Yushchenko is what kind of president. Viktor Yushchenko: biography, compromising evidence and scandals of the former president of Ukraine. Beginning of a political career

Childhood and family of Viktor Yushchenko

Viktor Andreevich Yushchenko, a famous statesman, was born on February 23, 1954 in the small village of Khoruzhevka, Nedrygailovsky district in the Sumy region (Ukraine). The boys' parents were simple rural school teachers.

Father - Andrey Andreevich (1919-1992) - WWII participant, teacher in English. Mother's name was Varvara Timofeevna (1918-2005). She was a mathematics and physics teacher. According to some sources, the Yushchenko family may have been of Cossack origin. The family had two sons - Victor and his older brother Pyotr Yushchenko, who was born in 1946.

In 1971, the young man graduated from the local high school. According to rural school teachers, Yushchenko was efficient and did not show excessive ambitions, much less the desire to be a leader.

Yushchenko's student years were spent in the most corrupt university in Ukraine at that time - the Ternopil Financial and Economic Institute. Victor graduated in 1975 with a diploma in accounting.

The young specialist’s career began in August 1975 on the collective farm named after the 40th anniversary of October in the village of Yavorov in the Ivano-Frankivsk region as deputy. chief accountant. In October 1975, he was drafted into the army, served in the border troops and was demobilized in November 1976.

In December 1976, he was hired by the regional department of the State Bank of the USSR in the town. Ulyanovka, in his native Sumy region, having worked here for more than eight years as an economist. In 1977 he received membership of the CPSU. In connection with receiving a position in the republican office of the State Bank of the USSR in 1985, he arrived in Kyiv for permanent residence. 1986 brought Yushchenko a promotion and now he is deputy head of the department for lending to the agro-industrial complex at the State Bank of the USSR. In 1989, he was appointed deputy. head of the board of the republican office of the Agro-Industrial Bank of the USSR.

Viktor Yushchenko in modern Ukraine

In 1991, it was reformed into JSC JSB "Ukraine". On January 26, 1993, Viktor Andreevich was appointed head of the National Bank of Ukraine, becoming the third in this post in the history of independent Ukraine. Yushchenko, as head of the NBU, became one of the founders of financial reform in Ukraine.

Viktor Yushchenko about Euromaidan and the future of Ukraine

During his leadership, the Ukrainian national currency, the hryvnia, was first introduced into circulation. In 1996, when Ukraine had a very high level of inflation, the NBU, represented by head V. Yushchenko, continued monetary reform. In the same year, the EBRD awarded Yushchenko the status of best banker of the year.

At the end of 1999, in connection with an offer to head the government of Ukraine, Viktor Andreevich resigned as head of the NBU. December 3, 1999 Yushchenko came to the post of Prime Minister of Ukraine. And in the spring (April) 2001, after catastrophic criticism of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, he resigned. In August 2001, he was appointed director of the Ukrainian-Russian Institute of Management and Business. B. Yeltsin, which he remained until April 2002. In January 2002, under the leadership of Yushchenko, the political bloc “Our Ukraine”, which was in opposition to the authorities, was formed. From May 14, 2002 to January 23, 2005 he is a people's deputy of Ukraine of the 4th convocation.

Viktor Yushchenko - President, Orange Revolution

On July 6, 2004, by its resolution No. 134, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine registered Yushchenko as a candidate for the post of President of Ukraine. During the election campaign, presumably in September, he was poisoned with dioxin, which inevitably affected appearance future President.

After two rounds of elections, and after court trials, in January 2005, by a resolution of the Central Election Commission, Yushchenko was recognized as the legitimate winner of the second round of voting and officially proclaimed the third President of Ukraine.

Why is Yulia Tymoshenko imprisoned? Lecture by Viktor Yushchenko

Just in 2004, due to the dissatisfaction of the people of Ukraine with the election results, the world-famous “Orange Revolution” action was carried out on the Maidan of Independence in Kyiv, so named because orange color flags of the Our Ukraine party. The Orange Revolution expressed popular protest against the rigging of the presidential election results.

Yushchenko's presidency was characterized by the conclusion to completely new level foreign policy integration of Ukraine into the European space and NATO. For example, Dmitry Medvedev, who was then president Russian Federation, is inclined to believe that it was during Yushchenko’s presidency that relations between Russia and Ukraine began to deteriorate.

In 2010, at the next presidential election, Viktor Andreevich received only 5.45% of the votes, taking only fifth place. According to a number of leading media outlets, this is the smallest percentage of votes among sitting presidents in world history who took part in election races. Thus ended the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko, and Viktor Fedorovich Yanukovych became the fourth President.

Personal life of Yushchenko Viktor Yushchenko

Viktor Yushchenko is the father of two children - daughter Vitalina and son Andrei, born from his first marriage to Svetlana Mikhailovna Kolesnik. In 1993, on an airplane, Victor met an American woman of Ukrainian origin, Ekaterina Mikhailovna Chumachenko (according to some sources, Catherine Claire). The relationship that arose between them subsequently led to Yushchenko’s divorce from his first wife.

And already in 1998, Victor and Ekaterina got married and a year later (in 1999) their daughter Sofia was born. Then in 2001 - daughter Khristina, and in 2005 - son Taras. Viktor Yushchenko is already a grandfather - his daughter Vitalina gave birth to a daughter Yarina (from a civil marriage with Mikhail Goncharov) and a son Viktor (from her marriage to Alexei Khakhlev).

Achievements of Viktor Yushchenko

Throughout his career, Yushchenko managed to achieve certain successes in certain areas of activity from time to time. The most significant personal achievements were defending a dissertation, recognition in the world as the best banker (6th place, Global Finance magazine), and being awarded the title “Honored Economist of Ukraine.”

Viktor Andreevich is the owner of many state and foreign awards and orders. In 2005, Yushchenko was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Viktor Andreevich Yushchenko - Chairman of the National Bank, Prime Minister under the President, third President of Ukraine (2005-2010), leader of the Orange Revolution.

The future politician was born on February 23, 1954 in the village of Khoruzhevka, Sumy region. The Yushchenko surname belongs to an ancient Cossack family. Victor's parents worked in a rural school. Father Andrei Andreevich is a veteran Patriotic War, taught foreign language, mother Varvara Timofeevna taught mathematics and physics.

Victor has an older brother, Peter, born in 1946, who occupied the deputy seat of the Verkhovna Rada from 2002 to 2008. Viktor Andreevich’s nephew Yaroslav also became involved in politics, and in 2005 he received the post of deputy head of the Kharkov regional administration. As a child, the younger Yushchenko grew up as a calm, obedient boy without leadership inclinations.

Career

After graduating from school, Viktor Andreevich studied at the Financial and Economic Institute of Ternopil to become an accountant. After receiving a diploma higher education in 1975, Yushchenko went to serve in the army as a private in the border troops. In 1976, after demobilization, Victor got a job as an economist in the State Bank branch of the town. Ulyanovka, not far from my native village.

Viktor Yushchenko in the army

A year after the start of his career, Yushchenko became a member of the CPSU. After working in one place for 8 years, the young specialist receives a promotion to the Republican branch of the State Bank in the capital of the Ukrainian SSR. In a year successful work In his new position, Yushchenko becomes deputy head of the credit department, and three years later - deputy chairman of the board of the Agro-Industrial Bank of the USSR.

Policy

With the collapse of the USSR, the Agro-Industrial Bank was transformed into Bank Ukraine, and at the beginning of 1993 it became the National Bank of Ukraine, the post of head of which was taken by Viktor Yushchenko. The economist was directly involved in the creation financial system young state. Yushchenko became the author of the idea of ​​a national currency - the hryvnia.

In the mid-90s, after the onset of the economic crisis, Yushchenko led a group of specialists who managed to reduce inflation and continue monetary reform. In 1996, such activities of the banker were highly appreciated by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which recognized Yushchenko as the best banker of the year. In 1999, Viktor Andreevich was offered to head the government of Ukraine.

Prime Minister of Ukraine

Viktor Andreevich began his work as Prime Minister of the government apparatus of Leonid Kuchma on December 3, 1999. Yushchenko immediately took upon himself the solution of economic issues. The minister abandoned the vicious practice of using short-term loans to fill the budget, which made it possible to reduce irrational state spending. Yushchenko put the payment system in order in the fuel sector, after which regular payments began to be made into the Ukrainian budget, which contributed to its filling. The new prime minister began to fight shadow business.

Already within a year of such dramatic changes in the economy, for the first time in 9 years of the state’s existence, GDP growth and regular payments of social benefits and salaries began. Cities and villages switched to continuous electricity consumption. But the opposition to corruption by Yushchenko and his associates led to an open conflict with the apparatus of Leonid Kuchma, many of whose representatives were convicted of exceeding their official powers.

In 2001, Tymoshenko was arrested for 1.5 months, and the first fire of national discontent broke out in Kyiv. Soon a vote of no confidence was announced in the Yushchenko Cabinet of Ministers, and Viktor Andreevich was forced to resign. He took the place of Prime Minister.

A year later, the politician organizes the Our Ukraine party, which is in opposition to the current president, and becomes a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the fourth convocation. Elections to the Ukrainian Parliament are becoming a turning point in Yushchenko’s political biography. The population showed maximum confidence in the Our Ukraine bloc, which allowed party members to take 23% of the mandates. Yushchenko held the position of leader of the opposition to the ruling regime for 2 years. Its ratings remained confidently higher than those of its competitors.

Poisoning

In 2004 before upcoming elections it was announced that Viktor Andreevich had been poisoned with an unknown substance. It was assumed that dioxin was used against Yushchenko, which leads to deformation of the face and skin.

Changes in Viktor Andreevich’s appearance were visible in the photo before and after poisoning: the skin of his face acquired a gray tint and became covered with many irregularities. The investigation was carried out by forces of Ukraine and Europe. The customer was not identified, but dioxin poisoning was confirmed by an international group of experts.

President of Ukraine

An unknown illness did not prevent Yushchenko from winning the presidential election. After the second round of elections on November 21, preliminary results were announced, according to which Viktor Yanukovych won by a margin of 3%. But the Our Ukraine party and candidate Yushchenko were not satisfied with such voting results, since international observers recorded a large number of violations.

On November 22, the Yushchenko bloc, under the party’s orange banners, begins an open-ended rally on Maidan Nezalezhnosti. Within two months, protesters managed to have the election results declared invalid. After which, on December 26, a repeat second round was held, in which Yushchenko scored 8% more than his opponent. On January 23, 2005, Viktor Andreevich took office as the third president of the country.

Inauguration and Orange Revolution

After becoming president, Yushchenko began a program to revitalize national consciousness. He turned to history, maximally exaggerating the role of the Holodomor of the 30s as an act of genocide by Russia against Ukraine. Yushchenko contributed to the recognition by veterans of the participants of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, who took sides during the Second World War fascist Germany.

In foreign policy, Viktor Andreevich preferred to support the United States and the European Union, the deployment of missile defense in Eastern Europe and confront Russia. During the 2008 Russian-Georgian conflict, Ukraine supplied weapons to the Caucasus, helping. But since 2006, the president’s ratings began to fall sharply, and by the time of the next elections no more than 5% of the population was on his side.

Personal life

Viktor Andreevich was married twice. Yushchenko's first wife was Svetlana Mikhailovna Kolesnik, a teacher Ukrainian language and literature, which gave the future president two children: daughter Vitalina and son Andrei. In 1993, Yushchenko and Ekaterina Mikhailovna Chumachenko met. A Ukrainian woman who lived in the USA became the politician’s second wife. Five years later, the lovers got married.

From his second marriage, Viktor Andreevich has three children: daughters Sofia-Victoria, Khristina-Katrin and son Taras. Yushchenko became a grandfather even before his presidential term. The eldest daughter Vitalina gave her father three grandchildren: Yarin-Dominik Yushchenko-Gonchar, Victor and Andriana Khakhlev. A daughter, Varvara, was born into the family of son Andrei.

Victor Yushchenko now

Now the former president of Ukraine is on a well-deserved rest. Despite the fact that Yushchenko’s official pension is $300, he lives on his own estate in the village of Novye Bezradichi, 40 kilometers from Kyiv. On the territory of Yushchenko’s personal plot of 3.5 hectares there is his own apiary, carpentry workshop, windmill, farming and gardening, and pond.

IN three-story house In addition to living quarters, there is a museum of national crafts and a library. Viktor Andreevich is known as a renowned collector of folk crafts, so he often visits the antique market on the Left Bank. In addition to his own household, Yushchenko is building a dream hut based on sketches, which he plans to finish by the 200th anniversary of the writer.

In 2016, a petition was published on the website of the Administration of the Ukrainian Government, whose supporters called for the return of Yushchenko to the political life of the country. The text of the petition contains a proposal to return Viktor Andreevich to the post of chairman of the National Bank in 2017.

(1954)

In 1954 On February 23, the now ex-president of Ukraine, Viktor Andreevich Yushchenko, was born. His biography, oddly enough, is not particularly different from the biography of an ordinary Ukrainian. He was born into a family no different from others. True, in connection with his political career, many rumors have appeared around Viktor Yushchenko’s family, especially regarding his father, Andrei Andreevich Yushchenko, who fought in the war (only now no one knows for which side). Viktor Andreevich’s mother worked as an ordinary teacher.

Viktor Yushchenko studied in a regular school, after graduating from which he entered the Ternopil Financial and Economic Institute (by the standards of that time it was considered the most corrupt institution)

In 1975 Viktor Andreevich Yushchenko took the first most responsible post - the post of chief accountant of the collective farm. He did not work in this position for long, as he went to serve in the border troops. He finished his service in 1976, after which he began working as the head of one of the State Bank branches, which was located in Ulyanovka. Viktor Yushchenko held this post for 8 years. While working at the State Bank, Yushchenko also joined the ranks of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Viktor Andreevich carefully tried to hide this fact after the events of 1991).

Having worked as a manager until 1975. Viktor Yushchenko became deputy head of the lending department. Three years later, Viktor Andreevich Yushchenko was appointed to the post of deputy chairman of the board of Agroprombank. After the collapse Soviet Union this bank becomes Joint-Stock Agroprombank "Ukraine". A year later, a money scam occurs in this bank, as a result of which 0.8 billion rubles “evaporated” from the bank’s loan amounts. And literally six months later, in June 1992, 15 billion rubles were transferred to the accounts of two American companies through the Joint-Stock Agroprombank "Ukraine", supposedly to convert the currency into dollars (at that time it was $233 million). Naturally, such fraud attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies. In September of the same year, the prosecutor's office opened a case against all persons holding high positions in the bank. Despite the scandal caused by this case, Viktor Andreevich Yushchenko was appointed chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine a year later. During his short chairmanship (11 months), Yushchenko neglected things so much that the inflation rate reached a record high of 10,000 percent.

In 1993, Viktor Andreevich Yushchenko meets his future wife Catherine Claire, whom he marries in 1998. A year after this joyful event, Viktor Yushchenko was appointed Prime Minister of Ukraine. His premiership was remembered by the people only for the unreasonable rise in prices for meat, sugar and grain. In 2001 Yushchenko is removed from office.

Viktor Yushchenko is a former president whom the country pays to this day

Ukrainians remember Viktor Yushchenko, the scandalous elections of 2004 and the Orange Revolution. As it recently turned out, the former president receives the largest salary, and for life. So what did he do to deserve this?

Viktor Andreevich Yushchenko was born in 1954, on February 23. Place of birth: Sumy region, Nedrigailovsky district, Khoruzhevka village. Yushchenko's parents worked as teachers in a regular school. Father, Andrei Andreevich, was a participant in the war of 1941-1945. He was listed as a prisoner of the Auschwitz camp. After the war he taught English.

According to eyewitness accounts, he collaborated with Ukrainian nationalists. Provided financial assistance and information. Mother Varvara Timofeevna worked as a physics and mathematics teacher. Yushchenko has an older brother, Peter, also a famous politician.

The first wife of Viktor Yushchenko is Svetlana Kolesnik. The couple divorced in 1997. From his first marriage, Yushchenko has two children - Vitalina and Andrey. After Victor Yushchenko divorced his wife, he married Eatherina Chumachenko, whom he had dated since 1993.

Katherine Claire Chumachenko had American citizenship, which she renounced in 2007. The press and public have repeatedly expressed accusations of Chumachenko’s collaboration with American authorities and espionage. In his second marriage, Yushchenko had three children - daughters Sofia and Kristina, son Taras.

Education

Viktor Yushchenko studied in Ternopil, at the Institute of Economics. Specialty – accountant, specialization – agriculture.

9 years after completing his studies at the institute, Yushchenko studied at the graduate school of the Ukrainian Economic Research Institute. Yushchenko studied the organization of the agricultural sector of the national economy. He became the author of a dissertation on the development of monetary demand and supply and successfully defended it. Yushchenko was awarded scientific titles: Candidate of Economic Sciences, Academician of the Academy of Economic Sciences, Academician of the Ukrainian Academy of Cybernetics.

Motherland

In Yushchenko’s homeland in the village of Khoruzhevka, Sumy region former president people are not always remembered with kind words. They were promised five million jobs, but there are still thousands of unemployed on the stock exchanges. In Khoruzhevka on Yushchenko’s initiative, a copy of the Kyiv memorial “Girl with Ears of Ears” was installed, dedicated to the memory of Ukrainians who died of hunger in 1932-33.

Yushchenko's fellow villagers remember how they were involved in the installation of the monument, but payment for their labor was not made in full. This eloquent fact speaks for itself. People who applied for the amount due to them left with nothing. They were explained that they were erecting the monument for themselves. During Yushchenko's presidency, roads were improved and gas was installed in Khoruzhevka. But, again, this was done through the efforts of rural residents, including material ones. Everyone who wanted gas in their house had to pay twelve thousand hryvnia.

Career

Since 1975, Yushchenko worked as an accountant on a collective farm. A year later, he transferred to a similar position in one of the State Bank branches. At the age of 23 he joined the Communist Party. Since 1985, Yushchenko worked in the department of the State Bank, which was involved in lending to agricultural facilities. Since 1987, Yushchenko has already been working in Kyiv.

At the time of the declaration of independence of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko was already an experienced employee in the banking sector. It was he who was appointed deputy chairman of the bank Ukraine, who was also associated with agricultural and industrial activities. For 6 years in a row, Yushchenko worked as the head of the Ukrainian National Bank. In December 1999, Yushchenko became prime minister and served in this post for a year and a half.

During the 2004 presidential elections, which were held from October to December and were very tense, Viktor Yushchenko announced his candidacy. He was actively supported by Yulia Tymoshenko.

It was a serious time confrontation between two presidential candidates Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych. Both candidates accused each other of falsification during the vote count.

Citizens' protests took place in Kyiv, which lasted more than a month and were called Orange Revolution. There is a political crisis in the country, so Supreme Court decided to hold elections again. Viktor Yushchenko was elected president.

This period included a loud scandal about the alleged poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko with dioxin, which may have occurred during the dinner on September 5, 2004.

Yushchenko claims that political opponents wanted to remove him from the race for the presidency.

After poisoning noticeable external changes have occurred in Yushchenko’s face: swelling of the skin, abscesses and irregularities appeared. Now they can still be distinguished in the photo.

Yushchenko's opponents claim that the disease was falsified in order to create an emotional advantage in the form of citizens' sympathy and influence the election results.

According to a 2009 opinion poll, Yushchenko was recognized as the leader of Ukrainians' antipathies, the majority of citizens expressed distrust and negativity towards him.

In 2013, Yushchenko was expelled from the Our Ukraine party for insufficient work on the side of the opposition and for supporting Viktor Yanukovych.

After completing his active political activity, Viktor Yushchenko became interested in beekeeping, and in 2015 he represented Ukraine at the congress of beekeepers in Poland.

Reindeer breeding and restoration of the ethnographic museum in the village of Bezradichi, where he now lives on his own estate.

Declaration

The amount of income received during the year amounted to more than a million hryvnia at that time, and wage- half a million hryvnia.

Yushchenko said that he had no profit from business and entrepreneurship for the year, and he also did not sell securities and did not receive material income in the form of fees, reimbursements or other payments.

The area of ​​land owned by Yushchenko was 131 thousand square meters, plus 1634 square meters land ownership from members of the former president's family.

In addition, Viktor Yushchenko owns a residential building of 657 square meters and an apartment of 372 square meters. An apartment of 300 square meters is registered to family members. A ZAZ car and a Harley Davidson motorcycle were declared as vehicles. According to documents, neither Yushchenko himself nor his family members own any other vehicles. 336 thousand hryvnia.

Taxpayers of Ukraine pay twenty-eight thousand hryvnia monthly to compensate for the lifelong maintenance of the former president. The pension fund refused to comment on how much money has been paid to other ex-presidents of the country over the past years, since this is classified information. But journalists managed to find out that in 2017 none of former heads

powers did not receive money for maintenance, especially for life. Benefits, compensation and other subsidies were also not assigned to former presidents. The media called Viktor Yushchenko the most expensive president in the literal sense of the word., which, by the way, he received by decree of 2010, endorsed personally by Viktor Yanukovych. The decree was kept secret for a long time, but even when the information was made public, no one canceled Yushchenko’s privileges.

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Viktor Andreevich Yushchenko was born on February 23, 1954 in the village of Khoruzhevka, Nedrigailovsky district, Sumy region, Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine), USSR.

Ukrainian statesman and politician, 3rd President of Ukraine (from 2005 to 2010), leader of the Orange Revolution (2004). Viktor Yushchenko was previously Prime Minister of Ukraine (1999-2001), Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine (1993-1999).

Yushchenko is a laureate of the State Prize of Ukraine in the field of economics and technology (1999), Honored Economist of Ukraine (1997), academician of the Ukrainian Academy of Economic Sciences and the Academy of Economic Cybernetics.

Family, childhood and youth

Father - Andrey Andreevich Yushchenko (1919-1992), front-line soldier, English teacher.

Mother - Yushchenko Varvara Timofeevna (1918-2005), teacher of physics and mathematics.

Brother - Pyotr Andreevich Yushchenko (born 1946), deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, member of the parliamentary faction "Our Ukraine Bloc - People's Self-Defense".

Viktor Yushchenko studied at a rural school, and after graduating he entered the Ternopil Financial and Economic Institute with a degree in Accounting in Agriculture (1970).

After college, I was assigned to work as an accountant at the collective farm “40th Anniversary of the October Revolution” in the village of Yavoriv, ​​Ivano-Frankivsk region, in western Ukraine. After working briefly as a rural accountant, he was drafted into the army (1975). Yushchenko served in the border troops of the KGB of the USSR on the Soviet-Turkish border; upon returning, at the insistence of his parents, he moved to his homeland.

Beginning a career as a financier

Yushchenko himself recalled that he carried out his first banking transaction as a child: he buried a jar of money in the garden to buy a bicycle, but the “deposit” was discovered by his parents, who used the money to buy their son a school uniform.

Viktor Yushchenko has been working in the banking system since 1976. First he held the post of deputy head of the department of lending and financing of collective farms, agro-industrial associations and inter-collective farm associations in the district branch of the State Bank of the USSR (Ulyanovsk village, Belopolsky district, Sumy region). Then Yushchenko was appointed deputy head of department in the Ukrainian republican branch of the State Bank of the USSR and moved to work in Kyiv (1987). In Kyiv he worked in the department Agriculture State Bank of the USSR, where he was noticed by the famous Ukrainian financier Vadim Getman, who then headed Agroprombank, later re-registered as Bank Ukraine. After Ukraine declared independence, Hetman headed the National Bank. On the recommendation of Hetman, Yushchenko became first deputy and acting chairman of the board of bank "Ukraine" (1992), and then - head of the Ukrainian National Bank (1993-1999).

Among his achievements in this position: the introduction of the national currency - the hryvnia, the creation of the State Treasury, the construction of the Banknote and Mint.

In 1998, Yushchenko defended his dissertation at the Ukrainian Academy of Banking on the topic “Development of demand and supply of money in Ukraine.”

Beginning of a political career

In 1999, Viktor Yushchenko became Prime Minister of Ukraine, and two years later he was fired with the wording “due to the resignation of the cabinet of ministers.” After his resignation and until the parliamentary elections of 2002, Yushchenko headed the Ukrainian-Russian Institute of Management and Business. B. Yeltsin. He organized a bloc of 10 centre-right parties “Our Ukraine” and successfully performed in the 2002 parliamentary elections, receiving more votes than other associations, as a result becoming the head of the largest faction in the Verkhovna Rada, as well as a member of the parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and National Minorities and interethnic relations.

On July 4, 2004, Yushchenko announced his intention to run for president as a self-nominated candidate; he headed the coordination council of the “Power of the People” coalition, which included “Our Ukraine” and the “Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc” (BYuT).

On the eve of the elections, a major scandal occurred: Yushchenko accused the leadership of the Ukrainian security service of trying to poison him with dioxin. Despite serious health problems, Yushchenko actively participated in the election campaign: during the first round he received the largest number of votes, his victory in the second round was indisputable. However, the Central Election Commission announced that Yushchenko's main rival, the leader of the Party of Regions, Viktor Yanukovych, won the elections. In November, a campaign of protests, rallies, pickets, strikes and other acts of civil disobedience began, organized by Yushchenko supporters, the so-called “Orange Revolution”.

Under pressure from protesters, the Supreme Court of Ukraine found violations in the voting procedure and vote counting. The Central Election Commission's decision on the election results was canceled and a second round of voting was scheduled.

Yushchenko - the third president of Ukraine

In his first year as president, Yushchenko changed the heads of regional state administrations and announced the start of a campaign to reverse the privatization decisions of the previous government. In 2005, Yushchenko dismissed the government of Yulia Tymoshenko and entered into a memorandum with the leader of the Party of Regions, Viktor Yanukovych.

In the fall of 2006, Viktor Yushchenko at the III Congress of the People's Union "Our Ukraine" criticized the party leadership and proposed forming new governing bodies.

In the spring of 2007, Ukraine found itself in the grip of a political crisis caused by a power struggle between President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yanukovych. After the dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada, new parliamentary elections were called.

In 2008, Viktor Yushchenko was elected chairman of the People's Union Our Ukraine (HCHY) party.

In January 2009, Pyotr Symonenko and Viktor Yanukovych demanded Yushchenko’s impeachment.

IN social sphere President Yushchenko signed important laws: “On measures for the construction of affordable housing in Ukraine and improving the provision of housing for Ukrainian citizens” (2007), “On amendments to the legislative acts of Ukraine regarding state support families who adopted a child from among orphans or children deprived of parental care" (2008), etc.

In area foreign policy The main direction was declared to be rapprochement with NATO and the European Union, with further entry into these organizations.

In 2005-2006 and 2008-2009, a series of economic conflicts occurred between the Russian company Gazprom and the Ukrainian company Naftogaz related to supply conditions natural gas to Ukraine, as well as gas transit to European consumers.

Personal life

Viktor Yushchenko married twice. The first wife is Svetlana Ivanovna Kolesnik (in marriage she took her husband’s surname), goddaughter of Vadim Hetman, teacher of Ukrainian language and literature. In the first marriage, two children were born - Andrei and Vitalina.

The second wife, Ekaterina Mikhailovna Yushchenko (nee Chumachenko), is a US citizen. Ekaterina Yushchenko worked as a special assistant to the US Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, then in various positions in the White House Public Affairs Office and in the US Department of the Treasury (in the 1980s), then she was the head of the representative office of the auditing company Barents Group LLS in Ukraine (1994-1999), now a private entrepreneur. Three children were born in this marriage: Christina, Sofia, Taras.

Yushchenko's hobbies

Viktor Yushchenko has been fond of beekeeping since his youth, collecting antiques, ancient national clothes and icons, and Cossack weapons.