Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Victor Yanukovych A short biography of Ukraine’s notorious presidential election frontrunner.

Born into the family of a metalworker and a nurse in the Donetsk Oblast city of Yenakiyevo, Victor Yanukovych, 59, had a troubled past. He was twice jailed for violent crimes in his youth but his official biography states that his convictions were later expunged. Yanukovych began his career as a transport executive in the Soviet Union’s key coal-mining industry in eastern Ukraine. He received his doctorate of economics – the equivalent of a Ph.D. – in 2000. He became governor of Donetsk Oblast, home to more than three million people and an industrial powerhouse of Ukraine, less than a year after entering the local administration. Kuchma appointed him prime minister in late 2002. Yanukovych served as prime minister again in 2006-2007. Yanukovych and his Regions Party have consistently been backed by big business tycoons from the Donbas region, including Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest billionaire. More information is at http://www.yanukovych.com.ua/.