Feb 5 (Reuters) - Ukraine's Yulia Tymoshenko and Victor Yanukovych are set for a runoff vote for president on Sunday after a bitter campaign in which she has insulted him and he has accused her of systematic lying.
Here is some background on the main players:
* YULIA TYMOSHENKO (49) – prime minister:
— Born in Nov. 1960, her energy, impassioned speeches, and trade-mark peasant-style hair braid make her one of the most recognisable figures in Ukraine.
— Called the "gas princess" for her early involvement in the gas industry, from which she is believed to have amassed a fortune, she was deputy prime minister in charge of energy in 2000 and won praise for her reform efforts.
— After being dismissed as deputy prime minister, she spent several weeks in jail in 2001 accused of forging customs documents and smuggling gas. She was subsequently cleared.
— She was allied with Victor Yushchenko, now president, during the 2004 "Orange Revolution" when her rousing speeches kept hundreds of thousands on the streets for weeks. The two are now rivals.
— Yushchenko appointed her his first prime minister in 2005 but the honeymoon was short-lived — he sacked her after eight months, with each accusing the other of corruption. She was appointed for a second time in Dec. 2007.
— Her policies included compensation for depositors who lost Soviet-era savings, price controls on food and medicines to bring inflation down, calls for a review of murky privatisations and high social spending.
–Initially ridiculed in the Russian media, by late 2008 the Kremlin, seeing her opposition to Yushchenko, got behind her for the top job in Ukraine.
— Putin and Tymoshenko met in Yalta last November and brokered a deal between their state energy companies that gave Ukraine softer terms for buying natural gas and avoided a repeat of last year’s gas dispute.
— Tymoshenko said this week she would bring people out in protest in a new "Orange Revolution" if she considered procedures were being rigged in the runoff. The day before she accused rival Yanukovych of preparing to rig the poll through last-minute changes to election rules.
* VICTOR YANUKOVYCH (59) – opposition leader, former prime minister:
— Yanukovych said Tymoshenko was positioning herself for defeat as he relished the prospect of a comeback after being cast as the villain in 2004. — Born in July 1950, the beefy and blunt Yanukovych has changed his image to become a more assured public speaker.
— A native Russian speaker from the Donbass coalfield region, he has made efforts to speak better Ukrainian, the country’s national language, but often stumbles over words.
— He is widely seen as representing the interests of Ukraine big business and his campaign benefits from backing by shadowy billionaire Rinat Akhmetov.
— Backed in 2004 by Moscow, he was initially declared the winner of a rigged presidential election, but lost the re-run of the poll to Victor Yushchenko.
— He made a comeback in 2006 when Yushchenko appointed him prime minister after "orange" parties failed to form a coalition. However, he left office after his Regions Party and its allies were outscored by "orange" parties in a 2007 parliamentary election.
— Yanukovych has warmer relations with Russia and is cool about Yushchenko’s plans to seek fast-track NATO membership. Like most politicians in Ukraine, he supports further integration with the European Union.
— In his youth, he was imprisoned twice for theft and assault. His aides said the charges were struck from the record and no documents are available on the issue.
— At the start of official campaigning in October, Tymoshenko’s supporters went on the offensive against Yanukovych. Tymoshenko loyalists revived old rumours that Yanukovych had taken part in a gang-rape and beating of a woman when he was a youth. They said these charges had been brought to the attention of the prosecutors several years ago.
— Serhiy Lyovochkin, deputy head of Yanukovych’s Regions party, denied the accusations.
