Alternative Title: Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych Viktor Yanukovych, in full Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych, (born July 9, 1950, Yenakiyeve, Ukraine, U.S.S.R. [now in Ukraine]), Ukrainian politician who served as (2002–05, 2006–07) and (2010–14) of. Yanukovych was born to a poor family in the industrial, and his brushes with the law in his late teens and early twenties resulted in a pair of jail terms. Starting in 1969, he worked in heavy industry in and around his hometown of, rising from mechanic to executive over a 20-year career. During that time he attended Donetsk Polytechnic Institute (now Donetsk State Technical University), earning a degree in (1980); he also joined the Communist Party. Following Ukraine’s independence from the, Yanukovych became involved in local government.

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The 1990s were a period of uncertainty in the region: was rampant, and government ministers and prominent businessmen were frequently the targets of assassination attempts. In this climate Yanukovych, who affected an imposing demeanour based partly on his physical stature (he stood almost 6 feet 6 inches [2 metres] tall), emerged as a favoured candidate of the business, and in 1997 he became governor of Donetsk province. During his time in that post, he earned a law degree from the Ukrainian Academy of Foreign Trade (2000). In 2002 Ukrainian Pres. Appointed Yanukovych prime minister. Yanukovych, who did not speak Ukrainian prior to his appointment, shared Kuchma’s desire to maintain close ties with Russia.

As the 2004 presidential election approached, Yanukovych was presented as Kuchma’s clear successor, and Russian Pres. Offered support for his candidacy. During the campaign Yanukovych’s chief opponent, the pro-Western, became ill after an apparent assassination attempt, and the race drew international attention.

The results of the first round of the election were inconclusive. In the November runoff Yanukovych was declared the winner, in spite of exit polling that showed Yushchenko with a commanding lead. Yushchenko’s supporters took to the streets by the tens of thousands in a series of protests that were dubbed the, and the runoff results were overturned by the Ukrainian Supreme Court.

In a new runoff held on December 26, 2004, Yanukovych was soundly defeated. As a fuel crisis and parliamentary gridlock plagued Yushchenko’s administration, Yanukovych began to rebuild his power base. In 2006 Yanukovych’s scored a victory in parliamentary elections, and Yushchenko was compelled to name Yanukovych prime minister. However, Yanukovych lost that post in 2007 to, a major figure in the Orange Revolution and, like Yanukovych, a challenger to Yushchenko in the presidential election of 2010. In January 2010 Yanukovych, Tymoshenko, and Yushchenko faced off in the first round of presidential polling.

Yushchenko, capturing only about 5 percent of the vote, was eliminated, and a runoff election between Yanukovych and Tymoshenko was held on February 7, 2010. Yanukovych won a narrow victory by taking 48.95 percent of the vote to 45.47 percent for Tymoshenko. Although international observers found the poll to be fair, Tymoshenko denied the validity of the results, and her parliamentary bloc refused to attend Yanukovych’s inauguration ceremony on February 25, 2010. As president, Yanukovych promptly demonstrated his pro-Russian leanings.

In April 2010 he struck a deal with Russian Pres. To extend Russia’s lease of the port at, the base of the Russian, until 2042. In exchange, Ukraine would receive a reduction in the price of Russian. The parliamentary debate over the agreement devolved into a melee, with some members of the opposition throwing eggs and lighting smoke bombs, but the measure narrowly passed. Yanukovych drew additional ire from his opponents when he stated that the (a Soviet-era famine in which four to five million Ukrainians died) should not be considered an act of carried out by Soviet authorities against the Ukrainian people, as former president Yushchenko had declared.

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A decision by the Court in October 2010 greatly expanded the powers of the presidency. In 2011 Tymoshenko was charged with abuse of power and sentenced to seven years in prison. The following year Tymoshenko’s interior minister, Yuri Lutsenko, received a four-year sentence for similar charges; many observers characterized both prosecutions as politically motivated.

In October 2012 the Party of Regions won the largest share of seats in parliamentary elections, and most observers characterized the polling as relatively free and fair. It appeared that Yanukovych was attempting to pivot toward the West in April 2013, when he ordered the release of Lutsenko in advance of the signing of an association agreement with the. Just days before that treaty was to be signed in November 2013, Yanukovych pulled out of the deal, triggering a scramble among EU leaders and sparking a wave of popular protests in. Putin pledged billions in financial assistance as the demonstrations in Kiev’s Maidan (Independence Square) continued into 2014. Yanukovych responded by enacting a series of anti-protest measures that were hastily repealed by the parliament after two demonstrators were killed in clashes with police in January 2014.