Nataliya Vitrenko

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Radical 2004 election poster of Nataliya Vitrenko depicting a hand symbolizing USA and NATO with a Nazi swastika

Nataliya Mikhailivna Vitrenko (Ukrainian: Натáлія Михáйлівна Вітрéнко) (born December 28, 1951) is a controversial Ukrainian politician.

[edit] Presidential candidacy

She was a candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, nominated by the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, which she has chaired since 1996. In the 2002 parliamentary elections her party won 3.22% of the votes. She was a presidential candidate in 1999, when she won 11% of the votes to finish in 4th place. In the 2004 elections, however, she finished in fifth place and received less than 5% of the vote.

[edit] Political position

She has been described as a hard line, radical leftist. She speaks in support of union of Slavic countries of the former Soviet Union; Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. Her election program is strongly critical of economic reforms of the previous and current presidents. She speaks against collaboration with the International Monetary Fund. She claims that she knows how to make Ukraine independent from foreign energy resources. If elected, she promises to cancel land trade operations, and to prevent Ukraine from entering NATO (see Crimean anti-NATO protests of 2006). She is known for her fervent pro-Russian views, and her anti-Western sentiment and anti-Americanism. She also promises to make the Ukrainian budget 6 times larger in 4 years.