| Arseniy Yatsenyuk Арсеній Яценюк |
|
|---|---|
| Yatsenyuk in May 2010 | |
| Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada | |
| In office December 4, 2007 – November 12, 2008[1] |
|
| Preceded by | Oleksander Moroz |
| Succeeded by | Oleksandr Lavrynovych |
| 8th Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine | |
| In office March 21, 2007 – December 4, 2007 |
|
| Preceded by | Volodymyr Ohryzko |
| Succeeded by | Volodymyr Ohryzko |
| Minister of Economy of Ukraine | |
| In office September 27, 2005 – August 4, 2006 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 22, 1974 Chernivtsi, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Ukraine) |
| Nationality | Ukrainian |
| Political party | Front for Change[2] |
| Other political affiliations |
Independent (2007–2010)[2][3] |
| Spouse(s) | Tereziya Victorivna (1970)[4] |
| Children | Hrystina, Sofia[5] |
| Occupation | Politician, economist, and lawyer |
| Website | www.frontzmin.org |
Arseniy Petrovych Yatsenyuk (Ukrainian: Арсеній Петрович Яценюк; born May 22, 1974) is a Ukrainian politician, economist and lawyer. Yatsenyuk served in the government of Ukraine as Minister of Economy from 2005 to 2006; subsequently he was Foreign Minister of Ukraine in 2007 and Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) from 2007 to 2008.
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Arseniy Petrovych Yatsenyuk was born on May 22, 1974 (allegedly into a Jewish family[6] (according to Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Yaakov Bleich Yatsenyuk is not Jewish[7])) in Chernivtsi; then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. After he began studying at the Chernivtsi University in 1992, Yatsenyuk set up a student law firm.[5] He graduated from the university in 1996, and later attended the Chernivtsi Trade-Economics Institute of the Kiev National Trade-Economics Institute in 2001.[8]
From December 1992 to September 1997 he was the president of "Yurek Ltd." law firm, based in Chernivtsi.[8] From January 1998 until September 2001, Yatsenyuk worked in the postal and pension "Aval" bank, based in Kiev.[8]
From September until November 2001, Arseniy served as an "acting" Minister of Economy of Crimea, and from November of the same year until January 2003, served as the official Minister of Economy of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.[8]
From November 2003 to February 2005, Yatsenyuk served as the first vice-president of the head of the National Bank of Ukraine under Serhiy Tyhypko.[5] After Tyhypko left the National Bank, Arseniy Yatsenyuk was put in charge of the National Bank.[5]
After Vasyl Tsushko was appointed as the new Governor of Odessa Oblast, Tsushko asked Yatsenyuk to serve as his vice-governor, which he served from March 9 to September 2005.[5][8] From September 27, 2005 to August 4, 2006, he served as the Minister of Economy of Ukraine in the Yekhanurov Government.[5][9] Arseniy Yatsenyuk then headed talks about Ukrainian membership in the World Trade Organization. Yatsenyuk also heads the Ukraine-European Union commission.
From September 20, 2006, he served as the first vice-president of the Head of Government of the President of Ukraine, and the representative of the president in the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.[10]
Arseniy Yatsenyuk was proposed for the post of Foreign Minister by the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko. Yatsenyuk was chosen for the post by the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) on March 21, 2007[11] with 426 votes (from 450 maximum),[12] but only after the Ukrainian parliament twice denied the post to Volodymyr Ohryzko.
In the early parliamentary elections held on September 30, 2007, Yatsenyuk was elected to the parliament from Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc (number 3 in the bloc's member list). On December 3, 2007, he was nominated for the position of the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada from the democratic coalition formed from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc.[13] On December 4, 2007, Yatsenyuk was elected the Chairman of the Parliament.[14] His candidacy was the only in the ballot, and he obtained 227 votes in favor (from the democratic coalition; opposition abstained from the voting).[15]
During the Ukrainian political crises of September 2008 Yatsenyuk offered his resignation on September 17, 2008. A vote on his dismissal on November 11, 2008, was declared invalid by the counting commission of the Parliament[16][17] (the vote was proposed by opposition party Party of Regions).[18]
On November 12, a total of 233 of 226 required deputies satisfied the resignation statement of Yatsenyuk and thus dismissed him from his post of Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada.[1][19] The voting was carried out through the parliaments voting system and not by means of secret ballots, as stipulated by the parliamentary regulations.[20] After his dismissal Yatsenyuk told journalists that he will form a new political force "for change in the country."[21][22]
On November 21, 2008 Arseniy Yatsenyuk was also dismissed by President Viktor Yushchenko from the National Security and Defense Council.[23]
On December 16, 2008, Yatsenyuk announced plans to create a political party on basis of the Front of Changes public initiative.[24] In an interview with Den of February 4, 2009 he claimed to have no allies among the current politicians.[25] He has often been referred to as a political clone lacking differentiating policies of Ukraine's President, Viktor Yushchenko.[26] According to polls held in the last months of 2008 a political party led by Arseniy Yatsenyuk would pass the 3 percent election threshold in the next Ukrainian parliamentary election.[27][28][29]
On April 5, 2009, Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced his candidacy for President of Ukraine in the next presidential election.[30] During the election campaign fellow candidate Serhiy Ratushniak repeatedly insulted Yatsenyuk because of his alleged Jewish roots, among others Ratushniak called Yatsenyuk an "impudent little Jew" who was "successfully serving the thieves who are in power in Ukraine and is using criminal money to plough ahead towards Ukraine's presidency".[31]
Yatsenyuk's presidential campaign was estimated to cost about $60–$70 million.[32] When Yatsenyuk billboards first appeared around Ukraine at the end of June 2009, Yatseniuk was depicted as a military-style leader, while his previous image was that of a "young liberal". Some analysts think that this did not help the campaign.[32] On January 13, 2010 Yatseniuk stated that his election campaign had cost 80 million Hryvnia and that "The number of my advertising posters is ten times less than that of all of my political opponents"; Yatseniuk claimed that funds from his election budget were mainly spent on his appearances on television.[33]
After the elections Yatsenyuk wanted to dissolve the Verkhovna Rada because in his view the parliament would prevent him from working. He also stated in November 2009 that Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko and Party of Regions were "almost a single whole".[34][35]
In late November 2009, he stated he was not interested in "using his votes as bargaining material" for a high political post.[36]
On February 21, 2010 President Yanukovych offered three candidates for Prime Minister of Ukraine: Sergey Tigipko, Yatsenyuk and Party of Regions lawmaker Mykola Azarov.[37] But Yatsenyuk declined this proposal to hold a high post in the new cabinet after the Ukrainian parliament adopted an amendment on March 9, 2010 which enabled independent lawmakers to take part in forming a majority coalition, instead of only parliamentary factions; Yatsenyuk disapproved of this amendment.[38] Instead he called for early parliamentary elections: "Unconstitutional attempts by parliamentarians to form a coalition and a government would deepen the political crisis and the crisis of statehood as such".[39] To be premier in a coalition with communists was unacceptable for Yatsenyuk.[40] Yatsenyuk formed an oppositional government in March 2010, next to another oppositional government headed by Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko, opposing the Azarov Government.[41] In April 2010 Yatsenyuk was officially chosen as party leader of Front for Change; by that time the public initiative had become a political party also.[2]
Currently, Arseny Yatsenyuk's father Petro Yatsenyuk works as a deputy dean of the Historical Faculty at the Chernivtsi National University, and his mother, Mariya Yatsenyuk, is a French teacher at one of the Chernivtsi high schools (according to other sources – also at the Chernivtsi University[42]).
Yatsenyuk also has a sister Alina Petrivna Jones (according to other sources – Steel,[42] born 1967), residing in the city of Santa Barbara, California United States.[42]
Yatsenyuk's wife is Tereza Viktorivna (b. 1970), they also have two daughters named Khrystyna and Sofiya. Tereza Yatsenyuk was born into a family of philosophers. Her father, Viktor Illarionovych Gur, works as a professor of philosophy at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, her mother Svitlana Mykytivna – PhD, now retired.[42] Yatsenyuk's family lives near Kiev (the village of Novi Petrivtsi, Vyshhorod Raion) since 2003, where he owns a two-storeyed house with an outdoor swimming pool, near the country house belonging to Viktor Yanukovych.[43]
“Ukraine is still not a democracy”
Yatseniuk does not want Russian to become the second state language in Ukraine.[45]
Yatseniuk stated that in its relations with the European Union, Ukraine should have a visa-free regime with EU countries.[46]
Yatseniuk is against privatization of state property[47] and wants to simplify the civil service.[48] Yatseniuk has stated in November 2009 that the question of the Russian Black Sea Fleet's withdrawal (then lease was originally supposed to end in 2017)[49] from Ukraine is not currently on the agenda, and the question should be discussed in 2016.[50] Yatseniuk was against the April 21, 2010 agreement in which the Russian lease on naval facilities in Crimea would be extended beyond 2017 by 25 years with an additional five-year renewal option (to 2042–47) in exchange for a multiyear discounted contract to provide Ukraine with Russian natural gas.[51][52][53] Yatseniuk favours the creation of a special "vice prime minister for Crimean issues"-post.[54]
In November 2009 Yatsenyuk stated that Ukraine's shadow economy "is a part of the current political system in Ukraine and that's why taking business out of the shadows will only be possible via a change in this system". In November 2009 he saw as his most difficult task if elected President "to break the political clan system that has been built up over the last 18 years".[55] Yatsenyuk wants to create a common energy company with European Union countries and Russia.[39]
According to Yatsenyuk it will be impossible to fight corruption without changing the country's system of government, "The system of government in Ukraine has in fact remained the same as it was under the Soviet Union".[56]
Late July 2010 Yatsenyuk wrote a draft law which proposed to fine officials for violating the law "On Appeals by Citizens", thus holding officials personally accountable for ignoring the complaints of citizens.[57]
In November 2009 he proposed that a referendum be held on if Ukraine should have an open list voting system.[34] Yatseniuk is in favour of holding referenda, he calls this "nationalization of state power".[58] The amendment of the terms and conditions of the Russian Black Sea Fleet's presence in Ukraine and a decision on Ukraine's membership of NATO and other military alliances are according to Yatsenyuk only possible through a referendum.[39]
Yatseniuk is against the participation of Ukrainian troops in peacekeeping operations abroad.[59]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Volodymyr Ohryzko |
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine 2007 |
Succeeded by Volodymyr Ohryzko |
| Preceded by Oleksandr Moroz |
Chairman of Verkhovna Rada 2007–2008 |
Succeeded by Oleksandr Lavrynovych (acting) |
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