Viktor Yushchenko

Viktor Yushchenko Віктор Ющенко
Yushchenko in 2008
3rd President of Ukraine
In office 23 January 2005 – 25 February 2010
Prime Minister	Yulia Tymoshenko Yuriy Yekhanurov Viktor Yanukovych Yulia Tymoshenko
Preceded by	Leonid Kuchma
Succeeded by	Viktor Yanukovych
Prime Minister of Ukraine
In office 22 December 1999 – 29 May 2001
President	Leonid Kuchma
Preceded by	Valeriy Pustovoitenko
Succeeded by	Anatoliy Kinakh
Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine
In office January 1993 – 22 December 1999
Preceded by	Vadym Hetman
Succeeded by	Volodymyr Stelmakh
Born	23 February 1954 (1954-02-23) (age 56) Khoruzhivka, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine)
Political party	Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense Bloc (2001–present) Our Ukraine (2005–present)
Other political affiliations	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1980–1991)
Spouse(s)	Svetlana Kolesnyk (Divorced) Kateryna Chumachenko
Children	Andriy, Taras, Vitalina, Sophia, Chrystyna
Alma mater	Ternopil Finance and Economics Institute
Religion	Ukrainian Orthodoxy
Signature
Website	www.nashvybir.com.ua
Military service
Service/branch	Border Guard unit of KGB
Years of service	1975–1976
Rank	Captain

Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko (Ukrainian: Віктор Андрійович Ющенко Viktor Andrijovyč Juščenko) (born February 23, 1954) is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution. He failed to secure a runoff spot during the 2010 Ukrainian Presidential Election.^[1][2] He has been praised for his democratic instincts ^[3]

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 presidency through a repeat runoff election between him and Viktor Yanukovych, the government-supported candidate. The Ukrainian Supreme Court called for the runoff election to be repeated because of widespread election fraud in favor of Viktor Yanukovych in the original vote. 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.

Following an alleged assassination attempt in late 2004, Yushchenko was confirmed to have ingested hazardous amounts of TCDD^[4]: the most potent dioxin and a contaminant in Agent Orange. He suffered disfigurement as a result of the poisoning, but has been slowly recovering in recent years.

Early life

Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko was born on February 23, 1954 in Khoruzhivka, Sumy Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR, 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 Transcaucasian Military District on the Soviet–Turkish border.

After researching his genealogy in 2009 Yushchenko did not rule out that his family is connected with the family of Ivan Mazepa.^[5]

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

Yushchenko with fellow opposition leader Oleksandr Moroz during the Orange Revolution

Yushchenko's approval rating stood at 7% as of October, 2009 according to FOM-Ukraine polling results.^[6]

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 the Autumn of 2001 both Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko broached at creating a broad opposition bloc against the incumbent President Leonid Kuchma in order to win the Ukrainian presidential election 2004.^[7]

Late 2002 Yushchenko, Oleksandr Moroz (Socialist Party of Ukraine), Petro Symonenko (Communist Party of Ukraine) and Yulia Tymoshenko (Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc) issued a joint statement concerning "the beginning of a state revolution in Ukraine". The communist stept out of the alliance, Symonenko was against a single candidate from the alliance in the Ukrainian presidential election 2004, but the other three party's remained allies^[8] (until July 2006)^[9].

On July 2, 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 President Kuchma and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych where the incumbent authorities in Ukraine. The pact included a promise by Viktor Yushchenko to nominate Tymoshenko as Prime Minister if Yushchenko would win the October 2004 presidential election.^[7]

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.

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. In recent public opinion polls, though, his support has plummeted, from a high of 52% following his election in 2004 to below 4%.^[10][11][12]

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.^[13]

Presidential election of 2004

Viktor Yushchenko (First round) – percentage of total national vote

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.^[14][15] 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".^[16][17] 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.^[18]

Dioxin poisoning

Yushchenko at the University of Amsterdam, with chloracne from TCDD dioxin poisoning (2006).

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 results from dioxin poisoning.^[19] 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.^[20]

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.^[21] Not all in the medical community agreed with this diagnosis,^[19] including the clinic's own chief medical director, Dr. Lothar Wicke, who stated there was no evidence of poisoning other than the severe chloracne visible on his face and claimed to have been forced to resign because of his disagreement.^[22] Wicke also claimed to have been threatened by Yushchenko's associates.^[23] Wicke's claims led some to question Yushchenko's truthfulness and motives.^[24][25][26]

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.^[19][20][21]

Since 2005, Yushchenko has been treated by a team of doctors led by Professor Jean Saurat at the University of Geneva Hospital.^[27] 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 first Tymoshenko Government, claimed in an interview with the BBC^[28] that Yushchenko had not been poisoned in 2004 and that laboratory results in the case had been falsified.

Yushchenko himself implicated David Zhvania, the godfather of one of his children, of involvement in his dioxin poisoning.^[29]

In September 2009, Larysa Cherednichenko, former head of the department for supervision over investigations into criminal cases of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office, said high-ranking officials from the presidential secretariat and family members of Yushchenko falsified evidence in his poisoning case, with dioxin being added to Yushchenko's blood samples. Cherednichenko claims she was warned that she would be dismissed from her office immediately after she wrote her report on August 26, 2009 and said she was offered two positions, which she refused, and contested her dismissal in court.^[30] According to Cherednichenko, she was fired from her job after submitting her report; according to the Office of the Prosecutor General, her dismissal had nothing to do with her allegations and was part of a staffing reorganization that had been planned long before she submitted her report, and measures were under way to find her another job.^[31]

In August 2009, The Lancet published a scientific paper by Swiss and Ukrainian researchers on the monitoring, form, distribution, and elimination of TCDD in Yushchenko after he presented with severe poisoning. The 2004 TCDD levels in Yushchenko's blood serum were 50,000-fold greater than those in the general population.^[32] This new study also concluded that the dioxin "was so pure that it was definitely made in a laboratory".^[33]

In September 2009, a special commission, created by the Verkhovna Rada, came to a conclusion that the Yushchenko dioxin poisoning was falsified to strengthen his positions during 2004 presidential elections. The commission demanded to bring to justice those guilty in fabrication of blood tests.^[34] There were allegations US intelligence services injected blood samples taken from Yushchenko with dioxin to feign poisoning. These allegations were dismissed by Ukraine's Office of the Prosecutor General.^[31]

On September 27, 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.^[35]

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 re-vote of second 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 Vīķe-Freiberga, President of Latvia
• Vladimir Voronin, President of Moldova
• Aleksander Kwaśniewski, President of Poland
• Traian Băsescu, President of Romania
• Ivan Gašparovič, 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
• Artūras Paulauskas, Speaker of the Seimas (Parliament of Lithuania)
• Colin Powell, United States Secretary of State
• Vuk Drašković, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia
• Special guest Václav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic

Presidency

Yushchenko meeting then-United States President George W. Bush at an April 2005 press conference.

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.^[36] 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.^[37]

First dissolution of Parliament

On April 2, 2007, Yushchenko signed an order to dissolve the parliament and call early elections.^[38][39] 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 preventing the court from ruling on the constitutionality of his decree dismissing Ukraine's parliament.^[40]

Second dissolution of Parliament

Yushchenko again tried to dissolve the parliament on October 9, 2008 by announcing parliamentary elections to be held on December 7. Yushchenko's decree was suspended and has since 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.^[41][42]

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–People's Self-Defense Bloc (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." 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.^[43][44]

Yushchenko claimed (March 19, 2009) that his conflicts with Tymoshenko are not due to personal differences, but to the incompleteness of the constitutional reforms of 2004.^[45]

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

Public opinion polls

In 2008 Viktor Yushchenko's popularity plunged to less than 10%.^[46] 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 believed that Yushchenko should leave his post, whereas just over 19% believed he should stay. When asked if Yushchenko should be impeached, over 56% of those polled were in favor with almost 27% against.^[47]

According to a public opinion poll conducted by FOM-Ukraine in September/October 2009, 88.5% of those polled did not support the actions of Yushchenko as President, while 6.7% welcomed them.^[48]

2010 presidential election and later career

Viktor Yushchenko (First round) – percentage of total national vote (5.46%)

On November 10, 2009, Viktor Yushchenko was nominated for a second term as President, with the election to be held on January 17, 2010.^[49] In late November 2009 he stated he was going to leave politics after his second term run.^[50] During the campaign Yushchenko stated his fellow candidates "Tymoshenko and Yanukovych are not the ideologists who care about the fate of Ukraine and its interests. These are two political adventurers" and that Ukraine's independence and sovereignty was at the time more jeopardized than five to ten years earlier.^[51]

The first round of elections took place on January 17, 2010, and Yushchenko gained only 5.45% of the vote, and was eliminated.^[52][53] Yushchenko stated that he wants to continue to defend democracy in Ukraine^[54] and that he wants to return to the presidential post.^[55] Yushchenko didn't support either of the candidates, Victor Yanukovych or Yulia Tymoshenko, in the second round of Ukraine's presidential elections.^[56]

Yushchenko attributed this low popularity ratings to adherence to his principles.^[57] “Ukraine is a European democratic country”, Yushchenko said at the polling station. “It is a free nation and free people.” ^[58] 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,^[59] 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 didn't attend the inauguration ceremony of President Yanukovych.^[60]

On March 10, 2010 Yushchenko indicated his future plans would largely depend on Yanukovych’s performance.^[61] A day earlier, Yushchenko’s former ally turned rival, Yulia Tymoshenko, took up the mantle as leader of the democratic opposition. But Yushchenko warned that her leadership will end in disaster “Every political force that united with Tymoshenko ended badly”.^[61]

On April 18, 2010, Yushchenko and his wife (along with President Yanukovych and former Prime Minister Tymoshenko) journeyed to Poland to attend the state funeral of President Lech Kaczyński in Kraków. Due to the widespread air disruptions in Europe due to the eruptions in Iceland, the Yushchenkos journeyed by car from Kiev.^[62]

On May 31, 2010 Yushchenko stated that Yulia Tymoshenko was his "worst mistake": "The most serous [sic] mistake was to give the power to her twice”.^[63]

Political positions

On March 31, 2009, in his address to the nation before Parliament, Yushchenko proposed sweeping government reform changes and an economic and social plan to ameliorate current economic conditions in Ukraine and apparently to respond to standing structural problems in Ukraine's political system.

The proposal, which Yushchenko called a 'next big step forward for fairness and prosperity in Ukraine' included the following proposals:^[64]

• Restore financial stability in the country by implementing the IMF reforms and a balanced budget
• Abolish parliamentary immunity
• Fair pension system based on the number of years of work and salary received
• Pass a realistic state budget for 2009 that reduces inflation and stabilizes the hryvna
• Have the state assume responsibility for struggling banks
• Rejuvenate rural areas by eliminating state interference in agriculture production
• Promote Ukrainian products abroad to increase sales for our producers
• European Union membership and increased trade while simultaneously improving relations and trade with Russia
• Allow voters to elect members of parliament from the areas where they live
• Open up party lists for both parliamentary and local elections
• Create bicameral parliament to bring stability to our legislative branch
• Reduce the number of members of parliament

Yushchenko also advocates NATO membership for Ukraine^[65] and is against promoting Russian as the second state language in Ukraine.^[66]

According to Yushchenko, a good future for the country is impossible without national unity.^[67] Yushchenko also advocates the formation of a single Orthodox Church in Ukraine, thus unifying the current three branches of the Orthodox church in Ukraine (the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate, the only one recognized by the world orthodox community, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church).

Actions by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army have been praised by Yushchenko,^[67] and he has tried to give anti-Soviet partisans who fought in World War II the status of war veterans.^[68]

According to Yushchenko the difficulties of relations between Ukraine and Russia are because the countries follow different directions and have different system of values.^[69] Yushchenko thinks that "the Russia-Georgia war of August 2008 poses a threat that European leaders still haven’t addressed". He has called for a demarcation of borders between Russia and Ukraine, which has been delayed by Russia since Ukraine won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.^[70] During the campaign for the Ukrainian presidential election, 2010 Yushchenko said Russia’s influence was again a factor in the upcoming election and warned of “interference” from Moscow in the distribution of Russian passports to residents of Crimea.^[71] He has also stated (on December 10, 2009) "Russia is a friendly country and that it would be a great mistake for Ukraine to lose these relations or to slow down their development; I believe that there will appear politicians in Russia, who will respect the rights of all neighbors, including Ukraine".^[72]

Yushchenko's 2010 presidential election program promised visa-free travel with EU, the withdrawal of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation by 2017 and "an active dialogue with all of Ukraine's neighbours based on the principles of equal rights, good neighbourly relations and mutual trust", but did not mention NATO membership.^[73] Yushchenko also believed that the 2008–2009 Ukrainian financial crisis could be tackled with the help of reconstruction, including road reconstruction.^[74] Further more the program banned tax collection in advance, would return non-reimbursed VAT, create equal tax rules for everybody and stop government interference in certain enterprises and whole sectors of the economy.^[75]

Yushchenko considers an open list of candidates for parliamentary elections as one of the conditions for eradicating corruption.^[76]

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 U.S. 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 responsibility. 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 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,^[77] Yushchenko often emphasizes the important role of his religious convictions in his life and worldview.

Yushchenko's speech is heavily loaded with Surzhyk elements.^[78][79] 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.

Although Yushchenko does not work for the Ukrainian state anymore he is still living in a state-owned dacha in Koncha-Zaspa.^[80]

Cultural and political image

As a politician, Viktor Yushchenko is widely perceived as a mixture of Western-oriented and 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 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.

See also

• List of national leaders
• Orange Revolution
• Politics of Ukraine
• Ukrainian presidential election, 2004
• Ukrainian presidential election, 2010
• 2007 Ukrainian political crisis
• 2008 Ukrainian political crisis
• Ukrainization
• Victims of poisoning

References

External links

Presidency of Ukraine Presidents Leonid Kravchuk · Leonid Kuchma · Viktor Yushchenko · Viktor Yanukovych Residences Mariyinsky Palace · House with Chimaeras · House of the Weeping Widow Administration Administration · National Security and Defense Council · SZRU · Representatives Elections 1991 · 1994 · 1999 · 2004 · 2010

Leaders of Ukraine West Ukrainian National Republic (1918–1919) Kost Levytsky · Yevhen Petrushevych Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–1920) Mykhailo Hrushevskyi · Volodymyr Vynnychenko · Symon Petliura (Holovnyi Otaman) Hetmanate (1918) Pavlo Skoropadskyi Government-in-exile of the Ukranian People's Republic (1920–1992) Andriy Livytskyi · Stepan Vytvytskyi · Mykola Livytskyi · Mykola Plaviuk Chairman of the Ukrainian National Council (1941) Kost Levytsky First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Ukrainian SSR (1922–1991) Georgy Pyatakov · Stanislav Kosior · Dmitry Manuilsky · Emmanuil Kviring · Lazar Kaganovich · Stanislav Kosior · Nikita Khrushchev · Lazar Kaganovich · Nikita Khrushchev · Leonid Melnikov · Alexei Kirichenko · Nikolai Podgorny · Petro Shelest · Volodymyr Shcherbytsky · Volodymyr Ivashko · Stanislav Gurenko Presidents of Ukraine (since 1991) Leonid Kravchuk · Leonid Kuchma · Viktor Yushchenko  · Viktor Yanukovych

Prime Ministers of Ukraine Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–1920) Volodymyr Vynnychenko • Vsevolod Holubovych • Mykola Vasylenko* • Fedir Lyzohub • Serhii Gerbel • Volodymyr Chekhivsky • Serhii Ostapenko • Borys Martos • Isaak Mazepa • Vyacheslav Prokopovych Ukrainian SSR (1917–1991) Mykola Skrypnyk • Georgy Pyatakov • Christian Rakovsky • Vlas Chubar • Panas Lyubchenko • Mikhail Bondarenko • Nikolay Marchak • Demyan Korotchenko • Leonid Korniyets • Nikita Khrushchev • Demyan Korotchenko • Nikifor Kalchenko • Volodymyr Shcherbytsky • Ivan Kazanets • Volodymyr Shcherbytsky • Aleksandr Lyashko • Vitaliy Masol • Vitold Fokin Ukraine (1991–Present) Vitold Fokin • Valentyn Symonenko* • Leonid Kuchma • Yukhym Zvyahilsky* • Vitaliy Masol • Yevhen Marchuk • Pavlo Lazarenko • Vasyl Durdynets* • Valeriy Pustovoitenko • Viktor Yushchenko • Anatoliy Kinakh • Viktor Yanukovych • Mykola Azarov* • Viktor Yanukovych • Mykola Azarov* • Yulia Tymoshenko • Yuriy Yekhanurov • Viktor Yanukovych • Yulia Tymoshenko • Oleksandr Turchynov* • Mykola Azarov * denotes acting

2004 Ukrainian presidential election Candidates Viktor Yushchenko · Viktor Yanukovych · Oleksandr Moroz · Petro Symonenko · Nataliya Vitrenko · Anatoliy Kinakh · Oleksandr Yakovenko · Oleksandr Omelchenko · Leonid Chernovetskyi · Dmytro Korchynskyy · Andriy Chornovil · Mykola Hrabar · Mykhaylo Brodskyy · Yuriy Zbitnyev · Serhiy Komisarenko · Vasyl Volha · Bohdan Boyko · Oleksandr Rzhavskyy · Mykola Rohozhynskyy · Vladyslav Kryvobokov · Oleksandr Bazylyuk · Ihor Dushyn · Roman Kozak · Volodymyr Nechyporuk · Hryhoriy Chernysh · Vitaliy Kononov See also Post-election developments in Ukraine, 2004 · Orange Revolution

Candidates in the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election Inna Bohoslovska · Mykhaylo Brodskyy · Anatoliy Hrytsenko · Yuriy Kostenko · Volodymyr Lytvyn · Oleksandr Moroz · Oleksandr Pabat · Vasily Protyvsih · Serhiy Ratushniak · Oleg Riabokon · Liudmyla Suprun · Petro Symonenko · Sergei Tigipko · Oleh Tyahnybok · Yulia Tymoshenko · Viktor Yanukovych · Arseniy Yatsenyuk · Viktor Yushchenko