Viktor Yanukovych

Viktor Yanukovych Віктор Янукович
President of Ukraine
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 February 2010
Prime Minister	Yulia Tymoshenko
Preceded by	Viktor Yushchenko
Prime Minister of Ukraine
In office 21 November 2002 – 7 December 2004
President	Leonid Kuchma
Preceded by	Anatoliy Kinakh
Succeeded by	Mykola Azarov (Acting)
In office 28 December 2004 – 5 January 2005
President	Leonid Kuchma
Preceded by	Mykola Azarov (Acting)
Succeeded by	Mykola Azarov (Acting)
In office 4 August 2006 – 18 December 2007
President	Viktor Yushchenko
Preceded by	Yuriy Yekhanurov
Succeeded by	Yulia Tymoshenko
Governor of Donetsk
In office 14 May 1997 – 21 November 2002
Preceded by	Volodymyr Sherban
Succeeded by	Anatoliy Blyzniuk
Personal details
Born	(1950-07-09) 9 July 1950 Yenakiieve, Soviet Union (now Ukraine)
Political party	Party of Regions (1997–present)
Other political affiliations	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1980–1991)
Spouse	Lyudmilla Oleksandrivna
Children	Olexander Viktor
Alma mater	Donetsk Polytechnic Institute
Profession	Mechanical engineer
Website	www.yankovych.com.ua www.president.gov.ua

Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych (Ukrainian: Viktor Fedorovyč Janukovyč) (born July 9, 1950) is a Ukrainian politician who has been President of Ukraine since February 2010.

Yanukovych served as the Governor of Donetsk Oblast from 1997 to 2002. Subsequently he was Prime Minister of Ukraine from November 21, 2002 to December 31, 2004, under President Leonid Kuchma, and he was an unsuccessful candidate in the controversial 2004 presidential election, ultimately losing to Viktor Yushchenko. Yanukovych continued to lead his party, the Party of Regions, after the 2004 election, and he served as Prime Minister for a second time from August 4, 2006 to December 18, 2007 under President Yushchenko.

Yanukovych was the top vote-getter in the first round of the January 2010 presidential election, and faced Yulia Tymoshenko in the second round of the election. Yanukovych won the second round of the election with 48.95% of the vote against Tymoshenko's 45.47%.

Early life and career

Viktor Yanukovych was born in the village of Zhukovka near Yenakiieve in Donetsk Oblast, at the time part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (now independent Ukraine). Yanukovych's father was an ethnic Belarusian locomotive driver, originally from Yanuki, Vitsebsk Voblast. His mother was an ethnic Ukrainian nurse who died when Yanukovych was two years old. By the time he was a teenager, he had lost both his parents and was later brought up by his grandmother. Yanukovych regards himself as a Ukrainian. "My childhood was difficult and hungry. I grew up without my mother who died when I was two. I went around bare-footed on the streets. I had to fight for myself every day", Yanukovych has commented on his childhood.

On December 15, 1967, at 17 Yanukovych was sentenced to three years incarceration for participating in a robbery and moderate assault . The sentence was later reduced to 18 months due to the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. The fact is that the court did not even excuse him as he was underage, although such practice was taking place especially for the first time convicted. At the process Yanukovych plead guilty and did not appeal his sentence even though he had the chance for the expense of the state. He served his sentence in the Kremenchuk detention center, but was released after seven months for exemplary behavior. Yanukovych was also convicted on June 8, 1970 for causing a mild degree body injuries (Article 102 Criminal Code of Ukrainian SSR) and was sentenced to two years imprisonment which he as the previous sentence did not appeal. While in prison he received the nickname "Kham" (Russian: хам, the boor) from other inmates. Also there are some rumors that the second cases was first trialed as a rape under the Article 118 of Criminal Code of Ukrainian SSR and later changed to the mild degree body injury. It is unknown where Yanukovych served his second sentence, but some residents of Yenakieve claim that it was in the local correctional-labor institution ITL #52. On July 18, 1973 after serving a year of his sentence, the people's court of the city Yenakieve stripped off the both convictions of Yanukovych.

On October 14, 1978 the head of the Donetsk Oblast Court Vitaliy Boyko was appealed by the Deputy of the Supreme Soviet from Yenakieve, the pilot-cosmonaut Georgi Beregovoi asking for Yanukovych's rehabilitation. Boyko brought up his protests to the Donetsk Regional Court for the both convictions. On December 27, 1978 the presidium of the Donetsk Regional Court reportedly quashed the recorded conviction according to the statue 6, part 2 of the Criminal Process Codex of Ukrainian SSR. Yanukovych was quoted as saying that the crimes for which he was tried were "errors of youth".

On July 11, 2005 the office of the Donetsk Oblast Prosecutor filed charges of a possible falsification of the cancellation of convictions. In 2006 the General Prosecutor of Ukraine closed that case due to a lack of evidence. In 2006 a criminal charge was filed for falsification of documents regarding the alleged retraction of Yanukovych's prior conviction after it was discovered that two documents had been forged. The signature of the judge in Yanukovych's case had also been forged regarding a charge of battery. The charge also filed, based on the fact that all of the documentation of Yanukovych was convicted has been eliminated for being expired. Interesting fact is that there also no reports left for the destruction of those documents.

In 1972, Yanukovych became an electrician in a local bus company and later finished a technicum. In July 1974 on the first go he enrolled into the Donetsk Polytechnic Institute. Also in 1974 under strange circumstances he was able to participate in auto racing in Monaco. In 1976 the second year student was appointed as the director of a small auxiliary motor-pool of the manufacturing complex Ordzhenikidzeugol (Ordzhonikidze Coal). In 1980, he graduated (by correspondence) from the institute, with a major in mechanical engineering. Immediately after graduation, Yanukovych was appointed chief manager of a transportation company in Yenakiieve and admitted to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Committee of the Party Control did not review the criminal past of Yanukovych and were completely satisfied with the declaration of the Donetsk Oblast Court. The appointment of him as the chief manager marked the start of his managerial career as regional transport executive, a position at which he was serving for two decades. Among the companies that he worked were Donbasstransremont, Ukrugolpromtrans, and the complex Donetskavtotrans.

Georgi Beregovoi, a Soviet astronaut of Ukrainian descent and the then-Soviet member of parliament from the Donbas region, was Yanukovych's patron when Yunokovych was a young man.

Political career: 1996–2010

Yanukovych's political career began when he was appointed as a Vice-Head of Donetsk Oblast Administration in August 1996. On May 14, 1997 he was appointed as the Head of the Administration (i.e. Governor). Between May 1999 and May 2001 he was also the Head of Donetsk Oblast Council.

In 2001, Yanukovych graduated from the Ukrainian Academy of Foreign Trade as a Master of International Law. Only none of his classmates remember him attending the classes or taking any test. Later, Yanukovych was granted the titles of Doctor of Science and Professor in Economics.

Prime Minister (2002-2004)

President Leonid Kuchma appointed Yanukovych to the post of Prime Minister following Anatoliy Kinakh's resignation. Yanukovych began his term as Prime Minister on November 21, 2002 following a 234-vote confirmation in the Verkhovna Rada. Under Yanukovych, the government began to pay more attention to reforming the coal industry.

In foreign affairs, Yanukovych's cabinet was considered to be politically close to Russia, although declaring support for Ukrainian membership in the European Union. Although Yanukovych's parliamentary coalition was not supporting Ukrainian membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), his cabinet agreed the commission of Ukrainian troops to the Iraq War in support of the United States' War on Terrorism.

2004 presidential campaign

Viktor Yanukovych (First round) - percentage of total national vote

Viktor Yanukovych (Second round) - percentage of total national vote

Viktor Yanukovych (Final round) - percentage of total national vote

Round table talks during the Orange Revolution on December 1 in Kiev.

Yanukovych supporters meeting in Donetsk during the Orange Revolution.

Further information: [[:Ukrainian presidential election, 2004, Orange Revolution]]

In 2004, as the Prime Minister, Yanukovych participated in the controversial Ukrainian presidential election as the Party of Regions candidate. Yanukovych's main base of support emerged from the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine, which favor close ties with neighbouring Russia. In the first round of voting held on October 31, 2004, Yanukovych took second place with 39.3 percent of the votes to opposition leader Viktor Yuschenko with 39.8 percent. Because no candidate passed the 50 percent threshold, a second round of voting was scheduled.

The third place candidate, with 5.82% of the vote, was the Socialist Party's Oleksandr Moroz, a leader of the anti-Kuchma movement and opponent of the Ukraine's NATO-membership attempts. In fourth place was the Communist Party's Petro Simonenko, with 4.97%. In fifth place was the Progressive Socialists' Natalia Vitrenko with 1.53%. Vitrenko endorsed Yanukovich and Moroz endorsed Yushchenko for the second round of elections; Simonenko did not endorse any of the candidates, however, and so Yushchenko became the favourite to win. In the second round of the election, Yanukovych was initially declared the winner. However, the legitimacy of the election was questioned by many Ukrainians, international organizations, and foreign governments following allegations of electoral fraud. The second round of the election was subsequently annulled by the Supreme Court of Ukraine, and in the repeated run-off, Yanukovych lost to Yushchenko with 44.2 percent to Yushchenko's 51.9 percent.

After the election, the Ukrainian parliament passed a non-binding motion of no confidence to his government, urging outgoing President Leonid Kuchma to dismiss Yanukovych and appoint a caretaker government. Five days after his electoral defeat, Yanukovych declared his resignation from the post of Prime Minister. In November 2009 Yanukovych stated that he conceded defeat only to avoid violence. "I didn't want mothers to lose their children and wives their husbands. I didn't want dead bodies from Kyiv to flow down the Dnipro. I didn't want to assume power through bloodshed."

After the Orange Revolution

Following his electoral defeat in 2004, Yanukovych led the main opposition party against the Tymoshenko government made up of Yushchenko's Our Ukraine, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, and Oleksandr Moroz's Socialist Party. This government was marred by growing conflict between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko. Yanukovych's Party of Regions support allowed for the establishment of Yuriy Yekhanurov's government in late 2005.

In October 2004, Ukrainian deputy Hryhory Omelchenko accused Yanukovych of having been a member of "a group of individuals who brutally beat and raped a woman, but bought off the victim and the criminal case was closed". The press-service of the Ukrainian Cabinet asserted that Yanukovych suffered for the attempt to defend a girl from hooligans.

2006 and 2007 parliamentary elections (second turn as Prime Minister)

File:Yany & Puty went fishing!.jpg

Russian President Putin meets Prime Minister Yanukovych during a visit to Kiev (December 22, 2006).

In January 2006, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine started an official investigation of the allegedly false acquittal of the criminal convictions which Yanukovych received in his youth. Yuriy Lutsenko, the head of the ministry, announced that forensic tests proved the forgery of the respective documents (issued in instead of 1978) and initially claimed that lack of the formal acquittal precluded Yanukovych from running for the seat in the 2006 parliamentary election. However, the latter statement was corrected within days by Lutsenko himself who conceded that the outcome of the investigation into the legality of the Yanukovych's acquittal could not affect his eligibility to run for the parliament seat since the deprivation of his civil rights due to the past convictions would have expired anyway due to the statute of limitations. Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions won the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election. These elections determined the next government's makeup as, due to constitutional changes that came into force on January 1, 2006, the Prime Minister and his cabinet were now appointed by the parliament. Having ruled out any post-election deals with the parties headed by either Yushchenko or former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yanukovych was given an opportunity as squabbling between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko failed to produce a government for weeks, though deals restoring Tymoshenko to the premiership appeared at times to be completed. Yushchenko insisted that one of his allies become speaker of the Rada, even though Oleksandr Moroz coveted the post. Yanukovych offered Moroz the post of speaker, permitting Yanukovych to establish a new government with the Socialist Party and Petro Simonenko's Communist Party. As the presidency maintained control of foreign affairs and defence despite the weakening of its powers under the amended constitution, Yanukovych had to assure that he would not interfere with the president's pro-Western international ambitions. Yushchenko commissioned Yanukovych to form a government in cooperation with his own Our Ukraine party on August 3, 2006 (several hours after the deadline for doing so expired).

File:Kiev Maidan Nezalezhnosti April 17, 2007.jpg

Alliance of National Unity supporters on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kiev during the 2007 Ukrainian political crisis.

In 2006 a criminal charge was made for the falsification of documents regarding the retraction of Yanukovych's prior conviction. According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta two documents had been forged regarding Yanukovych's robbery in association with rape and assault and battery. The signature of the judge for these documents in Yanukovych's retraction was also forged. .

On May 25, 2007, Viktor Yanukovych was assigned the post of appointed chairman of the Government Chiefs Council of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

In the parliamentary elections on September 30, 2007, the Party of Regions won 175 out of 450 seats (34.37 percent of the votes) in the Verkhovna Rada. Despite increasing its overall percentage of support compared to the 2006 election (when it was 32.14 percent), the party lost 130,000 votes and 11 parliamentary seats. This was due in part to the Socialist Party, a coalition ally, just missing the threshold of votes required to enter parliament. After the Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc formed a coalition government on December 18, 2007, the Party of Regions went into the opposition.

Ukrainian presidential election, 2010

Viktor Yanukovych (First round) - percentage of total national vote (35.33%)

Viktor Yanukovych (Second round) - percentage of total national vote (48.95%)

Rally in Dnipropetrovsk December 25, 2009.

In 2009, Yanukovych announced his intent to run for President in the upcoming presidential election. He was endorsed by the Party of Regions. In December 2009 Yanukovych's candidacy was also endorsed by the Youth Party of Ukraine.

During the campaign Yanukovych declared he didn't see any opportunity for Yulia Tymoshenko to be Prime Minister if he is elected the president. On December 9, 2009 opposition leader Yanukovych stated that he would consider holding new parliamentary elections in March if a majority coalition cannot be quickly formed after his election as president because incumbent Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko "has her own program, and I do not think that she would agree to implement somebody else's. And what is even more important, even if she agrees, I won't believe her; President [Viktor] Yuschenko believed her twice, and she deceived him, I don't and can't have any confidence in Tymoshenko".

Minister of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lutsenko accused him of financial fraud during the campaign. Yanukovych's campaign was expected to have cost $100 to $150 million.

In November 2009, Italian singer and composer Toto Cutugno accused the writers of the pro-Yanukovych song "Leader" written for the 2010 campaign of plagiarism of his song "Ti amo". Yanukovych distanced himself from the song, saying "I have heard nothing and I have ordered nothing".

On December 11, 2009 Yanukovych stated that his Party of Regions possesses information that "government representatives are currently "motivating" the chairmen of election commissions and seeking options for victory in every possible way" and called for his supporters go to the Maidan Nezalezhnosti in case of election fraud.

Early vote returns from the first round of the election held on January 17 showed Yanukovych in first place with 35.8% of the vote. He faced a February 7, 2010 runoff against Tymoshenko, who finished second (with 24.7% of the vote). Analysts predicted a slight advantage for Tymoshenko in the second (and final) round as she was more likely to attract voters from the other 16 candidates who did not proceed to the second round. Viktor Yanukovych refused before the second round of voting to hold debates with his opponent, saying Yulia Tymoshenko should either take responsibility for every word as prime minister, or go to the kitchen. After all ballots were counted the Ukrainian Central Election Commission declared that Yanukovych won the election with 48.95% of the vote compared with 45.47% for Tymoshenko. Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc members immediately claimed that there was systematic and large-scale vote rigging in this run-off. On February 10, 2009 Yanukovych called on Tymoshenko to abandon her protests and resign as Prime Minister. On February 9, 2010 Yanukovych had stated that Borys Kolesnykov was his preferred next Prime Minister of Ukraine. According to him pre-term parliamentary elections will be imminent if the Ukrainian parliament would not work effectively. Yanukovych also stated that, as the largest faction in the parliament at the time, his party was entitled to nominate the premier. On February 15 Yanukovych stated "I do not rule out the candidature of Tigipko (as next Prime Minister). Tigipko is on the list which, in my opinion, will be discussed next week in parliament".

On February 17, 2010 the Administrative Court of Ukraine, suspended the results of the election on Yulia Tymoshenko's appeal. The court suspended the Central Election Commission of Ukraine ruling that announced that Viktor Yanukovych won the election. Ukraine's parliament had (on February 16) fixed February 25, 2010 for the inauguration of Yanukovych as president. Tymoshenko withdrew her appeal on February 20, 2010 after the Higher Administrative Court in Kiev rejected her petition to scrutinize documents from election districts in Crimea and also to question election and law-enforcement officials. The same day (February 20) Tymoshenko announced that she will not challenge the results of the second round of the presidential election in the Supreme Court of Ukraine since she believed there where no legal provisions for such an appeal, although Tymoshenko also stated "an honest court will assess that Yanukovych wasn’t elected President of Ukraine, and that the will of the people had been rigged".

Public opinion

Public Opinion Polls predicted the Party of Regions and Viktor Yanukovych's win in the 2010 Presidential election, which he won in the second round ballot against Yulia Tymoshenko in February 2010. According to an article in Kyiv Post in November 2009, Yanukovych's popularity in the Donbass was fading and Donbass voters voted mainly for Yanukovych to keep Tymoshenko from power.

Presidency

Inauguration

Ukraine's parliament had (on February 16) fixed February 25, 2010 for the inauguration of Yanukovych as president. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko signed a decree endorsing a plan of events related to Yanukovych's inauguration on February 20, 2010. Yushchenko also congratulated and wished Yanukovych "to defend Ukrainian interests and democratic traditions" at the presidential post.

On February 20, 2010 Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) announced that they would not attend the inauguration; they also claimed BYuT had not received invitations and claimed other political forces had.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia at Yanukovych's invitation conducted a public prayer service at Kiev Pechersk Lavra before Yanukovych's presidential inauguration. Patriarch Kirill also attended the inauguration along with High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, United States National Security Advisor James Jones and speaker of the Russian parliament Boris Gryzlov.

Yanukovych immediate predecessor Yushchenko banned the ceremony, along with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and, her party, Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko.

Yanukovych first foreign visit was to Brussels to visit European Union officials President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and Ashton.

Political positions

Yanukovych has said, "Ukraine's integration with the EU remains our strategic aim", with a "balanced policy, which will protect our national interests both on our eastern border - I mean with Russia - and of course with the European Union". According to Yanukovych, Ukraine must be a "Neutral state" which should be part of a "collective defence system which the European Union, NATO and Russia will take part in." Yanukovych wants Ukraine to "neither join NATO nor the CSTO". He stated on January 7, 2010 that Ukraine is ready to consider an initiative by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the creation of a new Europe collective security system stating "And we're ready to back Russia's and France's initiatives". Yanukovych stated during the 2010 presidential election-campaign that the current level of Ukraine's cooperation with NATO is sufficient and that the question of the country's accession to the alliance is therefore not urgent. "The Ukrainian people don't currently support Ukraine's entry to NATO and this corresponds to the status that we currently have. We don't want to join any military bloc".

Regarding the European Union Yanukovych wants to create a free trade zone and visa-free travel between Ukraine and the EU countries. Once "Ukraine achieves those standards that currently exist in Europe", then the country should consider joining the EU. "But today this is an absolutely motivating, stimulating process we must aspire to", he added. According to Yanukovych Ukrainian relations with "the West" are "a guide in both social and technical standards that we should strive for in creating a European life level in Ukraine".

According to Yanukovych, relations between Ukraine and Russia in the gas sector must be built “according to the rules of the market”. He sees the gas agreement signed in 2009 after the 2009 Russia-Ukraine gas dispute as very unprofitable for Ukraine he and wants to "initiate the discussion of the most urgent gas issues" after the 2010 presidential election. Yanukovych has promised to create a consortium that would allow Russia to jointly operate Ukraine's gas transportation network and he has pledged to help Russia build the South Stream natural gas pipeline.

Yanukovych has promised to "solve the issue" concerning the Russian Black Sea Fleet, currently stationed in the Ukrainian port Sevastopol, "in a way so that the interests of Russia or Ukraine would not be harmed".

Yanukovych has stated that his "aim and dream" is a unification of Ukraine, although in his opinion "there are already no borders between the East and West of the country today". Yanukovych wants to create a free trade zone and visa regime with the EU as soon as possible. Prospects for Ukraine's joining the European Union first depend on a political decision of the European Union, according to Yanukovych.

Yanukovych's stance on the Holodomor is: "Holodomor took place, was denounced and the international society gave an evaluation of the famine, but it was never labeled as a genocide of the Ukrainian people. Ukraine's attempts to do so by blaming one of our neighbors are unjust."

Yanukovych has stated that he wants Russian to become the second state language in Ukraine (currently Ukrainian is the only official language of Ukraine; Russian is more spoken in daily communications in Ukraine than Ukrainian).

In an interview with Kommersant during the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election-campaign he stated that the status of Russian in Ukraine "is too politicized" and said that if elected President in 2010 he would "have a real opportunity to adopt a law on languages, which implements the requirements of the European Charter of regional languages". He said that this law would need 226 votes in the Ukrainian parliament (50% of the votes instead of the 75% of the votes needed to change the constitution of Ukraine) and that voters told him that the current status of Russian in Ukraine created "problems in the hospital, school, university, in the courts, in the office".

Yanukovych Party of Regions wants to increase social benefits, and raise salaries and pensions. Late 2009 a law that raised the minimum wage and pensions was passed in the Ukrainian Parliament, the IMF suspended its 2008–2009 Ukrainian financial crisis emergency lending programme as a result of this, according to the IMF the law breached promises to control spending; during the 2010 presidential campaign Yanukovych stated he would stand by this particular law. According to Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc member of parliament Oleh Shevchuk Yanukovych broke this election promise three days after the 2010 presidential election when only 2 lawmakers of Yanukovych's Party of Regions supported a bill to raise pensions for low-incomes which the party had drafted herself.

Yanukovych thinks that the demographic situation in Ukraine "is unacceptable" and hopes to increase the birth rate in Ukraine by improving the economic situation. He also stated that the Party of Regions is planning to create conditions for the return of Ukrainian migrant workers to Ukraine.

During the 2010 presidential campaign Yanukovych called for the modernization of Ukraine's energy sector (including technologies to save energy) increase of Ukraine's domestic natural gas production, tax reforms (cut the Value Added Tax (VAT) to 17 percent by 2011 from 20 percent and corporate tax to 19 percent from 25 percent, banks should not offer mortgages with no more than 7 percent interest rates), and reforming the legal system in order to fight against corruption. He also believed that by 2019 Ukraine should be one of the G-20 major economies. Yanukovich believes Ukraine could gain energy security through the development and construction of more nuclear power stations and he wants to modernise the Ukrainian coal industry. Immediately after his election as President of Ukraine in February 2010 Yanukovych announced that "The new Cabinet of Ministers should start a war against corrupt practices".

Yanukovych has been a speaker at congresses of the Russian political party United Russia. Party of Regions signed a collaboration agreement in 2005 with United Russia.

During the campaign Yanukovych stated that if elected president in 2010 he would not oblige government representatives to hang his portraits or other symbols portraying him.

Family and personal life

Yanukovych is married to Lyudmyla Oleksandrivna they have two sons, Oleksandr and Viktor. Yanukovych is a member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. His son, Viktor, is his party's co-chairman.

Until 2004, Yanukovych was known as batia ("Dad") among his family members, but since that time he became leader. As Yanukovych himself stated, his wife does not wish for her grandson to pick up the bad habits of his grandfather, albeit Yanukovych did not specify what kind of habits those were.

Yanukovych stated in November 2009 that he respects all Ukrainian politicians. "I have never offended anyone. This is my rule of politics." Despite of his claim, on September 22, 2007, during the Ukrainian Parliamentary Election 2007 campaign, while delivering a speech in Vinnytsia, he called Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko "a cow on the ice" (" Вона прем'єр-міністр, як корова на льду....", "She is as prime minister as a cow on the ice") most likely referring to her skills and professionalism as a prime minister. Other cases of strong colloquialisms used by Viktor Yanukovych include the incident when he called former president Viktor Yushchenko "a coward and a babbler" ("трус и трепач") as well as the the speech in Donetsk during Ukrainian presidential election, 2004, when he referred to the electorate of his opponent Viktor Yushchenko as "jackasses that do not let us live" ("эти козлы, которые нам мешают жить")

Cultural and political image

Yanukovych is seen by opponents as representing the interests of Ukraine big business; they point out that his campaigns have benefited from backing by Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov. Supporters of Yanukovych point out Donetsk Oblast (province) secured unprecedented levels of investment during his governorship.

Voters for Yanukovych in 2010 believed he would bring "stability and order". They blamed the Orange Revolution for creating broken promises, a dysfunctional economy and political chaos. During the 2010 presidential election campaign Yuriy Yakymenko, director of political research at the Razumkov Centre, stated "I think he has not just changed on the surface but also in his ideas."

In 2004 Yanukovych was seen as outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and Russian President Vladimir Putin's protege. Yanukovych draws strong support from Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the east of the country. Yanukovych is disliked and distrusted in Western Ukraine. The People's Movement of Ukraine labeled his election on February 10, 2010 as "an attack by anti-Ukrainian forces in our state" and stated that "all possible legal means should be used to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of anti-state politician Yanukovych and his pro-Moscow retinue". On February 16, 2010 Yanukovych issued a statement that read “I can say only one thing to those who anticipate that my presidency will weaken Ukraine – that will never happen. Yanukovych refers to himself as Ukrainian.

Yanukovych is not known as a great speaker, he has made efforts to speak better Ukrainian, but he often stumbles over words. For the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election Yanukovych wrote an autobiography for the Central Election Commission, in which he misspelled his academic degree as "proffessor [sic]". Thereafter, he came to be widely referred to under this nickname in oppositional media and opponents' speeches. His autobiographic resume of 90 words contains 12 major spelling and grammatical errors. Opponents of Yanukovych made fun of this misspelling and his past (criminal) convictions during the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election campaign. In February 2010 he addressed the population of Lviv as “the genocide of the nation” (genotsyd natsyi) (he apparently wanted to say “the gene pool of the nation” (genofond natsyi)). That also could be due to the fact that the press media of the eastern regions in Ukraine portrays the population of the western parts as fascists. Other public misstatements were claims that Anton Chekhov was "the Ukrainian poet", on the tele-radio company Krym on January 29, 2010, confusing Ostap Bender with Stepan Bandera, and others. During the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election campaign fellow candidate Yulia Tymoshenko accused Yanukovych of not being able to "understand and comprehend intellectually, what is being discussed". According to Tymoshenko, "[H]e confuses Austria with Australia. Maybe they have kangaroos there [in Austria], but they probably look funny."

An incident during the campaign (September 2004) in Ivano-Frankivsk when Yanukovych was rushed to hospital after he had been hit with an egg (while government officials claimed he was hit by a brick) was a source of ridicule.

On January 29, 2010 the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Oleksandr Medvedko claimed that Yanukovych was unlawfully jailed in his youth, which astonished the former Minister of Internal Affairs and now acting minister Yuriy Lutsenko, who was recently dismissed by the Verkhovna Rada, led by the Party of Regions initiative.

American consultant Paul J. Manafort has advised Yanukovych since 2005.

Awards

• Order of Merit 3rd class (1998), 2nd class (2000), 1 class 2002)
• Order "Miner's award" 3, 2, 1 class
• Order "Miner's glory" 3, 2, 1 class
• Certificate from the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (2000)
• Order of Saint Nestor (1998)
• Order of Saint Prince Volodmyr (1998)
• Order of Saint Daniyel of Moscow

On July 9, 2008 the National Committee of Community awards announced that the order of Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky 1 Class (registration number #42) for significant achievements in strengthening economic ties between Ukraine and Russia was awarded to him, however on October 14, 2008 the Chief prosecutor of Russia announced that because of errors undertaken by the organization 73 awards, medals, and orders granted by the organization were withdrawn, including the order granted to Yanukovych.

See also

• 2007 Ukrainian political crisis
• Ukrainian presidential election, 2010
• Party of Regions

External links

• President of Ukraine — Official website
• Yanukovych Personal Information Service
• Viktor Yanukovych on Twitter
• Party of Regions Official Information Server
• Yanukovych’s inner circle - Kyiv Post (January 21, 2010)