The former President of Ukraine Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko was born February 23, 1954. He took office on January 23, 2005, following the Orange Revolution
In December 1999, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma unexpectedly nominated Yushchenko to be the prime minister after the parliament failed by one vote to ratify the previous candidate, Valeriy Pustovoytenko
Ukraine's economy improved during Yushchenko's cabinet service. However, his government, particularly Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, soon became embroiled in a confrontation with influential leaders of the coal mining and natural gas industries
He was one of the two main candidates in the October–November 2004 Ukrainian presidential election. Yushchenko won the presidency through a repeat runoff election between him and Viktor Yanukovych, the government-supported candidate
Yushchenko promised to ensure the law would prevail and the election results would be overturned. As their struggle played out on television screens around the world, the protesters stayed out day after day, giving the opposition crucial momentum
The Ukrainian Supreme Court called for the runoff election to be repeated because of widespreadelection fraud in favor of Viktor Yanukovych in the original vote. Yushchenko won in the revote - 52% to 44%
In September, 2004, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko had been poisoned. He survived a poisoning attempt, which left his face pockmarked and ashen and gave him a case of acute pancreatitis. His blood samples did indeed contain an abnormally high level of dioxin, 1,000 times the accepted level
Most experts believe Yushchenko ingested the dioxin on the night of September 5, 2004, in the midst of a neck-and-neck presidential race, after dining with General Igor Smeshko, the former head of Ukrainian intelligence. Shortly after dinner, Yushchenko complained of sickness and vomited. Bad sushi, the state-run media claimed at the time
No one has been charged with the president’s poisoning and, like most criminal cases in the former Soviet Union, it is unlikely to be solved. But that has not stopped scientists in the Ukraine from assembling their own version of events
He was flown to Vienna's Rudolfinerhaus clinic for treatment and diagnosed with acute pancreatitis, accompanied by interstitial edematous changes, due to a serious viral infection and chemical substances that are not normally found in food products. Yushchenko claimed that he had been poisoned by government agents. After the illness, his face was greatly disfigured:jaundiced, bloated, and pockmarked
Tasteless but highly toxic, the dioxin Yushchenko ingested was administered in a dose probably less than 1 mg. A drop in a bowl of soup would have gone undetected
With Yushchenko physically unable to travel, it was his main ally, Yulia Tymoshenko, who did most of the campaigning. The fiery orator adopted her now-familiar image, dressing in glamorous white outfits and wearing her newly blonde hair in a fairy-tale braid crown. Her impassioned appearances catapulted her to political stardom, but they also helped ensure Yushchenko victory
After winning the presidency, Yushchenko called himself Ukraine's "first real president." "We were independent for 14 years, but not free," he said at the time. The new leader vowed to attack rampant corruption, arrest criminals, and put Ukraine on a path toward Europe. He urged Ukrainians to "roll up our sleeves and work honestly from morning until night for this country."
But Yushchenko himself spent most of his first year in office traveling around European capitals receiving awards. Warmly welcomed in the United States, which had quietly backed him during the Orange Revolution, he was given the rare honor of addressing a joint session of Congress.
Yushchenko has left office with Ukraine in economic crisis and paralyzed by a bitter political standoff that has Ukrainians disillusioned and wondering what the Orange Revolution was all about. Despite his strong record as an economist, many blame Mr Yushchenko for Ukraine's predicament. The country has been forced to accept billions of dollars in IMF aid - but some of that has been withheld because the country has failed to push through economic reforms.
Rybachuk, who later became Yushchenko's chief of staff, says the president could have used his great popularity to carry out desperately needed reforms.
"He could have done anything," Rybachuk says. "He could have changed the constitution, called for early parliamentary elections if he had used that peak of his popularity for the top priorities for the country. But what actually happened was that the best time of his presidency was almost wasted." He also was known to leave ministers waiting on important matters of state while he watered the plants in his office.
Almost immediately after his election, Yushchenko became mired in infighting with Tymoshenko, whom he had named prime minister. He fired her in September 2005, after she had set price caps on basic goods and demanded the re-privatization of state assets, which prompted accusations of populism and authoritarianism.
The first public clash between Yushchenko and his most important ally ushered in a bitter five-year standoff. Rybachuk says it also ended Yushchenko's vital political role of a uniter who'd brought Ukraine's fractious opposition together. No longer allied with the woman Ukrainians saw as an integral part of the Orange duo, Yushchenko saw his popularity plummet. "Tymoshenko became his only subject," Rybachuk says.
But Yushchenko's criticism only added to Tymoshenko's popularity. It also helped open the way for Yanukovych, the villain of the Orange Revolution, to emerge from political exile to take up the role of opposition leader.
He has also been blamed, by some, for the gas disputes with Russia that have seen supplies cut twice in three years. Russia has made no secret of its dislike for Mr Yushchenko, who has pursued a firmly pro-Western policy, aimed at membership of Nato and the European Union.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has condemned Ukraine's "anti-Russian" course and says he looks forward to better relations under a new president. Meanwhile Nato and the EU have gone cool on the idea of Ukrainian membership, leaving Mr Yushchenko seemingly without strong strategic allies.
Mr Yushchenko has accused Mrs Tymoshenko of destroying the Orange coalition through her "thirst for power". Their relationship has completely broken down, and their political squabbling has paralysed decision-making in Ukraine at a crucial time, when the financial crisis has devastated the country's steel industry and banks have collapsed.
After parliamentary elections in 2006 gave Tymoshenko's political bloc far more votes than Yushchenko's party, he restored Yanukovych as prime minister, joining forces with his old foe rather than seeing Tymoshenko return to power. That, too, backfired. Yushchenko dismissed Yanukovych only months later, accusing him of trying to usurp power.
Tymoshenko made even greater advances in the next round of snap elections, this time leaving Yushchenko with no option but to agree to join her in a new Orange coalition. Still, he objected.
"Only political motives could have played a role here," said Yushchenko, who was greeted by angry chants from Tymoshenko's supporters in the courtroom. "National interests were traded for political considerations."
Yushchenko suggested that Tymoshenko, who was then preparing to run in the 2010 presidential elections, wanted to be seen as a "saviour" who ended a bitter pricing dispute with Moscow. The dispute led to Russia halting supplies to Ukraine, which caused shortages for customers acrossEurope.
He also claimed Tymoshenko ignored Ukrainian interests for the sake of special relations with Russian leaders, saying: "Russia had to have a pliant pro-Russian leader." Tymoshenko said she disagreed with Yushchenko's testimony, but declined to dispute it in the courtroom. "I don't want for the Orange revolution to go on trial in this court," she said. One supporter called Yushchenko a "bastard" and was removed from the courtroom.
Tymoshenko and Yushchenko were the central figures in the 2004-05 Orange revolution against fraudulent election in which his then rival Viktor Yanukovych was declared the winner.
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