Oleh Tyahnybok

Oleh Tyahnybok
People's Deputy of Ukraine
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 December 2012[1]
In office 1998–2002
Leader of the All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda"
In office February 14, 2004 – December 4, 2007
Preceded by	Yaroslav Andruschkiv
Personal details
Born	Oleh Yaroslavovych Tyahnybok (1968-11-07) November 7, 1968 Lviv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Political party	All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom"
Spouse(s)	Olha Tyahnybok (née Demchyschyn)
Children	Jaryna-Maria (1992) Daryna-Bohdana (1995) Hordiy (1997)
Religion	Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Website	http://www.tyahnybok.info/

Oleh Yaroslavovych Tyahnybok (Ukrainian: Оле́г Яросла́вович Тягнибо́к, born November 7, 1968, Lviv) is a Ukrainian politician and a member of the Verkhovna Rada; the leader of the All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda".^[2][3] Previously he was elected a councilman of the Lviv Oblast Council for several convocations.^[4]

Biography

Tyahnybok was born in the city of Lviv to a family of doctors, he is also a former doctor himself.^[5][6] His father, Yaroslav Tyahnybok, a Merited Doctor of Ukraine, was a distinguished sports doctor, chief physician of the Soviet national boxing team, and a former boxer himself who achieved the title of the Master of Sports of the USSR.^[7] Oleh's great-grandfather was a brother of Lonhyn Tsehelsky, a politician in the West Ukrainian People's Republic.^[5] Tyahnybok claims he remembers from when he was younger the searches that were conducted by the agents of the KGB in the apartment of his family.

After school Tyahnybok enrolled into the Lviv Medical Institute and received part-time medical jobs as a corpsman and nurse, but after the second year was drafted to the army. After the return to the Institute he initiated the creation of the Med Institute Student Brotherhood - the first step in his life of a civil activist. Tyahnybok graduated from the institute in 1993 as a qualified surgeon (as he sometimes mentions, majoring in urology). In 1994 25-year-old Tyahnybok was elected to the Lviv Oblast Council and in 1998 he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada.

Political career

In October 1991 Tyahnybok became a member of the Social-National Party of Ukraine.^[8] He is characterised as representative of Ukraine's far right. From 1994 till 1998, Tyahnybok served as a member of the Lviv Regional Council.^[9] In 1998, Tyahnybok was first elected to the Ukrainian Parliament as a member of Social-National Party of Ukraine,^[8] in the parliament he became a member of the People's Movement of Ukraine fraction.^[8] In 2002, Tyahnybok was reelected to the Ukrainian parliament as a member of Victor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine bloc.^[8] In parliament he submitted 36 motions for debate, but the parliament adopted only four of them.^[10] In the majority of his motions he opposed the introduction of the Russian language as the second official state language, proposed recognition of the fighting role of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent Army during World War II, called for the lustration of former communist officials, security service officers and undercover agents, and demanded the prohibition of communist ideology.^[10] None of these motions where adopted.^[10]

On July 20, 2004, Tyahnybok was expelled from the Our Ukraine parliamentary faction^[8][11] after he made a speech in the Carpathian Mountains at the gravesite of a commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.^[11] In the speech, which was aired on television in the summer of 2004, he made comments like:^[12]

"[You are the ones] that the Moscow-Jewish mafia ruling Ukraine fears most"^[11]

and

"They were not afraid and we should not be afraid. They took their automatic guns on their necks and went into the woods, and fought against the Moskali, Germans, Kikes and other scum who wanted to take away our Ukrainian state."^[10]

In his defence Tyahnybok said he had not offended Russians by calling them an occupying force as this was based on historical fact. He also denied that he was anti-Semitic, saying he was rather pro-Ukrainian.^[13][14] The head of the State Committee of National Migration (Derzhkomnatsmihratsia) Hennadiy Moskal published an open letter with insulting content towards the head of the AU Freedom. The Prosecutor's office filed criminal charges of inciting ethnic hatred, but later closed the case for lack of offense. Since that time Mr. Tyahnybok has won nine court cases in that regard. By the decisions of courts it was recognized that the criminal case was raised unlawfully, and the actions of TV-channel "Inter" that showed the footage of the Tyanybok's speech as well as the Head of the Derzhkomnatsmihratsia H. Moskal were recognized as ones that insult the honor and dignity Oleh Tyahnybok and caused him a moral damage. The actions around that issue led to creation of the "Program in defense of Ukrainians". Tyahnybok stated in 2012 "this speech is relevant even today" and "All I said then, I can also repeat now".^[4]

Since February 2004 Tyahnybok has headed the All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom".^[9]

In April 2005, Tyahnybok co-signed an open letter to President Yushchenko calling for a parliamentary investigation into the "criminal activities of organized Jewry in Ukraine."^[4][15]

Tyahnybok stood as a candidate for the post of Mayor of Kiev during the Kiev local election in 2008.^[10] In the elections Leonid Chernovetskyi was reelected with 37.7% of the vote, while Tyahnybok received 1.37% of the vote.^[10][16]

Tyahnybok was a candidate for President of Ukraine in the 2010 presidential election for the All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom". He received 352,282 votes, or 1.43% of the total.^[17] Most of his votes he received in the historic Halychyna oblasts - Lviv oblast, Ternopil oblast and Ivano-Frankivsk oblast accounted to 5% of the vote.^[18] In the second round, Tyahnybok did not endorse a candidate. He did presente a list of some 20 demands second round candidate Yulia Tymoshenko had to fulfil first before gaining his endorsement - which included publicizing alleged secret deals Tymoshenko had with Vladimir Putin and ridding herself of what he called Ukraine-haters in her close circles.^[19]

During the 2010 Ukrainian local elections his party won between twenty and thirty percent of the votes in Eastern Galicia where it became one of the main forces in local government.^[5][20]

During the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election Tyahnybok was (re-)elected (he was top candidate on his party list) into the Ukrainian parliament; when his party won 38 seats.^[21][22][23] Tyahnybok was elected leader of the party's parliamentary faction.^[24]

In December 2012 Tyahnybok was voted Person of the Year by readers of Ukraine's leading news magazine, Korrespondent.^[4]

Political positions

Tyahnybok regards Russia as Ukraine's biggest threat.^[12] He has accused the Medvedev presidency of "waging virtual war on Ukraine along many fronts – in the information sphere and the diplomatic sector, within the energy trade and throughout the world of international PR spin.".^[5] He is pro-NATO and critical of the European Union, but supports a Europe of free nations. According to polls both stances put him at odds with the majority of Ukrainians.^[12] Tyahnybok also wants to deprive Crimea of its autonomous status and Sevastopol of its special status.^[25][26]

Tyahnybok wants to introduce a “nationality” section into Ukrainian passport, a visa regime with Russia, and for Ukrainians to pass a Ukrainian language test to work in the civil service.^[27]

Tyahnybok wants to re-establish Ukraine as a nuclear power.^[27] He believes this would stop the "Russian virtual war on Ukraine" (mentioned above).^[5]

Cultural and political image

During a visit of Tyahnybok to Sevastopol on January 6, 2010 some 1,500 activists of parties and public movements picketed the Business and Culture Center where Tyahnybok had a meeting with voters.^[28]

Tyahnybok was voted Person of the Year for 2012 by readers of the country's leading news magazine, Korrespondent.^[4] Tyahnybok was ranked #43 in the 2012 list of "Top 100 Most influential Ukrainians" by Korrespondent.^[29]

In an opinion poll conducted on December 7-17 2013, respondents showed that in a hypothetical presidential election between Viktor Yanukovych and Tyahnybok, results found that Tyahnybok would win with 28.8% of the popular vote, versus Yanukovych's 27.1%.^[30] Another poll taken on January 42–February 2, 2014 across all regions of Ukraine showed that in a presidential race between Tyahnybok and incumbent Yanukovych, 54.% of the population would vote for Tyahnybok.^[31]

See also

• Ukrainian nationalism

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Oleh Tyahnybok.

• Official personal website (Ukrainian)
• Oleh Tyahnybok: “The three opposition parties should not be required to act completely in sync”, The Ukrainian Week (31 March 2013)

Media

• Tyahnybok campaigning for the 2004 elections

v t e Candidates in the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election Inna Bohoslovska Mykhailo Brodskyy Anatoliy Hrytsenko Yuriy Kostenko Volodymyr Lytvyn Oleksandr Moroz Oleksandr Pabat Vasyl Protyvsikh Serhiy Ratushniak Oleh Riabokon Liudmyla Suprun Petro Symonenko Serhiy Tihipko Oleh Tyahnybok Yulia Tymoshenko Viktor Yanukovych Arseniy Yatsenyuk Viktor Yushchenko

v t e Euromaidan Timeline and reactions Timeline of the Euromaidan Domestic responses to the Euromaidan International reactions to the Euromaidan List of people killed during Euromaidan Main events 1 December 2013 riots Fall of the monument to Lenin in Kiev Ukrainian–Russian action plan Vasylkiv terrorists case Anti-protest laws in Ukraine Hrushevskoho Street riots RSA occupations 2015 presidential election Main places Maidan Nezalezhnosti Bankova Street European Square Hrushevskoho Street Dynamo Stadium Kiev City Council Trade Unions Building Ukrainian House Mezhyhirya (residence) Eurointegration Ukraine–European Union relations Eastern Partnership European Union Association Agreement Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement Protest figures Organizations Maidan People's Union Parliamentary opposition parties Batkivshchyna UDAR Svoboda Other parties Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists Democratic Alliance UNA–UNSO Civic organizations AutoMaidan Road Control Vidsich Militant groups Right Sector Spilna Sprava Lead figures Vitali Klitschko Arseniy Yatsenyuk Oleh Tyahnybok Petro Poroshenko Yuriy Lutsenko Oleksandr Turchynov Yulia Tymoshenko Andriy Parubiy Andriy Sadovyi Ruslana Tetiana Chornovol Dmytro Bulatov Anti-protest figures Organizations Second Azarov Government Ministry of Internal Affairs Interior Troops of Ukraine Security Service of Ukraine Berkut Party of Regions Titushky Lead figures Viktor Yanukovych Mykola Azarov Serhiy Arbuzov Vitaliy Zakharchenko Oleksandr Yefremov Andriy Klyuyev Hennadiy Kernes

Persondata
Name	Tyahnybok, Oleh
Alternative names
Short description	Ukrainian politician
Date of birth	November 7, 1968
Place of birth	Lviv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Date of death
Place of death