 |
Sergey TigipkoFormer head of the National Bank of Ukraine, politician, candidate for President of Ukraine in the 2010 elections
Date of Birth: 13.02.1960
Country:  Ukraine |
Content:
- Sergei Tigipko: A Political and Economic Force in Ukraine
- Military Service and Komsomol Career
- Banking Career
- Political Involvement
- Leadership of the National Bank of Ukraine
- Campaign Manager for Viktor Yanukovych
- Return to Business
- Presidential Candidate
- Political Views and Platform
- Personal Life
Sergei Tigipko: A Political and Economic Force in Ukraine
Early Life and EducationSergei Tigipko was born on February 13, 1960, in the Ukrainian village of Dragoesti. After graduating from high school in 1977, he moved to Dnipropetrovsk and enrolled in the Dnipropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute. During his studies, Tigipko lived in a dormitory and established a café-club where he hosted student discos. He also worked part-time in construction crews as a loader, electrician, and chicken packer at a meat processing plant. In 1982, Tigipko graduated with a degree in "Foundry Production of Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metals" and a qualification as an engineer-metallurgist.
Military Service and Komsomol Career
After graduating, Tigipko voluntarily enlisted in the army and served as an officer in the tank corps because it offered better pay than working in production. He served as a platoon commander and deputy commander for technical matters in a tank company near Chernihiv, operating a T-64B tank. Upon returning from the army in 1984, Tigipko took a position as head of department and deputy director for educational work at the Dnipropetrovsk Mechanical-Metallurgical Technical College. He also began working in the Ukrainian Komsomol (Youth League) as secretary of the committee for this college. In 1986, he decided to focus on Komsomol work, becoming head of the department of propaganda and agitation and second secretary of the Dnipropetrovsk regional committee of the Komsomol. In August 1989, Tigipko was elected as first secretary of the Dnipropetrovsk regional committee, a position that was supported by future Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Oleksandr Turchynov.
Banking Career
After the liquidation of the Komsomol in October 1991, Tigipko pursued a career in banking. He accepted a position as deputy chairman of the board of directors of the commercial bank Dnipro but was reportedly dismissed "for insolence." In March 1992, he became the head of the PrivatBank, which had been established with his participation. Tigipko was a partner and shareholder in the bank, along with Igor Kolomoisky, Oleksii Martynov, Leonid Miloslavskyi, and Gennadiy Bogolyubov. There were rumors that Tigipko was involved in money laundering through Latvian banks during his tenure at PrivatBank, but he did not comment on these allegations.
Political Involvement
While leading PrivatBank, Tigipko also established a media consortium for the Privat group, which included the news agency UNIAN, Privat-TV, Novaya Gazeta, Radio Premiere, and the advertising agency Dovira. In 1994, Tigipko became a freelance consultant to Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on monetary policy.
In April 1997, Tigipko left PrivatBank when he was invited to join the Ukrainian government led by Pavlo Lazarenko as vice prime minister for economic reforms. Ten years later, Lazarenko claimed that he had given Tigipko his "ticket to life." After Lazarenko's resignation, Tigipko remained as vice prime minister for the economy in the government of Valeriy Pustovoitenko.
In 1999, Tigipko became Minister of Economy in the cabinet of Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko. During the 2004 "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko alleged that as Minister of Economy, Tigipko had lobbied for the interests of businessman Hryhoriy Surkis and politician Viktor Medvedchuk.
Leadership of the National Bank of Ukraine
In December 2002, following extensive debates, Tigipko was elected by the Verkhovna Rada to the post of Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine. In this position, he initiated the introduction of a new series of banknotes and opposed a monetary union between Russia and Ukraine. There were rumors that President Kuchma planned to nominate Tigipko for prime minister or even make him his successor, and Tigipko himself did not deny his presidential ambitions. The press reported that Tigipko was close to Kuchma's son-in-law, businessman Viktor Pinchuk.
Campaign Manager for Viktor Yanukovych
In July 2004, Tigipko became head of the election campaign of Viktor Yanukovych, a candidate for President of Ukraine. After the second round of the presidential election, in which Yanukovych was declared the winner, Tigipko resigned as head of the National Bank and Yanukovych's campaign manager on November 29, 2004. The reasons for his decision were not disclosed by either him or Yanukovych. Some experts suggested that Yanukovych lost the election due to his campaign team, headed by Tigipko, which had allegedly been imposed on the candidate by coalition agreements.
Return to Business
Despite initial statements of intent to pursue a political career, Tigipko decided to return to business shortly after the presidential election. In April 2005, he resigned as leader of the Trudova Ukraina party and in September became chairman of the board of the TAS financial-industrial group.
In 2007, Tigipko sold TAS-Kommerzbank to the Swedish Swedbank for $735 million and was invited to serve as chairman of the board of the Ukrainian division of Swedbank (AT Swedbank). In 2008, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko appointed Tigipko as her advisor, and together they became co-chairs of the Council of Investors under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
Presidential Candidate
In March 2009, Tigipko announced his willingness to join Tymoshenko's government and ruled out running for president. However, in April 2009, Tigipko declared his intention to participate in the Ukrainian presidential election. In May 2009, he agreed to be nominated by the Labor Party of Ukraine and resigned from his post as Tymoshenko's advisor.
In June, Tigipko resigned from TAS and Swedbank but remained a member of the latter's supervisory board. On October 27, 2009, Tigipko was registered as an independent candidate for President of Ukraine. If elected, he promised to correct the Ukrainian spelling of his surname from Tihhipko to Tigipko.
Political Views and Platform
Political analysts believed that Tigipko was meant to be an important "technical" candidate on Yulia Tymoshenko's side and that his task was to take away votes from Yanukovych in eastern Ukraine. However, some experts claimed that Tigipko could offer his services to other candidates as well. Notably, both the leader of the Ukrainian socialists, Oleksandr Moroz, and the representative of the Party of Regions, Yurii Boiko, declared their "closeness" to Tigipko.
Tigipko planned to spend 15-20 million hryvnias on his election campaign. In October 2009, opinion polls showed that 1.7% of respondents intended to vote for Tigipko in the presidential election.
Tigipko's election campaign slogans included Ukraine's accession to the European Union, tax and constitutional reforms, and reducing the state's influence on the economy. He also opposed granting the Russian language the status of a second official language.
Tigipko is a Candidate of Economic Sciences. He defended his dissertation on the topic "Formation and State Regulation of Commercial Bank Systems in Ukraine" in 1996 (according to other sources, in 1997.
Personal Life
Tigipko is married with four children. His first wife, Natalia, married him in 1981 while he was still in university. His second wife, Viktoria Lopatezka, became his spouse in 2005. According to some sources, Lopatezka oversaw Tigipko's election campaign.
Tigipko is an Orthodox Christian and a member of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. His hobbies include weightlifting, skiing, and swimming. He was previously a fan of tennis but was forced to give up the sport due to a back injury.
