Azarov Nikolay Yanovich in contact. Nikolai Yanovich Azarov biography. Political and government activities
Mykola Yanovich Azarov - Ukrainian state and political figure. Former Prime Minister Ukraine (from March 2010 to January 2014). Head of the Party of Regions of Ukraine. Member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of several convocations.
N. Azarov was born on December 17, 1947 in Kaluga (RSFRS). In 1971 he graduated from the Geological Faculty of the Moscow state university them. M. V. Lomonosov, specialty "RGF" (geologist-geophysicist). From 1971 to 1976 worked as a site manager, chief engineer in the Tulashakhtoosushchenie trust of the Tulaugol plant. In 1984 he moved to the Ukrainian SSR. In 1986 he received the degree of Doctor of Geology and Mineralogy. From 1984 to 1995 worked as Deputy Director and Director of the Ukrainian State Research and Design Institute of Mining Geology, Geomechanics and Mine Surveying (Donetsk). In 1993-1994 was the acting chairman of the "Party of Labor", established in Donetsk. In 1994, N. Azarov was elected to the Verkhovna Rada II convocation from the Petrovsky electoral district of Donetsk. In 1995-1997. was the head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Budget and a member of the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada. From 1996 to 2002 N. Azarov served as head of the state tax administration of Ukraine, in 1997 he was a member of the Supreme economic council President of Ukraine. IN 1998 - Member of the Commission on Regulation of the Food Market, Prices and Income of Agricultural Producers, in 1999 - Member of the Coordinating Committee for the Fight against Corruption and organized crime under the President of Ukraine.
November 26, 2002 - February 3, 2005 served as First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and, at the same time, was the Minister of Finance of Ukraine. At the end of 2004 - beginning of 2005. N. Azarov temporarily acted as Prime Minister of Ukraine.
In March 2010, the Party of Regions nominated N. Azarov as a candidate for the post of head of the government of Ukraine. On March 11, N. Azarov was approved in his position. In November 2012, he wrote a letter of resignation in connection with his election as a people's deputy in the parliamentary elections. December 13, 2012 Mykola Azarov was re-appointed to the post of Prime Minister of Ukraine. On January 28, 2014, Mykola Azarov resigned from the post of Prime Minister of Ukraine.
N. Azarov was awarded the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise V degree (2004), Order of Merit I degree (2000), Order of Merit II degree (1999), Order of Merit III degree (1996), has the title of Honored Economist of Ukraine.
Mykola Azarov (born December 17, 1947) is a Ukrainian politician who was the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 2010 to January 27, 2014. Prior to that, he was twice First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and even earlier, he headed the tax administration of Ukraine for more than five years.
Azarov Nikolai Yanovich: biography, nationality
It would seem that such an irrelevant question at the present time of universal globalization of how the nationality of a person, as applied to the hero of our article, suddenly acquired a special urgency. Why is it so interesting for many to know what is the nationality of Azarov Nikolai Yanovich? The fact is that he labored in the political arena in Ukraine, a very young country, where this question is last years took on a special urgency.
So, where did Azarov Nikolay Yanovich start his life? His biography began in Kaluga, a native Russian city. Where, then, did he get such a patronymic, Yanovich? The fact is that his paternal grandfather was an Estonian named Robert Pakhlo, all other relatives (at least in two generations) are primordially Russian people. According to Azarov himself, made in the program famous TV presenter Vladimir Pozner, he was born out of wedlock to his parents, Yan Pakhlo (a Leningrader by birth and a front-line soldier) and Ekaterina Azarova (later married to Kvasnikova). Therefore, at his birth, the mother recorded little Kolya in her maiden name, under which he is now known to us.
In the same program of Vladimir Pozner, recorded in the summer of 2012, to the question of the presenter, what is the nationality of Mykola Azarov, he answered the following: “I am a Russian person, but I have been living in Ukraine for 28 years. Of course, I already feel like a Ukrainian, that is, a citizen of Ukraine.” It will take another year and a half, and the so-called "svіdomі ukraintsі" will very intelligibly explain to Azarov that between the concepts of "Ukrainian" and "citizen of Ukraine" there is an abyss, which, in their understanding, no merits and past years will not close.
Childhood and years of study
As far as one can understand from Mykola Azarov's recently published book "Ukraine at the Crossroads", his parents tried to establish life together, and the family even lived for some time in Leningrad at the apartment of his father's parents. But apparently something went wrong in their family life, and Ekaterina Azarova returned with little Kolya to her parents in Kaluga. There she graduated from the railway technical school and subsequently worked in the management of the railway.
Grandmother Maria Azarova had a particularly strong influence on our hero in childhood, apparently one of those Russian women who are able to give love and care to loved ones in any, the most difficult conditions. We can say that thanks to her care, mother's love, their numerous Kaluga relatives (one of the suburbs of Kaluga is even called Azarovo), Nikolai's childhood was quite prosperous. He studied well at school, repeatedly won olympiads in various subjects, was even invited to the special school of Academician Kolmogorov at Moscow State University, but refused to enter it, because he was not attracted to her mathematical direction.
Azarov graduated from high school with silver medal, and then went to "conquer the capital." He entered the Moscow State University at the Faculty of Geology. Student years passed as expected, but there was one episode that Azarov especially notes in his memoirs. We are talking about an incident related to a street fight between Nikolai and his friend with a group of hooligans who attacked a girl. The policemen, who arrived at the scene of the incident, without hesitation, stunned Nikolai with a blow of a baton on the head, and then in the department they began to “sew a case of hooliganism”. For his happiness late at night a police lieutenant drove into the department, who figured out everything and released Nikolai and his comrade. Why Azarov highlights this, in general, an unobtrusive episode of his life. The fact is that once his future patron Viktor Yanukovych found himself in the same situation, but it was not in Moscow, but in Yenvakiyevo, and there was no thoughtful lieutenant in the department. Therefore, as Azarov writes, he "understands the mistakes of Viktor Yanukovych's youth."
Having received the qualification of a geologist-geophysicist after graduating from Moscow State University, Nikolay Azarov in 1971, by distribution, got to the Tulaugol coal plant, where in five years he worked his way up to the chief engineer of the Tulashakhtoosushchenie trust. He proved himself to be a real innovator, going from practice, made a considerable contribution to the theory of studying coal seams. Passion for mining science led to the fact that in 1976 Azarov Nikolai Yanovich left production for branch science. First, he works as a head of a laboratory in an industry research institute in the city of Novomoskovsk, Tula Region, and defends his Ph.D. thesis. Soon he becomes the head of the department in the same research institute.
A young and promising candidate of geological sciences is becoming crowded at his native institute, he needs a new field for applying his mature scientific knowledge. And he can do business in the Donbass, where Azarov is offered the position of deputy director of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Mining Geology. In 1984 he comes to Donetsk. The move did him good as a scientist. A couple of years later, Azarov Nikolai Yanovich completes and defends his doctoral dissertation in mine geophysics, and soon after that becomes the director of the institute. He works hard and fruitfully, his monograph on the geology of gold deposits in Donbass is widely known in scientific circles. In 1991, Mykola Azarov also became a professor at the Department of Geology at Donetsk Technical University.
Start of political activity
During the period of perestroika and liberalization political system The USSR Mykola Azarov, of course, did not stay away from the main processes. He, as the director of the branch research institute, actively supports the reformist wing in the CPSU (the so-called "Democratic platform"), while in 1990 he was considered by the party leadership as one of the candidates for the post of leader of the Donetsk communists (Pyotr Symonenko was preferred). In the same year, he became a delegate to the XXVII Congress of the CPSU, where he met Leonid Kuchma, later his long-term patron. Obviously, due to the nature of his activity, Azarov had the opportunity to get acquainted with the leaders of the largest coal mining enterprises in Donbass, the so-called. "coal barons", who will soon become his partners in new political projects.
The first political projects with the participation of Azarov in independent Ukraine
Soon after the collapse of the USSR and the creation of the CIS, a group of intellectuals of Russian origin living in Ukraine from Kharkiv and Donetsk created a socio-political organization, the Civil Congress of Ukraine (GKU), which aimed to transform the rather “loose” CIS into a more cohesive one. Eurasian Union. Among the founders of the congress were Mykola Azarov, Oleksandr Bazilyuk from Donetsk State University, and Valery Meshcheryakov, a history teacher from Kharkiv State University. The captains of the industry of Donbass began to look closely at the organization, by that time they had already created their own organization - the Interregional Association of Ukraine. Under its influence, on the basis of the GKU, in December 1992, the Party of Labor was formed in Donetsk, headed by the director of the Donetsk Electrobytmash plant (later the Nord concern) Valentin Landyk, and his deputy - Azarov. It was a time of tough confrontation between Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma, who is striving to limit the traditional subsidizing of Donbass mines from the state budget, and leaders of the Donetsk industry. Powerful miners' strikes and miners' marches on Kyiv organized by the former "red directors" forced President Kravchuk to dismiss the prime minister. His place was taken by the head of the Donetsk city council and the city executive committee, in the recent past, the director of the largest mine in Donetsk named after. Zasyadko Efim Zvyagilsky. Soon Landyk left for Kyiv to take the position of Deputy Prime Minister in his government, and Mykola Azarov headed the Labor Party, which was the political backbone of the Zvyagilsky government.
Parliamentary career
In 1994, Azarov was elected a member of the Verkhovna Rada from the Labor Party. In the same year, he becomes president after an early election and begins new war against the "Donetsk". Zvyagilsky flees from his persecution in Israel, but Azarov has nowhere to run. And he decides to change his political leanings and join the pro-presidential Interregional Deputy Group. His loyalty was appreciated and in 1995-1996 he became head of the parliamentary budget committee. New president was in dire need of qualified personnel for the new Ukrainian state machine he was creating on the ruins of the old Soviet administrative system. In 1996, he offers Azarov to become chairman of the newly created State Tax Administration of Ukraine.
Head of the State Tax Administration
Of course, the new appointment captivated Azarov, because he had to create from scratch a huge in size and powers, and, moreover, a very specific civil service. And he took up this work with all his energy. The results were not long in coming. Already in the first year of his tenure in his new position, tax collections in the country increased one and a half times, while they began to be collected even from those sectors of the economy that had not paid them at all until then.
Of course, as the revenues of the Ukrainian state grew, so did the number of enemies of the chief tax official. He was accused of excessively strengthening the tax pressure, but Azarov countered these accusations by citing the fact that Ukrainian tax legislation complies with international standards, and those who are used to evading mandatory payments to the state protest the most.
Until 2000, Azarov worked in his position, having served several prime ministers, whom President Kuchma liked to change every year. At the same time, he even refused to participate in the 1998 parliamentary elections, preferring to engage in an already established business.
How Donbass changed in the 90s
While Azarov led the Ukrainian tax authorities from Kyiv, processes were steadily going on in the Donbass economic transformation, as a result of which the old elite, which consisted mainly of directors (since Soviet times) of enterprises and mines, was gradually replaced by a new one, already generated by market relations. So-called. vertically integrated production concerns, which combined all the stages of traditional Donbass production: coal mining, coke production, metallurgical and chemical enterprises, trade and marketing divisions. Examples of them were the Industrial Union of Donbass, controlled by the Taruta-Gaiduk clan, and the System Capital Management holding, which was controlled by the Akhmetov-Yanukovych group. Using the favorable foreign economic situation at the end of the 1990s, they significantly increased the export of metal products, which allowed them to concentrate colossal capital in their hands.
New clash between "Donetsk" and "Kyiv"
This could not leave indifferent the central Ukrainian government, which since the early 1990s has sought to limit the basis for the existence of the economy of Donbass, which consisted in the old, still Soviet system of subsidizing unprofitable coal mining. The amount of annual subsidies from the state budget exceeded 10 billion hryvnias. Due to these subsidies, the selling price of coal was kept low on the market, which made it possible for coke producers, and then metallurgists, to reduce the cost of their products. By exporting it and paying taxes to the government, they ended up offsetting the original subsidies to the mines, so that the country ended up benefiting.
But this is a method of state regulation of the economy, originating in the socialist way of managing, where the goal was not the benefit of an individual enterprise, but the benefit of the whole country as a whole, which is called "infuriated" the adherents of the market economy, of which the Ukrainian elite mainly consisted. In 2000-2001, the government of Viktor Yushchenko made a new attempt to break the system of subsidizing mines in Donbass, and Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko became an active promoter of this policy.
How did Mykola Azarov, a politician, scientist and statesman? He took the side of his fellow countrymen, openly speaking out against the course of Yushchenko-Tymoshenko, who were guided by the British and American experience of reducing coal production, which led to the complete degradation of mining regions in these countries, like English Wales or mining towns in the American Appalachians.
Then Azarov managed to win over a number of large Ukrainian politicians. In addition, Viktor Yushchenko's presidential ambitions alienated President Kuchma, who dismissed the Yushchenko-Tymoshenko government. But they created Our Ukraine and BYuT political forces in opposition to the president, and began to prepare for a struggle for power.
Creation of the Party of Regions and the beginning of joint work with Yanukovych
Didn't doze off opposite side. In November 2006, four political parties, of which the Donbas-based Regional Revival Party of Ukraine was the largest, announced their merger into the Labor Solidarity of Ukraine Regional Revival Party. In December Mykola Azarov also joined this party. In March next year it became known as the Party of Regions, and our hero was elected its chairman.
Tellingly, Petro Poroshenko's Solidarity, which broke away from the pro-presidential Social Democratic Party, was among the founding parties. So current president Ukraine was one of the founders of the Party of Regions, which he now declares to be the culprit of all the troubles of his country (except Russia, of course). Moreover, for almost half a year he was Azarov's deputy, as the head of the party, but at the end of 2001 he defected, along with his Solidarity, to Yushchenko's Our Ukraine. This is such a remarkable political metamorphosis.
However, in fairness, it should be said that at the same time, Azarov himself left the leadership of the Party of Regions, remaining the head of the tax administration. Under his auspices, the electoral bloc "For a United Ukraine" (colloquially referred to as "For Food") with the participation of the Party of Regions was soon created, but in the parliamentary elections of 2002 he barely won 11% of the vote. However, the European Choice faction was created in the new parliament, which began to nominate Azarov for the post of prime minister. However, Kuchma made a choice in favor of the Donetsk governor Viktor Yanukovych, at the same time forcing through parliament the appointment of Azarov as first deputy prime minister. This is how this tandem of two politicians appeared, who unwittingly led Ukraine to the most severe crisis in its recent history.
First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
In the first government of Yanukovych 2002-2004. Nikolai Yanovich combined the post of First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. At first joint work they did not yet constitute a well-functioning tandem - their life experience and path to power were too different. Azarov was identified with the so-called. "old Donetsk", people from the Soviet nomenklatura. Yanukovych, on the other hand, personified the new elite of Donbass, which rose in the second half of the “dashing 90s” using semi-criminal methods of leadership and capital accumulation.
However, the Azarov-Yanukovych alliance soon proved its effectiveness. During the first government of Yanukovych, the efforts, first of all, of Azarov, a set of economic reforms, including budget, tax, pension, etc. During Azarov's first term as Minister of Finance, annual GDP growth in Ukraine amounted to 9.6% in 2003 and 12.1% in 2004 (against 2.7% in 2005) at the level of capital investments of 31.3% and 28.0% respectively (against 1.9% in 2005).
At that time, Azarov advocated closer ties with Russia, for the creation of a Common Economic Space between both countries, and even actively got rid of opponents of such a rapprochement, such as Economy Minister Valery Khoroshkovsky or the head of the State Committee for Entrepreneurship. If Yanukovych could retain power after the presidential elections he had already won in winter 2004-2005, then these plans would certainly have come true, but the “orange” revolution inspired from the outside crossed them out.
In December 2004 and January 2005, Azarov acted as prime minister until his appointment to this post. They say that handing over the keys to the office to her, he half-jokingly half-seriously asked her "not to touch anything with your hands, since everything is working so well." It is a pity that his successor did not take advantage of this practical advice.
However, the history of Ukraine developed in such a way that Mykola Azarov returned to the post of First Deputy Prime Minister two years later. His biography again repeated the events of two years ago after the 2006 parliamentary elections, when Yanukovych again became prime minister. This period was characterized by a sharp political struggle between President Yushchenko, supported in parliament by the Our Ukraine and Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc factions, and the Yanukovych-Azarov tandem, supported in parliament by the factions of the Party of Regions, the Socialist and Communist parties. As a result, the president dissolved the Verkhovna Rada in the spring of 2007 and scheduled early elections for autumn, as a result of which Yulia Tymoshenko's government came to power at the end of the year.
The prime minister turned exile
After her election as President of Ukraine in February 2010, Viktor Yanukovych, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko campaigned among the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada for her support, but on March 3 of the same year, the parliament, which voted for her appointment a little more than two years ago, dismissed Tymoshenko's government . The newly elected president proposed three candidates for the post of prime minister: the well-known banker and businessman Sergei Tigipko (in Soviet period first secretary of the Dnepropetrovsk regional committee of the Komsomol), the then member of the Our Ukraine faction Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Azarov, who headed it Of the 343 legislators registered in the session hall, 242 voted in favor of the last candidate, and in Ukraine appeared new prime minister Mykola Azarov.
In the next parliamentary elections in 2012, he was re-elected to parliament on the list of the Party of Regions, and Yanukovych appointed him for a new term as prime minister.
Mykola Azarov, pictured below during his two terms as prime minister, constantly lamented unfair gas prices for Ukraine under a contract signed with Gazprom in early 2009 by Yulia Tymoshenko on behalf of the Ukrainian government.
Then, during the acute phase of the global financial and economic crisis, when oil and gas prices were steadily declining, this contract seemed to the Ukrainian authorities to be unconditionally beneficial. But by 2012, oil prices again exceeded $100 per barrel, and, accordingly, the price of gas rose to almost $500 per thousand cubic meters. m. The Russian leadership did not really "lead" to Azarov's complaints, seeing that his government was pursuing a two-faced policy, on the one hand, talking about the desire to develop economic relations with Russia, and on the other hand, actively preparing an association agreement with the European Union. After an unequivocal message from the side Russian President on the termination of all economic preferences for Ukraine in the event of joining such an association, Azarov backpedaled and suspended the development of relevant documents. But it was already too late. The population of Western and Central Ukraine, deceived by two years of intensified propaganda of the future benefits of European integration, considered themselves deceived and rebelled against the central government. This time, Azarov resigned on January 28, 2014 amid heavy unrest and Euromaidan protests.
After his resignation, he left Ukraine and for almost a year and a half did not communicate with the media, did not make any political statements, did not influence the turbulent political processes in Ukraine and Donbass. He remained silent, and when in the summer of 2014 Ukrainian air bombs began to explode on the Donetsk and Lugansk lands, whose inhabitants refused to obey the Kiev authorities, as the inhabitants of Galicia had done six months earlier, and artillery shells. In Ukraine, Azarov has been declared a criminal subject to arrest and trial. Former comrades-in-arms in the Party of Regions, as if enlightened by the many post-revolutionary revelations of the crimes of the "Yanukovych-Azarov clique", expelled him from their ranks in absentia.
Finally, on August 3, 2015, Azarov announced in Moscow the creation of a "Committee for the Salvation of Ukraine", chaired by the well-known parliamentary speaker from the Party of Regions Volodymyr Oliynyk. Mykola Yanovich said that he could not name all the members of the committee, because some live in Ukraine , and it would be dangerous for them.However, since then, there has not been any noticeable political action from the newly created organization.
In 1971-1976 he was the head of the section, the chief engineer of the Tulashakhtoosushchenie trust of the Tulaugol plant.
In 1976-1984 - head of the laboratory, head of the department of the Moscow Region Research and Design Coal Institute.
In 1984-1995 - Deputy Director, Director of the Ukrainian State Research and Design Institute of Mining Geology, Geomechanics and Mine Surveying.
In 1994-1998 - people's deputy Ukraine, Chairman of the Budget Committee of the Parliament.
In 1996-2002 he was the head of the State Tax Administration. Korrespondent magazine described Azarov's activities in this position as follows: "How much Mykola Azarov works in power, so many curses pour on him. He himself never admitted that the tax administration, which he created almost from scratch, was not a very pleasant place where I would like to go But every modern businessman in Ukraine will always associate Azarov with the pressure exerted by the tax authorities."
On March 3, 2001, at the extraordinary 3rd congress of the Party of Regional Revival "Labor Solidarity of Ukraine", which gave the party a new name - the Party of Regions, he was elected chairman of the Party. At the IV Congress of the Party, he resigned as chairman of the Party and suspended his membership in it for the period of the 2002 election campaign. At the V Congress of the Party of Regions on April 19, 2003, he was elected chairman of the Political Council of the party. It is considered one of the most influential members of this political force and is ranked among the so-called "old Donetsk".
November 2002-February 2005 - First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister of Finance in the government of Yanukovych. In late 2004 - early 2005, Azarov, as the first deputy head of government, temporarily acted as prime minister of Ukraine (between the vacation and then the resignation of Yanukovych and the assumption of office by Yulia Tymoshenko).
March 2006 - Azarov is elected to the Verkhovna Rada on the list of the Party of Regions, heads the budget committee.
August 2006-December 2007 - again First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance in the new government of Viktor Yanukovych until the resignation of the Cabinet.
Since 2007 - deputy of the opposition Party of Regions, head of the Ministry of Finance.
All the time he was in opposition, he actively criticizes the "orange" governments of Yulia Tymoshenko for "unsystematic, incompetent, failure of the achievements of the Cabinet of Ministers of Viktor Yanukovych." He stated that the second government of Yanukovych will have to seriously work on the mistakes of the last two predecessors. After returning to the Cabinet of Ministers, he himself was subjected to harsh criticism from political opponents and a number of independent experts.
In the spring of 2008, at the Congress of the Party of Regions, Azarov, unlike a number of younger colleagues, did not get the post of deputy chairman. At the same time, he received a seat on the presidium of the political council of the PR and headed the central control commission of the party. Experts believed that Azarov's position in the party had weakened.
In 2006, in the TOP-100 most influential people Ukraine magazine Korrespondent ranked ninth, in 2007 - sixth. In 2008, it no longer appeared on the list.
On June 9, 2009, the political council of the Party of Regions appointed Mykola Azarov as the head of the election headquarters of Viktor Yanukovych in the 2010 presidential election.
Mykola Azarov - Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, Professor, Corresponding Member of NASU. In 2004, Mykola Azarov became a laureate of the State Prize of Ukraine for the development and implementation of innovative organizational, economic and information technologies in the institutional system of Ukraine. Author and co-author of over 110 scientific papers, co-author of books: Geological models of gold deposits of the Ukrainian shield and Donbass, All about taxes.
Honored Economist of Ukraine, civil servant of the 1st rank, chief state adviser to the tax service, honorary worker of the tax service, cavalier of the Orders of Merit II and III degrees, the Order of Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco, Russian order Friendship.
Married, wife - Lyudmila Nikolaevna (born 1946), teacher; son Alexei (born 1971) is an engineer by profession. Mykola Azarov is fond of painting and reading books.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
Born on December 17, 1947 in the city of Kaluga in Russia. In 1971 he graduated from the Moscow State University named after M. Lomonosov with a degree in geologist-geophysicist. Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences (1986), Professor (1991), Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (1997).
- After graduating from Moscow State University, in 1971-1976, future politician worked at the Tulaugol plant. In 1976-1984. headed the laboratory, department of the Moscow Region Research and Design Coal Institute.
- In 1984-1995 N. Azarov - Deputy Director, Director of the Ukrainian State Research and Design Institute of Mining Geology, Geomechanics and Mine Surveying of the Ministry of Coal Industry of Ukraine.
- In 1994-1998 - People's Deputy of Ukraine II convocation, Chairman of the Budget Committee of the Verkhovna Rada.
- From 1996 to 2002 Azarov - Chairman of the State Tax Administration of Ukraine. In the same years, Azarov, as the head of the fiscal service, is a member of the Coordinating Council for the Policy of the Financial Sector, the National Council for Coordinating the Activities of National and Regional Bodies and Local Self-Government, the Council national security and Defense of Ukraine, the Monetary and Credit Council of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Supreme Economic Council under the President, the Interdepartmental Commission for Regulation of the Food Market, Prices and Income of Agricultural Producers, the Coordinating Committee for Combating Corruption and Organized Crime under the President.
- From November 2002 to February 2005 Azarov holds the post of First Vice Prime Minister - Minister of Finance of Ukraine in the first government of Viktor Yanukovych. Leading the row government commissions and coordinating councils. Including the Commission on Ensuring the Timeliness and Completeness of Tax Payments and Debt Repayment wages, pensions, scholarships and other social payments; on the privatization of Ukrtelecom; on insolvency issues; Coordinating Council for the Creation of a Mortgage Lending System; on Corporate Governance in joint-stock companies etc. Acts as a coordinator of cooperation between the Ukrainian government and international financial organizations.
- After being elected to parliament in the spring of 2006, he headed the budget committee. On August 4, 2006, he came to the Cabinet of Ministers of V. Yanukovych for the second time and again became First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Finance.
- From November 2007 to March 2010 - People's Deputy of Ukraine of the VI convocation from the Party of Regions. Minister of Finance in the shadow (opposition) government of Viktor Yanukovych.
- On December 3, 2012, the Prime Minister of Ukraine was dismissed from his post due to his election as a People's Deputy of Ukraine.
- On December 13, 2012 he was appointed Prime Minister of Ukraine.
- On January 28, 2014, the Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov resigned, on the same day the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych accepted the resignation of the Prime Minister.
Family and connections
There is not a word about friends in Azarov's numerous interviews. Does not particularly trust the environment, guided by the motto: "If you want it to be better - do it yourself" (December 2, 2002).
| Azarov's family and connections | |
|---|---|
| Family | Mykola Azarov with his wife Married to Lyudmila Nikolaevna Azarova. In the past she is a teacher, now a housewife. Son - Alexey Nikolaevich. In 2002-2003, he was an adviser to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych on a voluntary basis. Head of the "business pyramid" of the Azarov family . |
| close ties | * Sotulenko Igor Nikolaevich - deputy of the Kyiv City Council from the PR.
|
| Problematic connections | * Inna Bogoslovskaya - accused Mykola Azarov of ignoring the opinions of others, dislike for Ukraine, complete disrespect for the law and willful use of budgetary funds. This, according to Inna Bogoslovskaya, gave rise to the existence in Ukraine of such a thing as Azarovism. |
| Dangerous ties | * Yulia Tymoshenko - "Azarov is the father of corruption, who started it in a young state, pursued this strategy, and who then left this country with a constitutional reform in such a collapsed state." |
Private bussiness
Origin
Until recently, his parents also lived in Kaluga - Jan Robertovich Polko (maybe Pakhlo) and Ekaterina Pavlovna Kvasnikova. According to some reports, his father is a Latvian, a descendant of the "Red Latvians", according to others - an Estonian, a Finn or a Jew. My father was a mining engineer by profession. Azarov (Pakhlo, Polko) was analyzed by the Kiev Institute of Management Problems. Gorshenin.“I looked at documents that show that Mykola Azarov's father was born in 1924, his name was Jan Polko and was a Latvian. It is possible that he could have been a Pole, since at that time there were many Poles living in Latvia. In addition, we do not have any information about his grandfather, whose name was Robert Polko. If possible, we will investigate this issue,” said Kost Bondarenko, director of the institute. The prime minister took the surname Azarov from his grandmother, who raised him. According to other sources, the name Azarov appeared after marriage.
In Ukraine, according to Polish media, another version of Azarov's father's surname, Pakhlo, has also appeared. According to various sources, he had to be a Jew, a Finn or an Estonian. But one thing is clear - the mother of Nikolai Azarov was Russian, her name was Katerina Kvasnikova. Experts say that Azarov could have adopted his grandmother's surname because of anti-Semitic sentiments in Ukraine. Maybe he wanted to have a typical surname, Polish journalists suggest. “I have never met such a surname in Latvia. I hear it for the first time, - says the head of the Union of Poles in Latvia, Ryszard Stankiewicz. “We can say with confidence that neither Polko nor Pahlo are Latvian surnames.” Polish journalists believe that if Azarov had Polish roots, they could have a special connection with President Viktor Yanukovych, whose ancestors lived in Belarus and could also be Poles. Nikolai Yanovich himself, however, considers himself an ethnic Russian.
Language
According to his official autobiography, he speaks Russian and English. The Ukrainian professor did not overcome. On the subject: School bazaars will soon have copybooks with Azarov and the new Ukrainian alphabet, as well as contour maps of Ukraine without Ukraine, issued under the stamp of Tabachnik. Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian philologists fought, deciding what language Azarov speaks. The conclusion suggests itself: Azarov speaks the Belarusian-Moscow surzhik using Ukrainian letters and calls it all official language Ukraine.
Party dossier
Member of the leadership of the Party of Regions of Ukraine. In the summer of 2000, Azarov decided to formalize his colossal political influence in the form of the newly created Party of Regions, which he personally headed. In the Party of Regions, they quickly began to write down everyone in a row, since the STA employees were the party's activists. Two months after his birth, Azarov said that 400,000 people received the party card of the Party of Regions. However, the Party of Regions did not dare to go to the parliamentary elections in 2002 on its own, completely dissolving into the pro-presidential bloc. In a conversation between Kuchma and Azarov in mid-August 2000, Nikolai Yanovich talks about a meeting of leaders of the new party. Kuchma does not trust his closest associates, and suspects Azarov of establishing contacts with another confidant, Marchuk, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, without his knowledge. Azarov is justified. The conversation characteristically shows a system of mutual denunciations in the environment of the president, and Kuchma's manner of suspecting everyone and everyone of who knows what.
Azarovshchina
Azarov headed the State Tax Administration (STA) from its inception in October 1996 to November 2002. In 2004, from light hand Inna Bogoslovskaya, a very apt term "Azarovshchina" appeared in Ukraine. In 1996-2002, “Azarovshchina” was commonly understood as increased tax pressure, tax collection for three months in advance, constant inspections and “black days” for small and medium-sized businesses. Tax law in Ukraine is quite complex and imperfect, and lawsuits against the illegal activities of the STAU never end in favor of the plaintiffs. At the time of tax inspections, the activity of the audited enterprise is completely paralyzed, and the number of such inspections is not limited in any way. This makes resistance of businessmen to the authorities unpromising. And it gives the STA actually unlimited control over all types of business. It is no coincidence that the fiscal authorities are characterized by total corruption of their employees, which is faced by the vast majority of Ukrainian citizens. The practice of extortion and blackmail of entrepreneurs by STA employees is widespread. Businessmen do not skimp on contributions to off-budget funds tax administration. Azarov uses the state structure to fight Kuchma's political opponents, and to strengthen their own financial and political grouping. Azarov has achieved the appointment of his protege Svyatoslav Piskun to the post of Prosecutor General of Ukraine , and has almost unlimited freedom of action .
From November 2002 to January 2005 - First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine in the first government of Viktor Yanukovych. An ardent opponent of NATO, Azarov from 2003 to 2005 was Ukraine's authorized representative in NATO for European and Euro-Atlantic integration.
In late 2004 - early 2005, Azarov, as the first deputy head of government, temporarily acted as prime minister of Ukraine (between the vacation, and then the resignation of Yanukovych and the assumption of office by Yulia Tymoshenko).
In March 2006 he was elected to Verkhovna Rada on the list of the Party of Regions.
In August 2006, he was again appointed to the post of First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine in the government of Viktor Yanukovych, and a few months later he was appointed Minister of Finance of Ukraine and was until Yulia Tymoshenko came to power in December 2007.
Since 2010 - Prime Minister of Ukraine.
Azarov against the people (CAT 01)
The author of the so-called GDP growth, to which Yanukovych's supporters were addressed as the greatest achievement of his Cabinet. As you know, this illusory GDP growth was falsified, because it was provided partly due to manipulations with VAT, and partly due to the fact that a number of enterprises, including MMC enterprises, paid almost no taxes, because the increase in budget revenues was provided without changing the tax base. In addition, individual entities that were close to the Party of Regions were granted an indulgence - not to pay taxes. And until now, thanks to one of the apologists of the Party of Regions, Ukrainians buy all goods 20% more expensive than their real value. How much it was necessary to hate the Ukrainian people in order to introduce this tax, and how much unnecessary red tape and inconvenience appeared after its introduction, and even just a headache, for everyone. Kuchma himself, in the last days of his presidency, said the following about the brainchild of his colleague Azarov: “VAT is the most criminalized tax that feeds the shadow economy and criminal activity. Especially, in foreign economic activity, wholesale and retail» .
In 2004, Azarov figured out how to make a decision of the Cabinet of Ministers on pension supplements (under the guise of a charitable increase in pensions), so that from a meager addition of 30 hryvnia (on average) to the pensions of most Ukrainians, he could still manage to calculate an income tax of 13%!
Tax code of Azarov-Tigipko
Scaffold to Azarov and Tigipko
For this code, entrepreneurs from Poltava region presented Mykola Azarov and Sergei Tigipko a chopping block and an ax as a gift, as a symbol of the execution of the simplified taxation system, according to Novini Poltava region. According to the chairman of the "Union of Investors Ukraine" Sergiy Kaplina, the red paint on the chopping block symbolizes "the blood that Tigipko and Azarov let into the simplistic people." Poltava entrepreneurs, in protest against the new Tax Code, sent the Prime Minister Azarov and Deputy Prime Minister Tigipko license plates for cars "CAT 01" and "CAT 02". The inscription on the signs stands for "K-Code, A-Azarov, T-Tigipko". The word "kat" is synonymous with the word "executioner".
media ripper
The journalists of the Internet publication Obkom.net claim that it was on the instructions of Azarov that a year ago the tax authorities organized a pogrom in the editorial office. The reason is the publication of compromising materials about Nikolai Yanovich and members of his family. In particular, the materials dealt with the corrupt activities of the son of the head of the STA in the Donetsk region. For the first time, Obkom.net remembered him, talking about the conflicts between the late member of the SSMSC Alexei Romashko and Donetsk resident Nikolai Peftiev, who from 1997 to 2000 served as head of the Donetsk regional office SSMSC. Before Peftiev, a very young man, Aleksey Azarov, worked in this responsible position, who managed to work in one of the reputable investment companies immediately after graduation. According to some information we are talking about Keramet-Invest. It is alleged that the conflict between Romashko and Peftiev occurred on the basis of the registration of the issue of Donetskgorgaz. It is believed that the shares of this enterprise were of interest to an investment company close to the son of Nikolai Yanovich. It is noteworthy that Peftiev motivated his resignation from the post of Deputy Chairman of the SSMSC by unprecedented violations in the department and, first of all, by Romashko after a meeting with Mykola Azarov. Having defeated the editorial office, the tax authorities explained: the tax authorities simply made a mistake in the premises.
In the same year, the tax administration committed a real pogrom in the Taki Spravi agency. According to experts, the reason was the fact that the agency printed leaflets and advertising materials for the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc during the 2002 elections.
Bank "Ukraine"
In April 1999, while studying the reasons for the bankruptcy of Bank Ukraina, Anatoly Yermak and Grigory Omelchenko initiated an order from the liquidation commission to conduct a documentary audit of the circumstances of the STA loan. It turned out that as a result of an unlawful decision to reduce unprofitable interest rate on a loan received by the tax authorities, the bank lost UAH 2 million 212 thousand. And taking into account the overdue interest, the STA's debt to the bank amounted to almost UAH 3 million.
Tapes Melnichenko
Quotes (Azarisms)
| - I was asked to collect all this pizdobratiya - they are all hetmans! They are hard to knock off! - On the leadership of the Party of Regions.
At each board, I remove twenty or thirty people from work. Then the system works. - On the organization of work in the State Tax Administration. They ask for salary. They listed everything, no one works. - On the organization of work in the STAU. None of you wrote or said that it turns out that prices for cabbage decreased by 20% in October ... Is it funny? And I don't think so. Cabbage in the diet of our citizens takes a very serious position. - On the reduction of food prices, 2007. Yes, you pashli ... - a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada. At the age of 17, I could have simply gone to jail for fights, in which I took part very often. I, too, like Yanukovych, was brought up by my grandmother, without a father, there was no one to intercede, - In Defense of Yanukovych, 2010. I ask everyone to get ready for a large-scale development of the main provisions of the systemic law and their explanation, sweating ..., giving sweats ... - On the new tax code, 2010. |
Family Business (Development Group)
The dacha cooperative and the company selling fuel are only the official part of the business of the family of the Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov. As the Korrespondent writes, the interests of the son of the head of the Cabinet of Ministers extend to a large resort center in Gurzuf and a number of large real estate objects.
The magazine writes that there is one topic that invariably irritates Prime Minister Mykola Azarov - what kind of business belongs to him and his family members, wife Lyudmila and son Alexei. The correspondent decided to get acquainted in more detail with how the son of the head of the Cabinet of Ministers works, and also to figure out what the members of family number two in the Ukrainian table of ranks own.
Officially, Azarov, his wife and son, and several other people own a dacha cooperative in Crimea. In addition, Azarov Jr. is one of the founders of a company that sells fuel. He also has an official position - he is the chairman of the board of directors of the Development Group company, the ownership structure of which is hidden from state registrars.
As Correspondent writes, a whole chain of companies involved in resort real estate, tourism and other activities is connected with it and with Development. It is impossible to accurately estimate the value of the business associated with the prime minister's family, since the ownership structure of the companies where Alexey Azarov works is unknown. However, only the declared property of Azarov Sr. is at least $ 5.2 million. And the assets managed by his son, according to the most conservative estimates, amount to tens of millions of dollars.
Development is a non-public company. The reporter had a hard time finding the group's presentation, which states that it was founded in February 2007. The firm operates in the real estate market and wealth management. Through the companies Legart and Amalthea, which are part of the group, Razvitie is also involved in leasing and insurance business.
The company is building a large residential complex Sun City in one of the residential areas of Sevastopol. In total, they plan to put into operation 55 thousand square meters. m of housing. Four Sun City buildings have already been built and handed over, and three more (with an area of 25 thousand square meters) will be completed by the end of the year. The Development Group is also starting the construction of another project - the sanatorium and hotel complex Kiparis on the slopes of the Bear Mountain. According to one of the largest Ukrainian investment companies, made on condition of anonymity, the value of such an asset, when everything is completed, will be $ 6-12 million.
The official statement of the Development Group says that now one of its promising projects is the construction of a 16-storey Pushkin Plaza hotel on the territory of the Crimean sanatorium Pushkino. The area of this hotel will be 22 thousand square meters. m, which will accommodate 250 ordinary rooms and 12 luxury suites. The estimated value of the asset after completion of the work may be $ 17-26 million. The connection of this project with the prime minister's family goes not only through Azarov Jr., but also through his father and mother.
Pushkin Plaza is being built on the land of a sanatorium owned by the Garant charity foundation. This organization appeared in August 2005 and became the legal successor of another fund, Professional, which had special rights to sell the confiscation. The professional was created at the direction of the then head of the State Tax Administration (STA) Mykola Azarov.
Among the founders of both charitable organizations, there is no name of the prime minister, but there are the same people: Anatoly Babich, now the director of the Garant, Igor Sotulenko, who in May 2010 was appointed by the government to be a member of the supervisory board of the state Oschadbank, and Gennady Samofalov, People's Deputy of Regions.
At the same time, Babich and Andrey Samofalov's son, until 2007, were co-founders of the travel company Blagovest-Tour-Ukraine, where their partner was Lyudmila Azarova, wife of the head of the Cabinet. Now, the newspaper writes, the State Register says that the travel agency has a new owner - a certain Galina Nedodayeva from Kiev.
The Garant Fund and the Development Group company are interesting not only for joint projects on south coast Crimea, but also by the fact that these organizations are registered at the same address: Kyiv, Basseinaya street, 7b. The fact that this house can serve as the headquarters of the entire business of the Azarov family is also indicated by the fact that Blagovest-Tour-Ukraine is registered here, in which, until 2007, the wife of the Prime Minister, Lyudmila, was listed as a co-founder.
The publication failed to estimate the value of the business, one way or another connected with the Prime Minister's family. After all, the activities of these firms are mostly non-public. The estimated cost of the projects - Pushkin Plaza and Kiparis - currently being developed by a company managed by the son of the head of the Cabinet of Ministers, Alexei, is about $ 22-36 million. This figure does not include funds that the Development Group can gain from the implementation of the Sun Project. City in Sevastopol.
"He has a different business - both construction and some other. Nobody knows him, because he is calm and purposeful," Rybak, a friend of the prime minister, told the Correspondent about Azarov Jr.
Airlines
The family of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov is associated with the Crimean airline Air Onix. As Forbes.ua writes, the airline was founded back in 2007 by Crimean Igor Melnik, who owns a small travel agency, Onyx Group, and a publishing house, Krym-didactic. However, over the following years, she did not lift a single side into the air.
The situation changed at the end of 2011, when 75% of the airline's shares were transferred to the Austrian ASA Luftfahrt Formgestaltung. Half of the investor's capital belongs to the Vienna company Garda. The latter is closely connected with the Azarov family.
The interests of Garda in Ukraine were represented for several years by Vadym Sisyuk, who worked as an adviser to Azarov. At the same time, in the spring of 2012, the Ukrainian Liliya Fatkhulina, the wife of the son of the head of government, Alexei Azarov, served as the director of the Austrian company. One of the two directors of ASA Luftfahrt, which holds a stake in Air Onix, is lawyer Friedrich Bubla. Together with Oleksiy Azarov, he heads the Stable Ukraine Foundation.
Place of Birth. Education. Born in Kaluga (Russia). In 1971 he graduated from the Lomonosov Moscow State University with a degree in Geology and Geophysics. Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences (1986), Professor (1991), Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (1997).
Career. After graduating from Moscow State University, in 1971-1976, the future politician worked at the Tulaugol plant. In 1976-1984. headed the laboratory, department of the Moscow Region Research and Design Coal Institute.
In 1984-1995 Azarov - Deputy Director, Director of the Ukrainian State Research and Design Institute of Mining Geology, Geomechanics and Mine Surveying of the Ministry of Coal Industry of Ukraine.
In 1994-1998 - People's Deputy of Ukraine II convocation, chairman of the budget committee of the Verkhovna Rada.
From 1996 to 2002 Azarov is the chairman of the State Tax Administration of Ukraine. In the same years, Azarov, as the head of the fiscal service, is a member of the Coordinating Council for Financial Sector Policy, the National Council for Coordinating the Activities of National and Regional Bodies and Local Self-Government, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, the Currency and Credit Council of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Supreme Economic Council under the President Ukraine, the Interdepartmental Commission on Regulation of the Food Market, Prices and Income of Agricultural Producers, the Coordinating Committee for Combating Corruption and Organized Crime under the President.
From November 2002 to February 2005 Azarov holds the post of First Vice Prime Minister - Minister of Finance of Ukraine in the first government. He heads a number of government commissions and coordinating councils. Including the Commission on Ensuring the Timeliness and Completeness of Tax Payments and Repayment of Wage Arrears, Pensions, Scholarships and Other Social Payments; on privatization; on insolvency issues; Coordinating Council for the Creation of a Mortgage Lending System; on issues of corporate governance in joint-stock companies, etc. Acts as a coordinator of cooperation between the Ukrainian government and international financial organizations.
After being elected to parliament in the spring of 2006, he headed the budget committee. On August 4, 2006, he came to the Cabinet of Ministers of Yanukovych for the second time and again became First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Finance.
November 2007 to March 2010 - People's Deputy of Ukraine of the VI convocation from. Minister of Finance in the shadow (opposition) government of Yanukovych.
Since March 2010 - Prime Minister of Ukraine.
After the parliamentary elections in the fall of 2012, Azarov's candidacy was again submitted by President Yanukovych for the post of head of government and approved by the deputies.
On November 21, 2013, the Ukrainian government led by Mykola Azarov ordered to suspend preparations for the conclusion of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, which led to the Euromaidan.
On January 22, 2014, he called the rioters in the center of Kyiv terrorists who must answer for their actions.
On January 28, 2014, Azarov resigned from the post of prime minister, and on the same day, President Yanukovych accepted it. On February 27, 2014, he took the post of head of government.
A few hours after his resignation, Azarov flew on a private jet to Vienna. In the elite district of Vienna, there is a mansion that is registered to the son of Azarov. Azarov's family also lives there. According to the Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung, Azarov arrived in Austria and plans to stay there for a long time.
On March 6, 2014, the European Union and Canada announced that Mykola Azarov and his son Oleksiy were on the list of high-ranking Ukrainian officials against whom financial sanctions were imposed.
The Security Service of Ukraine put Mykola Azarov on the wanted list for committing a crime under Part 3 of Art. 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine ("abuse of power or official authority by a law enforcement officer, resulting in grave consequences").
Interpol refused to carry out a search for the former Ukrainian prime minister, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine states that Azarov has been put on not an international, but some kind of "interstate" wanted list.
After the resignation, Mykola Azarov left the territory of Ukraine and flew to Austria. Subsequently, Azarov and his family settled in Russia without renouncing Ukrainian citizenship.
In August 2015, together with other former high-ranking officials of Ukraine during the Yanukovych presidency, he founded "Committee for the Rescue of Ukraine", speaking from the standpoint of Russian propaganda.
Views and assessments. He actively criticized the "orange" governments and the sample of 2005-2006. for unsystematic, incompetent, failure of the developments of the Cabinet of Ministers of Yanukovych. He stated that the second government of Yanukovych will have to seriously work on the mistakes of the last two predecessors. After returning to the Cabinet of Ministers, he himself was subjected to harsh criticism from political opponents and a number of independent experts.
Azarov and the Party of Regions. It is ranked among the so-called "old Donetsk". Since April 2003, Azarov headed the political council of the Party of Regions. Until recently, he was considered one of the most influential members of this political force. Thus, it is no coincidence that he acted as one of the negotiators on the side of the regionals during the formation of a parliamentary coalition in the summer of 2006 and the settlement of the political crisis of 2007, at the peak of which the president issued two decrees to dissolve the Verkhovna Rada of the 5th convocation and hold early parliamentary elections.
In the spring of 2008, at the congress of the Party of Regions, Azarov, unlike a number of younger colleagues, did not get the post of deputy chairman. At the same time, he received a seat on the presidium of the political council of the PR and headed the central control commission of the party. However, some observers believe that the positions of the regional veteran have weakened recently.
However, in 2010, Azarov, along with the premier's chair, also took the post of head of the party, which was vacated after the election of Yanukovych as president of Ukraine.
Titles and awards. Honored Economist of Ukraine. Civil servant of the 1st rank, adviser of the Tax Service of the 1st rank, honorary worker of the Tax Service. He was awarded the orders "For Merit" of three degrees, Yaroslav the Wise of the 5th degree. Laureate of the State Prize of Ukraine.
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