Arseniy Yatsenyuk is a political and statesman of Ukraine. In February 2014, he was appointed Prime Minister. Prior to that, he held key posts in the Ukrainian government for several years. Repeatedly hit the top lists of the most influential personalities of Ukraine, occupying fairly high positions in them.
The state of Arseniy Yatsenyuk is estimated at several million dollars. According to his recent statements, he has about three million Ukrainian hryvnias in the accounts of Ukrainian banks. However, the Prime Minister tactfully kept silent about how many dollars he had in foreign accounts. The real estate of Arseniy Yatsenyuk as of 2013 is also impressive: a country house, a plot, a garage, three apartments in Kiev. How did he come to all this?
Biography
May 22, 1974 in the city of Chernivtsi, located in the south-west of Ukraine, Yatsenyuk Arseniy Petrovich was born. The parents of the future Ukrainian politician were teachers. His father, Peter Ivanovich Yatsenyuk, taught the history of Russia, Latin America and Germany. Mother, Maria Grigoryevna Yatsenyuk, who was born in the Ukrainian city of Kolomyia, was a French teacher. Such a pedigree Arseny Yatsenyuk, no doubt, provided him with a brilliant future. The boy studied at the specialized English language school No. 9 named after Panas Mirny, which in 1991 he graduated with a silver medal. In 1989, he became a law student at the Chernivtsi National University. The elder sister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Alina, studied at the faculty of foreign philology in the same place and graduated from it two years before her younger brother entered there.
Students and first business experiences
Having entered the university, Yatsenyuk quite successfully combined his studies and entrepreneurial activities. He and the son of the governor of the Chernivtsi region, Valentin Gnatyshin, created the law firm YurEl Ltd in the city.
Having received a diploma in 1996, the future Prime Minister heads the aforementioned company. Further, the business of Arseniy Yatsenyuk gradually began to expand. The future politician has successfully privatized several different industrial and agricultural enterprises.
Two years later, in 1998, Yatsenyuk moved to Kiev. There he received the position of consultant to the credit department at Joint-Stock Postal Pension Bank Aval. Already in December 1998, he became an adviser to the chairman of the board of this bank, and after that his deputy.
After that, the biography of Arseniy Yatsenyuk makes an important turn: the chairman of the Crimean Council of Ministers Valery Gorbatov invites him to become the Minister of Economy of the region.
Five years after receiving the first diploma, in 2001, at the age of 27, Arseniy Yatsenyuk received a diploma of a second higher education in the specialty of “accounting and auditing”, having studied at the Chernivtsi Trade and Economic Institute.
As Crimean Minister of Economics
In September 2001, the political career of Arseniy Yatsenyuk began. From the 19th day he becomes the head of the Ministry of Economy of the Crimea as acting, and two months later he takes office officially, in accordance with the decision of the parliament.
In April 2002, the entire Crimean Council of Ministers resigned due to the start of work of the newly elected Crimean Verkhovna Rada. And despite the fact that Valery Gorbatov was replaced by the new chairman of the government, Sergey Kunitsyn, Arseniy Yatsenyuk managed to retain his position and in May become the full head of the Ministry of Economy of Crimea for the second time.
However, he was destined to work in this position a little more than six months. In early 2003, he was transferred to a new job and moved to Kiev.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk and the National Bank of Ukraine
January 2003 becomes another important date in the life of Yatsenyuk: he is appointed first deputy Sergei Tigipko, chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine. Later Tigipko himself recalled this, characterizing his deputy as a normal team player. How old was Arseniy Yatsenyuk at that time? Then he turned 29.
A year later, at 30, he defended his thesis on the topic: "Organization of a system of banking supervision and regulation in Ukraine" and became a candidate of economic sciences.
In the same 2004, Yatsenyuk was entrusted with the performance of the duties of the chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine, as the current head Sergey Tigipko headed the election headquarters of Viktor Yanukovych, the candidate for president of Ukraine. Yatsenyuk was supposed to be at the head of the NBU until the end of the election campaign, but the political crisis and other circumstances left him at the helm until mid-December. After the Verkhovna Rada accepted the resignation of Sergei Tigipko and the new head Vladimir Stelmakh was appointed, Yatsenyuk resigned.
During the crisis, Arseniy Yatsenyuk adopted a resolution providing for a temporary ban on early withdrawals of bank deposits, which helped to prevent the possible negative consequences that could result in a political confrontation. According to the Ukrainian politician and businessman Yevgeny Chervonenko, Yatsenyuk at that time managed to keep both the bank and the currency afloat.
In 2005, in February, the resignation of Arseny was accepted, and he resigned from his post.
A month later, in March, Yatsenyuk was appointed First Deputy Chairman of the Odessa Regional Administration Vasyl Tsushko, under whose leadership he worked until he was appointed Minister of Economy of Ukraine at the end of September. From this moment, the biography of Arseniy Yatsenyuk acquires a bright political coloring, and he becomes a prominent figure in big politics.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk at the head of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine
September 2005 was marked for Yatsenyuk by the assumption of the post of Minister of Economy of Ukraine in the government, headed by Yuriy Yekhanurov.
In May 2006, the entire government was dismissed by the newly elected Verkhovna Rada. At the same time, Arseniy Yatsenyuk was left to fulfill his duties. He worked for more than two months until early August and was dismissed.
As Minister of Economics, Yatsenyuk led the negotiations regarding Ukraine’s accession to the WTO (World Trade Organization). He also chaired the Ukraine-European Union committee. He also served on the Foreign Investment Advisory Council and headed the board of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank from late December 2005 to early March 2007.
Yatsenyuk - Deputy Head of the Presidential Secretariat
In September 2006, Arseniy Yatsenyuk was appointed by the decree of the then President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko to the post of First Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Secretariat. Since that time he is the representative of the president in the Cabinet of Ministers.
This time was difficult for Yushchenko, since it was then that the Verkhovna Rada dismissed almost all the ministers who did not share the views of the president. At the same time, since September 2006, Yatsenyuk was included in the Board of the NBU (National Bank of Ukraine) and the Supervisory Board of the State Export-Import Bank of Ukraine. He vacated these posts in mid-March 2007.
A few days later he was approved for the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, after which his activities in the Presidential Secretariat were over. This moment, without a doubt, is the date of birth of Arseniy Yatsenyuk as a large, promising political figure who has entered the international arena.
Yatsenyuk at the helm of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
In 2007, Arseniy Yatsenyuk was approved as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine through a vote of the Verkhovna Rada. President Viktor Yushchenko proposed his candidacy when the parliament twice rejected the candidacy of Vladimir Ogryzko, who also claimed the post of minister. At this time, a question began to be raised that still does not give rest to everyone who does not like Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Biography, nationality, politics began to interest his opponents, who openly called him a Jew in their questions, although he always denied this.
Pretending to the post, he spoke about the importance of the economy in the framework of Ukraine’s foreign policy. He suggests keeping a course towards European integration and striving to enter European markets. A realistic, pragmatic and predictable Ukrainian foreign policy, in his opinion, would be ideal for the country. He describes cooperation with Russia, speaking of this country as an extremely important partner with whom it is dangerous to conduct an unpredictable dialogue.
According to the former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yuriy Yekhanurov, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, in the absence of both professional diplomatic experience and special education, has extensive and rich experience in international work. According to the statement of Andriy Shevchenko, the deputy of the “Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc” in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, made after Yatsenyuk took office, he is more likely to be perceived as a pro-Western person, and not as pro-Russian.
Together with his appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yatsenyuk becomes a member of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council.
At this time, the political biography of Arseniy Yatsenyuk again coincided with the instability of the government, since almost all his term in office he had to observe an acute political crisis that began in early April 2007, when the Ukrainian parliament was dissolved.
In early July of the same year, Yatsenyuk was nominated for deputy of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada by the party bloc Our Ukraine - People’s Self-Defense, which actively supported the policy of the Ukrainian president. Because of these events, Arseny went on unpaid leave, however, in order to control the ministry still subject to him, he interrupted his “rest” several times.
In December, he again took leave, a couple of days after he became head of the Verkhovna Rada. And in the middle of the month Yatsenyuk was dismissed from a ministerial post. This saved him from combining two posts: the Foreign Minister and the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada.
At the head of the Ukrainian government
November 2007 was marked for Yatsenyuk by taking the oath of a deputy of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada, and a month later he was elected by secret ballot as the eighth chairman of the Ukrainian parliament, giving 227 votes in his favor.
Yatsenyuk was expelled from the Ukrainian Council of National Security and Defense, as his new position did not imply membership in this authority. But almost immediately, on the same day, he again became a member of the National Security and Defense Council - the Ukrainian policy is not constant.
In September 2008, he resigned. The reason was the cessation of the ruling party.
In November, through a secret ballot, deputies accepted the resignation of Yatsenyuk. The Prime Minister was the first to drop his ballot in the ballot box. But the vote was invalidated, as there were not enough deputies.
The next day, Yatsenyuk was dismissed by the Verkhovna Rada from the chairmanship for two days, after which the secret ballot was replaced by open voting. After the introduction of this innovation, the resignation of Arseniy Yatsenyuk was adopted by a majority vote.
A few days later he was expelled from the Ukrainian Council of National Security and Defense.
Even at the time when Yatsenyuk was the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, he initiated the development of a system called “Rada-3”, which provided for preventing the possibility of voting for his colleagues. But its introduction did not happen.
And at the end of 2011, as a people's deputy, Arseniy Yatsenyuk came up with a bill introducing amendments to the regulations of the Ukrainian parliament. In accordance with the document, deputies register and vote using only the touch button and nothing more.
Yatsenyuk and the “Front for Change”
In mid-December 2008, Yatsenyuk made an announcement about the possible creation of a party based on the public initiative “Front of Changes”. In one of his interviews in February 2009, he said that not one of the politicians is his ally. At that time, he was often compared with Viktor Yushchenko. And Yatsenyuk was perceived only as a political clone of the Ukrainian president.
In the spring of 2009, in April, Arseniy Yatsenyuk (whose nationality was discussed in every corner) openly declares his desire to nominate himself as a candidate for the post of head of state. The presidential campaign of the ex-head of the Ukrainian government was estimated at around 60-70 million dollars. On posters that appeared in the country in the summer of 2009, Yatsenyuk was depicted in the image of a militarist. This was fundamentally different from the image of the "young liberal", who had already become familiar to everyone. According to some analysts, such a change in image negatively affected his campaign. In January 2010, Yatsenyuk said that the election campaign cost him 80 million hryvnias, and his advertising was much less than that of his rivals in the presidential race. He also said that most of the budget was spent on television advertising and participation in debates.
At the end of the election, Yatsenyuk intended to achieve the dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada, which, in his opinion, would be an obstacle to his activities. In addition, he did not separate the Party of Regions and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, calling them almost one unit.
According to the results of the presidential election, he became fourth with the result of almost 7% of the vote of Ukrainian citizens. There is evidence that the wife of Catherine-Claire Yushchenko, the then-acting head of state, was actively involved in the election campaign of Yatsenyuk. This is due to the fact that while still working in the presidential secretariat, Arseniy supported the financing of the fund, which was managed by the wife of the head of state.
In the winter of 2010, Yanukovych proposed three candidates for the post of prime minister, among whom was Arseniy Yatsenyuk. The latter rejected his candidacy, not approving the new law, which allowed not only parliamentary factions, but also the majority of individual deputies to form their personal coalitions.
After these events, he began to call for early presidential elections, as he considered it impossible for himself to be prime minister in a coalition with the communists.
According to the journalist Yulia Mostova, in the summer of 2010 a sociological survey was conducted, according to the results of which it turned out that Arseniy Yatsenyuk had every chance to win the second round of presidential elections and beat Viktor Yanukovych. Perhaps if this actually happened, the political biography of Arseniy Yatsenyuk would become even brighter.
Political Views and Beliefs
Arseniy Yatsenyuk does not support the privatization of state property and advocated the simplification of public administration. He also believes that corruption will be defeated only when the country's governance system changes. I am convinced that only the Ukrainian language should be the state language, but it is against the infringement of the rights of Russian-speaking citizens. According to experts, based on what Arseniy Yatsenyuk says, he does not consider the nationality of citizens to be the dominant factor, for which the majority of both Ukrainians and Russians are ready to express support. He also advocates the abolition of the visa regime with the countries of the European Union.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk and his family
Currently, his father is the deputy dean of the Faculty of History at Chernivtsi National University, his mother teaches French.
Sister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Alina Petrovna Steele, lives in America, where she moved in 1999, after her brother’s wedding. Lives in California. She was married three times, in her third marriage she has a daughter and a son. Her current husband is engaged in real estate business, she helps him. He is fluent in several languages, sometimes working as a translator.
Wife Arseniy Yatsenyuk Theresa, daughter of professor of philosophy Viktor Gur and candidate of philosophical sciences Svetlana Gur. They met in 1998 at the New Year corporate party at Aval Bank. There, Theresia worked as a referent. After the wedding, she does her own business, and also takes care of the family on her shoulders.
What Arseniy Yatsenyuk reluctantly talks about, like any public person, children. It is known that he has two of them: the eldest daughter Christina, who was born in 1999, and the youngest daughter Sofia, who is five years younger than her sister and was born in 2004.
To date, the main real estate of Arseniy Yatsenyuk is a country house with a plot of 30 acres, adjacent to the residence of Viktor Yanukovych.
