On April 8, Serhiy Tigipko joined 13 Verkhovna Rada members in leaving the Party of Regions, and announced that he would be running for president of Ukraine as a self-nominated candidate.
Tigiko’s departure from the Party of Regions was just the latest jump in a career of political hopscotch.
After making his fortune (which is now upwards of $1 billion) in banking in the turbulent 1990s, Tigipko started working as a finance advisor to former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma.
He then served as Ukraine’s Economic Minister from 1997 to 1999 before becoming the leader of the Labor Ukraine party and the head of the National Bank of Ukraine in 2002.
He formed the Strong Ukraine party (which merged with the Party of Regions in 2011) in 2009, and ran in Ukraine’s 2010 presidential elections as the party’s leader, finishing third with 13 percent of the vote.
Tigipko then served as the vice Prime Minister of Social Policy under ousted former President Viktor Yanukovych, before he winning a seat in the Verkhovna Rada in 2012.
Since announcing his candidacy for president of Ukraine, Tigipko has catered to Russian-speaking populations in the east and south, where he drew his strongest support in the 2010 presidential election.
As an olive branch to Russian speakers in the east who feel alienated by the post-revolutionary government in Kyiv, Tigipko has pledged to make Russian a second national language if he is elected president.
Although he has not proposed a solution to the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine, Tigipko has and relentlessly criticized the incumbent government for failing to take into account the wishes of the eastern regions.
According to his website, during a recent trip to Dnipropetrovsk, Tigipko encouraged Kyiv to “offer the eastern regions and [all Ukrainian] society a new model of government.”
He has opposed the government’s anti-terrorist operation in eastern Ukraine, instead calling for the government to engage in dialogue with separatists, an accede to their requests.
Tigipko believes that to restore order in Ukraine, the authorities must “get the guns off the streets,” which he pledges to do if elected president.
His platform calls for reforms to local government, in order to “Achieve the best possible cultural and economic autonomy in the regions.” This call for regional autonomy echos that of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has said that the Ukrainian constitution must be amended to allow for federalization.
Although he has received support from the eastern regions, Tigipko is a long-shot to win the presidency on May 25.
In a nationwide poll of 2,012 voting-age Ukrainians conducted from April 25 to April 29 by the Razumkov Center, 4.9 percent said they would vote for Tigipko, making him the third most popular candidate behind billionaire businessman Petro Poroshenko and former Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko. Of those who plan on voting in the May 25 presidential election, 6.7 percent said they plan on voting for Tigipko.
Tigipko is one of Ukraine’s wealthiest men. Upon registering for the election, he reported having the highest yearly income of any candidate, earning $22.5 million in 2013.
Tigipko’s fabulous wealth and long history in Ukrainian politics have made voters from all corners of the Ukraine hesitant to support him.
Voters west of the Dnipro are reluctant to support Tigipko because of his ties to the old, pro-Russian regime. Many suspect his interests may be more closely aligned with Russia than with the West, and that his election may signal the failure of the EuroMaidan Revolution.
Some in the older generations, even in the east and south, oppose Tigipko because he pushed a pension reform bill through the Verkhovna Rada in 2011 that has gradually raised the women’s pension age from 55 to 60.
Kyiv Post staff writer Isaac Webb can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter at @IsaacDWebb
