Yuschenko, Victor Andriyovych (1954– )

Ukrainian politician, president from 2005. He was the leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution, which, through street demonstrations by pro-democracy activists, forced a repeat of voting in Ukraine's presidential election after the original election was tainted by fraud in favour of the incumbent prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych. In August 2006, he surprisingly appointed Yanukovych as his prime minister.

Yushchenko's political stance mixes moderate Ukrainian nationalism with support for large-scale privatization of the economy and a more pro-Western foreign policy.

Born in Khoruzhivka, into a family of teachers, his father survived capture by the German Nazis during World War II and internment as a prisoner of war in the Auschwitz concentration camp. He trained as an accountant and worked in the banking system from the mid 1970s. Soon after Ukraine became independent from the USSR, he became head of Ukraine's National Bank in 1993 and oversaw introduction of the national currency, the hryvnia, and the battle against hyperinflation. In December 1999, he became prime minister under President Leonid Kuchma, holding office until 2001, when he was dismissed following a confrontation with powerful coal mining and natural gas leaders, known as the ‘oligarchs’. A popular, charismatic figure, he became leader of the Our Ukraine liberal opposition coalition in 2002. During the presidential election campaign in September 2004, he survived poisoning by dioxin, but was left with a pock-marked and disfigured face.