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BBC Monitoring Service Research, UK, Apr 29, 2004
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Mykola Azarov
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Mykola Azarov, who combines the posts of Ukrainian first deputy prime
minister and finance minister, is a long-standing ally of President Leonid
Kuchma. Azarov is also understood to be equally close to the Donetsk
business and political group.
The Russian-born politician only recently started making key speeches in
Ukrainian and has been accused by the right-wing opposition of failing to
embrace Ukraine's national identity.
Born in Kaluga in 1947 as Nikolay Pakhlo, he later assumed the family
name of his wife, Lyudmyla Azarova.
He earned a geology degree from the prestigious Moscow State University
and worked at a coal mine in Tula, Russia, and then at a mining institute
outside Moscow. Upon moving to Ukraine in 1984, he became deputy
head and then head of a geology and mining institute in Donetsk.
Azarov became involved in politics in the early 1990s. In 1994, he joined
the political council and presidium of the progovernment Regional Revival
party. It was later renamed Party of the Regions and is believed to
represent the Donetsk group's interests.
Azarov was elected an MP in 1994, and in 1995-97 he headed parliament's
crucial budget committee.
In 1996-2002, he headed the State Tax Administration. Azarov's tenure as tax
chief was marked by accusations of using the office to clamp down on the
opposition. In particular, during the parliamentary election campaign in
2002 an antigovernment web site called Obkom was closed down after the tax
authorities seized its computers and documents. Azarov denied there was any
politics behind the tax inspections.
He was elected to the post of leader of the Party of Regions in March 2001
only to resign from it in December. Azarov said he wanted to forestall
accusations of supporting the party as tax chief in the run-up to the 2002
parliamentary elections. Currently, he heads the party's political council,
which is believed to be the second most important post in the party after
that of its leader, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.
When Yanukovych's cabinet was formed in November 2002, Azarov was
appointed to the posts of both first deputy prime minister and finance
minister.
However, many doubted whether the two positions should be combined, saying
this gives Azarov too much control over Ukraine's finances.
Azarov's style of management has often been criticized as authoritarian and
high-handed. In January 2004, Economics Minister Valeriy Khoroshkovskyy and
Inna Bohoslovska, who headed the Ukrainian State Committee for Regulatory
Policy and Enterprise, resigned, saying they were pressurized by Azarov.
Analysts suggested that the move signalled a split in the progovernment
camp, as it would have been impossible without the blessing of Viktor
Pinchuk. He is President Kuchma's son-in-law, a major businessman and,
reputedly, a backer of Khoroshkovskyy and Bohoslovska.
As deputy prime minister, Azarov has shown himself to be one on the main
lobbyists for the Single Economic Space, an economic union of Russia,
Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Despite fears that EU and WTO integration
prospects may suffer, the Single Economic Space treaty was ratified in April
by the Ukrainian parliament, as well as by the parliaments of the other
three member states.
In numerous press interviews, Azarov has pledged allegiance to President
Kuchma, denying ambitions to become president or prime minister. Little is
known about Azarov's hobbies or interests, as he avoids talking about
personal matters.
FOR PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC
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