Oleh Lyashko

Early life

Lyashko was born in Chernihiv on December 3, 1972, but grew up in a village of Lozovivka, Starobilsk Raion where lived his mother. When Lyashko was two years old, his parents separated, and his mother was forced to send him to an orphanage. Lyashko studied in three boarding schools: Yablunivskoy, Komarovskaya and Borznyansky. He worked as a shepherd at the Progress collective farm, and after secondary education he went to college for tractor operator studies. In an September 2015 interview Lyashko stated that shepherd was his summer job back in 1987-88 when he 14 year old every summer used to arrive to Luhansk Oblast and earn up to 300 rubles per summer. After that Lyashko would buy in Starobilsk clothing and shoes. When he graduated his boarding school, Lyashko had around 2,000 rubles in savings which all were "burnt" (out of the post-Soviet inflation).

In 1998 he graduated from the Faculty of Law H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University.

From 1990 till 1992 Lyashko was correspondent and head of the newspaper "Young Guard" (based in Kiev). In 1992 he became editor of "Commerce Herald" of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of Ukraine.

On June 21, 1993 Lyashko was arrested and indicted for grand funds embezzlement. On 9 December 1994 the Criminal College of the Kiev City Court found Lyashko guilty according to acticles 86-1, 191, and 194 part 3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The court found Lyashko guilty of embezzlement of 1 300 000 rubles personally, and 1 100 000 roubles collectively with accomplices. Lyashko was sentenced to 6 years' prison term and sequestration of the property. The Supreme Court reduced the time to 4 years imprisonment. Lyashko was released in May 1995 under the amnesty due to the "50th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany". In 1998, the criminal case was erased. Lyashko himself claims the case was payback for his critical journalism. He claims that his case was falsified by deputy minister of Internal Affairs Veniamin Bartashevych.

Reporting career

In the years 1995 and 1996 Lyashko was editor of the newspapers Politika and Pravda Ukraine. In August 1996 he became Chief Editor of the newspaper Politika. In 1999, the publication was closed by decision of the Moscow District Court in Kiev for "divulging state secrets". From 2000 till 2006 Lyashkov was chief editor of Freedom (for "Newspaper "Policy").

Political career

Lyashko was elected as a deputy to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) in the 2006 parliamentary election for Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko (BYT) (№ 26 in the list). Chairman of the Subcommittee on the organization of the Supreme Council of the Parliamentary Committee on Rules, Ethics and maintenance of the parliament.

In the 2007 parliamentary election he was re-elected into the Verkhovna Rada for BYT (№ 29 on the list). Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Budget.

On October 18, 2010, he was expelled from the BYT faction "for cooperating with the majority coalition". BYT had assured that video leaked a week before would not be a reason for an exclusion of Lyashko from the faction.

On August 8, 2011, during its third party congress, Lyashko was elected the new party leader of the Ukrainian Radical Democratic Party. The same day the party changed its name to Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko (shortened "Radical Party").

In the 2012 parliamentary election he was re-elected into the Verkhovna Rada after winning single-member constituency number 208 in the Chernigov Oblast (as candidate of the Radical Party) with 55.57% of the votes. Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance and Banking. He did not join any faction in parliament.

Mid-November 2012 Lyashko went on hunger strike in support of jailed (fellow) opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, who was imprisoned at the time, and against the recognition of the results of the 2012 parliamentary election.

During the 2014 Crimean crisis he introduced a bill which proposed to consider the participants of "separatist rallies for joining Russia" - as well as those who obstruct the movement of soldiers and military equipment - saboteurs and accomplices of the occupiers. At the time of "military aggression" to them should be applied the death penalty. The bill provides the introduction of a visa regime with Russia, denunciation of the agreements with this country, the prohibition of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Party of Regions, the call for the EU to ban the entry of Crimean residents with Russian passports and other events.

During the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine and 2 days before the May 25, 2014 presidential election Lyashko claimed responsibility for the storming of a local government building in Torez (by "Soldiers from the Lyashko Battalion 'Ukraine'") that killed a pro-Russian separatist and supporter of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic while critically wounding another. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have condemned the activities of the Lyashko Battalion 'Ukraine' and Lyashko's actions in Eastern Ukraine. Amnesty International, while noting "abuses perpetrated by both sides of the conflict," pointed to Lyashko as "one particularly errant MP." (published as videos on his website). According to Lyashko his actions should be seen as citizen's arrests and he accused Amnesty International of being "obviously biased".

Lyashko was the candidate of Radical Party in the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election. In the election he received 8.32% of the vote; ranking him in 3rd place.

Lyashko was elected into the Kiev City Council since his party won 3 seats and he headed its party list in the 2014 Kiev local election. But he decided not to become a deputy in the Kiev City Council.

In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election he led his party to win 22 seats.

Family and personal life

Lyashko is married to a woman named Rosita and the couple have a daughter.

Alleged LGBT relations

Lyashko's private life is surrounded by rumours that he is gay, something Lyashko has always firmly denied. Early October 2010 a 17-year-old video was leaked to the Internet in which a young man who looks like Lyashko talked about sexual relations with another man, a certain high-ranking official. Lyashko had been rumored to be gay for a long time before the video appeared. The day after the video was leaked he issued a statement accusing political opponents of doctoring the video using “modern technologies”. And he stated “Personally, I have a traditional sexual orientation". In an October 2012 interview Lyashko was told by a spoof interviewer that the reporter's friend believed Lyashko represented sexual minorities in parliament. Lyashko was handed a mobile phone, spoke to the supposed friend and then promised to beat his face in while being filmed on camera. Lyashko had stressed in May 2011 he had nothing against sexual minorities. In an September 2015 interview he stated that being LGBT "is the choice of each individual. I can not condemn".

In 2014, the Kremlin marked him as an enemy of the state due to his pro-NATO views.