Vladimir Rybak is a Ukrainian politician with a very long experience. He is one of those people who stood at the base of the Party of Regions. He became famous in other fields, Rybak Vladimir Vasilievich. Who he is, what he was doing and what he is doing now are the questions to which we will try to find the answer.
Childhood and early years
Vladimir Rybak was born in the post-war times, in October 1946, in the city of Stalin, which is now called Donetsk. His father, Vasily Rybak, is an ethnic Ukrainian, although Vladimir Vasilievich himself knew the Ukrainian language very poorly and more or less mastered it, already occupying high government posts.
After graduating from school in his native city, in 1961 he entered the Yasinovatsky Construction College. In 1965, he successfully completed his studies at this educational institution. The next two years he spent in the Soviet Army in the Moscow District, performing a duty related to military service.
Immediately after being demobilized from the armed forces, in 1968 he entered the Faculty of Economics of Donetsk State University, which, five years later, successfully graduated with a degree in economics. At the same time, he worked as a master of the Donetsk Construction Department No. 565.
Labor career
Shortly before graduation, Vladimir Rybak was appointed head of the production and technical department of the construction department No. 8. He worked in this post until the end of 1975. Then he worked for about two months as the chief engineer of the construction department No. 1, but already in January 1976 he transferred to a similar position in the construction department No. 5 of the Santekhelektromontazh trust.
However, there he also did not work long. In July, he transferred to the post of deputy head of the planning and production department of the special colony, which he held until September inclusive.
Party work
Since September 1976, Vladimir Vasilievich Rybak was involved in leadership work in the Communist Party. He is appointed head of the party committee of the Kiev district branch of the city of Donetsk. In this position, he is in August 1980.
During his work, Vladimir Rybak proved to be a responsible professional, so it was decided to send him to study at the Higher Party School, after which he could occupy higher posts. He studied from September 1980 to August 1982. After that, he was appointed an instructor in the department of party organization. A year later, Rybak already holds the post of secretary of the party organization of the Kiev region of Donetsk. In this post, he worked for exactly five years.
Political activity
Since September 1988, Vladimir Vasilievich Rybak has been the head of the local Kiev district council of the city of Donetsk. At the same time, he heads the district executive committee of this region. Performing his duties in these positions, he met the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the formation of an independent Ukrainian state in late 1991.
In November 1992, Rybak became the first deputy head of the executive committee of the Donetsk city council. In this position he is until September 1993.
Mayor
In autumn 1993, the mayor of Donetsk (unofficially - the mayor) and the chairman of the local city council became Rybak Vladimir Vasilievich. His activity at these posts is assessed rather ambiguously, although most Donetsk residents consider it rather positive than negative. At the post of mayor, Rybak replaced another well-known Ukrainian politician - Yefim Zvyagilsky, and held this position until April 2002. He was elected by a majority of votes of deputies of the City Council, and there were no alternative candidates in the election.
He was also a deputy of the Donetsk regional council, and in 1994 - deputy chairman.
Founding of the Party of Regions
Fisherman Vladimir is a politician who stood at the origins of the formation of the Party of Regions. In 1997, the Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine was formed. The declared goal of this organization was to support the country's regions, and provide them with greater independence. The main backbone of the party was the representatives of Donbass. Its leader was Vladimir Rybak. In 1998, the party takes part in the parliamentary elections, but fails the election campaign with less than 1% of the vote. However, Vladimir Rybak nevertheless ends up in the Verkhovna Rada following the results of voting in the majority district, thus becoming a People’s Deputy of the 3rd convocation. Nevertheless, he did not resign as mayor of Donetsk, although this was required by the legislation of Ukraine.
In 2000, the party significantly enlarged. Political movements of Leonid Chernovetsky, Valentin Landik and Petro Poroshenko join it. The last two become co-chairs with Vladimir Rybak. True, Petro Poroshenko soon withdrew from party affairs. The new association was named the party of regional revival "Labor Solidarity of Ukraine".
In 2001, the organization decided to change its name to a shorter one. Now it is called the Party of Regions. Then, instead of Vladimir Rybak, its head was the head of the tax administration of Ukraine Mykola Azarov, and Vladimir Vasilyevich himself became his deputy. Since 2003, he headed the Donetsk cell of the party.
Work in the Verkhovna Rada
In 2001, Vladimir Rybak resigned from the mayor of Donetsk in order to fully concentrate on parliamentary and party activities.
In 2002, the next parliamentary elections are held in Ukraine. The “Party of Regions” entered the pre-election pro-government bloc “For EdU”. Vladimir Rybak ran for this block in the majority district, and, having collected more than 60% of the vote, is once again going to parliament.
In 2006, he was once again elected to the Verkhovna Rada. But in the parliament of the new convocation, Rybak did not work for very long, since he was invited to work in the government, and therefore, according to the legislation of the country, he had to resign his parliamentary powers.
In government
Since August 2006, Vladimir Rybak was assigned the position of Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Construction in the government of his party member Viktor Yanukovych. True, in March 2007, Vladimir Vasilievich was forced to abandon his last post.
Already in December 2007, in connection with the resignation of Viktor Yanukovych, Rybak was also forced to quit his job in the cabinet. But just in the fall of 2007, early parliamentary elections were held, in which Vladimir Rybak participated from the Party of Regions. As in previous times, he was not much trouble getting into the Verkhovna Rada.
Parliament speaker
In 2010, Vladimir Vasilievich again became the first deputy head of the Party of Regions. At the next parliamentary elections in 2012, Vladimir Rybak, as always, enters the parliament, running for this political force. In December of that year, deputies elected him chairman of this legislative body.
In the status of speaker of parliament, Rybak stayed until the removal from power of President Yanukovych in February 2014. Then Vladimir Vasilievich wrote a letter of resignation, which the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada supported by a majority of votes. As a deputy, he resigned his powers in November of the same year, after early parliamentary elections in Ukraine, as a result of which the seventh convocation parliamentary corps ceased operations.
Current activity
At the end of February 2014, Vladimir Rybak became the acting head of the Party of Regions. In March, Viktor Yanukovych was stripped of the title of honorary chairman, and thus, Viktor Vasilievich became again the de facto head of this political force.
I must say that at the same time, the Party of Regions today is only a pale shadow of the political organization of previous years. After the removal from power of Yanukovych, many of its members withdrew from this political force. Even its former leaders, such as Yuriy Miroshnichenko, Yuriy Boyko and Boris Kolesnikov, ran for parliamentary elections from the new organization, the Opposition Bloc. In addition to this political force, the organizations Our Land and Renaissance were founded on the ruins of the Party of Regions.
The Party of Regions itself, like its leader Vladimir Rybak, did not participate in the 2014 parliamentary elections or in the 2015 local council elections. In fact, Vladimir Vasilievich is currently not involved in big politics.
Awards and Achievements
Rybak Vladimir has a lot of achievements. The awards he received from various organizations partially reflect these merits.
Among his awards are the Order of Yaroslav the Wise, “For Merits” of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd degrees. In addition, Vladimir Vasilievich since 2002 is an honorary citizen of Donetsk, and since 1995 - an honorary builder of Ukraine.
Interesting Facts
Although Vladimir Rybak received his higher education in the economic sphere, he worked at construction enterprises.
His namesake Vladimir Rybak, a hero of Ukraine, a deputy of the Gorlovka city council, died during the unrest in the Donbass in the spring of 2014.
