User:Kazak/Jewhen Kuschnarjow

Jewhen Petrowytsch Kuschnarjow (Євген Петрович Кушнарьов, Jevhen Petrovyč Kušnar'ov; Евгений Петрович Кушнарёв, Evgenij Petrovič Kušnarëv) (29. Januar 1951 - 17. Januar 2007) war ein wichtiger ukrainischer politiker der post-Sowietischen Epoche. Kuschnarjow war einer von den häufigsten Ideologen der Partei der Regionen und auch ein wichtiger Allierter den Premieren Wiktor Janukowytschen.

Early Life
Jewhen Kuschnarjov war in Kharkiv von Migranten aus Russland im Jahr 1951 gebohren. He graduated from the Kharkiv Engineering-Construction Institute in 1973, and for several years thereafter worked at a local factory of concrete and steel manufacturing.

Political Career
Kushnaryov became a member of the Communist Party in 1981. In 1989, during the Glasnost era, he joined the pro-democracy movement in the Ukrainian SSR. In 1990 Kushnaryov was elected to both the Kharkiv city council and the Verkhovna Rada, where he took part in formulating the fledgling country's constitution, and in 1994 he became mayor of the city of Kharkiv.



Afterwards, Kushnaryov served as Leonid Kuchma's chief of staff from 1996 to 1998, and as governor of the Kharkiv Oblast from 2000 to 2004. During the election crisis of 2004, Kushnaryov agitated for the creation of an independent southeastern Ukrainian state in the case of Viktor Yushchenko's victory. This caused him to be arrested on charges of separatism during Yuriy Lutsenko's tenure as Minister of Internal Affairs, charges that were eventually dropped. Following the Orange Revolution, Kushnaryov joined Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions and in 2006 he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada on the Party of Regions ticket. Kushnaryov quickly became one of the leaders of the party along with Yanukovych and Rinat Akhmetov. Considered by many to be among the party's main ideologues, Kushnaryov could be frequently seen on television debating public policy. In 2006 he published a book (Red Horse: Notes of a Counterrevolutionary) denouncing the Orange Revolution.

Death
On January 15, 2007 Kushnaryov was accidentally shot in the liver while hunting with a group of friends and colleagues, and died two days later in a hospital in Izium. A two-day period of mourning was declared in Kharkiv over the death of the former governor.

Legacy

 * Yevhen Kushnaryov is succeeded by his wife, two children, and two grandchildren.
 * Aссording to the Ukrainian Wikipedia, a future station of the Kharkiv Metro will be named after Kushnaryov.

Honors and Distinctions

 * Order of Yaroslav the Wise V (1998), IV (2002), III (2004) Class (Ukraine)
 * Légion d'honneur (1997) (France)

Trivia

 * Although his Ukrainian name was Yevhen (Євген), Kushnaryov personally preferred to use the Russified form Yevheniy (Євгеній) when writing in Ukrainian.