be held on December 7. They were later postponed to an unknown date. Yushchenko said, "I am convinced, deeply convinced that the democratic coalition was ruined by one thing alone -- human ambition. The ambition of one person." Political groups except his Our Ukraine party contested the election decree and politicians vowed to challenge it in the courts.
After a coalition was formed in mid-December between the Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc (OU-PSD), the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT), and the Lytvyn Bloc (LB), Yushchenko told journalists: "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." Victor Yushchenko also stated that Yulia 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.
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 for the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, the Bureau for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs at the U.S. State Department, the Reagan White House, the US Treasury Department, and the 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 the Ukraine 3000 Foundation, which emphasizes promoting civil society, particularly charity and corporate resposibility. The Foundation implements programs in the areas of children's health, integrating the disabled, improving education, supporting culture and the arts, publishing books, and researching history, particularly the Holodomor. From 1995 to 2005, she worked closely with Pryately Ditey, an organization that helps Ukrainian orphans.
Criticized by her husband's opponents for her US citizenship, 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, she was accused of exerting influence on behalf 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 TV channel Inter (TV channel)|Inter 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 important role of his religious convictions in his life and worldview.
Yushchenko's speech is heavily loaded with Surzhyk elements. His main hobbies are Ukrainian traditional culture (including art, ceramics, and archaeology), mountaineering, and beekeeping. He is keen on painting, collects antiques, folk artefacts, and Ukrainian national dress, 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.
See also
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