Biographies of the political leaders

President: Viktor Yanukovych

Mr. Yanukovych was declared the winner of the second round of voting in the 2010 presidential election, with a 3.48% lead over Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. His inauguration as president marked the climax of Viktor Yanukovych's political comeback. First, he overcame the disgrace of the 2004/05 presidential defeat and retained the leadership of the Party of the Regions, leading it back into power as prime minister in 2006-2007.

He narrowly lost the 2007 parliamentary elections, but benefited from discord between President Yushchenko and Tymoshenko and went on to capitalise on discontent over the government's failure to cope with the global economic crisis after 2008.

Born in a poor family in Donetsk Region, eastern Ukraine's industrial powerhouse, in 1950, Mr. Yanukovych had a troubled childhood and was twice jailed for violent crimes in his youth. On release he went to work in the local transport industry, where he rose through the ranks of management under the patronage of cosmonaut and local Soviet MP Georgi Beregovoi. He established a political power base in the Donetsk region administration, becoming governor in 1997 and later head of the council. There he built close ties to local tycoon Rinat Akhmetov.

President Kuchma appointed him prime minister in 2002, and nominated him as a presidential candidate for the governing coalition of political and business interests in 2004.

Mr. Yanukovych has worked hard to distance himself from the scandals of the pre-2004 period and from accusations of being Russia's placeman. He says that his aim is to balance relations between Russia and the European Union, with EU integration as a "strategic aim".

However, the speed with which he agreed in April to extend the Russian lease on the Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea raised opposition suspicions of this balance.

His government regularly earns criticism from the EU, in particular of the imprisonment of Y. Tymoshenko.

Source: BBC country profile

Prime minister: Mykola Azarov

Mykola Azarov, an ethnic Russian born in Russia, is a close associate of President Yanukovych and succeeded him as head of the Party of Regions in 2010. After the government of Yanukovych's chief rival, Yuliya Tymoshenko, fell in a vote of confidence in March 2010, Azarov formed a coalition with the Communists and the centrist Lytvyn Bloc. M. Azarov was head of the tax administration in 1996-2002, and his term as finance minister during Yanukovych's subsequent premiership oversaw dramatic economic growth. He was briefly acting prime minister during the presidential election crisis of 2004-2005, and resumed the post of finance minister during the Yanukovych government of 2006-2007.

A mining specialist, Mr. Azarov is a technocrat with neither a political base nor ambitions of his own. His poor command of Ukrainian is often highlighted by his opponents, who see him as a symbol of Mr. Yanukovych's alleged pro-Russian orientation.

Source: BBC country profile

Opposition leader: Yulia Tymoshenko

Yulia Tymoshenko was born on November 27, 1960 in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine). Upon graduating from high school in 1979, she continued her education in Dnipropetrovsk State University. Her major was Economics-Cybernetics from the Department of Economics. In 1984 Tymoshenko completed the university with distinction. She started to work as an engineer-economist at the Dnipropetrovsk machine-building plant, named after Lenin. From 1991, she was a CEO of the corporation "Ukrainskiy Benzin (Ukrainian Gasoline)". Her own capital and bank loans of the corporation were directed toward the purchases of fuel and oil materials. In 1995, Yulia Tymoshenko becomes the president of "United Energy Systems of Ukraine" (UESU).

At the end of 1996, Yulia Tymoshenko becomes a candidate to Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Supreme Rada of Ukraine). Indeed, she got a majority of 92.3% votes in her Bobrinsky Congressional District # 229, which is located in Kirovograd Region. In 1999 she becomes the leader of All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland". In December 1999 Yulia Tymoshenko takes the post of Vice Prime Minister on the issues of fuel and energy complex. In January of 2001, Yulia Tymoshenko was dispatched from the position of Vice Prime Minister. On February 13, 2001 she was arrested and charged by the District Attorney, which the public took as a punishment for her Democratic movement. In March, however, the Kiev City Pechersk Court found that the accusations were baseless and annulled the sanctions for the arrest.

In November of 2004, Yulia Tymoshenko becomes one of the leaders of Orange Revolution, which secured the winning of Viktor Yushchenko on the presidential elections. On February 4th, 2005 the Verkhovna Rada declares Tymoshenko as the Head of Government with 373 votes, which was a record. In July of 2005, the American Authoritative magazine Forbes, composing the list of 100 most powerful women in the world, names the Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko as the 3rd most-influential woman of the world.

In September of 2005, as the result of a political crisis Tymoshenko leaves the authority. In March of 2006, during the parliamentary elections, Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc obtained victory in Kiev as well as half of Ukraine's regions, receiving the majority of votes amongst the Democratic Forces. After Viktor Yanukovych came to power as the president in 2010 and Tymoshenko went into opposition.

In summer 2011 Tymoshenko was accused of abusing her power as the Prime Minister when she was signing gas contracts with the Russian Federation. In October 2011 she was found guilty and sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment and was deprived of the right to stand for the elections during 3 years after the prison period.

Source: Y. Tymoshenko official web-site

Arseniy Yatsenyuk

Arseniy Yatsenyuk is a Ukrainian politician and economist. Born in 1974 in Chernivtsi he graduated from the Chernivtsi University in 1992 and set up his own law firm. Yatsenyuk made a rocketing political career and changed a variety of state posts. In 2003-2005 he served as the vice-president of the head of the National Bank of Ukraine and later was put in charge of it. In 2005-2006 Yatsenyuk was appointed the Minister of Economy of Ukraine and then headed talks about Ukrainian membership in the WTO. In 2007 the politician was appointed the Minister of Foreign Affairs after the Ukrainian parliament twice denied the post to Volodymyr Ogryzko. After the early parliamentary elections in 2007 Yatsenyuk was nominated and elected for the position of the Chairman of the parliament from the coalition formed by the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine – Self-Defense Bloc. After resigning from the chairman position, Yatsenyuk announced in 2008 plans to build own political party on the basis of the Front of Changes public initiative. In 2009 he announced his candidacy for the post of President of Ukraine but did not manage to get a sufficient voting support and get to the second round of the elections. During the parliamentary elections 2012 Yatsenyuk competes on a party list based on the party All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland being a leader of the party while Y. Tymoshenko is in jail.

Source: A. Yatsenyuk official web-site